Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Mobile Phone Review – The Phone Making Noise And Getting In Touch

RATING: 4.5/5 – It’s an eye-catching phone with a fun nature. With many surprises to be had, Nokia are continuing their philosophy of a simple interface with this amazing model. The camera is a bit behind the times, but all in all, Nokia have thrown their hat into the ring and mean business.

The phone was heavily anticipated by the mobile phone world – not only by consumers, but by rival manufacturers. Touch-screen phones have been around for a while now and the novelty has been beginning to wear off; but with Nokia’s presence on this scene fairly quiet, the hype was beginning to gather when this phone was announced.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic’s features are many – so much that the touch-screen, which is usually the focal point of such phones, is just the beginning of the fun. One of the defining features of this phone is its Xpressmusic feature, which allows the mobile phone to double up as a MP3 player. Many phones have tried to integrate a MP3 player into its interface and failed. Nokia has made the two work together seamlessly – this is mainly down to the touch-screen which makes navigating the user interface practical and easy.

Whether you go for the ‘Comes with music’ option which gives you unlimited downloads from a choice of millions of songs wherever you are (all thanks to 3G capabilities and a monthly subscription), a pay-per-song plan or the Nokia PC suite, music is never far away – and it would be an insult not to considering the feature-packed mobile software.

Wherever you are in the phone, accessing your music is easy. This is thanks to the Xpressmusic button which allows you to get there in seconds. Painstaking minutes navigating through various menus and options are now a thing of the past, with the 3.2inch resistive touch screen making using your phone pleasurable and quick. The ability to access your music by song, artist, album and playlist gives you all of the options that you would expect of a portable music player.

 
The phone that gives you options

The failing of many phones is the fact that the input is very restricted to the touch-screen. The Nokia 5800’s physical buttons allows you quick access to features like the camera and the volume controls - very convenient if you are in a rush.

When you are using the touch-screen, it isn’t too hard to adapt your phone use to your personal preference. Whether you want to use your fingers, the on-screen keyboard, the handwriting recognition software, the stylus that comes with the phone (or even a guitar pick!), you can make your phone and the way you use it as individual as you are.

The phone is built for storage and comes with an 8GB microSD card. The 8GB card holds up to 2,000 songs – one of the great things about this phone is the fact that you can expand your storage to 16GB if you have a large music collection using the card slot. Plus, chopping and changing between memory cards is simple.

 
Nokia’s little thoughts make big differences to your phone use

Some smartphones with touch-screens can cause you nothing but nightmares when it comes to answering phone calls – with some it can be just too easy to press buttons while in a conversation. The automatic sensor prevents you pressing unwanted buttons when you are in a phone call to prevent any unwanted interruptions: a nice touch on Nokia’s part.

What other phone manufacturers just don’t seem to get is that if you are buying a music phone, you want a high-quality loudspeaker. Flashing out your phone’s loudspeaker can be nothing short of embarrassing because of the mediocre quality. This is not an issue with the 5800, which has a beautifully loud stereo speaker to bang out your tunes with. One thing to like is the fact the speakers do not distort music when it gets louder – with the music remaining clear and crisp.

The user interface is even thumb-friendly, the 640 x 360 screen is rather big compared to other phones on the market – and Nokia has used this feature to its advantage with bigger icons, making even the chubbiest of fingers welcome on the screen.

This review could be the next War and Peace if all of the features of the phone were to be described in detail. It goes without saying that there are many pleasant surprises to be had when you are playing with the phone for a little while, like the impressive 3MP camera; the accelerometer which takes you from portrait to landscape without any hassle; and the beautifully bright screen. Nokia have seldom disappointed with their new offerings before, and now is no exception.