This post is not really intended as a review but more of a real user’s experience, if you want a proper review there will be plenty available through your regular search engine, in this post I will be giving an overall impression of the phone while in future posts I will look at more little things that I have experienced, enjoyed or, should it happen, hate.
When it comes to phones I have to say that I have pretty much always been in the Nokia camp, I have used other phones but they just never usually feel the same and in some instances just felt unbalanced in terms of capabilities.
Once upon I time I crossed upon into the dark side, I experienced the iPod Touch. Taken in by the wow factor I just had to have one, as time went by the app store was launched and soon became to realise that overall it is just a glorified media player, the whole app thing was a mess and in many cases they were mostly designed for the iPhone anyhow which the first gen iPod touch didn’t really match… and no, I didn’t want an iPhone, overpriced and… well, it’s an iPod trying to be a phone. The other thing that disgruntled me if I was to be honest relates to this even if it’s valid.
So Nokia’s long rumoured ‘Tube’ started to take shape in the form of the 5800, their first venture into the Touchscreen phone market. At this point I was selling up the iPod but in doing so help me understand what I exactly used it for which wasn’t for the apps, I missed the collection of podcast subscriptions I had built up even if it couldn’t remember which ones I had listened too, exploring my current phone further (at the time the E51 which I had bought in companionship with the iPod, there’s a post about it here) I soon discovered the usefulness of finding an appropriate app in conjunction with having an unlimited data tariff which did actually give me added respect to the iPhone, still didn’t want one though.
Stories started to hit about the N97 which would be more of a competitor to the iPhone, however, still a little time away my interest in the 5800 peaked when I actually read what it was capable of doing, it fitted my needs for what I wanted from a portable device, was missing the podcasts, wanted a way to view tutorial vids while work was slow which I had planned for the iPod and could explore further this whole ‘connected app’ business… and all at a cheaper price!
So the day arrives, the 5800 is in my hands, and nicely it fits in there too, even fitted into the case for my other phone, if with a little bit of a squeeze. Hardware wise it is not on the same level of the the likes of the iPhone but is not intended to be so don’t expect flashy 3D graphic effects! This is the problem I think some reviewers/users have, they use an iPhone, Nokia releases theirs and they expect the same, ‘Oh the UI is rubbish’…. nooooo it fits the needs of the phone and the symbian OS always has fitted the needs of the phone.
The touchscreen itself, it does seem awkward sometimes trying to select the smaller things, to the point I find it a lot easier using my nail rather than my finger tip, but overall it is responsive (even more so with the v20 firmware) and dragging things about is of little hassle. Just note that you may find yourself using the stylus a lot. An interesting thing however is the little vibration it gives back in response to touches, actually works quite well and fills in for the missing textual feel of pushing a button.
People have said that Nokia have just tacked on the touchscreen function to an existing version of the OS… doesn’t feel like that to me and using some apps makes it even more apparent that they haven’t just tacked it on, Google Maps is a good example, works very nice with the touch screen (had a look at the included Nokia Maps… lasted about 10 seconds before I had to switch it off, felt so slow and clunky in comparison). People are right about some places needing a single touch to other places needing a double touch can throw you a little but noting which area is which it soon makes sense as there are things that have additional options like being able to delete and move a message. May help to unify the double touch but you get use to it.
Speaking of Google Maps, experienced my first bit of GPS fun, the two combined and it is the closest I will ever come to actually using sat nav. Think people have a problem of letting the things tell them what to do (woman driving onto a railway line comes to mind). With the the right software it can be used for sat nav but I have always said, a map and a bit of common sense is all you need. So Google Maps, the route mapped out and the little blue dot follows you along as you drive at your own leisure, very accurately as well. Actually makes me want to walk/drive out into the middle of nowhere and see where it places me on the map.
Power usage wise it is probably as expected, heavy usage will probably result in you having to charge it each night, in my experience there doesn’t seem to be quite enough for a full two days of use which is a bit of bugger as I hate charging a phone when the battery is only half used, saying that however, the batteryy could still be settling in. Will update on this if anything changes.
Looking around the Nokia forums got me a little worried when I was looking up a little problem I was having. Plenty of posts with issues but a lot of these seem to relate to proper hardware (unlucky) problems or simple stressing out of the OS which that in itself will no doubt improve over time if you are a proper hard core heavy user. Incidentally there are already improvements in the v20 firmware, my little issue was resolved in the update when I finally got the software updater to see the phone after having to change the cable to a different USB port, but also to my surprise, the update retained all user data… however still backup the phone before hand JUST IN CASE!
Overall, as an existing Nokia phone user, the 5800 ticks off all what I have come to expect when being are used to Nokia phones and adds other things into the mix, my use of the phone has been a pleasure and look forward to what else is in store with future firmware updates.
More to come 
