First, let us get into a bit of history. My first mobile phone was Samsung and it had an amazing additional feature which not many models had – an alarm clock. Now, seven years after, mobile phone manufacturers are basking in on the mobile phone addiction that people have got into. They realize that the man and the mobile phone are inseperable, and they add every feature which someone would want into this amazing gadget called mobile phone (I am wondering why it is still called that).
Nokia's 5800 Xpress music is such a wonder when it come to features. You name it and this phone has got it. Starting from a large 3.2” touch screen, it has a 3.2 MP camera, 2 LOUD speakers, GPS, Maps, Radio, Web browsing, WAP and phew an alarm clock as well!! Only it doesnt calculate my average sleep cycle based on how I set the alarm clock and the number of 'snooze' I make before getting up and I cant take the phone with me when I go for bath!
Getting on to serious business, first most attractive feature of 5800 is its big clear 65 million color screen. With a high-quality Asin wallpaper, it got the drool out from few guys. I must admit here that the drool had nothing to do with Asin. The screen is very visible in even brightest of sunlights. The touch itself is not as exceptional as an Iphone or as unresponsive as a buffalo's skin, but lies somwhere in between. The little vibrations when you touch, is interesting. The phone also features a full-fledged web browser that supports flash (to let you see animations and video sites like Youtube). Large screen with uninterrupted browsing makes it quite an experience. But the phone picks up a lot of finger prints damaging its beauty.
The phone also does justice to what it is called – Xpress music. The phone comes with and 8GB external memory card and some pre-loaded songs. When you add songs, it quickly refreshes the library. Just couple of touches gets you into the music player and you get going. The loudspeaker output is a little distorted at highest volume, but when you want to play a song for friends you can sure make them hear it.
As I said, the phone has most features you would expect from a high-end phone. There is a lot of Nokia-ness in the phone as well. So if you are just upgrading to a better phone amongst Nokia, you should get going in no time. Other external aspects like plugging in the SIM like a memory card, a normal head phone jack (to which you can connect any headphone and not necessarily Nokia's), accessories like cool mobile-case, a stand(!) and the ear-phones are all impressive. The 3.2 mega pixel camera is nice and has a flash powerful enough to make people blink when you click. The Phone is little big for today's standars, but is not heavy or bulky.
Every mobile manufacturer, these days, is pushed to include Iphone-ish features. Nokia is no exception. The accelerometer (I'm 90% sure that is what it is called) works reasonably well i.e. your images, applications get tilted to landscape and potrait as you tilt your phone. When you are browsing images, you can just slide you fingers and .... wait ... wait .... you get the images. In Nokia the Symbian sluggishness in inevitable, but I should say, it was not as bad as I thought.
While the phone has many features that will make you excited, it has a few that can certainly annoy. The camera is strategically placed so that your index finger doesnt miss the camera lens whenever you hold the phone. I cannot call this the most annoying for the fact that you will get used to it i.e. touching the lens. I had a Motorola A1200 before this one. It was a small phone with loads of features. Best of them was user friendliness. This is one aspect Nokia is far behind. For instance, in my motorola I had this @ symbol on the QWERTY keyboard. It is just a small thing, but was of immense use when I used to type email addresses. In Nokia, I have to switch the keyboard to see the symbol. I use to have a right-mouse-click kind of option on my motorola. In Nokia it is all menu driven. Surprisingly, I found a 'Copy' pop-up appearing when I selected a text in the email application. But that is not found in all applications. Also, few applications open on single touch and few others on double touch. Small things like these add up to show that Nokia has a long way to go when it comes to consistency in user interface.
Last but not the least, the battery life is quite impressive for a smart-phone. After all of my fidgeting as soon as I bought the phone, the battery laster for 2 days. That included couple of hours of music, few clicks is the dark getting the flash to work and I had hardly put the phone down (so the screen would have been lit for at least some hours). When I dont hear to much of music and when the camera is mostly off, I re-charge once in 3 days. I found that impressive.
Oh, did I mention I can make calls, receive calls and send sms using this phone! On a final note, if you are used to smart phones and have seen and used one before, this phone does not have anything much different to offer. But the most important things is, it has it all, and comes for just 19K while the Samsung Omnias and Blackberry storms and the Iphones cost you a fortune. If you can live with Nokia's usual sluggishness, and if you are getting your first touch smart-phone, you should feel nothing short of excited.
Regards,
Envyram
(p.s. Thanks for reading a lengthy review, if you have come this far)
