Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Months before its official launch, gossip and speculation surrounding the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset was spreading across the web as feverishly as news of another Britney meltdown.

Widely known as the Nokia ‘Tube’ phone, the Nokia 5800 had been causing a real cyber-stir amongst the online tech fraternity because it happens to be Nokia’s first ever full touchscreen device.

At long last, a Nokia handset that can be squarely pitched against touch-titans like the BlackBerry Storm and Apple iPhone 3G.

Although the device’s large screen and TV and video functionality are grabbing the headlines, Nokia is promoting the device, first and foremost, as an XpressMusic phone. The 5800 will also be the latest handset to join Nokia’s burgeoning Comes With Music range, following the 5310, N95 8GB and N96.

So, as well as getting a phone with oodles of functionality, users will also gain access to unlimited music downloads for a year, which is a major plus. And the positives don’t stop there.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music - Tactile design
The 5800 is far less bulky than the BlackBerry Storm and a little more compact than the iiPhone, although it is a tad thicker. Even so, it’s an exceptionally ergonomic and well balanced device.

It also possesses the sleek, minimalist good looks that you’d expect from a keypad-less phone.

The phone’s fascia features three mechanised keys, a large display and little touch-sensitive icon above the top-right of the display that provides shortcut access to the music player and some other multimedia functions. The phone’s attractive smoked-glass face is framed by a smooth raised edge, which would help protect the screen if the phone was placed face down. We’re not sure if it serves a practical purpose, but it feels rather nice and, aesthetically, it reminds us of a designer air hockey table.

Our review phone was black (although we did detect a subtle hint of aubergine) and sported a subtle crimson accent on the sides. It looks and feels fabulous. It’s also extremely tactile, thanks to a matt, rubberised rear casing which gives the phone added grip.

On its left side, the 5800 provides slots for both a microSD memory card and a SIM card, so you don’t have to remove the rear casing and battery to access your SIM, which is a welcome benefit. Meanwhile, on the right of the phone, you’ll find the audio volume controls, a dedicated camera key and a screen unlock key.

The spring-loaded screen unlock key is another clever addition because it negates the need to press two separate keys simultaneously as you do with most phones. Instead, to unlock or lock the screen, you simply slide the key down and it automatically springs back into place.

At the top of the phone, you’ll find the adaptor socket and 3.5mm headset port, which makes so much sense when you consider that most people listen to music with the device in their pocket and it’s so much neater to plug the headphones into the top of the phone than a port on the side.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music - Touchscreen interface
At the rear base of the phone, there’s a little slot which houses a lightweight stylus to assist with touchscreen operation. Although the most of the 5800’s functionality can be controlled satisfactorily using your fingertips, we’d also advise using the stylus for the virtual QWERTY keypad as it gives you a little more control.

The phone also features a handwriting recognition feature, which converts your scrawl into text and can only really be used with the stylus.

The 5800’s main menu consists of 12 colourful touch-sensitive icons and, as with the BlackBerry Storm, the target key lights up (in red rather than blue) when you touch them, which helps to eliminate erroneous key presses.

You don’t get the touchscreen gimmicks - like pinching and swiping - on the 5800 that you’ll find on devices like the HTC Touch range and iPhone, for example. And unlike the BlackBerry Storm, it’s not a clickable touchscreen, but you do feel a very gentle haptic response. We found the 5800’s touch interface very responsive and relatively fiddle-free.

As with all touch screens, the virtual keyboard can be a bit of a faff, so to eliminate mistakes and frustration when texting we’d recommend choosing full screen QWERTY mode and using the stylus rather than your fingertip to type messages and text.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music - TV and video
One of the major advantages of full touchscreen devices are the bumper-sized screens, which are perfect for rich multimedia functionality like internet browsing, streamed TV and videos and games.

This is certainly the case with the Nokia 5800, which - like a number of Nokia’s Nseries devices - features a pre-loaded BBC iPlayer application.

To access the iPlayer, you need a data connection, which the Nokia 5800 enables over either a HSDPA or a Wi-Fi connection. Although the phone boasts HSDPA speeds of 3.6Mbps, we took advantage of our office’s Wireless LAN connection and had iPlayer up and running in less than five seconds.

We watched snippets of a recent classic Gavin and Stacey episode plus a few minutes from Homes Under the Hammer and found that, as with our programme choices, the picture quality is extremely variable, with the iPlayer regularly prone to pixelation.

On a more positive note, when the picture is sound, the screen is large enough to comfortably watch streamed and downloaded TV and video and, thanks to the accelerometer, you can easily flick between a landscape and portrait view by rotating the phone.

As you’d expect from a phone nicknamed the Tube, one-click access to YouTube is easily accessible as a bookmarked favourite from the web browser icon. We found the video links a little small in standard mode, but you can zoom to up to 200% to expand the text so that it’s easily readable by even the most mole-eyed amongst you. In fact, YouTube videos render exceptionally well on the N79; far better, in fact, than the iPlayer clips.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music - Comes With Music
The Nokia 5800 is both an XpressMusic and Comes With Music phone, which gives you some idea of its killer application.

It’s certainly well equipped. The phone comes with a 3.5mm headset jack and an 8GB memory card boxed with the phone, as well as the multi-format Music Player and a stereo FM radio, plus a Nokia Music Store application, plus the dealbreaker – a year’s free Comes With Music subscription.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Nokia’s groundbreaking new service, Comes With Music gives people a year of unlimited access to the Nokia Music Store which includes the major record labels, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI, plus a selection of independent labels. So users get access to millions of tracks from a wide range of artists, with the capability to keep all downloaded tracks even after the year’s subscription ends.

Unlike other XpressMusic phones, there are no mechanical music keys, but the display does offer virtual music keys when a track has been chosen.

Audio quality sounds pretty good to our relatively untrained ear and improves when you plug in a set of quality cans. The music player is simple to use and includes a stalwart crowd pleaser with album cover art.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music - Camera and sat nav
Although music and video are this phone’s calling cards, it’s other features are none to shabby either.

The 5800’s camera boats a very respectable 3.2 megapixel camera with a fine array of components and settings including a Carl Zeiss lens, auto focus and flash plus a wide variety of scene settings. Photos are clear and sharp and easy to edit, blog or print with a couple of clicks. The video camera, meanwhile, shoots in VGA quality and there’s also a secondary video call camera on the front of the phone.

Sat nav is fast becoming a pre-requisite on today’s top phones and the 5800 duly obliges with built-in A-GPS as well as the latest touchscreen version of Nokia Maps. Users can get basic location-based services for free, but you’ll need to subscribe for voice guided navigation and to download the latest city guides.

With Wi-Fi, and RSS reader, TV out, instant messaging and email also on board, together with a very respectable battery life, it’s hard to find a chink in the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic’s armoury.

We even quite like using the stylus. This is a great looking phone with a user-friendly touch interface and a fabulous set of features that really do justify the fanatical online interest pre-launch.

With the Mobile World Congress just around the corner, it maybe too early to bet on the 5800 as the phone of 2009, but it certainly has the wow factor.

Specifications

• Type of phone: N/A
• Style: N/A
• Size: 111x51.7x15.5mm
• Weight: 109g
• Display: 16 million colours
• esolution: N/A
• Camera: 2.3 megapixels
• Video recording: Yes
• Video playback: Yes
• Video calling: Yes
• Video streaming: Yes
• Music formats played: WAV, WMA, eAAC+, MP3
• 3.5mm jack port: Yes
• Ringtones: Polyphonic, MP3
• Radio: Yes
• Operating system: Symbian Series 60
• Connectivity: A2DP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
• Internal memory: 81MB
• Memory Card Slot: microSD
• Messaging: IM, MMS, Email, SMS
• Internet Browser: XHTML, RSS, HTML, WAP 2.0
• GPS: A-GPS
• Java: Yes
• Games: Bounce, Global Racing Thunder
• Data speed: HSDPA
• Frequency: Quad-band
• Talktime: 525 minutes
• Standby: 406 hours
• Display size: 3.2 inches
• Keypad: N/A

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HTC S740

HTC's last QWERTY keyboard phone was a well specced hulk of a thing that could fill any pocket.

The HTC S740 is a much slimmer, more svelte affair, measuring just 43mm across, which somehow makes its 17mm depth feel like less than it really is.

It's not HTC's best looking handset, bearing a passing resemblance to a cordless home phone with its boxy shape, though the reflective front has a certain style and the rubberised plastic back, with similar angular styling to the HTC Touch Diamond, feels classy as well as practical.

Attractive layout
The screen, which isn't touch-sensitive unlike other recent models from HTC, is 2.4in and offers QVGA resolution – not the best but certainly fine for a screen this size. Below it are a circular D-pad surrounded by two soft keys, call start/stop buttons and home and back keys.

The numerical keypad is well-spaced though the keys are flat and not easily distinguished under the thumb. Around the sides are volume buttons and a camera shutter button, something not usually found on HTC devices.

Unusually, the SIM card and microSD memory card reside together in a small compartment revealed when the keyboard is opened. You have to remove the SIM to get to the memory card, which is a nuisance if you're likely to swap your memory cards regularly.

Fantastic keyboard
As with other HTC smart phones, this is a Windows Mobile handset, though the OS is relegated to the background by HTC's nifty-looking 'sliding panels' interface, which presents the most popular apps with some fancy graphics.

But the star of this particular show is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which is a mini marvel. It has four rows of keys (the Touch Pro has five) so you'll need to press the FN key to get the numbers, but that's no hardship. There are direction keys, two soft keys and shortcuts for email and text message applications. The keys are of rubberised plastic and are raised in the middle, making them very easy to find under your thumbs when you're texting, emailing or instant messaging.

Snapping out the keyboard automatically realigns the screen into landscape mode, which offers the best resolution for viewing web pages (something several recent Touch models have lacked the ability to do). Browsing the web is a breeze using the D-pad to move around pages and the keyboard to input info.

The zoom control is a bit basic, in that it only offers on or off, without any increments, though there is also the option to fit pages to the screen size or to rearrange the page into a single column. There are RSS feeds and web access isn't a problem with the S740's fast 3G HSDPA (up to 7Mbps download) connection as well as Wi-Fi if you need broadband.

Speedy camera
The 3.2 megapixel camera is better than most we've tried on other HTC devices. It's very quick to start up (a little under two seconds), making it ideal for quick snaps. There's no flash or autofocus but pictures in good light held a fair amount of detail, even if the colours tended to look a little washed out.

Any movement tended to blur all too easily however, as it did with video. The panorama feature is a good one, allowing you to take three photos with each lightly superimposed on the next to help you build up a panoramic image.

HTC's Audio Manager music player displays cover art where available and includes a ten-band graphic equaliser, which you can adjust manually or via the 21 presets. There's also an FM radio on board with nine channel presets for which you'll need to add the supplied headphones, though you can also listen via the built-in loudspeaker.

The headphone sound isn't great, sounding 'shut-in' and without much bass – unfortunately you'll need a USB adaptor to be able to add a better pair of 'phones.

Fully-featured smartphone
A-GPS is on board supported by Google Maps, and didn't have any trouble finding our north London bolthole. This being a Windows Mobile handset there are lots of other map and sat-nav options you can add (for a price) though a screen with these modest dimensions wouldn't be ideal for an in-car sat-nav.

Windows Office is on board too, though unlike other recent HTC models it's the basic version which allows you to view or edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents but not create them.

Battery life was very good for a smart phone, giving us a good two and a half days of moderate use.

It's not the best looking handset in HTC's range, but it has one of the best slide-out QWERTY keyboards we've used, a good browser, fine music player, half-decent 3.2 megapixel camera, A-GPS and the versatility of Windows Mobile, all in a slim, pocket-friendly package.

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Sony Ericsson W302

As one of the cheapest handsets in Sony Ericsson's Walkman range, the W302 may not have all those delicious little extras so beloved of today's high-end mobiles, but it serves up a satisfying portion of the basics, and a little bit more.

It's a stylishly slim little number, for a start, just 10.5mm thick and tipping the scales at 78g, so no unsightly bulges.

The screen is clear and bright with 262,000 colours and despite a resolution of just 220x176 pixels you never get the feeling you've been short-changed (not that you're going to be watching DivX movies on it or anything of the sort).

The cramped keyboard actually feels much better than it looks. It's an ergonomic marvel since despite the tiny buttons, clever shaping and spacing means that it's always easy to find your way around (though you'll need to use the tip of your thumb).

Basic Walkman
The Walkman music player is what this phone is all about of course, and despite knocking off a few luxuries, it doesn't disappoint.

It behaves and sounds very much like the more expensive Walkmans, albeit without the higher spec headphones you get with the W595 or W902. Which doesn't mean they're bad – they offer a reasonably convincing and controlled soundstage, though they're a bit lacking in bass.

If you feel the need to upgrade them, as usual for Walkman mobiles, the phone comes with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack adaptor which plugs into the regular Sony Ericsson multi-connector charging port.

Music player presets
The shake control from the W302's big brothers is missing (not that we felt the loss of this gimmicky accessory) as is the SensMe search function based on what mood you're in, but more useful is the five-band graphic equaliser which can be adjusted manually or using one of the ten preset levels.

The rather marvellous TrackID feature is also present, which allows you to identify mystery tracks your hear around you or on the W302's FM radio (or any other sound source come to that). With only 20MB of memory on board you'll need the 512MB Memory Stick Micro card that comes with it, though you can expand this up to 4GB.

There are only nine presets on the radio and no automatic search. You'll need to scroll through the frequencies manually to find stations – this was really the only point at which we felt let down by the music content of the Sony Ericsson W302.

Limited camera
The 2 megapixel camera won't win any awards, but it's better than many others we've tried with a similar spec.

It's very quick to get into via the shutter button on the side (less than two seconds) and offers a reasonable set of options, including a picture resolution up to 1600x1200 pixels, a 2.5x digital zoom, timer (5, 10 or 15 seconds), night mode (there's no flash) and a burst mode which takes four pics in quick succession.

Picture quality is reasonable within the camera's obvious limitations and with good light and reasonably static subjects it takes perfectly decent snaps. Video, as you might expect, isn't up to the standard of the stills and isn't really worth bothering about unless movement is on the slow side and in very good light.

Sluggish browsing
It's a quad-band phone, which makes it ideal for travelling, but unfortunately there's no 3G connection, and no Wi-Fi either, so the browser is really only much use in an emergency, and you'll need a bit of patience if you're downloading tracks or games. It comes with two 3D games incidentally – 3D Rollercoaster and Sony Ericsson warhorse Quadrapop.

The battery stood up well to our moderate phone and music playing use, giving us a good three days including about an hour and a half of music play.

We like phones to do what they say they can, rather than promising us the earth and drowning in a sea of half-baked features and muddled functionality.

The Sony Ericsson W302 gives you a very good music player in a petite slimline casing, with a cheap but better than average camera and, limited internet facilities. But if you can live with that, and want a phone with a price and sound that's music to your ears, look no further.

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Samsung F480

Samsung's new touch-screen phone is called both the F480 and the Tocco, which is the Italian word for touch. Considering that Samsung has just launched a touch-phone handset called the F490, we'll close the door on a world of confusion and refer to this phone solely as the Tocco.

The handset is so named because it's a phone with few keys and a touch-sensitive interface, which is almost de rigueur for 2008.

Samsung F480 Tocco - Tocco vs the iPhone
The Tocco has certain advantages over Apple's iPhone. Firstly, it's a great size. Although there's no doubting the iPhone is a popular phone, there's no escaping that it's a big hunk of metal and glass that some people find too big. It may be unbeatable as a mobile internet browser, but if you use it mostly for calls and texts, pocket-sized it definitely isn't.

However, the Tocco is a great size. Slim at 11.6mm, it fits comfortably in the palm. Although the 2.8-inch screen is not as impressive as Apple's 3.5-inch one, it's still readable. The Tocco's screen is sharp, but the resolution isn't exceptional.

Switch on the device and the first screen reads ‘Welcome to 3G' - something the 2G iPhone can't boast. The Tocco delivers fast data connections, and 7.2Mbps HSDPA data transfer speeds. There's no Wi-Fi mind.

Samsung F480 Tocco - Personalise yours
The last Samsung touch-screen mobile, the F490, was tricky to use; its touch-sensitive crossbar proved a hindrance when picking menu icons. On the Tocco, there's a choice of a regular screen of 12 icons or the new and highly accessible Widget interface. This is a full screen with customisable wallpaper and a dock of icons that hide off-screen. In the dock are lots of icons which you can drag on screen as you please, which means that the screen isn't too cramped.

It even includes the network's information banner so if you don't like the fact that your phone says Orange in the middle of it, you can pop it out of view easily. This is a cute, original feature that's desirable even if not especially necessary.

There are other customisable details that make the Tocco feel like a handset that has been comprehensively thought through. The touch-screen lets you know when you've touched a button by sending a brief vibration through the screen, which is a feature missing from the iPhone and other touch-screens like the HTC Touch Diamond. The Tocco even allows you to opt for gentle nudge or harsh insistence.

This haptic feedback is handy when you're typing a text message. The screen is too small for a full QWERTY keyboard, so Samsung opts for a keypad with predictive text. Our tests found it very usable except for one quibble - the space key is next to the OK button and it's too easy to press the latter, ending your text entry when you just want a space. This is annoying, and prevents speedy texting.

Samsung F480 Tocco - Capable camera and music player
Although it's true that so far there isn't a camera phone that matches a decent compact digital camera for image quality, the Tocco's camera has a lot going for it, with a five-megapixel lens on board.

And there's the convenience of being able to quickly upload your images to a website through the 3G phone network. But there are photographic advantages too. An image stabiliser helps in low-light situations, face detection homes in and focuses on faces, and there's a smile shutter where you hold the camera and when your subject grins, the phone takes the picture itself. The first time you try this it's a little freaky, but it is a neat addition to the camera's features. Add in scene modes and camcorder functions, and the Tocco has a lot going for it as a capable camera phone.

Similar to Sony Ericsson's TrackID, which identifies the mystery tune on the radio, the Tocco boasts Shazam, which is as handy and fun as ever, even showing the album artwork on screen.

Samsung's music player software is no iTunes, but it's highly usable and although the phone only has 232MB of music storage available, memory cards can offer more space. The Tocco also includes an FM radio (with RDS) that works well.

Samsung F480 Tocco - The verdict
There are things that the Tocco lacks, of course. The widgets are a bonus but they're still not as effortlessly enjoyable as the iPhone's operating system. And features like muting the ringtone if you turn the phone face down, which can be found on Nokia's 8800 Sapphire and the HTC Touch Diamond, are unfortunately absent.

These are small prices to pay for what is surely the most successfully realised touch-screen phone after Apple's. Even though iPhone users will find it hard to adjust to the user interface (scrolling down a screen is the opposite of the flicking upwards movement Apple uses), they will be glad of the smaller size and 3G connection.

Although by the time you read this, Cupertino will likely have put its answer on the table.

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World First: LG’s watch mobile phone

As convergent technology becomes more and more popular, LG have decided to push their luck with the first ever watch-like video mobile phone.

The LG - GD910, has a 3.63-centimetre screen and is 13.9 millimetres thick, so this handset has successfully been scaled down to the size of a designer watch. To make a call, there is a touchscreen dialing system similar to that on the iPhone. But smaller.

It comes with a built-in camera, MP3 player and speaker as expected from a new mobile on the market.

With the use of a high speed internet connection, you will even be able to make video calls, though your wrist may get tired if you hold it in front of your face for long enough.

The phone has a Bluetooth connection, and recognises voices. It can even transform text to speech.

The LG - GD910 is compatible with WCDMA technologies and will also support 7.2 Mbps HSDPA data systems.

While a definite release date has not been finalised, it is expected to be on sale across the European markets sometime next year.

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