In an affectionate companion feature to my "Ten Things that Nokia Did RIGHT in making the 5800 XpressMusic" from last month, I now present "Ten Things that Nokia Did WRONG in making the 5800 XpressMusic". There we go, never ever say that I and All About Symbian aren't balanced!
Read on in the full article.
Agree when it comes to OS/software issues. Your hardware gripes mostly come down to wanting high end performance from a mid-range device, especially when you compare it to iPhone with sells for roughly twice the price.
"Would an extra $5 for a better camera have made so much difference to profit margins?"
Take all of the stuff you wanted and that fiver adds up. Price wise I think that 5800 propably allready has lower margins than any Nokia smartphone.
Now, if the N97 has the same problems...
Re: 'No Internet Radio' http://www.moodio.fm/ seems like quite a good alternative in the meantime.
Totally agree with the Internet Radio point. I find it incredibly annoying that Nokia have limited this download to a relatively small set of "supported devices". Especially since the limited support appears to be an artificial restriction: I have a 6220c (S60 3rd FP2) which is not supported, yet it runs the same S60 version and has the same CPU (according to forum nokia) as the 5320 which is supported.
*grumble* *grumble*
(I have tried downloading the SIS file that is intended for the 5320 but it just refused to work. IIRC it installed but I couldn't start the app.)
Adding graphic accerlation for games would be pretty pointless. Gaming is more than just graphics. 5800 doesn't have multitouch or d-pad/gamin keys, and the processor is relatively weak. Just adding GPU would mean games with pretty graphics and horrible gameplay. Nokia could of course add capacitive screen for multitouch, faster processor, GPU and we would end up with something priced close to iPhone or N97.
> am having to install apps to memory card, something I don't normally recommend
Why not? All my applications are on my memory card. They work
just as well as on the internal disk.
@jrmt: Because whenever you plug in in 'Mass storage' mode or take the card out to put it into a printer etc. Or for 100 other reasons, all your apps disappear from the phone. And then it takes a while for the OS to sort things out once the card's reinserted.
Ok one thing,
I remember when AAS did the review of 5800 long back in v11 firmware, free ram was stated to be 74mb upon boot. Now with v20, its ~50mb! WHY NOKIA!?!!
I think the ram is almost enough for the phone, its just not optimally used in the current firmware imo...
As for point 7, maybe we have homescreen widgets coming in the ovi store update that would be expected after n97's launching... but thats just my wishful thinking... 😞
And i strongly doubt point 8 to happen. It might be an unusual way to open the back case, but it atleast did not seem like it would break for me.
I've always had problems with the lack of onboard memory on my n95-1 and was really hoping that nokia would have done something with that on their new 60v5 models. This review scares me quite a bit, since i'm eagerly anticipating the n97-NAM.
PLEASE NOKIA GIVE US MORE FREE OS RAM. 😊
Xenon flash. No excuses, 6220 Classic had it to fine effect. The lack of one in the 5800 was a marketing decision, not a cost or technical one.
Great article! I agree with all 10 points, and I add:
#11: No ability to save web pages to disk for offline browsing.
My N82 has this, and it's invaluable when I travel outside my country. As a tourist, I like to browse offline the Wikipedia pages of all the places I visit. Why was this feature removed in the S60 5th ed. port of the webkit browser?
Fantastic Article!!!
On the memory item I would like to add: why is that when a phone gets a decent memory it does not carry a memory slot ( iphone and N95 8Gb ). And when it does have a memory slot it keeps the internal memory low.
I want 8Gb AND memory slot!!!!
Brilliant article.
I was the one *cough* complaining *cough* about unbalanced reporting in the past.
I'd like to see more of such articles in the future that give all perspectives.
I was going to buy this phone but I'll wait and see what Nokia has to offer in the coming year. My n95 8gb will do me just fine. Will sell my iPhone 3g in prep of either the n97 or new iPhone or palm pre. I will always keep a symbian device. Nokia, time to get your butt in gear. Better devices, please.
Plastic body is why this phone has the best call quality of any 3G Smartphone I have used (regular visitors at my-symbian will know I have tried a lot!).
It seems at least some of the same mistakes will be repeated for the N97, judging from the specs that are on forum Nokia now....
The same 128Mb ram, no GPU (I think) and an only slightly faster processor. Of course the proof is in the product, but judging from the performance of the N96 and to some extent the 5800, underpowered hardware will show through.