Camera Phones Plaza

With all the new touch screen phones Nokia is releasing nowadays, few of us direct our attention to the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. This phone deserves more attention because it represents a milestone in Nokia development towards the touch screen devices. After more than 14 months on the market, Nokia 5800 Xpress Music received an inheritor, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition. However, the Navigation Edition device is still a 5800. Also Nokia reduced this model's price making it even more attractive. At first, when it was launched, the 5800 was presented as a solution to Nokia users who wanted touch screen in their new Nokia phone. Even more, Nokia rushed and announced the 5800 Xpress Music as a solution to non - iPhone fans.

Mistake after mistake, Nokia finally succeeded in the fall of 2009 to market the 5800 Xpress Music in the right category. A not so pricey phone, with good features and an on-going testing touch screen with the biggest drawback: a stylus. For an average consumer, but music lover this phone will be a bargain, especially in the Christmas time when sales are going to take down this phone's price dramatically (even without a pay connection contract). The main disadvantages of this phone are not little at number. You got limited 3^rd party software availability; the user interface with not that great of an experience; touch screen sensibility is by far the best in its class; rubbish web browser; no smart dialing; bad image quality in GPS and no geo tagging; no voice guided navigation license; doesn't charge from the micro USB cable; no installed document editing. The bad features regarding the GPS are resolved in the 5800 Navigation Edition.

The 5800 Xpress Music doesn't have the most nicely figured designed. It has an elongated body, therefore your 5800 screen is going to be narrow and tall (giraffe, anyone?). the whole case is made out of plastic without any metallic or chromed accents in it. The build quality is pretty good. The 5800's case doesn't make any funny noises if you press the phone hardly. Therefore, the 5800 Xpress Music offers a solid impression.  Even with this impression, once you have touched the Nokia 5800 case you will ask yourself why it is made out of such cheap plastic. The front of the 5800 is dominated by the 3.2 inches touch screen. Above the display, the phone sports a small earpiece, a video camera, a touch sensitive Media key and a couple of sensors. The Media key is common used nowadays on touch screen Nokia phones. Basically this key triggers a menu of shortcuts to media and web. All of you who know a thing or two about S60 user interface will appreciate this key. Under the display, the 5800 packs three keys, the call key and end key, while the middle button stands for the menu.

Because everything from this phone is made out of plastic, the keys might feel a little stiff. On the top of the 5800 Xpress Music we can find the power key, micro USB port, the charger plug and the 3.5 mm standard audio jack. The right side of the Nokia 5800 contains the volume keys, the screen lock switch and camera key. Not even one manufacturer considered by now to implement the lock screen feature as a part of the power key.  Apple still brings to the game the best solutions. The bottom of the phone features the microphone; while on the left side we have the micro SD card slot and the SIM compartment. On the back side, the Nokia 5800 sports beside the 3.2 megapixel camera, a dual LED flash (not exactly Xenon material but it will do its job).

The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music comes with a 3.2 inches TFT resistive touch screen that delivers up to 16 million colors at a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels. It also features proximity sensor for auto turn off, accelerometer sensor for auto rotate and handwriting recognition. Unfortunately the resistive screen technology means headache. This means that you have to put some extra pressure to the screen in order for it to register your command. This technology is used on phones when the manufacturer wants to accommodate a stylus. Also the legibility of the display under direct sunlight is rather poor. The screen accommodates up to 14 text and 3 service lines. Overall the Nokia 5800's Xpress Music display if good for viewing images, video and browsing long lists. The 5800 handset is shipped with a Li - Ion standard battery, 1320 mAh (BL - 5J). The official standby time in the 2G network goes up to 406 hours, while in the 3G network the battery lasts up to 408 hours.

Also the stand by time for the 2G network goes up to 8 hours and 45 minutes, while in the 3G network goes up to 5 hours. Because this is a music oriented phone you can listen continuously to 35 hours of music. Also you can record up to 210 minutes at top resolution and quality settings. The video playback time goes up to 5 hours. The handset's battery life lasts for an average user about 3 days. The 5800 runs in the 2G network (GSM 580 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) but also in the 3G network (HSDPA 900 / 2100 and HSDPA 850 / 1900). Nokia ships this unit with only 81 MB internal memory, but offers up to 16 GB with micro SD or Transflash memory cards. However you can go ahead and purchase a 32 GB memory card, because this phone identifies it. If you don't like how the operating system works, don't blame the hardware from the 5800, because it's not the CPU and not the RAM's, it is just purely poor quality of the Symbian new operating system for the touch screen devices. In time this software could get better with further updates. The CPU implemented in the 5800 Xpress Music is an ARM 11 434 MHz with 128 MB RAM.

The connectivity is ensured by Class 32 GPRS, HSCSD, Class 32 EDGE, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP profile, and v2.0 micro USB connection. Nokia 5800 Xpress Music has a 3.15 MP digital camera, with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and LED flash. The camera is a nice feature, but not something to rely on. The only thing that saves it is the large range of settings, offering from manual white balance and ISO to exposure compensation, sharpness and contrast. However video recording is quite good. The 5800 Xpress Music can record at VGA resolution at 30 frames per seconds. The organizer, phonebook and call records are great, you can't really ask for more. Also the music player gives good quality music. However for a music oriented phone it should offer more features. With a huge number of supported formats you will hardly ever come across an audio file that the 5800 won't recognize.

The phone has five equalizer presets installed, but you can also create your very own in a matter of seconds. After a long carrier, the 5800 Xpress Music lives it final months, but it lives them great. It is still an attractive phone for average consumers. And the price drop is more than excellent. The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music is shipped with an 8 GB memory card, micro USB cable, a TV - out cable and a two piece hands free with 3.5 mm jack on either end. Nokia also included in the containing box a carrying case made out of rubbery plastic, a stylus, a mandatory DC charger, a mini DVD presentation and the PC sync software. Give it a few more weeks and you will get this handset for a great price.