Nokia 5800

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Unlocked Cell Phone

While other manufactures (hello, Samsung) rushed headlong into the touch-screen phone craze, other manufacturers were more cautious. For example, just look at Nokia. Though the cellular giant pumps out phones by the dozen, it wasn’t until the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music that the company explored touch-screen cell phones with gusto (the Nokia 810 doesn’t count). Positioned as a rival to the Apple iPhone, the 5800 is packed with a range of multimedia features. And it all comes in a sharp, slim package with an expansive touch screen. Unfortunately, Casting aside some of its greatest strengths in favor of a trendy touch screen, the 5800 XPressMusic comes off as a buggy iPhone imitation, rather than a triumph from the world’s number-one cell-phone maker. And that’s a pity, because Nokia’s “Comes With Music” program, which offers a year’s worth of free music downloads for your 5800, could truly rock the mobile world, “Why, Nokia, why?”

The user interface and input methods aren’t the best and could use some refinement to take advantage of the touch screen. Also, until the Nokia Music Store launches in the United States, the 5800 doesn’t offer the full functionality or advantages of an XpressMusic phone, giving the iPhone the edge with its seamless iTunes integration. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic isn’t a bad phone, but when you factor in the $399 unlocked price, it’s a little harder to give the handset’s drawbacks a pass.

The Nokia 5800 shares design characteristics with the iPhone and Samsung touch-screen handsets like the Omnia. The 3.85-ounce 5800 definitely looks like your typical Nokia, with its narrow candybar-style body (4.4 by 2 by .6 inches—HWD). The front of the phone is dominated by a huge 3.2-inch, 640-by-360-pixel touch screen. There’s a tiny self-portrait camera above the LCD, along with a quick-action button that pops up a menu of the most-frequently used applications. Below the screen, are Select, Pick Up, and End Call buttons. On the back of the phone is a 3.2-megapixel camera with an LED flash. On the side are volume and camera controls, a lock switch, and a MicroSD card slot. Still, at 3.84 ounces it won’t weigh you down. The 5800 also offers a sturdy, comfortable feel in the hand.

The touch screen measures 3.2 inches, which makes it almost as big as the iPhone’s. It supports 16 million colors (640×360 pixels) and has an aspect ration of 16:9. With that kind of resolution, colors are bright and vibrant and graphics and photos are sharp. You can change brightness, font size, and backlighting time. During a call, the 5800′s display will go dark when you raise the phone to your ear. The brightness will adjust automatically to different lighting environments.

The menu system has a standard design, with icons in a grid format. For the most part, submenus are equally intuitive, but sometimes we felt that Nokia didn’t really optimize the user interface in some applications. Thanks to the accelerometer, you can change between landscape- and portrait-menu views simply by rotating the phone. The accelerometer works in most applications.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Unlocked Cell Phone with International 3G, 3.2 MP Camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, MicroSD Slot–International Version with No Warranty (Blue)

The display is relatively responsive; you can use your finger or the included stylus. However, it’s a little confusing in that some items respond to a single tap, while some require double taps. There were times where we’d be waiting for a few seconds for an application to launch only to realize that we had to tap it again, so it’d be nice to have a more unified system. Unfortunately, in its first touch-screen handset, Nokia didn’t get a lot right. If you have a touch screen–only device, your navigation gestures (swiping, zooming, and dragging) need to work perfectly. Some touch-screen gadgets hedge their bets by including a track-ball or cursor pad. Nokia puts all its chips on the 5800′s touch screen, and it’s a bad bet. Next