*Introduction ** Nokia officially enters the touch-screen revolution with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Here it treads carefully considering the responses to other touch-screen phones. While Samsung has flooded the market with touch-screen phones.
Nokia has been more cautious. The result is the feature-rich symbian-based 5800. With favourable responses for the N-series lineup, Nokia has decided to stick to its guns and release 5800 with a user-friendly Symbian S60 v5 OS. I got this is phone barely a week ago and this is my opinion of the so-called iphone killer .
*Design & Build*
The design is nothin special. The front face is dominated by the 3.2 inch touch-screen. It also has 3 buttons in the bottom for calling n menu related functions. It also has 3g video calling camera at the top. The left side has the slots for inserting a memory card and sim card(which is kinda weird though). The right side of the phone has the volume keys, screen lock key and the camera button, The back has a rubberised finish, which makes the phone easy to hold. There is a reflective strip that runs along the sides. The top of the phone houses the sockets for charging and USB transfer and also the ON/OFF button and 3.5mm headfone jack
The build quality is surprisingly very poor. It has a very plasticky feel and tends to creak when gripped hard. The battery cover is too thin and held by locks . They dont seem very durable. Handle with care.
*Display*
The display of the 5800 is one of its greatest assets. Its resolution(360 x 640 pixels) is very convenient for viewing pictures with amazing clarity. The touch-screen is responsive and offers good vibrational feedback when touched. Its large 3.2 inch screen is simply superb for browsing. The TFT resistive touch-screen responds well to both stylus as well as finger input.
*Interface*
The symbian interface will be familiar to N-series fans. Changes have been made to make it as user-friendly as possible yet retain its familiar appearance. The interface is easy to get used to. But it requires further optimisation to make it completely finger-friendly. There are some parts of interface were stylus input is absolutely needed.
*Features
* In terms of features , the 5800 is fully loaded. Is has fullscreen HTML browser(landscape mode too), simple music player, GPS, Wi-fi and 3G. The smartphone OS supports a whole range of third party applications. It also comes with 8gb memory card. The accelerometer is quite responsive and very useful when browsing and watching videos. The sound quality is superb and ringtones are loud and clear. It comes with the standard pack of applications(calendar, calculator, alarm etc). It also comes with a decent set of headfones.
*Camera
* The 5800 is equipped with a 3.2 mp shooter with Carl Zeiss optics. This certainly is the worst part of the phone. The picture clarity is pathetic and almost always is under-exposed. It has big range of customizing options but nothing will help you take quality pictures.Outdoor shots are pretty clear but indoor shots are not very good inspite of a flash. This namesake camera does not even deserve a mention in the spec sheet. It ruins an otherwise well equipped phone.
*Battery
*It is equipped with a very good battery which easily last 1.5-2 days with moderate usage. It last 1 day with heavy usage which incudes browsing, music and videos, calling.
*My Verdict*
The Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic is an excellent phone in this price bracket and competes well with its Samsung couterparts. But the interface still needs some work and scrolling through long lists can be very tedious. It could do with a better camera. It comes nowhere close to ’killing’ the iphone. Heck it doesnt even compete with it. But it offers all the features of a very high end phone at a very affordable price tag. The Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic is a very good effort by Nokia and a **great all-rounder**. But still it has a long way to go if it has compete with the iphones of the world.
*Bottom-line** : Great all-rounder with an affordable price tag