Nokia Tube 5800 XpressMusic mobile review
Ξ October 14th, 2008 | → | ∇ Gadgets |
We’ve been waiting for Nokia to come and frolic with the touch phones, and here it is the Nokia XpressMusic 5800. We were expecting a stupendous N-series with all the bells and whistles but what we got was a mid range Symbian smartie, but is it any cop?
Out of the box, we cant deny the phone is a looker, comparing it with other Nokia’s it’s the same length and width as the N82 and weighs in at 109g, slightly weightier than other tactile mobiles, but it feels like a solid Nokia. Sporting a micro-USB, and an SD card slot it certainly looks the part in its gloss black Sunday best.
Touch sensitive?
So this is my first touchscreen by Nokia, aged 143. It’s taken them long enough and we must admit they’ve come out trumps. Nokia claim that this isn’t meant to be compared with the iPhone, but it’s the only touch screen that comes close. Scrolling through the menu is a breeze, and writing a text is a piece of cake using either the touchy QWERTY keyboard, or handwriting with the stylus. Flip the phone to the side for widescreen web-browsing, and with inbuilt Flash as the ace card, you can see a truck load more of the sites than on the iPhone. It can be a little over sensitive at times, but to be honest we’re not complaining after the blisters we got from the other cack touch-screens.
Music-head
Piped as the phone to use Nokia’s XpressMusic service and we can see why. On the home screen there’s a one touch button to your media bar this lets you whizz to your favourite music, pics or browse the web. Packing 8GB of memory from the off you can store up to 6000 tracks from your Bowie to Barbara. Whack in a pair of your own cans through the 3.5mm jack and the sound is impressive. Compared to a Sony Walkman, it’s as good if not better.
Share and share alike.
One of the nifty things that sets this mobile apart is how easy it is to share your content. Nokia’s mummy did good. Snapping pictures on the 3.2 Carl Zeiss lens is a breeze with the standard capture button on the side, but as soon as you’ve papped, zap it onto Flickr, Facebook or any other jiggery-pokery sites online. Picture quality is nothing to quibble about, it doesn’t compare with the 5MP’s out there, but pictures are detailed and it’s easy enough to twiddle about with the manual controls for contrast, sharpness and the flash.
If you’re more of a stalker than sharer, keep a close eye on your targets using the contacts bar. If that weirdo in Bodyguard had this phone, Whitney would not be here today. Setting up your stalk, is a snitch. Add a contact to the home screen and then you can keep an eye on every text message/email/call they do (well between you and them). You can also keep an eye on anything they do online, on ElFace and Twitter. The updates are slightly annoying; they do pop up and stay there on the homescreen. It’s hard to disguise your stalking habits.
With all these featires in tow and for a non N-series phone and Nokia’s first serious dabble into touch-screen the 5800 is a scorcher. Getting our mitts on the XpressMusic service will see the handsets stretch its little techy legs, but for a mid-range gambit from the play safe Finnish company it’s not a bad first effort.
