Nokia’s first entry in the touch-screen phone market holds promise, but has a ways to go before it can truly compete with the industry giant, Apple’s iPhone. It’s a gorgeous phone with a fairly rich set of features, but again, not when compared with iPhone. For those who avoid all things Apple, however (you know who you are), the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic may be just what you’ve been waiting for.
At 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm and with a weight of only 109 g, the sleek and stylish Nokia 5800 is comfortable to hold and has a sturdy feel to it. It’s best to use the included stylus or plectrum (aka guitar pick, for those of us who’ve forgotten our secondary school Latin), both because the controls and QWERTY keyboard are small, and because the glossy surface attracts fingerprints like a magnet.
The biggest drawback to the 5800 is its user interface. The UI isn’t very intuitive or consistent–some controls take one tap/click to open, while others take two. The very narrow scroll bar on the left side of the screen takes some getting used to before you can operate it smoothly, and it’s not immediately clear what some of the buttons are for. The phone dialer is strictly numeric, no letters included, which makes dialing alphanumeric numbers a challenge. Overall call quality is quite good, except in speakerphone mode, where reduced volume and clarity make it difficult to hear on both ends of the conversation.
The display quality is excellent, featuring bright, sharp colours at a high resolution. The brightness and font size can be adjusted to improve readability and reduce eye strain. Unfortunately, the display quality doesn’t carry over into the camera quality. Photos tend to have a greenish hue and are sometimes grainy, although the 5800 does offer a large selection of adjustable settings and three resolution modes, so with practice it may be possible to overcome those limitations. Video quality is merely average.
The Nokia 5800 features a full HTML Web browser. While navigation takes some getting used to, the features are impressive. Pictures can be isolated for solo viewing, and pages can be bookmarked and searched for keywords. RSS feeds can be accessed, and multiple windows can be opened at once.
Sound quality is an area where Nokia excels, and the 5800 is no exception. The speaker output makes listening to music a pleasure, with no distortion even at high volumes. An adequate headset is included, but there’s also a 3.5 mm headset jack if you want to upgrade. The 5800 has very good battery life, with more than 24 hours of music listening and 8 hours of talk time.
While the 5800 can’t compare to iPhone when it comes to apps, if Nokia continues to improve in subsequent versions of the 5800, it’s very likely that the selection of apps will expand dramatically. What it lacks in apps, however, it somewhat makes up for in included accessories. The 5800 comes with a battery charger, headset, stand 8 GB SD card, video-out cable, connectivity cable, and a plectrum in a wrist strap. Optional accessories include a car kit, Bluetooth stereo headset and mini speakers.
All in all this is a solid if not exciting mobile phone. Nokia is off to a good start, and it’s likely that subsequent versions will be much improved.
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