Live Review: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

The Symbian Smartphones Show 2008 gave us an opportunity to photograph and examine Nokia's first S60 Touch UI device, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Mikko Röntynen, Head of S60 Customer Spearhead Projects, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia, gave me a hand and guided me throughout the features of their hopeful "iPhone-killer".

Apple has surely made a breakthrough endeavour in the mobile world with their iPhone. It wasn't long before most manufacturers stole the idea and came up with their own products. Even though there any much better devices than the iPhone, with the same exact design, being the first in the market has its benefits. Nokia is definitely the last in the market, and if it wants to take the crown home, it will need some serious candy for the consumer.

Almost 18 months have passed since the iPhone made it to the market, and now, Nokia has gathered all its technological and marketing strength, and introduced the 5800 to the public. Besides featuring a 3.2" touchscreen with 360x640 pixels of resolution, the device has a 3.2 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, a motion sensor which will provide much of the needed futuristic controls and fulfil the "Touch" moto, Bluetooth 2.0, WLAN, HSDPA, built-in A-GPS, a TV-out, 3.5mm audiovisual jack, and on the technical side, it will run on 128MB of RAM, incorporate a ARM 11 369 MHz CPU, and it will be based on the brand new S60 5th edition software platform.

Although it provides a better experience than the iPhone in the specifications field, it is ranked under some of its competitors, the Samsung Omnia for example.

The true weapon of the 5800 isn't features. It's marketing, just like Apple's weapon.

Nokia will provide the Comes with Music campaign to its consumers. Whoever purchased the 5800 under this campaign, will be offered free music downloads for an entire year, and be able to keep the music forever.

As this was a live review that was conducted in less than half an hour, you won't be provided with the same level of detail that you are used to getting from us. I will approach the hardware side, and hover over the software perspective.

The 5800 isn't very photogenic, but at live, it's an absolute beauty, pretty much like most touchscreen-only phones. It measures 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm, larger than the N95 8GB, Nokia's flagship, which stands at 99 x 53 x 21 mm, although it is thicker and wider than the 5800.

The 5800 does not include a keyboard of any sort, instead, it has there keys below its display, opposed to the N95 8GB's 13 keys.

The 5800's keyboard is on-screen, with many options, such as full QWERTY in landscape mode, Mini-QWERTY in portrait mode, alphanumeric, and handwriting recognition. The one that best suited me was the full QWERTY, due to the sheer size, which provides great usability, as I had found in the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, which provided the same functionality.

On top of the display, both phones have a camera intended for video calls, an ambience light sensor which regulates display backlight, and an ear speaker. The 5800 has a touch button right next to the "XpressMusic" word. The button evokes the multimedia bar.

Having a "hidden" button not only makes the user feel that it's part of the device, but it also saves space. In this case, it fits in the concept, because it is near the touchscreen.

On the bottom of the 5800 there is a microphone only, while the N95 8GB has the charging point, microphone, miniUSB port, and the lanyard hole.

Unlike the N95 8GB, the 5800 has most of its ports at the top. You can find the on/off/profile button, charging point, the 3.5mm audiovisual jack, and the microUSB port; while on the N95 8GB only the on/off/profile button is present.

The 3.5mm jack is definitely well-located, the top section of electronic devices is the favourite amongst the general public for the port, especially when the device is intended to stay inside one's pocket, or even when one is holding the phone, so that the cable does not interfere with one's hands. Wireless headphones, such as the ones implementing Bluetooth technology, will surely replace wired ones in the near future.

You won't need to reach for the profile button to change the profile, such function can be executed by simply tapping on the profile name on the desktop view.

The 5800's microUSB port is easy to open, and does not need fingernails to help with the process.

The left side of the 5800 has 2 ports: one for the SIM card, which is quite uncommon, and for the microSD slot.

The 5800 comes with an included 8GB microSD memory card. Its competitors come with 16GB of built-in memory, while Nokia's latest flagship, the N96, comes with 16GB of built-in memory. The 5800 is definitely behind in this sense.

The N95 8GB has one of the speakers on the left side, the 3.5mm audiovisual jack, and the infrared port. I cannot argue that the 3.5mm jack is placed wrongly as I have used it for an entire year without any problems whatsoever, it does not interfere with my hands, or bother me when it is inside my pocket.

The right side of the N95 8GB has the camera button, which has the autofocus switch as well, the "last gallery item" button, the volume rocker, and one of the speakers.

The 5800 also has the camera button with the autofocus switch, the unlock switch and the volume rocker.

Although the "last gallery item" button  is pressed by mistake very often on my N95. It is nevertheless a useful key in my phone to take me directly to the latest image or video. It has been unfortunately depleted in recent S60 devices.

The material chosen for the keys on the 5800 feels cheaper than the ones on the N95 8GB. The choice was made to stay in line with the 5800's design, it is a simple aesthetic issue that might have very small insignificant ergonomic problems.

The unlock switch is slightly different than the ones on the N91, N81, and N96. It is more comfortable due to the grip bars, and its size makes it even easier to use.

The back cover has an embossed Nokia logo on it, as well as the camera and flash covers. As you remove the cover, you notice the naked LED flash and the very small camera sensor, which has a Carl Zeiss lens. You can also remove the stylus from the small opening on the left bottom corner of the phone.

The way the logo is printed, is once again, a well done aesthetic detail.

I am very curious whether the camera, being that small (focal length of only 3.7mm),  will fulfil the needs of someone who is used to camera-phones such as the N82, N95, K850i, and other camera-focused devices.

The 5800 has a 1320mAh battery, having slightly more capacity than the N95 8GB's 1200mAh battery. The large display will eat up a large portion of the battery power, while it is known that connectivity options such as WLAN, HSDPA, and GPS are great battery drainers as well. The minimum battery a smartphone of today needs is 1500mAh, in order last an entire day with use of most of the functions.

On the software side, I wasn't able to take screenshots simply due to the lack of time at the event. I was able to note that the Gallery has been modified; the Maps application does not go on landscape mode unfortunately; and that image and video editing are more intuitive and attractive as an application, but there isn't great change in the functions.

Settings have been added and modified as well. You can now personalize with what application each filetype is opened with, for example, a landmark can be chosen to open with Maps, or any other third-party program.

Tactile feedback is enabled through small amounts of vibration. This is obviously not localized, but while haptic localized forms of feedback do not arrive for touchscreen devices, this function actually let's the user know whether he has pressed a key or not, and does not become annoying unlike the keypad beeps.

Adaptive search was perhaps the most ingenious function to be included in the Contacts application, from what I managed to find in the phone. The phone only displays the letters that are possible to be searched for. For example, let's say you have the following two contacts "Alex Calva", and "Edward Umana". The application will show you a keyboard with four letters "A", "C", "E", and "U". If you press "A", it will show you "l", and "C". It reduces the letters, and simplifies the method of getting to a contact. The video below, by Mikko Röntynen, Head of S60 Customer Spearhead Projects, Mobile Software Sales and Marketing, Nokia, demonstrates the use of the function:

You can expect our fully-fledged review to come soon as we will be able to get hold of the device in its commercial software version, ready for the market. For the meanwhile, delight yourself with the following image, which I was able to capture at the end of the event: