Nokia 5800, the smartphone for music.

I’ve just changed my mobile phone contract and was recommended the new Nokia 5800 Xpress Music phone so I thought I’d give it a try.

For the past 3 or 4 years I’ve been using Windows Mobile based phones made by HTC, most recently the HTC Tytn II so I’m used to a touch screen smart phone.

I plan to do a series of blog posts about the 5800 and how it compares to Windows Mobile phones over the next few weeks but are my first impressions after using it for a couple of days.

Look and feel

The 5800 is slightly smaller in all dimensions than the Tytn II and quite a bit lighter so it’s looking good so far, it looks much more like a conventional mobile phone than the HTC phones.

I was a little worried about only have 3 front keys on the Nokia compared to the 13 keys on the HTC but as I will explain later this doesn’t turn out to be a problem.

The phone feels fairly sturdy and solid. the back cover unclips rather than slides which could be a problem longer term if the clips break but we’ll have to see how that goes in real world use.

The screen

The 5800’s screen has a widescreen aspect ratio which is slightly smaller in height than the Tytn but much wider which I think is a good thing as more and more content is being produced in widescreen now. The screen looks brighter on the Nokia than what I’m used to with the HTC which should help when summer finally comes.

To the touch

The touchscreen has always annoyed me on the HTC finding it unresponsive and fiddly. I’m happy to say that I’ve found the touchscreen on the Nokia much better. the scrolling works well without accidentally clicking on something and most of the on screen buttons are large enough to be easily tapped without the stylus even with my bulky man-fingers. This mostly negates the my thoughts about the lack of keys.

I’m getting some false clicks with the on screen keyboard but this might take some practice so I’ll comment more on that in a later post.

A stylus is included for more fine control but so far I haven’t needed it much yet.

Initial conclusion

After only 2 days of use I’m pleased with the Nokia 5800 and find it much more responsive than the HTC Tytn II, I’ll post more about specific aspects of the phone over the next few days and weeks.