reviews · smartphones · nokia s60 (symbian) · nokia · michael oryl
Video review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic w/ touchscreen
Review by Michael Oryl on Tuesday November 18, 2008.
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic |
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic |
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic |
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic |
If you are having a hard time waiting for the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (the "Tube") to hit the market, then we have a treat for you. We recently posted four 5 minute long high quality videos on YouTube that will let you see first hand how most of the major features of the first touchscreen equipped S60 smartphone work.
The phone we used for the videos is a pre-production device, but we are very happy to report that after many, many hours of use, we have only noticed two very small bugs so far. There are a few things that we expect to work faster with production
And let me take this opportunity to eat some crow. I, personally, talked down the 5800 quite a bit. I ran through the demos at Mobile World Congress, saw the early video and photos, read the reports. I was convinced that the phone was going to be a bomb. I was very, very wrong. You heard it here first. I received the phone and had very low expectations for the user experience. I've been using a lot of touchscreen equipped phones lately, and have seen some real winners. I really didn't think the 5800 XpressMusic was going to be one of them. Boy, was I ever wrong.
This is a great phone. I'm happy to report that S60 5th Edition, even with the finger touch support, offers a very regular S60 user experience. The user interface does some things differently than most touch phones, most obvious being the way it handles scrolling and its tap once to select, tap again to activate navigation style, but it all works very well on the whole. It is intuitive and consistent.
There are a few things that I'm a bit disappointed in, though. For starters, I don't think the Active Standby screen themes allow for enough customization. With all of that screen real estate, I would expect more options. More shortcuts, more contacts, more options, more everything. I am also not 100% impressed by the way the full screen QWERTY keyboard works. There ought to be a mode that uses T9 when the phone is in portrait mode and the QWERTY keyboard when the phone is turned 90 degrees.
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic |
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic |
 Nokia 5800 XpressMusic |
Part I - physical design and the standby screen
Part II - text input and messaging
About the author
Michael Oryl
Michael is the Philadelphia based owner and editor-in-chief of MobileBurn.com. He also operates several other tech sites, including AndroidAuthority.com. You can follow him on Twitter as @MichaelOryl
Francis McGuire @ 1:56:10AM EST on Saturday February 28, 2009
All of the reviews on this website have helped me to choose between phones, I espicailly like the 5800 review, simply because Michael Oryl goes into great depth to his reviews. Awesome phone and Michael Oryl diplicts it the way it truly is.
gezers @ 3:59:56PM EST on Thursday March 5, 2009
Liked the demo. well shown.
gave me exactly the info I was looking for to take my decision of buying this phone.
Well Done!
flagpole_sitta @ 6:00:31PM EDT on Wednesday June 17, 2009
Looks like a really cool phone,i would like to of seen a demo of the nokia maps application though!!
Zack S @ 5:35:57AM EDT on Monday July 6, 2009
Love the reviews, seriously considering picking the phone up sometime soon.
cheko @ 2:58:56AM EDT on Tuesday July 14, 2009
hey can somebody help me with something? im looking forward to buy a nokia 5800 from ebay, and alltough it says that comes without contract and works for any company, would it work with my telcel sim card... im from mexico!!!
william @ 9:19:11AM EDT on Saturday July 18, 2009
thanks mate, it helped me to decide what phone i would like to buy. i was in troublesome spot deciding between the Samsung Blade from Vodafone, or the Nokia 5800 from Vodafone, and i have now chosent this. thanks very much. :D
Anwar @ 8:55:35AM EDT on Thursday August 20, 2009
ima buy it for my birthday on 15 sept heehee hope i dun regret though.. my first ever expensive phone.. poor me...
Brick @ 11:53:15AM EDT on Tuesday August 25, 2009
Thanks for a concise review that I find very useful in determining my next mobile. The 5800 looks as if its just the job for me.
Richard @ 8:42:06PM EDT on Friday October 23, 2009
Review very helpfull
Anna @ 3:27:45PM EDT on Thursday October 29, 2009
That was great. I think I'm going out to get one tomorrow and now I know how to drive it
gs1 @ 2:16:48PM EST on Saturday December 12, 2009
phone died in 5 days. 4 and counting attempst by nokia to repair - SAME ISSUE
if you find anything wrong. RETURN for REFUND immed if possible.
Purhcased at NYC flagship store. I had the phone working for 1st 5 days. When the battery started to discharge, i tried charging. It didnt charge at all. Store gave me new battery saying battery was at fault. Again same issue. It wudnt even turn on with the charger connected - so clearly its not just battery problem. By the time this battery discharged , the 14 day return period was over - pretty sure they knew it.
Then started the saga of sending to nokia service center - PALCO. Already sent 4 times. each time had to ship back same evening or next day. Same problem for "repaired" "replaced" and "repaired again" phone.
First they claim its "repaired", then 2nd time they claim "cannot be repaired...so replaced"...why did they send it then?
but the so called replaced also had same issue - how can this be co-incidence?
again sent...they claim repaired....but same issue.
When i call....they dont agree to send me a courtesy phone since its clearly their mistake and 4 attempts are enough to figure out im being cheated.
They wont give me refund or replacement.
They wont even agree to send me a email saying they take responsibility to resolve the issue.
5 is not my lucky number....i have no hope it will get resolved.
looks like they will continue playing ping-pong till end of 12 months.
WORST set of people.
Bottom line: NEVER BUY UNLOCKED PHONES- even if its nokia flagship store
NEVER BUY NOKIA
RETURN WHEN YOU CAN