Upside
It's Nokia and it's a touchscreen: what's not to like? Especially when Nokia pack a lot of standard hardware features we love into a relatively small handset. The 5800 supports HSDPA data downloads and Wi-Fi networks, and the A2DP Bluetooth protocol for streaming music to compatible headsets and speaker systems. Plus it will make itself useful in the car with A-GPS and the latest version of Nokia Maps.
Nokia is referring to this phone's display as having an industry-leading resolution of 640x360 pixels. We're actually not sure how Nokia has come to this conclusion, as HTC and Sony Ericsson have both announced 800x480 resolution displays for upcoming devices but, semantics aside, the screen looks fantastic.
The stand out statistic is Nokia's rating for the estimated battery life. Not only will the 5800 do five hours of talk-time and 17 days in standby mode, but Nokia is also predicting a whopping 35 hours of music playback, almost 50 per cent more than you can expect from the iPhone 3G.
The 5800 will make use of the latest version of Nokia's S60 operating platform, which has now been optimised for touchscreen devices. Some of this optimisation includes one-touch access to a Media Bar, giving you quick access to media files and the Web. The home screen has also been modified to give shortcuts to four of your most accessed contacts, with associated links to quickly call or message them.
Nokia has announced that they will include an 8GB microSD memory card in the box with the 5800, as there is no significant internal memory on the device. We're actually not sure whether this is an upside or a downside, as it will surely split the opinions of many tech-savvy shoppers. Ultimately, we'd love to have seen the 5800 feature similar memory specs to the N96 — 16GB on-board with an expansion slot for more.
Downside
Nokia has had a long time to watch other manufacturers experiment with touchscreen phones and yet, somehow, this hasn't resulted in the company developing a product which overcomes the shortfalls of its competitors on the market.
Firstly, interface is king. This is true of all new phones but is particularly pertinent to touchscreen models, with their acres of screen real estate. In our brief hands-on with the 5800, the interface is, for the most part, practically designed and easy to use, but is far from being as attractive as we expected. Also, long lists, such as music playlists and the contacts screen, are navigated via a thin scroll bar on the side, rather than the full active area on-screen, like on the iPhone or HTC Touch.
The second area that we found disappointing was the navigation of the Web browser. Zooming is restricted to two zoom levels only, unlike the HTC Touch Diamond which uses a jogwheel that lets the user zoom incrementally until a comfortable size is found. A finger-swiping gesture is used for navigating pages, similar to other touchscreen devices, but the 5800 prototype we saw responded poorly to our fingers.
Outlook
A touchscreen music phone with 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS is hardly about to set the world on fire after the vast range of similarly specced phones we've seen already in 2008. Where the 5800 will stand head and shoulders above the competition are the areas Nokia can always win in, by virtue of being the world's largest phone manufacturer: price and value.
While we don't have a firm Australian price from Nokia yet, it has been estimated that the 5800 will cost AU$500. And from the first quarter of next year this figure could also include 12 months unlimited music downloads through Nokia's Comes With Music promotion. This is a bargain the competition will find hard to match.
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T.O
15/11/2008, 04:31 PM
rating
9/10
when will it be out here in australia???
i want one.
such good value.
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barry242
09/11/2008, 09:06 PM
rating
10/10
Its a touchscreen
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pacash
09/11/2008, 10:10 AM
rating
9/10
Nokia is great
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aheald
07/10/2008, 11:34 PM
rating
8/10
The one reason I was always given for why Nokia don't do touch screens is the screen brightness - outdoors, a touchscreen just doesn't match a standard screen. Does this mean they feel that issue is now resolved?
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Timberwolf131
06/10/2008, 07:35 PM
rating
9/10
I have been looking for a good all in one device (that isnt the Iphone) for a long time now, and this looks like it
Pros: Great Features list
Expandable Memory
It's a Nokia!
Cons: I have read a few people have complained about how hard it is to register on the touchscreen, hopefully this will be fixed by release.
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David Gerard
04/10/2008, 02:33 AM
rating
6/10
Comes With Music is the usual DRM-infested rubbish. Labels have pushed the DRM-infested subscription idea and consumers have consistently rejected it for ten years now - it's not clear how wishful thinking will make it work this time around.
My blog rant: http://tinyurl.com/4m2tjt
Pros: Nice feature list
Cons: Comes With Music service is DRM snake oil
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