We gave the build quality of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic a 5/5 star rating, which is top notch. However, we’re now going to get into the deep stuff – music. The 5800 XpressMusic is an oddball, in my opinion, because it’s clearly music-centric, but it’s not an Nseries. In any case, with the XpressMusic moniker, included plectrum (guitar pick), and hyped-up speakers, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic should be the ultimate music machine.
First up, the actual music player. This most easily accessed using the brilliant Media bar that drops down from the top right of the display. The player software looks and acts basically just like my N95-3, which I actually am going to count as a negative. It’s definitely capable, but given that the N95-3 has S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1, and the 5800 XpressMusic uses the new S60 5th Edition, I was honestly hoping for some significant changes.
The music player still doesn’t keep track of playcounts, nor does it offer any sort of on-device rating system. As I listen to music on my desktop nearly as much as I do on my phone, these are 2 important features. They should also be important to Nokia, since it’s taking on several dominant MP3 players with this phone (and it’s entire Nseries/XpressMusic lineup, for that matter). As it stands, the 5800 XpressMusic simply cannot be an extension of my overall music experience, but rather is merely a subset – related, but different. Of course there’s still no decent desktop syncing software from Nokia, so I used Salling Media Sync with iTunes, though I’m also playing with MediaMonkey at the moment (more on that soon).
The 5800 XpressMusic’s 3.5mm audio port is conveniently located at the top of the phone, and easily accepts any standard headphones. You can also use this for any audio accessory, such as computer speakers or a 3.5mm audio input in your vehicle, for instance. There’s not really much else to say about that, other than that it works fine. There’s no noticeable quality differences when using this port, which is good.
The 5800 XpressMusic’s stereo speakers have been lauded by many as simply the loudest phone they’ve heard. These speakers are deceptively small, because they do indeed put out louder, more rich sound than any Nokia I’ve used in the past, bar none. While the phone is only slightly louder than my N95-3, it is significantly higher quality than my N95-3, specifically at full blast.
I was able to easily pair the 5800 XpressMusic with a few different A2DP Bluetooth stereo headsets, and found that to be a great experience, as well. Thankfully, with the 5800 XpressMusic, you no longer have to manually enter the pairing code (it’s 0000 for all Bluetooth accessories), as the phone is finally smart enough to enter that itself. Using firmware v10, I noticed that audio quality over A2DP is less than stellar, unfortunately. After testing with the Nokia BH-903 and the Samsung SBH500, I confirmed that the 5800 XpressMusic itself has issues with Bluetooth connections past 4-5 feet, which is roughly half the range it is supposed to have.
Loading the phone up with music over USB is finally a snappy process, thanks to updated USB connections. I was able to load 3GB of music in no time at all, and with Salling Media Sync’s Pro version, was able to only make incremental updates beyond the initial load, to further reduce the sync time.
Noticeably missing from the 5800 XpressMusic is Nokia’s Home Media application, which allows the phone to connect to other media sources over UPnP. This is definitely something I was looking forward to using, and I hope that Nokia adds it in a future firmware.
Overall, I would have to rate the 5800 XpressMusic’s music experience at 3 out of 5 stars. Sure, it’s great, and the sound quality is awesome, but at this point in the game, Nokia should have had playcount and ratings implemented into their phone’s music player, and also had a decent desktop music player/sync tool available. Sure, they have the Nokia Music PC Client, and it syncs great, but it’s hardly usable as a desktop music client, in my opinion. If Nokia is going to really make an impact in the MP3 player market, they really need to focus on the overall experience, not just the phone hardware.
