The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was Nokia’s first S60 Symbian-powered touchscreen smartphone, and when it was announced, I assumed it would be a train wreck, but decided I needed to own one anyways. The first few firmwares were, indeed, train wrecks, and against the other touchscreen smartphones that Nokia has launched since, it’s definitely lacking key features such as a useful homescreen and kinetic scrolling. Nonetheless, with all of my review phones shipped back, the 5800 XpressMusic is the best one that I own personally, and I’ve been using it as my primary phone for the past 3-4 months, which has been interesting.
For starters, the homescreen is still completely useless. Yes, I now have email notification thanks to Nokia Messaging, but aside from that, I only have 4 application shortcuts, calendar, and a useless ‘Search’ entry. Sure, I can disable the search plugin, but there should be more. It’s really annoying that nearly half of the homescreen is wasted with blank space which could be better used with an extra row of application shortcuts, or perhaps the addition of a Contacts Bar, like the 5530 XpressMusic and X6 both have.
Also, the lack of an onscreen menu button still bothers me, though I’ve almost gotten past it, I think. The camera is also sub-par, and I actually think that the quality has gone down since I updated to the v31 firmware that was released a few weeks ago. Pictures are grainy, even in what should be decent lighting, and it’s quite slow compared to other phones I’ve used recently.
That being said, this thing, for the price (currently <$270 on Amazon unlocked) is a monster. I have WiFi, a built-in GPS receiver, 3G coverage with AT&T, and a nice-sized touchscreen display, as well as plenty of applications to put that 3G connection to work.
You may remember, I’m personally not a fan of the touchscreen display, specifically for text input. However, I’ve found that if I keep the phone in T9 mode with the onscreen numeric keypad, I’m nearly just as fast as I was on my trusty N79. I hardly ever use the fullscreen QWERTY keyboard, as I quickly get frustrated with incorrect button presses and that sort of thing.
Email on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has been a mixed bag, mostly due to Nokia Messaging. When it works, Nokia Messaging is awesome. The full HTML support is great, emails come in faster than on my desktop normally, and it’s just smooth as butter. Unfortunately, those of you following us on Twitter will know that periodically, my 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia Messaging do not always play nicely. As best I can tell, it seems as though the database stored on my phone gets corrupted, causing the application to lose all my emails (just locally, not on the server thank goodness) and it begins prompting me to setup my account again. Typically, reinstalling from the setup SMS fixes it, but it’s still a really annoying problem. The team hasn’t been able to duplicate it, and I haven’t experienced this issue on any other phone I’ve tested, so I’m inclined to believe it’s something specific to my handset, somehow.
Application support is phenomenal, with more and more applications and services supporting the S60v5 (Symbian^1) platform every day. It’s also a plus that I can use all of the WRT widgets that are designed for the Nokia N97 (albeit without the homescreen widget support). The new version of Mobbler correctly scrobbles music that I play locally, and with Gravity, it’s just an overall entertaining phone, mostly.
The latest version of Ovi Maps works awesome on the 5800 XpressMusic, and is something I actually use at least once a week, no kidding. Google Maps Mobile is also a great tool, and I’ve been using Waze more and more lately, too, to help others as I drive around town.
One of the features that I find myself using the most often is the XpressMusic button at the top right corner of the screen. Pressing this drops down a toolbar with quick access to all of my media, including music, photos, videos, and internet. This is reminiscent of the older Nseries phones, with the Nseries button, and makes for a very convenient multimedia device. My only complaint is that I can’t remap a few of those, as I’d like to have Mobbler come up instead of the Share Online shortcut, or Gravity instead of the bookmarks, for instance.
The browser on the 5800 XpressMusic has been updated since the phone launched, as well, and is extremely convenient for browsing most sites. The floating toolbar opens much quicker, which makes it easier to enter fullscreen mode when I’m ready to do some serious browsing. There are also rumblings that this phone is in line for one more firmware update, this time to bring kinetic scrolling, hopefully to the phone’s various list menus as well as the browser. I can’t wait to see that implemented.
Overall, for $270, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, though ugly as sin (what’s with the lip?), is still a stellar performer, and is able to stand up to my abusive usage patterns quite easily. I’m glad that I have one in my personal arsenal, and though it’s old, definitely still recommend it for someone looking to go touchscreen on a budget. I’ve been surprised, myself. While there are newer phones on the market, don’t be afraid to pick up the 5800 XpressMusic if it fits your budget more than the N97 or others – it’s a solid phone that still performs great, even for me.
U.S. readers can pick the 5800 XpressMusic up from Amazon here:
While our British readers can check out the deals on the UK Mobile Deals section of our online store to get a great deal on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic with your favorite operator.
