6 to 0 bars in no time. (Nokia 5800 XpressMusic)

Member Name: kamal

Product:	Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Date:	09/11/09 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good for Video/FM/Music/Email/Inte rnet, Very good Camera, Tons of Free apps

Disadvantages: Poor battery life, Outdated Symbian OS and touch screen interface

Everytime I get frustrated or pleased with gadgets or services, it inspires me to express that as dooyoo reviews. So I am back after playing around with my new Nokia 5800 XM.

I got it from mobiles.co.uk for £20 on Orange with two-year contract with 16 months half price via cashback. It includes 600 X-net minutes + Unlimited SMS + 500MB mobile internet. Not bad for such a nice phone.

I used HTC windows mobile phone called SPV M600 for last 3 years so Symbian was the whole new experience for me.

Good Things :
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- Screen is very good and phone looks very solid and stylish
- Very fast processing power. Videos and apps run lot better than iPhone
- Very good camera even at 3.2 mp. Movie is also very good quality. Lot better than other 5-8mp cameraphones.
- Web browser is excellent with flash support. YouTube just works !!
- Tons of free usefull applications on OVI appstore.
- Wifi is very fast to detect new access points.
- It can do almost everything that any high-end phones at the moment.
- Very well integrated email and sync facility with Nokia Ovi. So you can sync your all phone details with online account. and it is very easy to do that.
- You can download programmes from BBC via iPlayer and watch them at your leisure.

Bad Things :
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- Battery drains very quickly. First couple of days after full charging, it shows 7 bars. Then suddenly it goes from 6 to 0 in just 3-4 hours on 3rd day. No real battery meter that shows % wise status. Even my 4 year old SPV M600 has it.
- Symbian is not very intutive and logical as Windows mobile. Typing URL or SMS opens virtual keyboard on full screen and can see text inside keyboard text area. Something like those electronic typewriters in 1980s. On those typewriters, whatever you type appears on that small LCD screen and as you press enter it prints it on the paper :-)... In summary, the interface is very out-dated.
- Touch screen is also dated. You have to use nails instead of fingers to make it working. Similarly, no effective scrolling facility. You have to tap on the scroll bar to browse through menu, instead of finger flick. Here it lags behind iPhone and HTC phones. Where is rocker keys or trackpad ??

So, This is amazing phone, but bit let down by outdated Symbian OS and battery life. But compared to other similar phones around (iPhone, Samsung i820 HD etc), this is better package. As all these phones suffer from battery drain due to their heavy processing power. And 5800 is definitely lot better than dumb phones like Samsung Jet, LG Arena etc.. As you can alway install new apps on 5800.

I would recommend this phone to my friends. As all the good things outweights its limitations.

(I did not recommend it earlier, but then I used my friend's iPhone and talked to owner of other phones and got similar responses, so changed my review as it would not be fair to this little powerhouse.)

Summary: I wish Nokia listen to the users than their proudy engineers. Give users what they want.

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