The Nokia 5800 - First Real Contender to the iPhone.
The Apple Iphone was a game changer in the hand held wireless phone market. It has inspired other established handset makers to rush to keep up and try to surpass the elegant look and feel of the ever popular Apple Iphone.
Finnish wireless handheld maker Nokia did not take long to respond to Apple's innovative corporate culture, with its introduction of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen handheld wireless phone.
The Nokia 5800 is indeed an impressive device. It sports a generous 3.2 inch widescreen display that responds to touch beautifully. Of course every phone in today's market needs a camera on board, but the Nokia 5800 does Apple one better with video recording capability-something that is sorely missed on the Apple Iphone.
Some would say that the Nokia 5800 is just "not as fun" as the Apple Iphone. Time will tell if that opinion stays in vogue.
Nokia has done a superb job in determining what consumers want from a smart phone. First of all, the phone is reliant on a high-speed 3G WiFi network, which makes browsing the Internet quick and easy.
The phone display also supports Flash, which seems like to a no-brainer for the wireless smart phone market these days. Flash is the software platform that the most online video services and web sites use to stream video.
True to its name, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone is a serious contender for the iPod itself. It is capable of 8 GB of memory, or about 4000 songs. It can be expanded to 16 GB with a removable memory card.
The phone also features a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack. This feature is another no-brainer that should be included on any of today's music player wireless phones.
For inputting data, the Nokia 5800 features not only the standard QWERTY keyboard but also a stylus for scribbling messages on its touchscreen.
Good news: Often-used menus are easily accessible with a single click. This is a major shift for Nokia, since many of their standard phones bury simple things like an alarm clock and the Internet connectivity deep within nested menus.
So now the race is on for domination of the touch-screen wireless handheld market. The contenders in this market now seem to be threefold: the tried and true Apple Iphone, the new Android Gphone from Google, and now the much awaited Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone. Once Blackberry gets into the fray it should be a tremendous fight to see who comes out on top.
Who will determine who wins? The consumer, of course! Time will tell, but it should be an interesting race.
by Jim Martin.
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77 million Symbian mobile phones were sold in 2007. That figure should be vastly increased over the next few months, as two phones will be taking it to new heights: the Nokia 5800 Xpress, and the mind-blowing Nokia N96.
Nokia and Symbian - long-time bedfellows.
In truth, Nokia have a long history of using Symbian in their mobile phones, going all the way back, in fact, to their first camera phone, the 7650 (a huge beastie of a thing it was, too!). Some of the most powerful Nokia mobile phones ever made have run on Symbian, quite often using the patented Series 60 interface. In fact, it's fair to say that Series 60 is the most important version of Symbian, since it's the one that powers Nokia's top of the range mobile phones: the prestigious, world-renowned Nseries. To this day, Nseries mobile phones have a reputation for being world-beaters, including probably the most well-known of them all, the N95.
Well, now, the Nokia N95 has evolved into a new form: the sleek, smart Nokia N96.
Nokia N96 - the ultimate Nseries phone .
The Nokia N96 really is the next evolution of the N95, since you get the same high-end feature-set (but with loads more bits added on), but in a sleek new body. In fact, the body of the Nokia N96 is reminiscent of another one of the earlier Nseries mobile phones: the N81. The similarities are striking, so much so that you could put down the Nokia N96 and N81 next to each other, and not tell which one's which. Not that that's a bad thing, since the N81 looked nice, and so does the Nokia N96. Certainly one of the prettier mobile phones on the market, and the Nokia N96 backs all that up with raw power. A 5 megapixel camera... GPS... HSDPA... 16GB of memory... and the big feature, multimedia. You see, the Nokia N96 is the king of mobile phones when it comes to media, especially video. It even includes BBC iPlayer (can't say that about many mobile phones!), and a little kickstand-type thing, to keep the Nokia N96 upright while you're watching videos!
Nokia 5800 Xpress - the future of Symbian?
Meanwhile, another offshoot of Symbian has appeared on mobile phones. Well... on one mobile phone so far, the Nokia 5800 Xpress. It's important for 1 reason: it's made for touchscreen mobile phones, which is exactly what the Nokia 5800 is. Ok, granted, the Nokia 5800 Xpress might not be their first touchscreen phone, but it IS their best, with 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA, GPS and that all important touchscreen, with the brand new Symbian interface, not seen on any previous mobile phones. It's fair to say Symbian is alive and well, and evolving still. With the Nokia N96 this Christmas, and the Nokia 5800 Xpress all set to wow us in the first months of next year, Symbian mobile phones are definitely on the up and up!
by Matt Sharp.
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