Much appreciated if you read and rate my reviews. Job hunting has taken over at the moment. Will ret...
Much appreciated if you read and rate my reviews. Job hunting has taken over at the moment. Will return one day.
Member since:11.10.2008
Reviews:23
Members who trust:13
The last time I started a new phone contract I didn't really think about the phone I was getting and just kind of got one that looked kind of nice. Then I was a purely texting person, with the odd phone call. That after all is what a phone is about, right? Well it's what I thought. After finding some of the more useful features on my last phone, the Nokia E65, as well as cursing over things it couldn't do, I knew I was going to have to choose my phone more carefully. And then the iPhone was released and seemed to be everything I wanted... except for a nice price, so really it was out of the question. So when I came to finally renew my contract I had a look for what phone I could get for a reasonable price... and so I ended up with the Nokia 5800.
In The Box
I waited with anticipation for my new phone to arrive. I had done my research and knew the phone was well liked, and frankly my old phone drove me nuts, and couldn't wait for the new one. Finally the package arrived and I ripped it open. Laying before me was now a small black box, filled with colour and of course a big picture of the phone. It was time to open the box.Inside the box has different compartments for each item, so make sure you find them all! I took each item out of the box and laid it in front of me. This is what is in the box.
The battery (although I didn't find this until I realised my new phone wasn't charging!)
Phone Charger
A case to hold your phone. This is a very nice case with the phone sliding into the top or bottom. It's very secure and it good to protect your phone from anything it may come into contact with in your pocket
A small plastic stand to hold your phone when playing media on it
A small disc with a 'presentation' on it on 'how to get the most out of your Nokia 5800'. I couldn't get this to run though.
Phone guide - is very useful with simple steps and diagrams to do most things on your phone. Well laid out and a good manual!
Since I was getting it with an Orange contract I also got the following:
New Sim card
Orange information
After I had had set up my new sim and (eventually) charged my phone I was finally ready to go! My new phone. And so shiney!
The Phone's Style And Shape
I sat there in awe of my shiney new phone. It was so sleek and cool, and so shiney! And who doesn't like shiney things. The phone is sleek and black with it's large 640 by 360 pixels screen, which although isn't the biggest touch screen available I feel that it's still large enough without making the phone any bigger than it needs to be. The phone is has curved corners which is accentuated with a rim around the front of the phone. Mine is black though it also available in red, giving it a bit more style. With only the touchscreen and just 3 buttons on the front of the phone it looks very stylish indeed.
The phone itself is typical of most phones in shape, which I like, and it also weighs less my last phone, despite being slightly bigger, and is apparently only 109 grammes. It's very lightweight which is great, and it still manages to seem solid though. The phone is about 5cm in width, 11cm in length and about 1.5cm in depth, making it not the smallest of phones but I feel this gives it more substance, and something to grip.
One of my favourite things about this phone is the simple way to unlock and lock it. Rather than pressing a bizarre combination of buttons you simply flick a small switch on the side making it much quicker to access your phone. It doesn't seem like it will simply unlock on it's own either, which is good, especially if you use the very nice looking case. The case is simply black plastic, two pieces of it joined together by fabric. It's good protection while still managing to look good. Another button on the phone itself is a volume button and so you can control the volume easily by turning it up or down.
Phone Features
This phone has more features than you can shake a stick at, and this may become the most useful device you own. And not only does it have all these features but they all work well and to a high standard. It's brilliant! So here we go, lots and lots of features.
Music
Obviously a phone called Xpress Music is bound to have music features. The phone has a great speaker as well as headphones so makes it ideal to listen to music, especially when combined with the 8GB memory which means you can store a lot of music on there is you wish. To put 8gb in perspective, my current iPod is only 4GB and that fits 1000 songs! And while the memory will be used for other things, it's still huge.
The phone supports lots of file types including AAC, MP3 and WMA which makes it very useful. The music player itself is very easy to use and acts just like any mp3 player, including the ability to make playlists. It is easy to flick between songs, and control things such as volume using the button on the side. Basically it has any good feature of a modern mp3 player, and so it's a great plus. The music menu is easy to find too either seperately on the menu or via the media bar.
You can add music to your phone directly from the computer by using the USB cable and so you can move files you already have, or you can use the online Nokia store via your phone and download songs right to your phone. The shop is easy to navigate and use, with top selling artists on the homepage, but also a search function. You can also listen to a 30 second sample of each track before you buy it, which is a great feature. It's not the cheapest place to buy music, but is a nice feature, and I think the tracks are yours to keep afterwards.
Input
To input into the phone you can use the stylus or you finger, and these are the best methods. The stylus is generally the best as if you have big fingers on a little keyboard then you can tell how wrong that can go! The stylus however is precise and also does not damage your screen, or get grubby finger prints on it.
There are four main ways to type into the phone, all using the touch screen. There is a mini QWERTY keyboard, a full screen QWERTY keyboard, a traditional phone numbers pad, with several letters to each key, or the handwriting feature.
Both of the QWERTY keyboards are both very functional and easy to use, definitely a quicker way to write into your phone than with a tradtional phone input, and of course it becomes easier to spell words without having to use predictive texting, which although can be useful, can be damned stupid when you're trying to write something it doesn't know! The handwriting feature is generally well executed, with it recognising letters quite easily, and you can also train it to recognise your handwriting if your's is a bit different to the phones. There are a couple of things that are hard to write, but it's easy to switch between keyboards, or just insert one letter from the side buttons so if you prefer writing, but it's not being helpful you can just temporarily jump round it.
Texting
This is what I use my phone for most of the time and so with the touch screen I was worried whether it would become the bain of my life to try and text. But as I've written above texting is still a breeze and in some ways quicker. I use a combination of the mini QWERTY keyboard and the handwriting and although it takes getting some used to right at the start you'll soon be texting as quick, if not quicker than you used to!
Outside of this it is pretty much a standard text messaging suite. You can send messages to multiple people, and even attach pictures, video, sounds or more and send them off, all with easy to access buttons, including a simple send button, which I love. One click and its sent. There's then a longer list of options available via a sub-menu if you need them.
Camera
The camera comes with a 3.2 mega pixel camera and it's not the best camera I've seen on a phone but it seems to do the job well. The camera includes a flash which is one of the things that I wanted from my last phone and so is a god send. When taking photos
Pictures of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Taken from Wikipedia with permission
the phone acts just like a camera, with the screen displaying what you're capturing and a simple one click button on the side of the phone to take a picture making it quicker to take photos. It's not the best camera phoen you can get but it's still a good one.
The camera can also record and play back videos and has a resolution of 640 by 480 with 30 frames per second. I don't know how that compares in general but it seems to have quite a good quality of recording. The file formats this phone will play include MPEG-4, RealVideo, WMV and more, so you can use videos from many different sources.
Internet Access
Something that came into my life as of my last phone is the wonder of internet access. It's come a long way on mobile phones and now it's simply one of the most useful features on my phone, and I would not have brought this phone if it couldn't do it. But alas it can! You can access via your providers internet, or at least you can on Orange, though this could cost extra so be careful before using this.
However there is a better way to access the internet, that is with the joy of wireless access. Nowadays you can barely go anywhere without finding wireless internet access and you can use your phone to access this instead. I have wireless internet at home and so use it on my phone to quickly check emails, and also do so when I'm round a friends house, or somewhere else where this is wireless internet available to me.
And a big leap over my phone, and even a mini leap over the iPhone this phone supports flash which makes the internet more accessible and makes a lot more features on the internet visible. Flash is a method of animation and interactivity on webpages. This means this nokia can use Youtube and even BBC iPlayer, as well as other flash based websties. While the iPhone can do Youtube and iPlayer it cannot do flash in general which makes this a big plus for the 5800. The screen is obviously a great size to view websites which makes the process a million times easier.
Quick Access
One of the great things about this phone is quick access available to most of it's important features making it easier to use your phone, and makes it much better than going through menu after menu.
Right on the home screen is a button for both the number pad to type in a number, and a button for your contact book so you can quickly get there to look up and call one of your contacts. Though a great feature is the contacts bar that can hold up to four contacts. You can choose a small picture for each contact and by clicking on them you can quickly call or write a message to them, or see a recent history of contact between you both, including incoming and outgoing texts as well as phone calls.
You can also quickly access the calender and profiles (such as silent) by click the date, rather than wading through menus. The camera can be brought up by, you'll never guess, the camera button, the one you use to take pictures.
Then there is the media bar. The media bar is accessable from a small button just above the screen and can be click by your stylus. This brings up a small menu where you can access music, photos, video, the internet and email quicker, as this phone obviously as an emphasis on media. This is a nice little feature that just makes the phone that much easier to use.
Other Features
Outside of this there are of course many more features this phone has that don't need to be reviewed in that great detail, so here is a nauseating list of everything I haven't mentioned yet that needs to be.
Bluetooth functionality, like most phones nowadays.
An accelerometer. This detects which direction you are holding your phone and will adjust the screen accordingly. This means you can use the wider screen to read things if you prefer. A very useful feature!
A front camera for video calls. I never make video calls, so I don't know how good it is, but I thought I'd mention it for those who care!
Voice recording (a feature the iPhone currently lacks to my knowledge)
Ability to change the on phone memory to a large size, using micro SD cards
The battery life is reported to be better than the iPhone, with almost 9 hours of talk time and over 400 hours of standby. It also apparently outdoes the iPhone when playing music. So, sounds like a good battery! EDIT: After a few days the battery seems to at least live out my old phone, with a reasonable amount of usage lasting a few days.
A calendar and to-do list.
'Nokia Maps' is a service that well... gives you maps. I haven't used it yet, but you can use it to find your location, and the phone also has GPS for the purpose.
The phone came with two little games, one called Bounce and a driving one controlled by moving your phone. A nice extra!
A downloads sections to get a limited range of applications, as well as graphics and more.
A calculator, clock, notes, converter and other usual nokia applications
Oh and you know, it phones people. I always forget that bit.
The Price
Thanks to the wonders of phone contracts you can actually get this phone for free! That's right you heard me. It seems this is one of the most popular phones to give away on contract at the moment so there are a range of contracts on different networks for you to get the phone free on, so if you're getting a contract then look into it!
If you're buying this phone on pay as you go however this will cost in the region of £200 to £300, which as great as the phone is, I don't think I could fork out that much for a phone! It's really worth looking into contract deals nowadays as you can get good prices and fix them to your needs. For example I have an unlimited text package for only £20, with less minutes as this suites my needs. And I got this phone free! So yes. Do that.
Summary
I will admit it. I'm in love with this phone. I didn't realise a phone could be so much, but I've obviously not been paying attention! It's slick and stylish yet functional and useful. It's easy to use and has more functions than you could ever need, with my favourites being the great music player, the wireless internet access, now with added Youtube, and just the quick access to most of the phones features.
This phone is proof that the iPhone is not perfect, and definitely not cheap. This phone does almost everything the iPhone does, and a lot of things it doesn't. Some will prefer the iPhone but I really think you should consider this if you're in the market for a new phone. It's the best phone I've seen in years, and I don't usually care about phones. This phone is proof that Nokia are still kings of the phone market.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Excellent review! I just ordered one, waiting for delivery... can't wait to get it in my hands!!! I was a bit concerned about the lack of "keyboard" but you eased my pains. Thanks
joggino23 30.08.2009 14:46
amazing review pity my washer killed mine, never leave it in a jumper which you are about to put in the washer
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Advantages: Excellent phone, good camera, excellent MP3 player, touch screen, etc etc! Disadvantages: Only very few minor niggles such as fingerprints on screen
Advantages: Touch screen works well,Easy to use,Looks good,Very good camera,Wifi,Different keyboard styles Disadvantages: Feels cheaply built,My phone sometimes freezes,GPS is a bit hit and miss on my phone
Advantages: Excellent phone, good camera, excellent MP3 player, touch screen, etc etc! Disadvantages: Only very few minor niggles such as fingerprints on screen
Advantages: 32gb Internal Memory, Nice Looking, Full QWERTY Keyboard, 5 MP Camera Disadvantages: A Little Bulky, Price, Small Processer Makes The Phone Slow
misfitted 07.11.2009 (07.11.2009)
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