I wanted to upgrade from my Nokia E-62 and N72. I was on look out for a phone that may double up as GPS navigator, has better camera than N72 and possibly have a keyboard and at a reasonable price. I was considering E71 but it’s display was smaller than E62.Then 5800 was announced and it seemed that my prayer was answered. But as a skeptic I waited till first hand reviews started appearing on the internet. When I realized that this phone was being supported by many new applications that were pouring in I took a jump and bought it in the first week of April 2009.
This is my first touch experience.oh no.I have used a Chinese one.but it had a poor resolution.The 5800 is fully loaded. A 3.2” touch screen with stylus, 3.2 MP camera, music player, GPS, Wi-fi and 3G.and comes with 8gb memory card. The accelerometer, a thing which helps the display to rotate it automatically in landscape mode, is good for browsing and watching videos.
As the specs and features are available elsewhere I shall give below my impression of 5 months use of this phone.
The touchscreen is not a multi-touch like iphone has, hence some lags in response. Audio quality is good(few of Sony phones were much better) and listening to mp3 songs on the in-built speakers was a good experience. Supplied headset is a decent one. Have yet to try Sennheiser earphones that came with this unit.
Still camera is okay for putting images on the web but otherwise isn’t that good specially in low light; flashlight is also not that good enough…after all it does not have a Xenon flash. Images are not that crisp when you play them through TV out.
Video recording quality is amazing and watching videos on this screen is a great experience; well, this phone is referred to as Tube5800.
Used 3G and video calling when I was abroad and it was a great experience.BTW tariff offered by MTNL, Mumbai, for 3G is too steep and I don’t think I shall subscribed to 3G.
Real keypads on E62 and Ee71 are better than virtual QWERT keyboard of 5800.
*Now a true great experience….
*If you like to tweak and play with the various utilities, widgets and applications that are available for this phone this is the gadget you may like to consider. Taking advantage of its capabilities, like touch, lot many applications are continuously being released for this phone. Some are really useful, some are innovative and some bring out child in you.
SMS Timer enables you to send messages at a certain schedule allowing you to delay them, unlike a regular SMS, that you send the minute you press "send".
Paint Pad truly takes advantage of the touch screen and stylus packed with the device and you can even get pretty creative with it.
Can capture photos and immediately upload to your account; I am using Shozu which connects you to almost all the self-content publishing sites. From Flickr to Photobucket. From YouTube to Facebook.
Fring connects you to all the famous social networks available such as Skype, MSN messenger, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook and many more. You can make phone calls and chat with your friends. Many operators block voip from this site…but you can definitely use it through your wi-fi.lan.
Then there is( I haven’t tried yet) Nokia Point & Find which is still in beta version. You point your camera to an object and the app will provide information for that object accessing the Internet.
Black List is an application that simply blocks everything, phone, url, site that you put in the black list.
Fingerprint, a neat little application that simulates the scanning of your fingerprint to permit you to use the phone. Then there is Windows 7 emulator also available. There are large no. of games available for this phone.
Have not used but the backup option is said to allow you to create backup right on your memory card and you can back up **Settings, Messages, Contacts, Calendar entries, Bookmarks and Files.
Please remember that Iphone is altogether in different league but developers are coming forward to make this phone more and more interesting in a bid to make it iphone like experience in a belief that 5800 will exceed ‘iphone’ feel…
In short it is an interesting phone and people who like digital toys will really appreciate this phone.
To enjoy and appreciate what 5800 is like you should have a data plan…recently I discontinued my data plan on Airtel which has been charging whooping Rs.25 per day for unlimited in data …now they do not have unlimited plan. I am in search of a good, inexpensive unlimited plan…
Interestingly, if you think that you can use this as GPS Navigation system beware, for the size of screen is not enough if you are driving and reading the screen yourself; better opt for 4” standalone unit. As of now city maps for only few Indian cities are available on Nokia maps. Battery gets exhausted very quickly if you are using GPS. Of course you can put it on a car charger.
In-built DRM content(preloaded songs) if get wiped out there is no provision to correct this from Nokia site for this model; you have to visit Nokia Gallery/Service Center.
Mind you this is not a business phone in cadre of Blackberry or some other Biz phones, neither should you compare with 5+MP phones…it’s an all-round touch experience though.
You can wait for the Navigation Edition of Nokia 5800 which will offer a Lifetime Voice-guided DRIVE and WALK Navigation Licenses.
Or
The Nokia 5800i, which has the same3 megapixel camera but has a longer focus distance, 4.6mm, as opposed to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone’s 3.7mm and is expected to have a larger sensor that fixes the performance lags we have on the camera of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone.
Or. Nokia 5230…a cheaper, lighter lookalike version of 5800 announced last week…
If you can’t wait, go fetch it….