Nokia 5800 setting a new standard for mobile phones (Nokia 5800 XpressMusic)

Member Name: lilmisssarcasm

Product:	Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Date:	12/07/09 (142 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: - Very bright flash on the camera, and very good shutter motion control - responsive touchscreen ...

Disadvantages: only a few minor ones

I recently got the nokia 5800 after my old reliable sony ericson k800i found itself on the wrong end of a car tyre. What attracted me to the phone was the good reputation of Nokia (any one else remember the good old 3330's?) and the novel idea of the touch screen.

Looking at the phone, you might think that it is very big compared to other phones, at 11cm tall and about 6cm wide, it is quite large, but it fits well into the palm of your hand when texting or taking a photo. It is actually pretty compact, with a stylus for those of us with fatter fingers tucked away snuggly in the back and three small buttons on the front.

I should also mention, that as standard, the phone comes with an 8gb memory card, which is something you will need with the phone, given is very bright and clear 3.2M pixel camera and video recorder.

It is quite easy to use, all you need to do is press the key lock button (which is a handy slide button on the right hand side, to turn off the touch screen when in your pocket). To get to the phone menu, you press one of the buttons on the bottom of the phone to bring up the good old nokia grid menu. The phone comes, as standard with -
- Calendar
-Phone Book
-Call Log
- Internet
- Messaging
- Gallery
- Download
- Music
- Maps
-Settings
- Help
-Applications
-BBC iplayer
all on the main menu.

Out of these features it is important to note that the internet on the phone, is not only standard mobile internet but it can connect to WLAN networks, meaning if you want to watch BBC iplayer shows at home, you can do so for free, or download new apps for free, which is a very useful feature.

The music player is very easy to use, and can play away in the background while you do other things on the 5800, and the iPlayer is a nice feature especially since the phone has a nice big clear screen, and if you watch it using a WLAN connection you dont experience much interfearence in the picture.

Speaking of the iplayer, the phone comes with a TV connection, so if you fancy showing off, you can set your phone onto the iPlayer (or youtube, or any video really) and connect it to your TV and watch it that way.

The touchscreen is easy to use, this is my first touch screen phone, and at first i found the adjustment hard, but the more you use the phone, the easier it is to use, and the more you expect other phones to be touch screen. For example. if you are playing a game on the phone, or using an App and you get a message a message logo appears at the top of the screen (as it does with most phones) but in your old phone, you would have to exit the game, go to the menu and view the message, in this phone, all you do is press the message logo on the screen and you go right too it!

The phone is also compatable with lots of apps, avilable from the Nokia OVi suite (which comes with the phones) the ones I have enjoyed using the most are, google maps, sports tracker, fring IM, and paint pad.

So in summary:

Good Points:
- Very bright flash on the camera, and very good shutter motion control
- responsive touchscreen
- BBC iplayer comes as standard
- WLAN compatable
- screen automatically detects which way the phone is being held and adjusts itself accordingly
- Music player and loud speaker
- GPS / Maps

Bad Points
- Camera is 3.2MP which is good enough for me, but the new Sony is 8.1MP so maybe it could do with being a big higher resolution.
- Battery life, i used my phone a lot, i use the GPS and music player daily, and have to charge my phone every 2 days, compared to my old phone, this is bad on battery.
- No buttons, touch screen is the only option, which again, is fine with me, but some people might find it hard.

So overall, the Nokia 5800 is a nice phone, which has a lot of features crammed into it, with a decent camera and music player, it can happily replace your ipod and digital camera. The maps make it useful when you are driving about, and WLAN connection makes it even cheaper to get all the cool add ons avilable for the phone. I love this phone, and think that it is a good investment, and I have had it for 1 month and had no issues with it, only time will tell how the touch screen withstands heavy use, but i would reccomend it too anyone concidering a new phone!

Summary: Great overall phone, with lots of features to explore and a touchscreen making exploring even easier

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