Camera Phones Plaza

Many people have said that Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be the iPhone killer. Frankly, I got tired of hearing that any full touchscreen phone will be the iPhone killer. Well, exactly how a Mac will always remain a Mac, an iPhone will always remain an iPhone, even though most touch screen phones are better than the iPhone. Overall, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic seems to be successful, but not too successful though. Maybe it is Nokia N97's fault, because many believe that they are saving money for it. It is equipped, it has a QWERTY keyboard, and it looks good, so if you do not have an urgent need for a phone than it is definitely worth waiting for. As for the competition, it is hard to say if Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is better than a Samsung Omnia or than a HTC Touch HD.

We got used to Nokia phones coming in a large box with a lot of accessories and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is one of them. The box contains the charger, the microUSB cable for connecting the phone to a computer, a TV-Out, a microSD memory card with 8 GB internal memory and a headset. The office support is an enhancement that we have not seen in other phones, so it is welcome.

If we talk about the size of the phone, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is similar to iPhone 3G, HTC Touch Diamond and Samsung Omnia. It weights 109 grams, so it is perfect for its size and generally for a smartphone. The phone is 1.11 inches long, 5.17 inches wide and 1.55 inches thick. In terms of colors, this model will be produced in three colors: red, blue and black.

It has a good design. The touchscreen looks reasonably enough. The people from Nokia have chosen the black plastic. Perhaps some chrome metal would not have done any harm. I think that black plastic combined with chrome gives the impression of a quality phone. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the first touchscreen phone that has absolutely no metal in its case. It gave me the impression that this is a relatively cheap phone. Compared to other touchscreen phones, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a little bit cheaper, but the difference is not very big. And one more thing that surprised me. The screen is as big as it seems. After seeing many pictures on the Internet and some videos, I would have expected it to be something more like Touch HD. Well, the screen is slightly smaller than an iPhone.

The front is 80% occupied by the 3.2 inch screen. Under the screen we have the keys used for answering or for rejecting a call, and the menu key. In the top right we have a touch sensor that displays some of the main menus (Music, Images & Videos, Share Online, Video Center and Web) of this device. Exactly like the iPhone, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a sensor that stops the screen during the talk-time. This function is really useful, otherwise you risk touching the virtual buttons while speaking.

On the right side, the phone has the volume keys and the camera button used to take pictures or record videos. The camera button is placed at the edge and it is a little bit uncomfortable. If you are not careful, the phone may slip away from your hands while doing your pictures.  On the left side we have two slots, one for the MicroSD card, and the other for the SIM card. The idea of inserting the SIM card from outside into your phone is good; if you use several SIM cards than you can change them a lot easier. On the top side we have the 3.5 mm audio jack, along with the charger slot, the microUSB port and the on / off button. Both stereo speakers are mounted on the left side.

Nokia 5800 offers three interfaces for the main screen. One of these interfaces gives us 4 icons located at the top of the screen, each with a different function, such as the calendar, the audio player or the radio. Comparing to a Symbian S60 3rd Edition phone, the number of icons is a lot smaller, probably because it should be easier to press with your finger. The contacts, is another option, where we can place shortcuts to four people. This contacts option may show contacts and it can also show a list of recent calls.

The menus are intuitive, although they are complex. If you had a Symbian phone before you will have no problem getting around. Even if you did not have a Symbian phone before, you can quickly find what you are looking for, because everything is so logical.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a 3.2 inch screen with a diagonal of 360 x 640 pixel resolution, and has 16 million colors. The screen can be seen very well in bright light, something that becomes increasingly rare in touchscreen phones. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a perfect screen for viewing images, web pages, videos, and even for navigating long lists.

Like any other Nokia phones, the basic functions are implemented excellent. During calls, the loudspeaker produces a loud and clear sound, so we did not have any problems, not even when we were in noisy environments. In addition, the microphone is very good too.

The message menu is not very different from the previous Symbian phones. I can say typing is very easy. We are able to handle it pretty well without using the stylus. It is not the same as the iPhone because the screen is a little small but it is good. If you have larger fingers or if you are clumsy, you have two styluses, one classical stylus and a special one.

When you say multimedia phone, everyone thinks of the iPhone. Well, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is not far away from that concept. Even from the name we realize that it has something to do with music. The audio player provides everything you could ever want from it. The music library is automatically sorted by artist, album, genre and composer. The music player recognizes many audio formats, and it is practically very difficult to find an audio file that is not supported by it. The video player is also pretty good. However, the support for DivX and XviD codecs is missing. Let us hope this inconvenience will be resolved in the future, but until then we can only watch 3GPP and MP4 videos. The FM radio looks very good; it has a simple interface but it is well cared at the same time. It automatically scans and saves radio stations in your area, and it has RDS.

The camera disappoints, with only 3.2 megapixels, providing images at a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The Carl Zeiss lens makes good pictures, but a phone that expensive should have at least a 5 megapixels camera. The camera has a Flash with two LEDs.

Smartphones are usually better in the connectivity chapter and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is no exception. The data transfer can be done via GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA. WiFi link is also present. The phone has a microUSB port, and A2DP Bluetooth, so you will be able to connect Bluetooth stereo headphones. The phone's Web browser is about the same as in Symbian S60 3rd Edition case. Surfing the internet is relatively easy. The zoom is made by simply pushing the screen. Pages can be displayed horizontally or vertically. The GPS is working very well. The phone comes with Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch preinstalled.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a good phone for those who seek a full Nokia touchscreen phone.