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Covering The UK Launch of the Nokia 5800

32 replies · 6,716 views · Started 23 January 2009

Pop into the Nokia store in Central London today and you'll find the Nokia 5800 has launched. Rafe got himself up at silly o'clock to get to Oxford Street in time for the opening, and he's been updating us over Twitter and uploading pictures as he goes. With close to 100 people queueing, the consensus is that the 5800 (the first touch based S60 phone, running 5th edition) is one of the most highly anticipated devices from Finland in the last few years. Read on for his thoughts throughout the morning.

Read on in the full article.

Why are you queueing..? The regent street store has had that phone for ages... and it's not even very good, or at least, the specs are good but the touch implementation sucks. What's the betting those 100 people are Nokia plants??

Unregistered wrote:Why are you queueing..? The regent street store has had that phone for ages... and it's not even very good, or at least, the specs are good but the touch implementation sucks. What's the betting those 100 people are Nokia plants??

Perhaps you missed the fact that its already sold half a million, in just 30 days? For a single device from a company that makes so many is astounding.

And the touch seems fine if you know what your doing.

I don't know about Nokia plants, but I highly suspect an unregistered apple fanboy.

Touch implementation sucks? Says who? I admit that it is a little slow and irritating esp when taps don't register, but for PEOPLE WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING (as pointed out above), it ceases to be an issue in about 3 hours of usage.

I am not against the iphone. I think it's a good-ish device with a very attractive interface that is sure to attract millions of new people to the idea of a smartphone. That in itself is a great achievement and I applaud Apple for it.

BUT. Did you notice that it is too big and heavy to be pocketable? Also, did you notice the messaging, or the totally broken camera? Did you think what you are GETTING when you pay all that cash? In that respect, Iphone is the worst thing that happened to smartphones - its ho-hum features are being easily copied or exceeded by Nokia, Samsung and LG and the game is not moving forward at all. As for that interface, I don't like it and I suspect many smartphone users won't. having an Iphone is also a fashion statement, conveying that you want to be hip, cool and value style over substance. I doubt many smartphone users can live with that - I can't.

Its a one-trick pony. Its app store is excellent, but it does commit that henious crime of tying you to Itunes and the whole Apple software framework. Where are the antitrust suits? Or do they only apply to companies with leading market share?

5800 is not an iphone competitor - it plays on price, delivering an astoundignly good value for money. It is small-ish, light, easy to take care of, not something heavy and fragile to be kept inside leather pouches. It's a different beast, much more respectable to average smartphone users who don't want to only LOOK at their phones, but ACCOMPLISH things through them. In that respect, nothing beats Symbian/S60, despite the clumsy interface.

I know someone who bought it for Rupees 19200. That is 287.478 GBP according to XE.com. ~40 pounds more.
Good for you guys.

This was the first time the 5800 was available in the Regent Street store. They're also the first UK variants available (well almost - some online orders arrived on Thursday). I think the confusion may be caused by the fact it has been available in select countries since the beginning of December (Spain, Russia etc. also the Nokia US flagship stores I believe).

Also available at the Nokia Flagship Store in heathrow T5 at only �216!!!

Its not a bad phone,I had it for a while but the camera is horrendous really! ..still think iphone better overall.

CORRECTION:

Nokia Regent have had the protype and sample devices of 5800 in store for ages but NONE available to sell, hence the launch.

Launch was amazing... good atmosphere... good result and hard working staff

A lot of time an effort went into the launch and it paid off

Posted by

Nokia Staff Member


A lot of time an effort went into the launch and it paid off

Posted by

Nokia Staff Member

Certainly did: never have I been so happy to get up at 0500 and stand in the rain for 2h!

Hope you do the same for the N97. 😊

Rafe; I was pairing my 5800 and BH-503 and I saw your phone (e71 I think), proudly discoverable. 😛

Yo word up a massssive respect to all you 5800 owners vnice me am waiting to the king gets released the NOKIA N97 RESPECT TO ALL TINGS NOKIA N97

Only a Nokia fanboy will be interested in this phone. it has been on sale here at the NY Nokia Store for $350 for ages and nobody cares. I played with one for a total of 2 minutes and moved on to the next phone on display in the store. What a joke!

Wow,

An expert evaluation involving a full 2 minutes of testing. Impressed enough to go to the trouble of posting how unimpressed you were.

Guess the 500,000 people that have already bought one manged to use it a bit longer...

Zuber

I don't need to play with a phone for a week to know it sux!

500k sold? Wow get ya facts straight 😊 500k SHIPPED is NOT the same as 500k SOLD 😉 No one so far except Nokia I assum will know how much that slow *** piece of plastic has SOLD 😊

Some people are just way too sensitive, what did this phone actually do to you?
You probably need to check yourselves in an anger management program.

Unregistered
500k sold? Wow get ya facts straight 😊 500k SHIPPED is NOT the same as 500k SOLD 😉 No one so far except Nokia I assum will know how much that slow *** piece of plastic has SOLD 😊

As the number has now increased to over 1 million, you appear to be very ignorant.

Having bagged the 5800 on the morning, and gotten the goody bag to go with it, I can say I'm both very happy with Nokia and pleasantly impressed with 5800 which will now become one of my two (in use) handsets until the N97 is released.

Nokia did a really good job at the Regent Street store, and it's fair to say that it's the first time I've been there when there was a buzz around. I was very lucky in that I didn't really have to queue but still managed to get all the goodies.

I normally go through at least three handsets each year (with my last three being E90, iPhone 3G and Android Dev Phone) so feel I can have a reasonable opinion on the 5800.

It's a very good device, and I agree with the store staff member who told me that this was in his opinion the best Nokia handset yet (which is available to buy). Having really enjoyed using the N95, I can say that this is a good step up.

There are some usability 'hmmms' and the lack of an App Store is a big issue for me, where is the Twitter client? The fact is though that the 5800 doesn't need the App Store as much as say the gPhones / iPhones do, since it is a much more rounded phone.

Having had the iPhone 3G as my main device for a few months, it's great to be able to take half decent snaps and pretty good videos (in daylight). It's also great to listen to music and watch the BBC iPlayer with the phone on it's mini stand.

Other essentials (for me) are also delivered such as being able to run more than one app at a time; decent response on the Maps application (which works very well and doesn't rely on net access); being able to use the phone as a 3G modem by my laptop; and decent syncing with Outlook (left out of Android).

The key thing for me is that the phone is nicely responsive and works very well for the essentials such as calling, SMS'ing, listening to music, browsing and navigating.

Where things are weak are where Nokia have tried to reduce the learning curve for existing Nokia users at the expense of making things more intuitive for touch screens. The UI still has to be learnt so they would have been better off being a little bolder.

My key gripes, and ones which I hope Nokia will overcome fast are: Confusing OVI client, and no recognition of the 5800 on Ovi.com at all, you simply can't register the phone (i.e. 5800) on it. The desktop bundle is huge but totally non-intuitive. Why does Nokia Music insist on re-encoding all my MP3s? You're much better off simply using Windows Media Player to sync music. No NGage. No App Store (Downloads doesn't count as it's so poor).

The other thing to keep in mind is that there is not a lot of 3rd party software available for this handset (practically none) when compared to the previous generation, or the iPhone.

It's clear that the first true 5th Gen device from Nokia will be the N97 and this is something of a trial device. For the price though you get a great phone, and this device will replace dozens of existing low to mid range Nokia devices, especially as it will be free on many contracts.

Nice to see fellow queue members on here 😊

I thought the Nokia flagship store staff did a brilliant job, plus all the others who were called in for the day of course. Everyone was very friendly and knowledgeable. I've never seen anything quite like it (with regards to Nokia phones sales). Considering the rain, lack of publicity and other factors I was rather surprised it was so busy, but that probably just underlines how good it was!

With regards to 500,000 shipped (now 1 million) - yes it does means shipped not sold, but when Nokia says a phone demand is exceeding supply that usually means there's relatively little in the inventory chain (maybe 10%). Almost all manufacturers quite shipments and not sales too so if you're doing comparisons...

Clearly the 5800 is going to be love and hated, but honestly, given the price point there's no doubt at all in my mind that it's going to be one the best selling smartphones of the years.

I've had the 5800 for a week. I live in Manila and it's been out here for a while. Once you've got your head around the newish interface the phone really grows on you.

Yes, the camera is merely good rather than excellent and yes, it's not an iphone BUT it is very good in the music (duh) and video department.

Not sure if it will replace my N95 8GB for good but I haven't missed my old Black Beauty too much!

As for the wonderful comments like "it sux" - we're not listening.

Yes, this phone has been available in Manila for quite a few weeks before its launch in UK.

The 'mobile phone laymen' in the Nokia shop stand in awe of its price compared to the iPhone. We have to admit that although this phone wasn't intended to be an iPhone-killer, most people will perceive it as an iPhone competitor. Price does matter.

I have actually reserved a piece of the Nokia 5800 but I'm still not willing to let go of my E90 Communicator. The physical QWERTY is too big a feature to sacrifice.

Perhaps I'll wait for the N97. Does anybody know if the N97 will use an OMAP or ARM 11 processor? If ARM, is it a dual processor like in the E90? Does it have a graphics accelerator?

I was there at 5.50am!! Person number 12 in the queue, I was looking out for any of the guys from the Symbian sites but couldn't recognise anyone! I posted up some more photos from earlier on in the morning and a couple of videos up here if anyone's interested:

http://thingsworthwritingabout.blogspot.com/2009/01/nokia-5800-xpressmusic-launch-regent.html

Overall, interesting experience! Can't say I'll be up that early again anytime soon for a product launch... until the N97 :tongue:

darn you guys the UK sim free as sold out already and put back on pre-order until February ,now i have to wait again
i blame all you guy's

I have had my 5800XM for about a month now and have to say that I have replaced my iPhone with the 5800XM. They are not competitors unless you want to count them as phones. Other than that, they are phones with media capabilities. The 5800XM excels in usability and a richer feature set. Ask any Apple fanboi if they can: make VoIP phone calls over GSM, tether, turn their phone into a wifi base station (using JoikuSpot to do this), BT files frome one phone to the next, use a A2DP Streaming headphone, have more than 8 or 9 hours battery life. The list goes on. The iPhone is also a competent device and also offers a nice feature set, but the iPhone is marketed for US customers that do not know what to expect in a complicated, high-level phone.

In the end the 5800XM and the coming N97 will most likely out sell the iPhone.

I also got the phone that morning.

Did anyone notice, on the upper right side of the 5800, you can see light leaking in a dark enviorment?

A big gap can be seen there, up the volume control keys. You can even put your nail into the gap easily.

Proper wrote:I also got the phone that morning.

Did anyone notice, on the upper right side of the 5800, you can see light leaking in a dark enviorment?

A big gap can be seen there, up the volume control keys. You can even put your nail into the gap easily.

Nope, mine's as solid and tight as anything.