First Nokia 5800 (Tube) review... and it's a corker!

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

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All I can say is: "wow". This phone not only packs every feature you could want, but is set at a ridiculously low price... all part of Nokias new strategy to even out the market and bring down prices of touch phones. Here are some snippets from the review which you can read in it's full gory here: http://www.mobile-review.com/review/nokia-5800-2-en.shtml

Display:

One of this phone's fortes is its display, hands down - it's covered by a thick plastic layer, although not recessed into the casing, so it can be handled in any way you please (with bare fingers, stylus or plectrum). At 3.2 inch diagonal, 16:9 aspect ratio, 16 million colors and 640x360-pixel resolution (39x69 mm), the 5800 Tube's screen is a true marvel.
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Typing:

The first one is a pretty much standard alphanumeric keypad rendered on the 5800 Tube's display - it kicks in only when you hold the phone vertically and offers a quite convenient way to text with one hand. At the same time, it's next to impossible to do that with the iPhone. I remember how a friend of mine had to stop by the roadside to message me a street address; he was pleasantly surprised with the Nokia 5800's setup however, as it allowed for seamless single-handed operation.

Next up - miniQWERTY keypad, available in both landscape and portrait setups. Clearly, it's much easier to text with it using the plectrum or bundled stylus. The 5800 will enlarge the button you are hovering over. By the way, women won't experience any difficulties with the 5800 - it responds even to slightest touches of fingernails.

The last but certainly not the least - a no-frills QWERTY thumbboard that launches only when holding the phone sideways. It packs in quite sizable buttons that are easy to tap, even with both hands on the screen. All in all, the Nokia 5800 comes with a wealth of texting options - no other phone out three can offer a similar number of options on this front.
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Battery:

The handset utilizes a 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery (BL-5J). The 5800 is rated for 8.8 hours of talk time (GSM) and 400 hours of standby. Music time - up to 35 hours, video recording time (top resolution and quality settings) - up to 210 minutes, video playback time - up to 5 hours.
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Music:

As far as music quality goes, the 5800 offers an unparalleled experience for an S60 device, but while it stands in one line with the N85 and the likes, it can't keep up with the Motorola ZN5, Samsung i8510 INNOV8 and some other solutions. Nevertheless, it's still good enough to take on the Apple iPod, plus less sophisticated users won't notice any difference at all when listening to music in stock earphones.
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Camera:

Since Nokia didn't see any point in arming the 5800 Tube with anything more than the bare minimum for the industry on this front, they threw in only a 3.2 Mpix CMOS module with autofocus and macromode (Tessar lens from Carl Zeiss (2.8, 3.7) and dual LED lfash).

When recording video with 5800, there are considerably fewer settings, than in the still image mode. There is a software image stabilizer that was first introduced in the Nokia N80. You can adjust the white balance, choosing from Automatic, Sun, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent. The overlay pool includes Sepia, Black&White, Negative. There are only two shooting modes - auto or night mode. Maximum resolution - 640x480 pixels (mpeg4), you can also mute sound, although there is no way you can adjust the 5800's FPS, which is locked at 30. The handset allows recording videos until you run out of free memory
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Conclusion:

On balance the 5800 Tube offers pretty decent sound quality, audible stereo speakers, WiFi connectivity, and a sizable display that will remain the best on the market for a quite a while. Frankly, I can hardly find anything to criticize the 5800 for, given how little it goes for - there has never been a phone like this before and now it raises the bar to a wholly new level. Well, it's about time I wrapped it all up - no point in praising this phone any further, I suppose.

Another thing of note about the 5800 Tube is that it simply won't face any challenges on the market - the Apple iPhone is a steep, fashion-savvy offering that has been deprived of many standard features, so a comparison between these two phones would seem a little too far-fetched. It does have smoother and more eye-candy menus, similar video capabilities, but that's about it - in fact the iPhone packs in around a tenth of what the Nokia 5800 has to offer in terms of functionality. It wouldn't be right to put them in one league and then berate the iPhone for lacking so many useful feats. So let the iPhone remain the ultimate choice for all fashion-conscious users, while the Nokia 5800 will be the way to go for everyone who is after a well-rounded do-it-all solution.
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If this is a sign of things to come then I am definately picking up either one of these or a model based on it soon... I imagine next year the N-series touchscreens will be out.

Niiiiceeeee. :)
 
Well hot dog!

I been keeping a weather eye out for this phone for many months. Saw some "Product placement" in The Dark Knight and knew it can't be long until release.
 
Looks good, could be my next phone, although it's going to be another year before I get my next upgrade :(
 
I'm looking forward to this phone, but i can't help but think i'll plonk down for this and their next phone will be the stunner. It's missing haptikos which nokia seem pretty far along with and is also a little bulky (i know it does almost everything but i can't help thinking it could be slimmer)

Although the 5800 is undeniably amazing value for money really compared to most.
 
At the risk of sounding like a Nokia 'fanboy', I'm expecting good things to come from them next year with S60 5th Edition. This being one of them...
 
Hmm I really want a new phone. I just hope the xperia lives up to the hype...sadly I can see the UI being slow and the battery being poor.
 
Just read the review, it does sound like a good first attempt. I expect to see an N-series branded Nokia like this to come out March-ish, just in time for my upgrade :)

I might try and convince the gf to pick up one of these though, so I can have a play with it :p

Edit: There's a bit more here about S60 5th Edition which fills in a few more blanks about how it operates etc.
 
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It's obvious that this is the first of many. Nokia's smartphone portfolio is wide enough to accommodate multiple touchscreen phones.
 
Robert said:
Hmm I really want a new phone. I just hope the xperia lives up to the hype...sadly I can see the UI being slow and the battery being poor.
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Its a windows mobile phone would you really expect much more? Theres only so much you can pile ontop of that horrid horrid os to make it look and work nice without making it chug along. When MS get their act together and get the real windows mobile out the door (7) it'll be better competition, but for now native solutions beat WinMo everytime.
 
Any details on this? Heard it was a mid october launch date. Looks better than the iphone and g1, and cheaper. Probably a solution until the g2 or next iphone.
 
Won't make it until after Christmas Nokia have said. They'll hit some markets India and somewhere else spring to mind for Christmas, but Europe and USA weren't one of them, delays in manufacture for some reason or other (the usual response).
 
I meant to bump this but forgot. :(

Ebay has it for almost £400... can't wait till it's out for normal prices, i'm having one! Only as a stop-gap till the N97 though... :p
 
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