:: Mobile Phone Reviews ::

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic review:

Nokia 5800 Key Features: 3.2" 16M-color TFT LCD 16:9 touchscreen display (360 x 640 pixels) Symbian S60 5th edition ARM 11 369 MHz CPU, 128 MB of SDRAM memory 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash VGA video recording at 30fps Dual-band 3G with HSDPA support Quad-band GSM support Wi-Fi Capable GPS receiver and Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch microSD card memory expansion, ships with an 8GB card TV out FM radio with RDS Bluetooth and USB v2.0 3.5mm standard audio jack Excellent audio quality Landscape on-screen virtual QWERTY keyboard Proximity sensor for screen auto turn-off Accelerometer sensor for automatic UI rotation and motion-based gaming Rich retail package Affordable price Office document viewer OVI and MySpace integration (direct image and video uploads) It's touchscreen o'clock for Nokia and the stage is set for the 5800 XpressMusic. Go ahead and touch it. We did and we've got a story to tell. Now, it's technically not the first time Nokia get their hands dirty with touch screens, but it sure feels they really mean business this time. For Nokia 5800 is not the only story here. The smart platform with the most influential touch receives its first trial by touch. Being the first device running Series 60 5th alone is enough for the 5800 to be remembered by. Main disadvantages: Limited 3rd party software availability UI is still immature with somewhat dodgy user experience Touchscreen sensitivity not the best in the class No smart dialing Poor image quality and no GPS geotagging (geotagging is now added via firmware update) Touch web browser not quite polished No voice-guided navigation license No office document editing out-of-the-box Doesn't charge off microUSB Remarkable audio quality Speaking of music playback, the 5800 XpressMusic turned out to be the best Nokia example for audio quality to date. That's that and no fancy foreword would've made sense. We've been seeing improvement over recent devices by the Finns and now the 5800 comes to crown the whole thing. In fact, we've never seen so good numbers on any other mobile phone. The phone flaunts an amazing frequency response keeping within the +-1db range effortlessly. Furthermore, for most of its range it is right on the perfect track. Noise level and dynamic range readings are also praiseworthy and so is THD. IMD and crosstalk are not as impressive but still quite good. All in all, you will be enjoying some of the industry best quality audio with Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Music player could be better Having in mind the XpressMusic branding, we thought that the music player of the Nokia 5800 will be one of the parts of the UI to see the most changes. As it turned out this couldn't have been further away from the truth - the application is quite identical to the S60 3rd edition versions. A few cosmetic changes here and there and touch-optimization is all that sets it apart. Not that the music player isn't capable enough or something - it surely has more than enough functionality. However some more eye-candy would be quite welcome. After all the touch interfaces are usually mostly about being fun to use and nice to look at. Your music library is automatically sorted by artist, album, genre and composer and searching tracks by gradual typing is available. You can also create your own playlists in no time. The process of adding tracks to the library is as simple as choosing the refresh option. You won't need to do that if you upload the music via the proprietary PC Suite application FM radio has really cool looks The FM radio on Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a neat and simple interface and can automatically scan and save the available stations in your area. It also has RDS support and a first for Nokia phone - automatic scanning for an alternative frequency. This means that if you travel the 5800 XpressMusic will take care of auto-switching to the frequencies of your selected radio station. Image gallery - touch steps up The gallery of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is yet another part of its interface that hasn't been drastically changed compared to its predecessors. It has neither the swanky 3D view mode, nor the customizable slideshow we are used to seeing in the Nseries. The only difference here is the added touch-friendliness. In fact, the gallery is one of the very few places around the interface where sweep gestures are allowed. This means that you can change pictures by sweeping your finger across the screen when looking at a single photo. Opting between portrait and landscape mode is automatic, thanks to the built-in accelerometer. Unless you have that feature disabled, all you need to do to switch modes is to flip the phone sideways. The photos can also be zoomed in to see more detail but the screen resolution makes sure you won't need it as much as usual. Zoom is controlled via either the volume rocker or an on-screen touch slider. In all other cases, images are displayed full screen. Overall, picture browsing is decently fast and smooth, but the zooming is rather slow. It takes about a second on each zoom step even when dealing with 3 megapixel photos, let alone higher-res ones. At least the panning is OK. Disappointing camera Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a 3.15 MP camera with a maximum image resolution of 2048x1536 pixels. Carl Zeiss optics and the dual-LED flash might have you hoping for at least above average image quality. If that's the case, you're in for quite a disappointment. The XpressMusic handset is clearly not much of a shooter. The camera key is OK to work with, and that probably is the best thing to say about imaging. The camera UI has been significantly altered but hardly for the better, we're afraid. All the settings are now squeezed in a common menu, except for the flash, which has its own dedicated shortcut. We understand that a tabular layout wouldn't be possible with this device but some of the more important features could have had their own shortcuts too. VGA videos sound sweet Video recording is the better part of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic imaging skills. The phone can shoot VGA footage at 30fps. Sounds like good quality and it very well is. The good frame rate makes things all the sweeter. Videos are captured in MPEG-4 format and can have automatic or manual white balance. The other available settings are night mode, exposure and color effects. You can also have the dual-led flash on to act as a video light. WIFI With UPnP support Smartphones are usually well-heeled in terms of connectivity. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic makes no exception: all contemporary means of data transfer are supported. Both USB and Bluetooth are version 2.0 and the latter naturally also sports A2DP. Wi-Fi with UPnP support is also at hand. All kinds of network connectivity are at the user disposal - GPRS, EDGE and 3G with HSDPA Overall Conclusion: OK then, what we have here is two newbies in the touchscreen league. A fact's a fact, but it's not exactly the kind of newbies everyone will look down at. Market leaders Nokia and the top selling smartphone platform must be ready to take a few beatings at the start of season but will hardly settle in for a long losing streak. The competition is already in their second or third generation of touchscreen devices so the battle will be tough. Apple, WinMo, Samsung and LG have statistics in their favor. What's more, the number two manufacturer, Samsung, is also into S60 so Nokia may as well be taking due precautions against getting beaten in their own game. That said, introducing a mid-range handset to debut the touch-enabled S60 sure looks a smart move. It lowers the expectations (flaws are less of an issue) and makes sure the platform sells well so that it can build up a wider user and developer base. And once it has enough reach - and testing time - the real flagship descends to reap the benefits. For an even more effective camouflage, there goes the XpressMusic branding. And Nokia have done well to eclipse potential touch UI glitches with the best audio quality the house has pulled off to date. Not least, the Comes with Music service does get a boost too. Anyway, at the end of this review we still feel Nokia 5800 is a worthy deal. Sure you get an interface that's immature, inconsistent and quite clumsy but the package you get for that kind of cash is a bargain and even Nokia's sworn enemies admit that. And you can bet that there's a bargain at the other end too. Nokia's gain is feedback on its new Touch UI. We just hope that feedback gets smartly used. Rating Against Price: ***** A '5 Star'. Highly Recommended!