Please persuade me not to buy a Nokia 5800

Andrew_McP · 22 Jun 2009 at 13:33

This week I techno-lusted my way all the way up to buying an iPhone 3GS. I'm not an Apple kind of person, but I do a lot of walking so the GPS & mapping options are attractive, and the overall interface/apps etc. are pretty compelling as an overall smartphone package. Messing about with someone's iPhone proved that to me.

The price, however, is *not* compelling. :-)

I'd just worry about breaking or losing the darned thing all the time. So I'm waving that one goodbye... albeit reluctantly.

Which leads me to the alternatives, and it seems to me that the 5800 hits a sweet spot for functionality and price (less than £200 now on PAYG).

From the various threads here and reviews all over the place I can see it's not perfect, but I need to buy something soon to stop me spending three months reading reviews and changing my mind twenty times a week about what to buy.

So any strong opinions either way would be appreciated. Thanks!

Andrew McP

PS Whatever I buy I'll be swapping to O2 PAYG, because I'm not a heavy user and have an O2 broadband discount tied to my O2 topups. At the moment I can't see any issues doing that, but I might have missed a potential problem.

PPS Thanks to everyone posting here. It's been a very useful source of phone information.

Mr Paul · 22 Jun 2009 at 13:41

The 5800 is a good phone, has it's issues, but don't they all

Tute · 22 Jun 2009 at 13:45

5800 is a brilliant phone. Not as good as the 3GS, but then it doesn't come with a "please bend over" tariff.

DIABLO · 22 Jun 2009 at 19:11

I have one and it's a decent phone. Best phone i've ever had actually.

IamMed · 22 Jun 2009 at 19:25

I've had one for months, pretty complete phone only let down by it's camera and cheapy looks, I'd recommend one to anybody who isn't bothered about camera.

Seft · 22 Jun 2009 at 20:25

5800 is indeed is the sweet spot at the moment. 3GS is without a doubt a better phone (although I actually prefer the S60 OS on the 5800), but I would find it hard to justify the extra £400ish for the iPhone.

Andrew_McP · 22 Jun 2009 at 21:20

Thanks for the responses. It looks like the 5800 should scratch my techno-itch nicely without triggering £450's worth of buyer's remorse if I sit on it. :-)

Andrew McP

Jonners · 22 Jun 2009 at 21:34

Got a 5800 yesterday, it's a good all rounder. Infact I think it's actually worth giving up my N96 for!

muon · 22 Jun 2009 at 21:38

The 5800 has a proper GPS and Nokia Maps 3.0 is brilliant.

You preload maps and so don't require network use.

Vegetarian · 22 Jun 2009 at 21:47

Im a 5800 owner. I recognise the iPhone is technicly superiour than the nokia, however I still would chose the nokia over the iPhone... why?

Music player - the iphone sounds really bad - the nokia sounds so much richer and does not distort like the iphone when you change eq settings... the 5800 even has user definable eq that iphone lacks.... The memory is user changable too using Micro SD upto 32Mb (8Mb suplied).

As a phone Nokia's always do what the say on the tin - they just work! They are easy to use - well thought out with plenty of nice touches - nokia have been making phones since the begining and the 5800 as a phone is an evolvoved version of all other nokia's. Same goes with texting.

Screen - I perfer nokias one over the iphone - you have to press on the screen to make it work which vibrates too - this gives a more tactile feel to the phone that I dont get with the iPhone. I can text faster on the 5800 too... you can also use any object to operate the screen - even the other end of a pen etc... iphone only reacts to heat touch. Fingers can not be so acurate - I use my finger nail sometimes if Im doing something detailed. As said before the iphone screen only reacts to finger heat - not any object like the 5800.

S60 OS has been around for years - so plenty of apps and suport.

The 5800 has everything you need out of the box. iphone you buy into the millions of accessorys.

5800 is not perfect - it sometimes has some glitches - but each firmware addresses loads of these things.

Jabbs · 22 Jun 2009 at 22:04

My brother loves his well loved it he then had a mess on my iphone 3g(before i sold it) and he has one now the iphone is in a different league but it also reflects that on the price.

Vegetarian · 22 Jun 2009 at 22:18

iPhone is iCandy

bam0 · 22 Jun 2009 at 23:27

Don't do it, the 5800 is a horrible phone, the screen is awkward to press (lip around the edge), nothing like as responsive as a capacitive screen, and the phone is so slow you can sometimes watch the UI redraw infront of you. Although that's partly because S60 5th is a steaming pile, they took a phone OS that was ok 5 years ago and threw some touch ideas in there, but didn't go all the way (screen widgets that are too small to press with your fingers), leaving you with a mishmash of an OS that sits halfway between normal phones and proper smartphones (email handling is shonky as hell).
And despite the Ovi store they've launched app support is weak compared to the alternatives, but again that's because of the baggage of the OS.
If you love S60 then knock yourself out with a 5800, otherwise you'll find you become tired off it pretty quick.

Just for info I don't have an iPhone (anymore, I sold it).

Mr Paul · 23 Jun 2009 at 07:18

^ is rubbish apart from the Ovi bit

You probably used one with V11 firmware.

Andrew_McP · 23 Jun 2009 at 07:25

Lots more useful input. Thank you everyone, especially bam0 for balancing out some of the Nokia lurve. :-)

The good news is that your input only really confirmed niggles I'd already suspected and seen in video reviews; the iPhone's main strength comes from having been designed from scratch, rather than evolving.

However I can't find any way around the extra £250+ I'd need to fork out to get a snappy 3GS (paying £100 less for a 3G with half the memory seems like a relatively poor deal). Plus the Nokia has spare batteries, easily/cheaply upgraded memory, and a more pixels. I'm also pretty nimble in the finger department, and play the guitar, so usually have some nails with which to poke the Nokia's screen.

I think I'm going to have to risk visiting an actual shop (urgh, do people still do that? ;-)

and get my mits on one before I commit. But historically that's never a good idea. Given a wide range of choice in front of me I tend to become salesman fodder... especially if they send over the obligatory pretty young woman they keep in reserve to break down the resistance of awkward older customers. :->

Anyway, thanks again everyone.

Andrew McP

Rich_L · 23 Jun 2009 at 09:42

5800 is great for me, works a treat.

IamMed · 23 Jun 2009 at 11:27

Andrew_McP said:
I think I'm going to have to risk visiting an actual shop

Is always best todo this I find, I tried the Samsung Pixon, Nokia 5800, LG Renoir and the mighty iphone out instore and the only touchscreen i got on with was the 5800

Although I like the 5800 I did find that once I got the E71 I straight away prefered having a full qwerty keyboard instead of touch typing.

The iphone is a pretty nice bit of kit which I had considered too but as I said above I got on with the inferior 5800s touch screen better and when I then considered the difference in price and tariffs between the 2 it was a no brainer really!

IamMed · 23 Jun 2009 at 11:31

Vegetarian said:
Im a 5800 owner. I recognise the iPhone is technicly superiour than the nokia, however I still would chose the nokia over the iPhone... why?

Music player - the iphone sounds really bad - the nokia sounds so much richer and does not distort like the iphone when you change eq settings....

The thing that really grabbed me with the 5800 was the inbuilt speakers, they are by far the best I have heard on a mobile phone.

Columbo · 23 Jun 2009 at 12:14

Just wish it had a capacitive touch screen.

Andrew_McP · 23 Jun 2009 at 12:32

ManCuBuS said:
Just wish it had a capacitive touch screen.

It would be nice, but then so would world peace and free money. :-)

I guess there's probably a good reason why they went the way they did, and usually it's cost.

Anyway, I threw caution to the wind about an hour ago and ordered one. But the payment was rejected and my Barclaycard was locked down. After three calls to nice but -- I have to say -- frustratingly scripted Indian folk on a laggy connection, I got it sorted out and the order finally went through.

Maybe it's an omen? Is it iRevenge? ;-)

Maybe it is! In the process I noticed another transaction from last week has disappeared after sitting in my 'payment pending' column for a few days... which is a bit of a problem because the stuff I bought is sitting here on my desk.

Free stuff! Or at least a free headache. Oh well, maybe there's something to be said for going to physical shops with hard cash after all. :->

Andrew McP