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Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

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Nokia just launched their highly anticipated touchscreen mobile handset the 5800 XpressMusic in India and I decided to grab me a piece of the action. Here’s my first impression on the latest multimedia marvel from Nokia.

Form Factor
Well it’s a lot thicker than I thought it would be (15.5mm), yet it’s still a well designed handset. It sports a large 3.2-inch TFT touchscreen (320 x 640 pixels, 16M colors) that’s very clearly visible even in broad daylight. The three keys located at the bottom utilize simple functionality – Call take and answer and the middle key is quick access to the menu. A small touch sensitive key, located just under the VGA video call camera above the display is for quick access to what Nokia calls the Multimedia Bar.

 
Nokia has used a micro USB port for USB 2.0 connectivity and a 3.5mm standard earphone socket for audio and TV out (cables provided). These ports along with a charging socket and the power button are located on top (well placed). On one side of the handset are two concealed hot swap slots for both the SIM card as well as the 8GB microSD that’s included. A dedicated camera key, slide lock for the display and volume/Zoom keys are all located on the other side with the 3.2 megapixel camera and dual LED flash on the rear.

I did find the color a bit odd with the maroon-ish shading for the border and a thin red line running around the handset. A Blue model is also available. I just hope the border is not the same. The handset also comes with a stylus that I’m not sure if I like or dislike because of its sharp edgy style. Other packaged accessories include a ‘plectrum’ like stylus attached to the loop for handset and a stand to prop up the phone when watching videos.

Features

The 5800 manages to incorporate a Symbian OS extremely well on this touchscreen handset and still retain the familiarity of a typical Series 60 UI. The menu is large and clear enough to simply use your fingers for navigation. For typing, there are multiple keypads from a full QWERTY keypad that’s only usable in landscape mode, to a normal onscreen mobile keypad and a mini QWERTY keyboard. The 5800 also supports handwriting recognition so that’s another mode of input as well.

First Crush Rating: ( * * * * )

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