Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Review
The iPhone has created such a storm that any music-based phone gets automatically lined-up against it, and the Nokia 5800 is no exception. No matter how much Nokia may try to avoid the issue, a comparison of its latest innovation, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic with the iPhone is inevitable. Although LG and Samsung sprung into action as soon as the iPhone was launched, Nokia remained mum. Now that it is coming out with the 5800 XpressMusic phone, how will it fare when pitted against the iPhone?
The cute-looking phone that resembles the iPhone has a 3.2 inches touch screen with a pretty cool interface. There is a stylus for handwriting and also a guitar plectrum attached to the wrist strap for finer touch screen input. For inputting text, the stylus can be used to hand-write or it can be used on the miniature QWERTY keyboard.
Text can also be typed using the large QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode. Numbers can be keyed-in using the alpha numeric keypad in portrait mode, but to be accurate one must use the fingertips. The T9 technology makes typing easy.
With dimensions of 4.31 x 2.04 x 0.61 inches, the 5800 is shorter and narrower, but thicker than the iPhone. With its weight of 3.85 ounces, it is definitely lighter than the iPhone. Although if fits in the pocket, it creates a noticeable bulge.
On the top right is a touch sensitive button that pops up a media toolbar with buttons for music, movies, photos, browser and sharing. On top is a 3.5mm jack showing the priority given to music. The surround sound in-built speakers are quite loud; but for enhanced listening one can use headphones. Advanced headphones such as Sennheiser headphones can also be used.
Music can be streamed or downloaded from Nokia’s music store, and can also be transferred by using Bluetooth or by syncing to a computer. Music can be browsed album-wise or genre-wise by a flick of the finger. The 5800 can be placed on its side on a desktop stand while watching movies that can be streamed, downloaded or subscribed-to from the Movie Centre.
Below the screen there are the slim physical keys for talk, end and menu. Then there are the power, volume and the camera buttons. The back side has a 3.2 megapixel camera fitted with Carl Zeiss lens and takes great outdoor pictures. For indoor assistance there is a dual LED flash. On the right there is a microSD card slot for storage in addition to the phone’s internal 81MB internal memory, for storing photos, music and movies. An 8GB microSD card is included in the box.
The 5800 is GPS and 3.5G HSDPA enabled, and supports GSM. So high-speed web browsing, music and video downloads are made possible. Although the connectivity is great, the browsing could be a little flimsy, and takes a bit of patience while scrolling and zooming. The smart phone can be turned on its side for a landscape view of websites. A different type of home screen can show up to four favorite friends while keeping track of their history of digital activity, including recent calls and emails.
The 5800 will be initially launched in Europe and Asia by Q4 of this year, and may be launched in the US at the beginning of next year. It is currently priced at $399 and may change sooner or later. Being a series 60 phone, how popular it may be in the U.S. cannot be said. Although the 5800 has tried to match every aspect of the iPhone, how it will compare to the versatile iPhone still remains to be ascertained.