Nokia 5800 XpressMusic "Tube" released!

pkeno

Yesterday Nokia unveiles it's first mainstream touchscreen phone, the 5800.
Features are in line with N-series devices although it doesn't carry an N-series tag so you have stuff like:

GPS, 3.2Mpx autofocus camera, Wi-fi, 3.5mm headphone jack, etc.





Due to hit here around January. Supposed RRP is €279, say goodbye to the iphone at that price!

http://europe.nokia.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_1125089

Rsaeire

pkeno wrote: »

Due to hit here around January. Supposed RRP is €279, say goodbye to the iphone at that price!

http://europe.nokia.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_1125089

As you stated, the handset is not an N series handset and there is a reason for that; it is not in direct competition to the iPhone. The obvious similarities are the touch-screen, but it is a music handset first and foremost. I wouldn’t expect the handset to touch the iPhone, Samsung Omnia, LG Secret et al as it is not meant to. It serves as a nice testing ground for Nokia, and once they have gathered their results, they will release an all bells and whistles N series handset with a touch-screen to directly compete with the iPhone and all the other handsets of its ilk.

pkeno

Maybe so, but even this mid-range phone beats the iPhone on features. There aren't many things the iPhone can do that the 5800 can't do better. The only thing that springs to mind is the implementation of games with the iPhones 3D accelerator and probably smoothness of transitions in the UI.

As for the music features, I know the 5800 is music-centric but was a big part of the iPhones original advertising campaign not focused on the built in iPod functionality?

I do agree that there will be a flagship TS phone announced, rumours have it sometime around February. I'm sure a myriad of bugs will be found n the S60 touch UI of the 5800 so Nokia will want these corrected (or at least be aware of them) before launching their top of the range device

Rsaeire

To me the 5800 is a modest update to the iPhone in some respects, 3.2 MP camera, and lacklustre in others, no large onboard memory; it doesn't really do anything that the iPhone or similar handsets don't. Some of the other handsets have 5 or 8MP cameras, large onboard memory, geo-tagging etc so in comparison the Nokia doesn't really differentiate itself from the competition, and as I mentioned, Nokia don't expect it to.

I do hope that their next Nokia touch-screen handset revolutionises the market as when Nokia get it right, they really get it right, but when they get it wrong, they really get it really wrong.

pyramuid man

Well from my experience from owning an iphone and having owned many different n series / e series / standard nokia phones is that the iphone is quite popular because the iphones interface is very easy to use and straightforward, where as the nokias, to put it simply are not. Also the iphone is managed by itunes that is software people are used to. This is not competition for the iphone but maybe soon they will release one that will but apple have it nailed at the moment with the ui and the ease of use.

I did not need to get used to the iphone because the moment I picked it up I knew how to use it. I have yet to find another phone that does that.

quintron

Rsaeire wrote: »

To me the 5800 is a modest update to the iPhone in some respects, 3.2 MP camera, and lacklustre in others, no large onboard memory; it doesn't really do anything that the iPhone or similar handsets don't. Some of the other handsets have 5 or 8MP cameras, large onboard memory, geo-tagging etc so in comparison the Nokia doesn't really differentiate itself from the competition, and as I mentioned, Nokia don't expect it to.

I do hope that their next Nokia touch-screen handset revolutionises the market as when Nokia get it right, they really get it right, but when they get it wrong, they really get it really wrong.

Operating Ram is at 81MB. Thats more than iphones cache.
And one other word people often forget when referring to S60 phones - multitasking.
That for many is a deciding factor when purchasing a phone as well as consideration for other basic smartphone functionalities such as cut & paste..

I'd say its an improvement on iphone in a lot of areas, subtle but better overall. Of course the UI is not as sweet, but it aims to be somewhat backwards compatible with existing applications and the SDK is available for developers to modify their existing apps to take advantage of the S60 touch UI. So the transition for existing users of S60 should be as seamless as possible.
IMHO the megapixel debate is a moot point as more megapixels does not a better camera make and the 5800 has the optics where it counts, not forgetting of course that this is not even Nokias new flagship device.

I think Nokia differentiates itself from the competition by having an open proprietary platform with massive 3rd party support, further enhanced by the recent Symbian Alliance etc.

Direct comparisons to the iphone, while obvious, are ultimately painful.
To get a balanced opinion, the 5800 should be able to stand on its own merits, and, as an evolution in the S60 platform, its a big step forward.

Conversely, 2009 should make things more interesting with the roll out of Googles android platform.
Hopefully, once that platform is across most networks , every new phone will not be benchmarked directly against an apple product, rather, the pros and cons of each new device will be viewed from the overall strength or weakness of the platform its built around.

I for one am looking forward to this release and look forward to N-Series touch offerings in 2009.

P.S sorry for rant.

Rsaeire

The post you quoted of mine was in response the OP's response to my first post.

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm aware the 5800 isn't in direct comparison to the iPhone and is meant as a high-end music handset first, and a mid-end general handset second. I was merely pointing out that it is a Nokia handset that does what the iPhone does, but doesn't do anything significantly different; in my opinion.

I do agree with you that 2009 will be a very interesting year as we've had the touch-screen catch-up in 2008 from nearly all the manufacturers in response to Apple's iPhone launch from 2007. With the Android platform officially launched with the G1, and HTC releasing a slew of new handsets too, it will be very interesting in seeing what is released in the near future.

asdasd

The only thing that springs to mind is the implementation of games with the iPhones 3D accelerator and probably smoothness of transitions in the UI.

The only thing that comes to mind is that the OS on the iPhone is a desktop capable OS and symbian is not. As mobile processors increase in power this will become more obvious. the iPhone is a mini-Mac.

For instance the mobile safari is pretty much the same codebase as the one on OS X, with some UI differences. Also I believe they habe patented multi-touch. I think the iPhone is 5 years ahead, and always will be.

It is only with Andriod that the others can compete.

Ron DMC

asdasd wrote: »

Also I believe they habe patented multi-touch.

They can't possibly stop other companies from developing their own equivalents. Sure aren't Microsoft using the same idea in their fancy table yokies?

quintron

asdasd wrote: »

Also I believe they habe patented multi-touch. I think the iPhone is 5 years ahead, and always will be.

marvellous and all as apple is, they didn't invent, don't own or even have a patent for multitouch technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch
As for the iphone being "5 years ahead".. where have we heard that before... oh yes, it was floating around the internet post Mr Job's keynote at the iphones introduction. A rather arbitrary number really.
Granted the browser on the iphone is excellent but lets get things in perspective... I look forward to the day, 5 years from now, when phones will have 2 megapixel cameras and the ability to run one application at a time as well as the fact that we won't need cut and paste.

@ Rsaeire, sorry dude, wasn't meaning to have a dig at you. Forgive me its Friday and I'm dying of the flu..

Rsaeire

quintron wrote: »

marvellous and all as apple is, they didn't invent, don't own or even have a patent for multitouch technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch
As for the iphone being "5 years ahead".. where have we heard that before... oh yes, it was floating around the internet post Mr Job's keynote at the iphones introduction. A rather arbitrary number really.
Granted the browser on the iphone is excellent but lets get things in perspective... I look forward to the day, 5 years from now, when phones will have 2 megapixel cameras and the ability to run one application at a time as well as the fact that we won't need cut and paste.

@ Rsaeire, sorry dude, wasn't meaning to have a dig at you. Forgive me its Friday and I'm dying of the flu..

Apology accepted `

I do find it funny when people think the iPhone is a revolution in technology when what Apple did was refine the existing component and features form other handsets i.e. HTC, and branded it with their logo.

I'm all for improving on what's existing but Apple's product is more evolution than revolution in my opinion.

asdasd

quintron wrote: »

marvellous and all as apple is, they didn't invent, don't own or even have a patent for multitouch technology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch
As for the iphone being "5 years ahead".. where have we heard that before... oh yes, it was floating around the internet post Mr Job's keynote at the iphones introduction. A rather arbitrary number really.
Granted the browser on the iphone is excellent but lets get things in perspective... I look forward to the day, 5 years from now, when phones will have 2 megapixel cameras and the ability to run one application at a time as well as the fact that we won't need cut and paste.

@ Rsaeire, sorry dude, wasn't meaning to have a dig at you. Forgive me its Friday and I'm dying of the flu..

I was talking about software, so the camera is not relevent. As for cut and paste and running more than one application at a time, neither are technical retrictions on OS X, in fact I imagine that the first internal version of the iPhone had both. My guess is that Cut and paste is removed bacause the cost of the process ( the pastboard server) which handle this is another application running in the background, and because of UI issues). Allowing applications to continuely run in the background - which is something I would like - was removed probably because of memory and/or power issues.

I do find it funny when people think the iPhone is a revolution in technology when what Apple did was refine the existing component and features form other handsets i.e. HTC, and branded it with their logo.

The revolution is, as always, in execution. In general when people compare the iPhone to the other they tend to compare on phone features. Not on computer features i.e. has OpenGL -> does not have OpenGL.

As the processor and memory of phone increase the iPhone will clearly be in a much better position than Symbian and it's toy OS. So that is the revolution. a proper OS on a phone.

Rsaeire

asdasd wrote: »

I was talking about software, so the camera is not relevent. As for cut and paste and running more than one application at a time, neither are technical retrictions on OS X, in fact I imagine that the first internal version of the iPhone had both. My guess is that Cut and paste is removed bacause the cost of the process ( the pastboard server) which handle this is another application running in the background, and because of UI issues). Allowing applications to continuely run in the background - which is something I would like - was removed probably because of memory and/or power issues.



The revolution is, as always, in execution. In general when people compare the iPhone to the other they tend to compare on phone features. Not on computer features i.e. has OpenGL -> does not have OpenGL.

As the processor and memory of phone increase the iPhone will clearly be in a much better position than Symbian and it's toy OS. So that is the revolution. a proper OS on a phone.

We could make comparisons to Windows Mobile but I don't see the point in having that debate here.

I for one can appreciate the genuine improvements of Apple's OS in comparison to Symbian etc but I don't buy a handset purely on OS or on features, I buy them for both. I like Sony Ericsson handsets, but if they had a menu system like the Motorola Z6, V8 etc then I would easily disregard their hardware features and look elsewhere.

One thing I am glad of is that the iPhone was released. I may not like it as a handset for myself, but I can appreciate the way in which the mobile industry has been shook to the core and has practically every manufacturer clambering to meet or better the iPhone in some shape or form. I for one can sit back and bask in the eventual benefits of all this competition as it means more choice for the consumer and more options between the manufacturers.

quintron

asdasd wrote: »

Allowing applications to continuely run in the background - which is something I would like - was removed probably because of memory and/or power issues.

If memory and power issues are an issue then I don't see much in the revolution unless its a revolt. The toy OS's seem to be going a good job of multitasking these past few years. :rolleyes:
And top marks to the iphone for its herculean battery life in its current state.

asdasd wrote: »

As the processor and memory of phone increase the iPhone will clearly be in a much better position than Symbian and it's toy OS. So that is the revolution. a proper OS on a phone.

Ironic, the browser of the S60 is based on Safari kernel and it has been lambasted for this. Just curious, would you call Linux a toy OS? Its apples and oranges really. Your projections for the future are based on iphone developing their OS (in some areas to come up to par with existing phones) while Symbian et al sit around and do nothing..

Vive la Révolution!

Oafley Jones

asdasd wrote: »

The only thing that comes to mind is that the OS on the iPhone is a desktop capable OS and symbian is not. As mobile processors increase in power this will become more obvious. the iPhone is a mini-Mac.

Step away from Jobs RDF. The iphone's OS is no more a desktop capable OS than Windows mobile is.