Real world (p)review: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: S60's first touch-driven phone

great little round up - look forward to the next bit.
i had a play with a couple of them at the smartphone show.

i found keyboard entry on the full screen one really easy and accurate.

but i found the scrolling a bit baffling/random. im sure it would come to you quick enough though. A bit like it took a day or so to get used to the way android mixed swipes with physical buttons for the core UI.

Great review - would be really interested in your views in one of the future parts on how audio quality compares to N81, say.

I agree on the scrolling - it has taken me a while to get use to it. I don't think it as elegant as it could be (sorry tried to think of a better way to put it). As mentioned there are multiple ways to do it.

It'll be interesting to see devices with a D-pad appear as I think a combining of the two delivers the best of both worlds (see Treo users on this).

BTW sorry if you tried to comment earlier and couldn't, this has now been fixed.

I am happy to answer any questions may have so please post away (some things will be addressed in part 2).

I'll be commenting on audio in part 2, but I would say the audio as equal or better to N81 (uses the same hardware - I think)... but to be honest I have some difficult telling the difference via ear alone.

Hi Rafe, Nice review IMO. Your opinions match mine pretty closely - I wouldn't swap mine for anything else. I'm not a gamer though, so YMMV.

I love the alphanumeric T9 text entry, it's like you're still using a phone 😊 That was the biggest thing I missed when I used a P910 back in the day, and probably the main reason I returned to S60 from UIQ as platform of choice. Handwriting is 'cool' but that and picking letters out is a lot slower for me than the 12-key T9 layout.

Maybe it's because I'm a long time S60 user, but for me this phone is the perfect combination of familiarity and newness. I love it.

How's the web browsing experience like? Is scrolling smooth like on the iPhone??
Do youtube videos display in full screen in the browser, and what's the quality like?

I would really appreciate if you answer those questions.

Rafe, the initial part of your article says "running S60 5th Edition on Symbian OS 9.2". Isn't it SYmbian OS 9.4??

Yes yuo're right. I'll correct it - well spotted.

Hey, I am yet to read the full article but I just noticed the error made. The Nokia 5800 is an S60 5th edition, Symbian OS 9.4 device. Stating this is absolutely important because it means that right now it has the most advanced operating system and platform of any smartphone ever made, far outshining the flagship Nokia smartphone (Nokia N96) and indeed that of all other manufacturers.

Now that being said, I am looking forward to reading the full article!

Very pleased the screen is top quality. Was worried when specs leaked inc a resistive touch that it would be crap but thankfully that is not so.

I'm in a dilemma.I want the nseries touch but I'm impatient..and this is such a nice phone. If nseries touch only offer 8mp camera, and design changes that the extra dollar won't be worth it. Including a Xenon flash would be sound and make parting with my n82 a little less daunting.

Anyone have any ideas about when the nseries touch will be announced?

Dan

Great review, looking forward to part two. I had an iPhone in my hand last weekend and I was not impressed. It looked great, but is was not faster than the N82 in menu cruising and I found the functionality bland. I am looking forward to the promised n-series touchmodels that will be released into the fold.

Guys, this is an image I found on the web for the supposedly nseries touch. I don't know if this is true or just somebody's imagination at work, but would be really really cool if it is something like this...

One thing I wish it had - Nokia has introduced USB charging with the N85. It should now be a standard and there should not be separate ports for charging and data transfer.

@BOC

Sound is subjective. When you say, sounds better. What are the criteria to compare against? What sounds good to me will surely sound better or different to someone else.

Rafe

Great Review - Even though I'm not interested in this phone specifically you can get a feel for the Touch GUI!

How do you think it could be implemented on a Touch Communicator?

Similar small external screen with a numeric keypad out with internal touchscreen and physical keyboard
0r
Large external touchscreen, no physical keypad and non touch internal screen with physical keyboard
or
Large external touchscreen no keypad and internal touch screen (with physical keyboard as well):biggrin:

I guess some of the Sensor APIs would need to be changed so the movement of opening the internal screen didn't trigger them (like turning off alarms etc?)

Only trouble is well have to wait until probably Q4 2009 (at the earliest!) to find out!:frown:

Cheers
Jago

Hi rafe, how's the browser -- any better or worse than a regular N-Series?

Rafe -

Back to the point - how integrated is the touch in the GUI?

One of the things that bugged me when I mad a small diversion to the WM MDA Vario III/TyTN before my current E90 was that a mixture of keyboard/menu keys and stylus/screen was needed to navigate around.

I know WM is not the most constent in this aspect and wondered how Touch compared? :con?

Can you navigate around and enter everthing with just the screen/stylus/finger and similarily with just the menu keys and keyboard/D-pad (if it had one!)

Thanks
Jago

Hello guys,
Do I read there is still no possibility to charge on USB? I gave up my 6210 classic partly because of this for a Motorola. I was fed up of having to carry around a charger when I work in front of a PC and can charge my phone whenever needed. I can even charge it in the train using my laptop. Now, if the 5800 does not charge via USB, it's going to be a problem for me. Isn't it for other folks? Does Nokia have an official reason why they don't use USB for charging the phones?
Thanks. -Mich

This review is on top along the Russian mobile website. Awesome, can't wait for the next part.

Can you put up some screenshots of the web browser ? Is it any different from the N series browser ?
Most importantly, will it be possible to copy text from an open web page and paste it elsewhere; say in notes or somethin ? Wonder if images can be saved by touching them as well.

Unregistered wrote:Hello guys,
Do I read there is still no possibility to charge on USB? I gave up my 6210 classic partly because of this for a Motorola. I was fed up of having to carry around a charger when I work in front of a PC and can charge my phone whenever needed. I can even charge it in the train using my laptop. Now, if the 5800 does not charge via USB, it's going to be a problem for me. Isn't it for other folks? Does Nokia have an official reason why they don't use USB for charging the phones?
Thanks. -Mich

Nokia does use USB charging for their S60 now since N85. However development of the 5800 started prior to N85, which is probably why it missed out on USB charging. I feel its a safe bet that the N-series touch phone (or simply the next nokia touch) will have the usb charge option. Hence, if it is that important for you, suggest waiting out until the next wave of nokias.

To all of you moaning about USB charging - you know that you can get a usb charging cable on Ebay for ANY Nokia for years?

Thanks for the review Rafe, what's the GPS like?....and what (if any) navigation software is installed?

Cheers

rottie wrote:To all of you moaning about USB charging - you know that you can get a usb charging cable on Ebay for ANY Nokia for years?

i know, but the one you are referring to does only that - charge. You still need a different cable for the data transfer. N85 can do both in one common cable. Thats what is ideal and what we are looking for...

Since the review is so extensive (Thanks for that AAS), the big question for me is does it offer overal better value than the mighty Nokia E71.
I have serious concerns about the 5800's screen getting scratched pretty quickly and start to look banged up after a while, with all that touching.

Radicaletc.,

I think you really are comparing apples and oranges.. i.e. two very differently targeted devices.

Anyway, a great first part of a preview! In my mind, to an existing S60 user the UI is very intuitive etc. However, there are obviously a few billion people out there that have not used the S60 and I gather Nokia must be in the process of developing something for them as well - whether its simply an "eye candy" layer on top of this, or something more fundamental remains to be seen.

ps. Anyone else having problems accessing Mobile-Review.com forum?

sapporobaby wrote:@BOC

Sound is subjective. When you say, sounds better. What are the criteria to compare against? What sounds good to me will surely sound better or different to someone else.

There are objective technical criteria that can be used to compare audio quality. For example, how flat is the frequency response being output from the 3.5 mm jack in the frequency band that is audible to the human ear? This is one component that will affect how your music will sound that can be measured numerically. I believe that such data was provided for at least one of the N-series phone reviews on this site.

The thing is though, of course, that no matter how perfect the signal coming out of the 3.5 mm jack is, you will need a pair of headphones with a good frequency response anyway.

That and as you grow older, your own hearing's frequency response begins to perform less than ideally... in which case, a good equalizer on the Nokia 5800 would help to begin to address these situations.

The most interesting question I can think of, is how does it handle old (S60 3rd) software? I'm guessing some of them that are entirely based on native UI elements should be fine - but what about other software, such as full-screen (non-Ngage) games?

If you're considering a TS phone on contract...

HTC Touch HD with 3.8" WXGA resolution available FREE on contract for �30 / �35 per month.