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.
 
viralbug said:
thats kind of a ridiculous question. you certainly cannot expect a phone not to be compared to others. if you go by that logic, say if you havent seen any other phone except nokia 1110, woud you still buy it even though you have the money to get a 20k phone? yes you would since you havent seen any other phone. that doesnt necessarily make it better than others available. obviously a comparison will be made in order to see where it stands and if it is worth it. if you dont have a better product it is bound that you will feel that the next one line is the best simply because you dont have another product to compare.

im not saying the 5800 is a bad phone, it is a decent phone.

5800 and iphone should be considered in different leagues. there will be many who would buy the 5800 because they would not be able to afford the iphone. those who can buy the iphone will look to compare and see what they like.

hmm so how do u compare a phone which costs 19k with a phone that costs 31k (legal price in India with warranty)? By your logic why not compare the iphone to the omnia or HTC touch HD or other high-end phones and see how it stacks up..? Please read through the entire post again dude, all im saying is for 19k the phone's alright. Im not saying it's awesome and it's the next big thing but if u have a budget of around 20k and want a good multimedia phone this isnt that shabby a phone.

Again i reiterate the excessive hype is what is killing this phone right now, not it's features.
 
Pat said:
Incorrect. Apple has only patented multi-touch gestures. And the Palm Pre does have multi-touch (also G1 is capable of it)

What I was talking about
1. Macworld
2. AndroidCentral

Now, not that its a final word on anything, but why else would Google not include something that is a decided crowd puller into its dev OS.

I also read somewhere that the multi touch implemented in Pre has the potential to incur lawsuits by Apple. Cant find the links again though.
 
Hey fellas...

I have been closely watching all the 5800 XM threads in this forum. I am almost decided to buy it.. waiting for a little more price drop and the next firmware so that there is not much bugs and issues....

Now when I see the fight:eek:hyeah: going on this thread, it gives me a second thought on buying the 5800.:S

But anyway 31k to spend for an Iphone is out of question for me. The budget for a phone in my wallet was 15k which I upped when I heard abt the 5800. But I am still like the majority of the ppl who thinks that putting more than 10k on a mere mobile(a mobile is a mobile, after all....) is ridiculous.

Here are my questions.. I know that many ppl following this thread have the same questions in their mind. I don't expect an answer for everything:hap5:

  • Is it still worth to buy the 5800?
  • Will it be worth to wait for a few weeks/months to have the price to come down?
  • Is there a new firmware release in the pipeline?
  • Is a mere firmware update capable of doing "miracles" on 5800, even if Nokia release the firmware is going to be released next year?
  • Will there be compatible applications/games (in plenty and a lot to choose from) that will be available for nokia 5800?
  • What is your honest opinion on the 5800 looking a bit cheap with its plasticky look?
  • I have seen a live phone and the display is awesome. The phone is pretty fast apart from the speed with which it does the transition to "landscape to portrait" and viceversa. Will a firmware update increase the speed of this and also make rotating loading logo time to a minimum?
Welcome to comment on the above details:D
 
prediff said:
Now, not that its a final word on anything, but why else would Google not include something that is a decided crowd puller into its dev OS.

Actually the hacker who showed that G1 is capable of multi-touch thinks that android was not mature enough to handle multi-touch with grace and thats why it was not included with the first release. But you never know. Anyways, I would stop this discussion here otherwise someone will again come crying that I am talking about some other phone on a 5800 thread. :p
 
mathew_p_a said:
Hey fellas...

I have been closely watching all the 5800 XM threads in this forum. I am almost decided to buy it.. waiting for a little more price drop and the next firmware so that there is not much bugs and issues....

Now when I see the fight:eek:hyeah: going on this thread, it gives me a second thought on buying the 5800.:S

But anyway 31k to spend for an Iphone is out of question for me. The budget for a phone in my wallet was 15k which I upped when I heard abt the 5800. But I am still like the majority of the ppl who thinks that putting more than 10k on a mere mobile(a mobile is a mobile, after all....) is ridiculous.

Here are my questions.. I know that many ppl following this thread have the same questions in their mind. I don't expect an answer for everything:hap5:
  • Is it still worth to buy the 5800?
  • Will it be worth to wait for a few weeks/months to have the price to come down?
  • Is there a new firmware release in the pipeline?
  • Is a mere firmware update capable of doing "miracles" on 5800, even if Nokia release the firmware is going to be released next year?
  • Will there be compatible applications/games (in plenty and a lot to choose from) that will be available for nokia 5800?
  • What is your honest opinion on the 5800 looking a bit cheap with its plasticky look?
  • I have seen a live phone and the display is awesome. The phone is pretty fast apart from the speed with which it does the transition to "landscape to portrait" and viceversa. Will a firmware update increase the speed of this and also make rotating loading logo time to a minimum?
Welcome to comment on the above details:D

1)yup the price shd drop a little more
2)I dont know
3)Dont except miracles from a mere firmware update
4)yup sure u will get many apps in the coming months
5)Nope I dont think it looks cheap thats more of a personal opinion but its a sweat magnet for sure.
6)Yes it can improve the speed,it really very slow now compared to iphone(no puns intended).I only had iphone to compare the phone with.
 
^^You can pretty much expect miracles from Nokia's firmware updates ;) The cam quality should improve a lot once they tweak it and release it with the newer firmware. Besides the odd bugfixes there could be some improvements for the phone.
 
Pat said:
Actually the hacker who showed that G1 is capable of multi-touch thinks that android was not mature enough to handle multi-touch with grace and thats why it was not included with the first release. But you never know. Anyways, I would stop this discussion here otherwise someone will again come crying that I am talking about some other phone on a 5800 thread. :p

I'll highlight a part of the comment you might not have paid attention to
Now, not that its a final word on anything, but why else would Google not include something that is a decided crowd puller into its dev OS.
Anyways bottom line (/s) is (/are)
  1. 5800 is a very good phone under 20k.
  2. N97 would be more of an iphone challenger.
 
is there any video player so that we can play diff formats without having to convert.
i tried to install smart movie v4.0 and v3.41 and divxplayer ver0.89 and core codec player but all were shown as not supported.
the only reason i bought this for my mom was so i wouldnt hav to convert the old hindi movies to mp4 .
can anyone send a link for a video player which can play most formats(xvid and divx incl)
ps i hav firmware version 11.
 
i used the 5800 for the first time today ...it fits very well in the hand,has a superb high resolution screen perfect for watching movies on the move and has superb sound quality...and ofcourse the familiar symbian OS which is very flexible.

i'd buy it if i had a spare 18K lying around.

Party Monger said:
When you talk about MAc os on a laptop you boast and say all the things it can do "Out of the box",
And when you talk iphone you start mentioning all the "projects and applications" that barely manage to provide the functionality and yes, arent provided "out of the box"..
well said man!
 
Fahrenheit said:
hmm so how do u compare a phone which costs 19k with a phone that costs 31k (legal price in India with warranty)? By your logic why not compare the iphone to the omnia or HTC touch HD or other high-end phones and see how it stacks up..? Please read through the entire post again dude, all im saying is for 19k the phone's alright. Im not saying it's awesome and it's the next big thing but if u have a budget of around 20k and want a good multimedia phone this isnt that shabby a phone.

Again i reiterate the excessive hype is what is killing this phone right now, not it's features.

who said not to compare? ofcourse the iphone will be and should be compared to omnia and other likes.

im also pointing out the same thing, for people with under 20k budget, 5800 is a good choice. but if you have 30k to blow, you can also look at the iphone.
 
May be everyone is now looking at the 5800 and so obsessed with it, so that they don't have time to post here:eek:hyeah:

hanzy said:
Since the phone is out and everyone has the phone now this THREAD is so dead :rofl:
 
Ok , time to make this thread alive....

so all people with the 5800 here , please post which scratch guard did ya'll put with the phone ? and more than that which casing are you'll using, the one that comes with the package is a PITA......!...pics would be better :)

also i'm looking for something like this....Mirror Screen Protector for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic - eBay Nokia, LCD Screen Protectors, Mobile Accessories, Phones. (end time 31-Jan-09 21:58:25 AEDST)

anybody seen it in the mumbai market ?
 
frankmehta said:
scratch guard is selling theirs on ebay for 400 i think. use the coupons!

which was the one u got :) .......is it good enuf ? or not worth it ? i'm still on the stock scratchguard that came along.....:cool2: since i would lay my hands on it soon i need to change it the same day.....:clap: btw, the 5800 my pal got yesterday we got a scratch guard fit to it , some new company , costed 300 buks , came with a scratch guard for the camera too and also a 3 months warranty on the scratch guard , any problem / bubbling / pealing covered...most important it was "full" faced and covered the entire phone front face ( leaving the sensors and the front cam ofcourse ).....wat abt the cover ? i just hate nokia for the stock cover.
 
the best cover that nokia has made came with my n95! was a beauty and very practical.

my 50 rupee scratchguard is good. i can see scratches on it but it does the job.

its not 25 bucks lol. each one is for 50!
 
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