Nokia 5800 : XpressMusic Review

Here is a very short hands-on review of the ownership. Feel free to ask any specific questions.......Although this must have been done already and you must have read the reviews a 100 times till now :)

Please drop in a line if the review is liked / disliked. Thanks.

The Bundle

Neat bundle package set. Phone + 3.5mm Headphones + Multimedia Controller 3.5mm jack + Strap + Stand + TV Out Cables + Extra Stylus + Manuals + Warranty Card + Battery + Adapter + Mini CD + 8GB MicroSD Card.

Thumbs up: Neat bundle.

Thumbs down:The default scratch guard on the phone has a design all over it. :mad: Nokia should have either left it completely blank or bundled a fully plain scratch guard along in the bundle.

The Startup

So I popped the battery in and started the device. The device bootup time was less than a minute up and running completely. The usual Nokia logo at the startup ( which can be replaced by Text as usual as in older models as well )

I loaded about 2-3 gig of data and even with it , the bootups finishes under 30 seconds currently.

[BREAK= 1st Impressions/The Sim&Memory Card]

1st Impressions

Well, I sat thinking there, wat! nothing different. The phone really doesn't seem different as in...its yet another SYMBIAN phone, I've been using symbian since the Nokia 3650 days so this was no different. Was very impressed with the responsiveness of the phone and the touch is very sensitive. The double select feature doesn't bother and it took me precisely 5-10 mins to get used to it. Its simple and you would get used to it eventually.

The SIM and Memory Card

The sim and the memory card have slots of the left side of the phone. As shown in the review of the phone on youtube where it was said the slot is 'difficult to get to' , I din't find any difficulty with the same. To remove the memory card , there is a option when you press the main on/off button on the phone that says 'Remove Memory Card', something like 'Safely Remove Hardware' like we have in windows. The sim slot is push and hold type unlike the memory card slots. The sim card goes in and is held there by no spring - press retention method , its just a usual slot. To insert the SIM card you do not need to remove the backcover , but to remove the sim card you need to turn the device off , remove the back panel and then push out the sim card from the phone , painfull mechanism.

[BREAK=Other Layouts/The Rear Panel]

Other Layouts

The right side of the phone has the 'excellent' screen lock/phone lock latch. This is the best thing i've ever seen in any phone till date. Best accessed using the right hand only. Above there are the Volume up and down keys which act as zoom in and out keys in the camera function. The rest usual volume control in multimedia applications and call volume control. Also at the button the camera shutter key , which when suppressed would bring up the camera, half click used to do AF during taking pictures.

Another thing to be noted is that the phone vibrates as a feedback everytime a touch is made to it , this can be successfully turned on/off as per users preference. I've personally turned it off since i din't like it. However, each time the phone is unlocked from its locked position using the slider the phone vibrates as an indication that the phone has been successfully unlocked. This again is unwanted and I was not able to figure out a way to turn this feature off , This also needs to be addressed by Nokia in the upcoming firmware for users like me who would want this feature off , just sliding of the latch is enough to lock / unlock the phone with no feedback mechanism required.

At the bottom nothing but just the mic. On top is the 3.5mm jack which is also the TV Out jack. Then the USB and the power connector. I checked the specs on the charger with the older similar small pin charger and they were different. Hence refrain from using the older one on the phone. (In my case I had to use a flat pin to round pin converter for the charger)

On plugging in anything in the 3.5mm jack a small menu pops up asking 'What has been plugged in'. On selection it would switch to that particular mode. The phone automatically detects if the headset connected is with mic or without mic, Thats what amazed me most , when I plugged in my HD201 (music discussed later) it gave me a nice prompt saying 'Use Phone Microphone' , which meant I can continue on a call on 'any' attached headphone and converse with the phone mic ! On connecting the headset with the mic the usual functionality of that was restored and no prompt was shown.

The Pick / Cancel and the Menu buttons are easily accessible and have no issues with them. Nor are they cranky or make a sound.

On the other side are the stereo speakers separated by the SIM/Memory card slots.

The Rear Panel

Well, Nothing different or unknown here , a standard flat panel with a 3.2MP Carl Zeius Camera with Dual LED flash leds. The rear panel is a 'sweat' magnet and tends to keep those stains on them!

[BREAK=Multimedia/ransferring of Music /USB]

Multimedia

Well, its a mixed bag actually. The audio quality is just amazing and so is the video quality (playback). Haven't really transferred a video to check on the same. The audio is really good even on the stock headphones but quality on better earphones are even better. The application is fast and doesnt lag any user inputs. On the other hand the camera was a little wee bit let down for me. It underperformed my expectations. Color loss was evident in some of the pictures that were taken in low-light situations. However photos taken in sunlight were fine. Video on the other hand was a little disappointing as well. I'm relying on the next firmware of Nokia to fix these issues. The camera application has lots of user options and customisatin options available, like different modes / color scheme / quality , etc etc. Good bundle with the software I must admit.

Transferring of Music / USB

I haven't like checked the exact transfer rate and benchmark it and all , all I did is took a folder with 2GB of music and simply drag - dropped the folder onto the music folder of the phone , running in MASS STORAGE Mode. An odd 150+ files , the transfer happened without any issues and took a little over 9 mins for the transfer to complete. Once done , the internal default music player automatically detected that files have been added and updated the music library and it was up and running. Played music on loudspeaker (at middle range volume ) for about 20-25 mins at stretch and there is NO heating up of the phone anywhere , nor the rear panel near the battery , nor near the speakers.....(next I'm going to check out some videos, just figuring out the same to convert an .avi file to .mp4 at the correct resolution.

[BREAK=Video/Messaging]

Video

Haven't been able to hook on to a 3rd party app for the 5800 XM for playback of videos yet , Div X player for mobile phones is still not supported by the 5800 and might take a while for its release. Although I did try out a random .mp4 file which by default plays in "Real player" of the phone and yet again , it just doesn't disappoint. Crisp , No lags , lockup or flutter at all. Bang on target. Its like a mini wide screen :)

Messaging

Well, T9 lovers rejoice , no adaptation required at all.....all you have to do is use the normal keypad layout and type away to glory. Zero adaptation skills needed.....It dint even take me a minute. SMS'ing is a breeze. The handwriting pad is AMAZING as well...its fantastic....the best part was the symbol recognition messaging system. Suppose i put up a 'custom' symbol and associate a message (for eg. Hi, How are you doing today?)....Then all I have to do is draw the custom symbol and the message "Hi, How are you doing today?" will automatically be inputted , amazing huh! :) ......so to summarize for sms'ing....10/10 for it!

[BREAK=GPS/Wifi]GPS

I decided to check on the GPS and loaded Mumbai Maps, All I wanted to do is pure tracking but at all times i was not able to lock on to any satellites, the bar would just not move and keep on saying connecting to GPS, but it wouldn't search for the satellite for a lock on the position... :no: This is what I did :

- Deleted all MAPS.

- Loaded the Map Loader software which came in a CD

- Uninstalled all the MAPS as default

- Downloaded new maps.....

Still haven't been able to check on the GPS part. I read elsewhere that what I would need to go is allow it to connect externally 'once' before it would allow running navigation offline. I have already updated the maps for India with the latest update map pack from Nokia.

WIFI

Tested the WIFI access. Since my WLAN is mac id protected I had to look out and search for my MAC; I know for sure its easy cakewalk on Windows OS phones , but no where could I find the WLAN MAC ID of my phone...

Google came to the rescue here......

For everyone's reference , all credit and thanks to the original poster of the page : Phones:Nokia keypad codes - Gammu.org Wiki

*#mac0wlan# (*#62209526#) Show MAC address of the WLAN adapter
WLAN experience was nice....downloading a 1.5mb file (read:Google Maps) took around 3 minutes. Browsing on the phone was a good experience and smooth. The browser does need a upgrade. It played flash content right out of the box...Various options like saving password , blocking pop ups are also there....

[BREAK=Gaming/Conclusion]

Gaming

The pre-loaded games are "Bounce" and "RT GR" both games fully playable on accelerometer and man-oh-man, Wat fun it is. No controls , no touching all you gotta do is move the phone and let the phone do whats it supposed to do. I even connected the phone to the TV and checked it out just for the sake of checking it out....it sure did lag. However on the phone its fun for sure.

Overall Conclusion

Overall, its an excellent device. IMO its a definite buy for people who 'do not' have a dedicated multimedia device like a i pod or anything else or who do not have multimedia enabled phones already. The camera picture and video quality is a major turnoff currently though :no: I have to agree here , N82 beats the hell out of this cam where as picture quality is considered. Deviating a little off topic from the 5800, if we are to talk about picture quality of the cam in the 5mp category, the Omnia steals the show for me.

[BREAK=Bugs]

BUGS

Here are some of the bugs that I have personally found out......

- The auto rotate doesn't work in messaging after 2 times. I.e if i do the rotate thing 2 times , the 3rd time the screen gets stuck in the default mode only and will not switch to landscape mode at all......

- After the phone has been put in USB data mode for data transfer the phone automatically resets the Messaging Inbox to go to Phone Memory , then we need to manually go into settings and set it back to the card memory.....

- During multimedia playback in full screen like videos and pictures , if we call for the Options menu the screen flickers as in to refresh the menu........

- Big BUG - The phone due to some weird reason stopped showing me call alerts. For eg. It would show i have a missed call , but it wouldn't show me from whom , the sms's stopped coming in even though i was able to send out messages absolutely fine. Noticed this after a few people at work told me that they had called me a couple of times but I dint have any alert on my screen. Again , its not that the phone dint show me that the call was coming, but it dint show me the missed call alert and the number , when it showed me the alert , it dint show me the number. I had the SAME problem in my N72 which I had got when the N72 was out (which was fixed by the updated firmware)....so certainly this would really be something wanting to be had. To fix this I had to reboot my phone and allow it to refresh its mem or whatever and then the alerts and all blocked sms's came in fine.

- Experienced keypad issues when entering WEP keys for wifi access.

[BREAK=Camera / Picture Samples]

Camera / Picture Samples

Phone Pictures - Random



Sample Pictures from the Phone



[BREAK=3rd party software]3rd party software

I've loaded Google Maps and let me tell you even though it gave me a pop up saying that its not compatible with the device. It installed and its running absolutely fine.

Also from Nokia - Hongkong website i've loaded :

-Touch Piano - App

-Touch Guitar - App

-Mail for Exchange - App

-Touch Popper - Game

-Touch Maneuver - Game

Thats it from me. Hope this is liked by everyone. Do leave back a comment.
 
Switch said:
Well i checked the phone in person today and to be honest it was a let off "for the hype"... Its feels cheap and when i say cheap it means cheap... I am sure the colors from the phone panels will come off in a small amount of time...

Also the touch is responsive but no where close to the iphone touch... An iphone is an iphone. Though the video clarity of the phone is a sure shot winner.

And the stylus is crap... My sis has a HTC Touch and i am comparing the stylus to that... The onboard speaker is loud but i am sure you will rarely use it... The camera is better then the iphone thats what i can say about it...

All in all the phone is a jack of all and master of none :p

Well its good some people are not liking the 5800. That way many others who would have not got the phone early due to a faster sell-out would get their 5800s on time :hap2:

And plus it would be better to see a few people without a 5800. Almost everyone carrying the same phone would be sad. :hap2:
 
Switch said:
Well i checked the phone in person today and to be honest it was a let off "for the hype"... Its feels cheap and when i say cheap it means cheap... I am sure the colors from the phone panels will come off in a small amount of time...

Also the touch is responsive but no where close to the iphone touch... An iphone is an iphone. Though the video clarity of the phone is a sure shot winner.

And the stylus is crap... My sis has a HTC Touch and i am comparing the stylus to that... The onboard speaker is loud but i am sure you will rarely use it... The camera is better then the iphone thats what i can say about it...

All in all the phone is a jack of all and master of none :p

http://www.techenclave.com/994034-post175.html

For your and everyone's benefit. iPhone is there because of the best touchscreen available in the market. That is its biggest winner. That is the major reason of its higher pricing. The iPhone is a "Flaunt-Me" model, that is why so many restrictions on SIM usage (as of now) and the price. The Nokia is being targetted as a more (comparitively) mass product. Bound to be some differences.
 
OMG , just googled and :O wallpapers / themes / some apps already starting to flow out....

Some real awsome wallpapers :O Nokia 5800 Wallpapers #1

That reminds me to mention , the wallpaper of the 5800 can be dynamic...we can give it a chunk of wallpapers/ pictures from the gallery from which it can automatically pickup random pictures as a slideshow :D

Red theme : Deep Red nokia 5800 Themes | Mobile Phone Themes Blog !! Themes ~ Wallpaper ~ Screensaver

White theme : Nokia 5800 Themes: COOL | Nokia Fanboy

Some apps : Free Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Touch Applications And Games Download | The S60 Blog

lol, get these before you get the phone so that you'll have all the stuff ready to transfer :D
 
The audio quality is just amazing and so is the video quality (playback). Haven't really transfered a video to check on the same. The audio is really good even on the stock headphones but quality on better earphones are even better. The application is fast and doesnt lag any user inputs.

Bladey , start reading threads completely instead of making posts just to increase your post count :bleh:
 
^^Lol ! i did a keyword search with "music". So that aside is the music quality comparable to the n-series phones. From my limited experience with both XM & N-series phones i found the music quality to be better on the n-series (duh!). Your take ?
 
Blade_Runner said:
^^Lol ! i did a keyword search with "music". So that aside is the music quality comparable to the n-series phones. From my limited experience with both XM & N-series phones i found the music quality to be better on the n-series (duh!). Your take ?

I've heard music on the N-Series and The other XM phones. I'm not a audiophile but I do enjoy my music. To me my ipod shuffle and the phone are on the same line and I'm not exaggerating here. I have had 3 people check out the music out of which 2 people own Ipod latest gens and they said its 'almost' at par. It sure is the best from all the XM phones , it has to.
 
That's a great review!!! :hap2: I'm thinking of waiting for some more time, but I can hardly hold on to my decision...it's too tempting :bleh:

1.What about the s60v3 sis apps?? Is there any virtual d-pad to control them?? Some sites mention a virtual D pad for java apps.. but what about sis files?

2.How is the web browser and wi-fi access speed?

3.You said it was a little on the lighter side.. does it make any creaking sound when held tightly??

4.How about using a screenguard??will it affect the touchscreen?
 
vpraveenis said:
That's a great review!!! :hap2: I'm thinking of waiting for some more time, but I can hardly hold on to my decision...it's too tempting :bleh:

1.What about the s60v3 sis apps?? Is there any virtual d-pad to control them?? Some sites mention a virtual D pad for java apps.. but what about sis files?

2.How is the web browser and wi-fi access speed?

3.You said it was a little on the lighter side.. does it make any creaking sound when held tightly??

4.How about using a screenguard??will it affect the touchscreen?

1) Will have to wait around for compatible apps to be around. There surely will be plenty of them and for the 5800 definately.
2) Web browsing and wi-fi was tested before the phone got to me. All i was told was its really very fast, although the 'default' broswer would need to be upgraded to a later one. No clue about that personally as I havent tried it yet. Will check that out next week once i get to work
3) No
4) It already has a screenguard and it doesnt affect the performance any ways.
 
just can't wait to get this phone.. Great review though Hanzy.. How do you compare the sound quality to N91 ( if you ever heard the N91 sound)? I just could not find any phone other iPhone to be in par with that N91 in terms of sound..
 
Sound Quality is different for different people. Would recommend you try the phone yourself with the choice of headphones at the nearest NPD. What you like, maybe me or hanzy don't :p.
 
do they already have in NPD? I prebooked and they didn't even call me.. If they have it already... ill go tomorrow rite away.. thanks for the info
 
Call up in your NPD before you go. Not all NPD's have the demo pieces. Would recommend you take the earphone of your choice with you so that you can make the choice.
 
Added in main post :
Transferring of Music / USB
I haven't like checked the exact transfer rate and benchmarked it and all , all I did is took a folder with 2GB of music and simply drag - dropped the folder onto the music folder of the phone , running in MASS STORAGE Mode. An odd 150+ files , the transfer happened without any issues and took a little over 9 mins for the transfer to complete. Once done , the internal default music player automatically detected that files have been added and updated the music library and it was up and running. Played music on loudspeaker (at middle range volume ) for about 20-25 mins at stretch and there is NO heating up of the phone anywhere , nor the rear panel near the battery , nor near the speakers.....(next i'm going to check out some videos, just figuring out the same to convert an .avi file to .mp4 at the correct resolution.

Also added :
BUGS section
Video Playback
GPS
 
Went to a NPD near my house today... The guy said they have not yet received a Demo piece and will get it tomorrow... SO hopefully on saturday I can play around a little with the device. :eek:hyeah:

The guy quoted 22k as the price, I think along with the senn package.. have to check out how much other priority dealers quote.

They however had a dummy piece and the phone felt perfect in size.. neither too small not too large. Nokia has got the size spot on!!
 
vpraveenis said:
Went to a NPD near my house today... The guy said they have not yet received a Demo piece and will get it tomorrow... SO hopefully on saturday I can play around a little with the device. :eek:hyeah:

The guy quoted 22k as the price, I think along with the senn package.. have to check out how much other priority dealers quote.

They however had a dummy piece and the phone felt perfect in size.. neither too small not too large. Nokia has got the size spot on!!

good for ya , btw i think u posted in the wrong 5800 thread :bleh:

OT : i have'nt even posted a show-off yet :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Blade_Runner said:
Now finish this up quick with detailed pics hanzy so we can put it up in the review section.

wow, will try finishing this up by tomorrow evening with the detailing....almost all the points have been covered based on functionality and performance....

@all : if you feel i should cover some other point / aspect please let me know about the same.

-Updated Bugs Section
 
posting this using the phone. It picked up the configuration automatically..no manual settings..its nice and fast..played flash files and ads by default.popups can be blocked if needed..browser is nice and fast too ,scrollig is good as well.

PS: back on pc for this edit....will make changes on the main post now.....browsing on wifi is really fast ...and it detected the wifi and did an auto config without any issues....

3rd party apps and Wifi Section updated.
 
Will try to finish this up today- I'm done with exploring the phone enough. I can even go and give a public speech and demonstration on this .i know the phone better in 3 days than my in-house software i've 'tried' to know in 3 months :lol: (office ppl pls ignore im j/k kiddin :p)

I went to alfa to check if they have a all-clear screen guard out...they did for 280 bux :O , but it doesnt cover the entire front panel (covers only the display area) , they guy suggested since my scratch guard is stuck fine , i do with it for a while and tolerate the graffiti on it as there might be full covering guards out once the phone is out.....

Picked up an elcheapo 30 bux scratch guard for some experimentation , will post if its successfully done......
 
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