Nokia 5800 XpressMusic review: has Nokia kicked its rivals in to touch?

After much speculation and excitement surrounding Nokia’s first mainstream attempt at a touchscreen mobile phone, here atMobiles.co.uk we’ve managed to get our hands on the finished article; the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. So to put the 5800 through its paces and tell you what to expect of the first big phone of 2009, read on for our full review and the answers to all those burning questions. The first thing I’d like to point out is that this particular 5800 is the full retail unit and not a potentially buggy test sample or pre-release model. Not only does this mean that my experience will be the same as that of anyone who takes the plunge in late January when it launches, it also means the phone comes fully boxed with all the accessories and extras that will ship with the phone.

First impressions of the phone formerly known as Tube are overwhelmingly positive. Picking up the phone, the 5800 XpressMusic fits like a glove; the smooth rounded edges make it comfortable in hand, the soft touch plastic on the back gives a classy yet subtle effect and the highly polished material found on the front helps to emphasize the huge touchscreen display. Buttons are fairly minimal due to the aforementioned display. Below the screen we find the call answer, end and menu keys, on the right hand side we have the camera capture and zoom keys along with a sliding key lock button and finally on the top of the phone we have the power button. Also on the top of the phone we have the 3.5mm audio jack and USB port and on the left side is the memory card slot and, oddly enough, sim card slot. Why Nokia saw fit to include a hot swap sim card slot that doesn’t let you remove the sim once it’s in there is slightly baffling i must admit but, apart from that, the 5800 gets off to an impressive start.

Next to go under the microscope is unsurprisingly the 5800’s most publicised feature; the touchscreen display. The Nokia 5800 features a 3.2 inch TFT screen capable of displaying up to 16 million colours. The home screen presents you with a shortcut for the address book and your contacts and a second which brings up the numeric keypad for making calls. Opening the menu presents you with the familiar sight on most Nokia phones of the various icons, only this time simply tapping on an icon opens the desired application. The display is very responsive and thanks to the size of the screen doesn’t ask you to be too accurate. The 5800 is all about choice and this is certainly true when it comes to thetouchscreen. The 5800 lets you navigate with your fingers, the stylus that slides nicely in to the back of the phone or, for those who want to look a bit flash, a stylus shaped like a guitar pick/ plectrum that you can attach via the lanyard strap. Personally I found the stylus best for texting and emailing and used my finger tips for everything else but the beauty of the 5800 is everyone one will find a way to use it that suits them best. As a touchscreen phone the 5800 XpressMusic scores a direct hit; navigation is simple, fast, and responsive, haptic feedback (vibration on the screen confirming your actions) helps to keep you involved, the size makes everything clear and legible and the accelerometer lets you switch from portrait to landscape with no delay.

The 5800 is a powerful smartphone running on the Symbian operating system. Symbian has always been a popular and reliable operating system and when coupled with a fully touchscreen interface, comes into its own. The phone is quick and responsive when navigating through menus and opening and running multiple applications. As a smart phone, the 5800 will let you install 3rd party applications (such as the software used to take the screenshots found in this review). Doing so is easy; simply download the application on to a PC and drag and drop to the phone when connected via USB or download directly on the phone (but beware of data costs), install and away you go. The phone runs on Symbian Series 60 v9.4 meaning there are already a wealth of compatible applications available. Also expect a whole host of new games, downloads and applications that will utilise the touchscreen. The other benefit with running on the Symbian operating system comes from customisation. The phone will allow you to move the locations of folders and applications so you can put your favourite or most frequently used items in the main menu rather than hiding them away in a sub menu. The opposite can be done to things you don’t use.

The Nokia 5800 is simply begging to be taken online thanks to HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity offering high speed browsing and downloads. Once you’ve got there you’ll be pleased to find that the 5800 has a web browser that is more than capable of meeting your needs. The screen can be turned to landscape to give you a nice wide point of view, scrolling down web pages is done by simply dragging your finger along the scroll bar and you can fit it to fill the whole screen or have a condensed version with a tool bar. In the options menu you’ll find features such as zoom, bookmark, homepage settings and much more that you’d more expect to find on your laptop or PC rather than your phone. I found the web browser a joy to use but once again the 5800’s personalisation options come in to play because if you don’t like the web browser, you can download and install a new one!

As if the XpressMusic name doesn’t give it away, the 5800 takes music very seriously. The phone has 80MB of onboard memory which doesn’t sound particularly impressive next to the iPhone’sand i8510’s of the mobile phone world but thankfully the phone comes with an 8GB memory card included in the box. For those who crave more memory the 5800 will support a 16GB memory card opening up the possibility of space for thousands of music tracks. In terms of the music player interface, it’s very much business as usual. You can browse the music library by artist, album, genre and so on giving you a music experience to rival the best of the music phone world. The phone will support a wealth of file formats from AAC to MP3 and beyond plus the finished product will ship with some excellent stereo in ear headphones complete with a remote adaptor to control the music player when the phone is tucked away in your pocket. Best of all, the phone features a 3.5mm audio output jack so you can bring your own headphones to the party. But to describe the 5800 as a music phone is selling it short; the phone can handle video with equal finesse. The phone earns its codename the Tube thanks to support for MPEG4, WMV and 3gp video playback covering pretty much all the major file formats. The 5800 is a formidable multi media phone and to cement this, Nokia have generously included a video stand that the phone sits in giving you the perfect viewing position for long train or car journeys (though perhaps not if you’re driving). XpressMedia is a name that was kicking around before the 5800 was officially announced and it seems this would have been a far more appropriate moniker.

The camera found on the 5800 is a 3.2 Megapixel shooter which may sound slightly underpowered in the wake of the recent 8.0 Megapixel camera phone wave but thanks to a Carl Zeiss lens and autofocus, it still manages to deliver the goods. Dedicated camera buttons for capture and zoom are found on the right side of the phone and holding the phone in landscape with the excellent 3.2 inch display makes for the perfect viewfinder. Other features include a powerful flash, 3x digital zoom and a range of capture and scene settings such as night mode. The 5800 also captures video at 30 frames per second removing any undesired choppy or jumpy frames in the video and making for a smooth enjoyable viewing experience.

The phone also has a GPS receiver with A-GPS support and includes Nokia maps. The standard Nokia maps is ideal for on foot navigation, route planning and finding addresses. Paying a subscription based fee will also add voice guided navigation and unlock the 5800’s true SatNav potential. In terms of what’s in the box, Nokia certainly have gone all out to impress. In the finished article you can expect to find a rubberised case, mains charger, USB cable, TV out lead, spare stylus, plectrum stylus and lanyard, headphones, video stand, software CD, 8GB memory card and of course, the phone itself. Not what you would call stingy, something we hope other manufacturers will sit up and take note of.

So what of Nokia’s first entrant into the mainstream touchscreen market? Well in my two weeks using the phone, I was quite simply bowled over. The 5800 is jam packed full of great features, some of which will blow you away and others that you wont really notice until they’re gone (I want a plectrum stylus!). I just didn’t want to give it back. The combination of the Symbian Nokia interface (that we know and love) with an exciting and intuitive control method thanks to the touchscreen make for a winning partnership and what is sure to be the first major success story of 2009.