Review of nokia 5800 XpressMusic

i got a new phone last week(15 may 2009), The nokia 5800 XM. When i bought it, it was priced at RM1199(im using the maxis postpaid value 80 contract). People might think that touch screen is not very useful with short battery life, but having experiencing the phone first hand, i disagree.

the package given by maxis includes( clockwise from top) box, bimbit 1000 music downloads card, USB connectivity cable, Extra stylus, Plectrum(guitar pick)stylus,the phone itself, phone stand(under the phone), and a high efficiency charger.(i am wearing the wired headset on my neck.)



Trying out the interface- the touchscreen gives
a haptic response.it vibrates every time i click an available icon. its fun to use let me knows if i selected anything.
The telephone button lets me dial numbers available contacts in my phone. The button next to the telephone button is a contacts button.






The telephone screen.this uses an alphanumeric keypad as a default configuration.











There are four ways to write text a message out to friends.

the first one is the full qwerty keypad.For ham fisted people, this is not easy to use, and using it smudges your screen full of fingerprints












the second way is the mini qwerty keypad.












The third way is use the alphanumeric keypad. this method is widely known by most phone users.Dirty fingers not welcome.











The final way is use the handwriting method. dash back to delete and dash forward to blank space.easy to use. Stroke recognition is very impressive.




When done writing just press the green tick and touch the mail icon and it will send the message.





Speaker and audio
One of the phone's main features is the stereo speakers.(seen as the two silver slits between the battery cover and the body at the top and the bottom of the phone.) It blasts out clean music with respectable base from its speakers located on the left side of the phone. Sound distortion is minimal at loudest setting. I have yet to see(or hear) a phone that can match this in loudspeaker music quality.






Display and video-
The main highlight of the phone is the enormous screen with a ridiculously high resolution.
at 640*360, the resolution is higher than the N95 and N96.Its even higher than iPhone's lcd panel. although the display is not as bright as the iPhone and harder to use than iPhone under direct sunlight due to glare, it gives out a clearer and sharper image.(makes iPhone feels like cheap cartoon)
Looking at photos from a phone had never been such joy since the invention of ...color photography? videos can be played at a smooth framerate of 30 fps(maybe more, but i dont have any source higher than 30 fps).

Connectivity-
Externally, its has a 3.5mm audio jack used to connect to the wired headset and also any 3.5mm earphones(or headphones if you like).It also has an additional function- it serves to connect to a tv out cable.with that, i can watch the stuffs on the phone on tv. Internally, it has bluetooth,wifi and GPS receiver.
it is capable of operating in network bands of 2g ,3g,and 3.5g .
GPS Usage comes preloaded with nokia maps 7 days trial.







The tv-out connectivity cable.













The Camera-
the camera is a 3.2 megapixel cmos sensor with dual led flash.
the camera did not perform as well as i would like it to be. it may say its 3.2 megapixel with carl zeiss lens, but the camera is plagued with poor low light images,high image noise,and no xenon flash.
the high noise in image is most likely due to the small aperture and sensor size.

it does redeem itself with a 30fps vga resolution recording mode, however ,and did perform okay when taking still images at bright outdoor situations.



Comes With Music-
This phone is not Comes With Music. and i suspect all malaysian 5800s is not. but i been given the next option. to have a card with a scratch and reveal code to download 1000 songs from bimbit.com. This sux.






Build Quality- The phone feels light yet durable, made of high quality plastics. but i wouldnt be doing any punishments on it anytime soon. It was not made to be abused. and i suspect, like any mid end phones, it will not last under abuse.I would have like it to be metal though. Guess you cant beat the material costs..


Conclusion-
I am totally in love with this phone. it may has its shortcomings,(camera, Choice of build materials) but its given me a chance to use functions that once only available in phones that costed over RM1700. videos are no longer a pain to watch in the screens of a phone and best of all, the expensive iPhone isnt much better than this phone at more than double the price.
VALUE FOR MONEY ALL THE WAY!!
(click on photos to enlarge)

i forgot about the battery- its a 1320mAH battery, about 1.5x times the capacity of a nokia n96. Yeah. its gonna last a long time.