Issue 88 of the (newly renamed) Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine (in the UK) has a seven page feature group test on 'Best multimedia smartphones', looking at all aspects of music, image, video and camera, plus the relevant interfaces and controls. In addition to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the other contestants were the Blackberry Storm, the Samsung Tocco Ultra and the T-Mobile G1. Rather curiously, the Apple iPhone was absent, and it was doubtless written too early to look at the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD) - in their absence, the Nokia 5800 swept all before it with an overall rating of 9/10. Photo below.
Read on in the full article.
ridiculous! Where is any HTC touch device or Samsung OMnia for that matter????? Sounds like they wanted the 5800 to win at any costs and chose the others for just the 'purpose'
Having lived with a 5800 for a while, I have to agree. There is nothing else that as an overall package, all things considered, suits me better than a 5800. It has been designed as a popular phone with value for money that will please the majority of people.
It is odd that the iPhone was not considered in the running.. anyone have any insight to why?
Mattcc wrote:It is odd that the iPhone was not considered in the running.. anyone have any insight to why?
Maybe cause the iphone isn't a smartphone? It doesn't have multitasking, can't have threaded programs, can't even make videos or transmit mms's. It's a crippled crap-phone. 😃
i moved from my serious E90 to the 5800 because i wanted a 'fun' multimedia centric phone. it didn't disappoint.
and thanks to the excellent how to's and guide ya'll been publishing, utilising the 5800 to the fullest becomes a cinch. thanks.
You got nothing to do with it. Yeah right, you Nokia mouth pieces have no shame.
Unregistered wrote:Test sponsored by Nokia.
Unregistered wrote: You got nothing to do with it. Yeah right, you Nokia mouth pieces have no shame.
The above commenters hired by Apple has no shame. Their internet was probably Apple sponsored.
The 5800 as a 'Best multimedia smartphone'?
What a joke.
@Arthur: Not a joke. The 5800's actually a pretty good all rounder (with v20+ firmware). Its only weak points are gaming and photo/video capture indoors.
To answer Mattcc on the iPhone query... the Iphone is not a smartphone, and this is probably the reason it did not feature. Of all the smartphones out there today, the iphone is not even close in features.
I use to have the N95, and now have the 5800XM and feature wise, the 5800 is about the same (with one exception - the camera). The camera is rubbish, but for everything else the 5800 is a perfect all rounder phone.
Whether it deserves to be the best smartphone, I would probably disagree, but then it depends on when they did the test.
I don't recall seeing much iPhone in that mag, if any, and I've read a lot of issues. I have to agree that it's not a smartphone and is probably why the mag has little to do with it.
Much as I'm pro Nokia and agree with all iPhone criticisms, as a mobile industry consultant and software developer I have to correct those who think the iPhone is not a smartphone. The sole reliable definition of "smartphone" (an almost meaningless term these days in any case) is a phone that allows 3rd party programs to be written for and run on it's NATIVE operating system. If you use any other metric you can quickly find an alledgedly "non smart" phone that fulfills the metric and thus invalidates it as a smartphone test. The iPhone does fulfill this sole smartphone criteria.
Of course the iPhone is a smartphone. Any phone that can have native third party applications installed is considered a 'smartphone'.
EDIT: Oops, Unregistered above ^^ beat me to it 😊
I agree that the definition of smartphone may be fuzzy, but I would have included the iPhone in the test. It's not among the best ones anyway. Maybe their definition is "a phone where you can install another application to do the same task" (like replace the Agenda, or the SMS editor) which is not the case for Apple's (smart)phone.
Overall I am really pleased with my 5800. As usability goes, it's way better than my former HTC device (but then again that was a HTC Prophet), and the form factor is just perfect. The Nokia still lacks from little availability of software, though, and maps would be much more useful with a built-in compass.
Should I go for this or wait for the E55? :con?
It is clear the Nokia 5800 is a winner in multimedia against
* iPhone (no video, 2MP),
* Blackberry Storm,
* HTC G1 Android,
* Samsung WM Omnia
:icon14:
The Tocco is clearly not a smartphone either ?
Of course the 5800 is the clear multimedia winner over the the BB Bold and the T-Mobile G1 which for the most part are dissapointments on several fronts, not just multimedia.
I am actually not a fan of the iphone, mostly due to how Apple has crippled it's potential. I have had my 5800 NAM for 3 or so months now and love it. I can see how it was ranked 1st among the competition.
What will be more interesting in the battle for mobile media is what happens with the app stores. Phones are becoming platforms for other 'stuff' just like your personal computer or netbook.
With multiple hardware providers building phones for symbian os lets hope that the certification authority so that developers so not need to certify with both Nokia for Ovi and Sony Ericsson. Lets hope Symbian as an open source entitiy gets some balls.
Ugh.. iphone.... HDomnia had a decent write up on a few of the more recent VS. matchup's between the i8910 HD Omnia and its predecessors and future competition. It is a fairly subjective matter at the end of the day. Now if we take price in to consideration that is when it gets really complicated!
The 5800 is a great multimedia phone but that does not exempt the comparison or test from sounding rigged or fixed. If multimedia includes 3D games, the iPhone would stomp it due to the built in 3D accelerator, a much better music store, and having lots of amazing games. The 5800 also has key issues on certain file formats.
What a pathetic device by Nokia...i bought this device TWICE over a span of 1 month. The first one was newly bought and defected and the Nokia Center didnt even know how to fix the problem in the first place. (btw it was the stereo speaker which was defected). And the second time i just got bored of it due to the lack of apps and games and sluggish OS. I am not a proud owner of an iPhone 3G and let me tell you a little something, by jailbreaking which is very easy i am able to video record, cut and paste, send files via bluetooth and much much more.
Nokia is starting to screw up big time with their cheap quality build.
I am not a Nokia user. Own a 5800 XM for last few weeks and it is greatly exceeded my expectations. Yes I have used iPhone and iPod touch etc. On the touch screen front this one may not be very impressive. But there are a ton of features that makes this phone a real winner.
Camera indoors is horrible. But outdoors in a decent light it captures absolutely georgous pictures and video. I was able to mixin video with mp3s to creat very interesting multimedia. The positives for this phone just go on and on.
iPhone has its strengths but doesn't compare with this one on features. Period.