Not to spend time of our Dear readers, we decided not to take a parallel between 5800, Apple iPhone and other comparable devices based on Windows Mobile. Each of us have our preferences, and this review is not to argue about tastes, so - immediately back to our review.
Design
A bit stretched, fairly narrow, slightly thicker than iPhone (in this case the comparison with «apllephone» is quite appropriate), and it sticks out from our pockets just a little.
All those who have had a chance to hold in their hands Nokia 5800, appreciated the pleasant rough surface of the backsides removable lid. If you talk about the quality of plastic, then for this model that I had, it was good enough (not outstanding) for the materials used. So we you want to say - plastic is plastic, nothing special.
The perimeter of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has a decorative red line, it overflows in rays of the Sun or lamps of the room, which sometimes looks quite attractive.
On the top the power button is placed. The left side has a slot for memory card microSD (the package has 8 GB card included). On the right side the volume control keypad and the camera key are for quick use.
Speakers for ringtones and music are placed on the right side end and are covered with thin decorative grid.
Installation (or actually the removal) of the SIM card has some difficulties or peculiarities - pushing it into the slot is easy, but to pull out, you should remove the battery and stylus and through a special hole push the card out.
So, clearly, to do this you have to turn off the device.
Only three keys are placed on the front panel - two traditional call and end keys and one for menu. For everything else you use the touch screen.
Overall, the appearance of Nokia 5800 is interesting. It attracts attention, and everyone who sees the Nokia 5800 will ask to hold in their hands … emmm, for ten minutes.
Display
Owners of iPhone with one voice claimed that their device has a much better screen. Yes, more precisely, it is simply larger - 3.5 inches to 3.2 from the Nokia 5800.
Many, and in particular I, did not like the boards around the perimeter of display of 5800 Tube are a bit higher.
A few days after you use the phone along the board dirt is accumulated and you’ll need to remove it with tissue. The screen at the end of the day looks not nice, especially when lights are off.
No problems with colors there - test images looked naturally. Screen size is large enough to view the images in the company of friends. Brightness is also sufficient for all situations, excluding only direct sunlight.
As expected, the device can automatically rotate the screen (using the gyroscope), which takes two seconds. It happens that sometimes 5800 rotates the screen when it is not required by mistake, for example in transport. This is an inconvenience, especially when writing a message.
Otherwise – honestly the display is perhaps the main best feature of Nokia’s answer to iPhone. Still, for the Nokia, 5800 XpressMusic is the first touch screen phone.
User Interface
Because there is no hard keyboard in 5800, its virtual analog can behold on the screen.
Keyboard for dialing can be called with one click from the main menu.
Numbers are convenient to type with even one hand, even in the car while driving. For typing, you can use four types of display layouts: a small keyboard, full keyboard, alphanumeric keyboard and handwriting recognition.
Small keyboard can be displayed in a vertical or horizontal mode, it can work only with the stylus.
Full (QWERTY-layout) keyboard is available only in the horizontal orientation of the display. In this case for typing, you can use your fingers, with a high level of comfort.
Alphanumeric is the normal phone mode, working both in vertical and horizontal modes. It’s also convenient, text and numbers can be typed with one hand. All is at decent level. When pressed to answer key device vibrates slightly, strength of vibration of course is regulated.
Handwriting recognition is perfectly realized and you can adapt Nokia 5800 to your own handwriting characters, but anyways by default it realized 80% marks from my handwriting, which is does not good at all, though I tried to write neatly.
Working with a virtual menu is possible both in vertical and horizontal modes, as you prefer.
All the icons (and not just on the main menu) are big, they are well seen in the distance of stretched hands. Moreover, they are convenient to touch with fingers, and not only with stylus or a mediator. Scroll up-down is convenient with a finger but not with gloves.
Music playback
Since Nokia 5800 is part of the musical series XpressMusic, sound obliged to be at least good. It’s pleasant listening music (in the literal sense of that word), so it is good. Of the popular audio formats device supports the MP3 (variable and fixed bit rate), WMA, AAC.
Six preset of equalizers (except for default), with the possibility of changing settings.
Equalizer is 8 band, equalizers can be moved up and down only with stylus.
Of course, the user can create a dozen of their musical presets under almost any style of music. When you switch presets sound changes very seriously, that is encouraging.
The quality of sound on the ear is the same as in Nokia 5130 XpressMusic and Nokia N85, which means that very, very high quality. For the test I chose music of different styles, with a maximum bitrate of 320 Kb/s and.
Volume is sometimes is not enough, especially in noisy places, subways and crowed transport even using proven ear-headphones Philips. But, again, the quality of my music playback is just great.
The interface is typical for smartphones on S60. Music can be sorted by artists, albums, composers, genres, play lists.
You can control player via touch screen, with fingers and also with stylus, both options are suitable. When you install a memory card into the slot and then start the player, the unit itself is looking for music in the card and updates Music library.
Interface of FM-receiver is pretty stylish. In addition, information is drawn from subcarrier (RDS), is seen running line at the bottom of the screen.
Camera
I won’t praise, because it seems that it is here just for being on it, if we compare it with «colleagues» of the Sony Ericsson C905 or Samsung i8510 INNOV8.
In Nokia 5800 Tube has a 3.2-MP camera with Tessar objective from Carl Zeiss. With two flashes, which also serve as backlight for autofocus.
We should acknowledge that it is not very convenient to switch settings using the OSD, along with touch screen. It has to stop, get stylus and have them make manipulation.
If the pictures taken outdoor in a good weather look decent, then in a room and in evenings/nights photos aren’t the best. Outcome – dark and noisy images with not perfect sharpness. But in general, want camera would you like to see in a low-cost music smartphone?
Conclusion
I can write about Nokia 5800 XpressMusic long enough. We stopped only on the main features, which buyers will pay attention to. And it is worth it. More precisely, once you hear the of volume ringtones and quality of music playback, than you’ll understand - this is a real music phone. And do not forget the high functionality of the new device, because on board it has Wi-Fi and GPS, and of course the first touch screen phone from Nokia.
See full specifications of Nokia 5800 here.
:RoN™
Posts
Nice review. But I wouldn't recommend to buy 5800 Xpress Music for many reasons.
ReplyDelete1. It's the first touch screen phone from nokia so obviously it has got some major bugs.
2. 3MP camera is too normal these days.
3. It is not N-Gage compatible.(this sucks)
I would suggest to go for the second touch screen of nokia and first touch screen of n-series N97. Awesome smartphone.
By the way Izuka, if you want your readers to get latest nokia applications and games you can recommend them to go to symbiansmartphone(dot)com