 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
The programs key brings up the applications window, just as it would on any other Nokia phone. Press and hold the programs key to bring up the S60 task manager that allows you to switch between running programs. There are two home screen layouts available: the first is similar to the standard active desktop on other S60 phones, with 4 shortcut icons to applications (there are fewer icons since they're larger to be finger-friendly). It shows upcoming appointments, has a link to search the phone or Internet and a music player controller that shows when the music player is playing tunes. Two icons near the bottom link to the phone dialer and contacts. The other home screen layout replaces the 4 application shortcuts with 4 speed dials, each with a photo of the contact. Pressing the call send button brings up call history, while the call end button minimizes the current running program.
We love the high resolution, 24 bit color display. At 360 x 640 pixels, it's the highest resolution Nokia phone on the market and it's perfect, when in landscape mode, for viewing web pages and watching movies. The 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio is perfect for films, and Nokia includes a $50 Amazon video on demand gift certificate in the box along with an 8 gig microSD card.
We also appreciate the proximity sensor that turns off the display and touch screen when the phone is against the face, but wonder why Nokia forgot to include letters on the on-screen dialer keys for vanity number dialing. There's an accelerometer than handles screen rotation and it's just right: not too twitchy nor too slow. Video review Here's our 10 minute video review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic NAM. We give you a walk around the phone, show the UI, multimedia playback, GPS and more. Keyboards How do you input text? Nokia provides several options including a phone-style keypad with predictive text that does a very good job, handwriting recognition, compact QWERTY and full screen QWERTY. You can use the compact QWERTY and number pad entry in both portrait and landscape orientations, but the full screen QWERTY is available only in landscape mode.
Above: compact QWERTY. Below: large QWERTY in the messaging application.
Phone and Internet The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a quad band unlocked GSM phone that supports all the world's GSM bands: 850/900/1800/1900MHz. You can use any GSM carrier's SIM with the phone, and you need not start or extend a contract to get the phone. As we mentioned, there are two versions: Eurasian and North American. We're covering the North American (NAM) version with US 3G HSDPA on AT&T's 850/1900MHz bands. This version lacks Euro 3G, so data is EDGE-only in Europe and the same is true on T-Mobile US (T-Mo uses different 3G bands and there is no version of the 5800 with T-Mo 3G). The phone detects your SIM card and automatically configures the correct data connection and MMS settings-- very nice. As per usual with Nokia phones, voice quality is excellent and reception is very strong. This is a great voice phone, and a pocketable one at that. It works with Bluetooth headsets and car kits as well as A2DP Bluetooth stereo headsets. A stereo wired headset is included, and voice is loud and clear over that headset. The Nokia has speed dial and voice command with voice dialing. Voice dialing as usual on Nokia phones wasn't terribly accurate. Data transfer speeds over AT&T's HSDPA network are good and the phone supports DUN so you can use the phone as a wireless high speed modem for a notebook. Nokia's Webkit-based web browser (the same browser engine as in Safari on the iPhone, in the Android web browser and in Google Chrome) is powerful and does an excellent job of desktop rendering. It's similar the browser on other recent S60 Nokia phones like the N96 and N79, but it's been optimized for touch with large on-screen buttons and support for scrolling via finger-dragging, which works quite well. It supports CSS, Javascript, dHTML, SSL, cookies, cache management, frames and more. There's a full screen mode which greatly reduces side-to-side scrolling in landscape mode since the browser controls appear on the right hand side in landscape orientation (and at the bottom in portrait mode). Thanks to Flash Lite 3.0, you can watch YouTube and other Flash content via the browser-- nice! Messaging and email are again the same as that found on other recent Nokia smartphones. There's support for text, MMS, POP3, IMAP and MS Exchange email too. Applications and Syncing Since this is a smartphone, it has a full suite of full-featured PIM applications (same as any other Nokia S60 phone) and it syncs with Outlook in Windows and Address Book and iCal in Mac OSX (you can download Nokia's iSync plugin from their web site). The address book supports most every field available in Outlook and it supports groups. The calendar has day, week and month views and it has alarms, recurring events, multi-day events and tasks. There's a notes application, Zip manager, Quickoffice 4.2 for viewing MS Office files, a multi-language dictionary, Nokia Maps, web browser, email and messaging client, Gallery, call log, sample games and more. The phone multitasks, so you can have several applications running simultaneously. Multimedia The 5800 is both a smartphone and a music phone-- Nokia was one of the first manufacturers to realize we want to work and play with the same device. The music player is Nokia's usual capable player with support for album art, shuffle, EQ, playlists, stereo widening and loudness boost. It's not as slick as the iPhone with its Cover Flow interface, but it is one of the better phone players. File format support includes MP3, AAC, M4A (iTunes format), AAC+, WMA, WAV, Real Audio and True Tones. You can use any tune as your ringtone and store music on microSD cards up to 16 gigs capacity (an 8 gig card comes with the phone). The side-firing stereo speakers are some of the best we've heard on a phone (especially with stereo widening turned on) and our only complaint is that bass can distort at high volumes. A stereo earbud headset is included and it includes an inline controller and mic that's separable so you can plug in your favorite headphones and still control music and make calls. The phone also supports A2DP Bluetooth stereo with AVRC (AV remote control). Sound quality with a good pair of Bluetooth headphones like the Samsung SBH500 is very good. In addition, the 5800 has an FM radio, Real Player, Flash Lite 3.0, a podcasting application and access to Nokia's music store. As usual, the FM radio uses the headset as its antenna, but it can play through the speakers as long as the headset is connected. The radio application can automatically scan for and save stations and the tuner is strong (stronger than our desktop AM/FM radio). The phone can play locally stored videos and streaming media in Flash and Real Player formats. This Nokia does a better than average job of Flash playback from sites like YouTube. It takes a while to load and buffer video over 3G, but playback is smooth and the phone remains responsive while playing video. The 5800 supports a variety of video formats, and we tested MP4 videos up to 640 x 360 resolution at fairly high bitrates. We were impressed with the phone's smooth playback with no apparent dropped frames or loss of audio sync-- very nice! Nokia includes a small folding stand that's ideal for watching movies with the phone sitting on a desk or table.
GPS The Nokia has an integrated GPS with aGPS and Nokia Maps 2.0. Unlike last generation Nokia phones which were slow to get a fix and sometimes lost track of satellites during a trip through urban jungles or tree-lined streets, the 5800 got a fix quickly (even indoors near a window) and maintained a fix when driving. Nokia Maps is a capable mapping application with POIs and turn-by-turn spoken directions. It's matured over the years and now provides expedient routes in the US. Nokia Maps is free, but driving and walking directions require a subscription (daily, monthly, 1 year and 3 year plans are available at prices similar to TeleNav and US carrier-branded navigation services). A free 30 day trial is included, so you can test it out thoroughly yourself. You can use the desktop map loader to save maps to a card, or download maps over the data connection as needed. The application, like all Nokia apps on-board, supports the touch screen but maps are shown only in portrait mode. Google Maps works fine on the Nokia 5800 as well and we could use a finger to drag maps. Garmin XT Mobile doesn't yet work correctly on the US version of the 5800. Garmin updated their software for the Euro 5800, but version 5.00.40 doesn't work on the US model. Hopefully they'll release an update soon! Battery Life Multimedia 3G smartphones don't generally have the best battery life. The Nokia 5800 proved the exception, managing better than average battery life (significantly better than the Nokia N95-3). Using the GPS for driving directions is the only activity that drains the battery quickly (get a car charger for long trips). The 1320 mAh Lithium Ion battery easily lasted us 2 days on a charge with moderate use (10 minutes of GPS use, and hour of music playback through the phone's speakers, several short calls, 45 minutes of video playback, 30 minutes of gaming and an hour of web browsing on 3G and WiFi). Conclusion Nokia's first touch screen S60 smartphone is a success overall. It's easy to use, fun and has a compelling set of features. Not to mention it has excellent call quality and reception. Nokia could add some polish and abolish those scroll bars, but these small complaints don't stand in the way of using the phone nor do they annoy us unduly. If you're a Nokia fan and want to join the touch screen crowd, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a great way to start. It's relatively reasonably priced and has a wide set of features to meet most any need. We love the capacious widescreen and excellent video playback, stellar call quality and easy syncing to PCs and Macs. Pro: Large, very high resolution display is a joy to use, especially when web browsing, viewing photos and watching videos. Excellent voice quality and reception. Familiarity of S60, yet well on its way in terms of touch optimization. Great video playback performance, excellent music experience. Absolutely no need for the stylus unless you want to use handwriting recognition or draw. Good GPS performance. Reasonable price for a very well-featured S60 touch screen smartphone Good battery life. Con: In most cases the 5800 requires 5th Edition versions of 3rd party apps (software junkies take note).
List price: $399 Web site: www.nokiausa.com
| ||||||||||
