Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Full Review

The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music was launched in 2008 with much fanfare- it was after all, Nokia’s much awaited foray into the touch segment. And of course, since it was used in a very cool manner by Batman to thwart the villains in The Dark Knight, the anticipation only built up.

So when it finally came time to review the 5800 aka the ‘Tube,’ I used it extensively over a long period of time to see if the interface made sense and if the phone was a step in the right direction for the biggest phone company in the world.

First up, the features and specifications- the Tube is powered by a 369 MHz ARM processor, not the most powerful, but still enough to keep operations breezy. It has 128MB of RAM, 81MB internal storage and the memory is expandable up to 16GB using microSD cards. A great addition is the 8GB microSD card that comes along with the phone, so memory should not be a big problem.

The Tube has a large 3.2 inch resistive touch-screen which displays colors splendidly. In fact, the Tube makes do with minimalism in the looks department, but it does it really well. However, the phone is built entirely of plastic, therefore, build quality is not perfect. But it’s still pretty good.

The 5800 Xpress Music first got attention thanks to the fact that it would be Nokia’s first phone with a completely touch-based interface. At first glance, the interface looks just right- not cluttered and organized in the familiar Nokia menu structure. The home screen can be configured to display your most used contacts or can be just left empty except for the wallpaper. Since we’ve gotten tired of cluttered interfaces, this was a welcome respite. Also, it added to the overall looks. The interface itself is easy to use, there is haptic feedback to help in navigation. However, there are some major inconsistencies in the interface (something we noticed when using the N97 too). To access some functions, you need to tap twice on the requisite icons, whereas some need just a solitary tap. There seems to be no clear distinction on why this is so. Other facets of the interface are quite usable through touch, they aren’t as organically represented as in the iPhone, but they got the job done. Browsing using the touch-interface has its ups and downs. On one hand you aren’t restricted to scrolling between links to view a page, but tapping on links requires you to zoom into the page for accuracy. And zooming isn’t the easiest process. Typing on the virtual QWERTY keyboard requires some getting used to and having smaller integers would definitely help. However, it isn’t a deal breaker.

Now, since the 5800 belongs to Nokia’s Xpress Music line-up we were expecting a lot from it as a music phone. Although, it did play music decently we were disappointed. First up, the playback volume both from the speakers and attached headphones was not loud enough. The mids were not very defined and the bass seemed loose. Also the bundled headphones were far from perfect.  The phone also has a 3.2MP camera with an LED flash which takes average pictures.

Bottom Line

The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music is priced at Rs. 13,500 in India. It is a good first try from Nokia towards making the perfect touch-based phone. Overall, the phone might have its weaknesses but it is still a pretty good buy for its price.