Nokia Mobile Talk

On the telephony front, with access to all major GSM and UMTS bands, the 5800 performs well. It delivers exceptional voice call quality and acceptable 3G video calling performance, which is probably expected from all major brand mobiles at this point in time.

Although the first batch of 5800 suffered from a major blow to this front in the form of the infamous Earpiece Problem, as had been illustrated in the first part of the review. But Nokia must be credited for acknowledging this problem and rectifying it in later batches.

In terms of data connectivity, for local data transfers, you have Bluetooth and a speedy USB connection that makes full use of that Class-6 microSD card. On the Computer side, Nokia’s ubiquitous PC Suite and the newer Ovi Suite take care of most of the things you would like to do with your 5800, although for media transfers I usually just use Mass Storage mode to dump media files into the microSD.

For wireless data, there’s a whole boatload of choices on the 5800; with WIFI, GPRS, HSUPA, EDGE, 3G/UMTS, 3.5G/HSPDA – I doubt anyone would have trouble finding a way to suck data off the Interwebs. And what a wonderful experience that turns out to be, as the included Web browser coupled with the relatively huge, razor sharp screen means that the Internet is joy to see. The 5800 web browser’s main trump card is full Flash Lite support, which means that you can finally experience YouTube in its entire web streaming glory (if not in a slightly blockier mobile streaming form).

In general web browsing terms, however, it still pales in comparison to the general web experience that the iPhone offers (even if both browsers are based on Webkit), if not mainly due to the lack of both kinetic scrolling and a properly thought out full-screen mode.

But Symbian being Symbian (and Nokia being Nokia), it would only be a matter of time before someone comes up with a killer third party browser to trump everything else on the market (yes, Opera, I’m talking about you). Until then, my web needs will have to be fulfilled with Opera Mini (a version of which can be seen up top).

And again, with it running Symbian, great third party applications continue to fill up many gaps in web connectivity, with a honourable mention going out to the AWESOME looking Gravity twitter client (see shameless ad below), Joikuspot ad-hoc Internet sharing app and the Symtorrent torrent app; all of which work marvellously on the 5800 (and without any of which I would be much less happier).

Finally, a mention must be given on the GPS module on the 5800, which works well given that it’s simply an intergrated chip. The bundled Nokia Maps are all good and all, but it takes a third party GPS solution such as Garmin XT (which has been updated recently to fully support the 5800) or Sygic’s McGuider to make full use of the GPS.

Any downsides to all this connectivity and the before mentioned media options?

Yes, of course, the battery life. With the 1350mAh BL-5C provided, the 5800 would only last around 1 and a half day tops with my brand of hard use (heavy use of music player and SMS; some calls and E-mails, plus sporadic web surfing and Gravity twitting on EDGE/GPRS). Exclusive use of 3G would shorten that even more. Video playback will generally bring the battery to its knees from fully charged in around 4 hours.

Excellent, no, but it’s more than acceptable for a mobile in this price bracket.

THREE MONTHS LATER: Enjoying the mobile Internet, and is finding out that I’m relying more on packet data then WIFI over here where I am. Heavy use of packet data (especially 3G) puts a drain on the batteries, which is compensated by the use of a external USB battery pack (will blog more about this later). Gravity is FINALLY out by now, and I’m using it on a regular basis: trust me when I say it is even MORE awesome then it looks.

NEXT: Conclusions and more ranting!