Posts Tagged ‘S60’
Hello guys and welcome to our first installment of a brand new and exciting podcast called All Mobile Talk where myself, Mobile Jorge, alongside Ash Nazir, an IT Consultant based out of the UK and Serges from Symbian Freak have an open discussion on various trends in the mobile world. Some of the topics include: Read more
There are still a few weeks lefts before “Calling All Innovators”, the yearly Nokia world contest, ends. Designed to attract the best and more innovative applications and services for Nokia devices, this edition is very interesting even for non techie people: you can win $30.000 with just an idea. Read more
Hello and welcome to our Interview Series, today is a very special day as we bring you one of the most famous themers in the Symbian community. He does not need a big introduction, he is known throughout the globe, he has had millions of downloads and his name is synonymous with amazing graphics, he has brought life to countless of old symbian devices and taken newer devices to new aesthetic heights. Nokia Mobile Talk is proud to bring you one of the world most renowned themers, without further ado, I present to you Pizero. Read more
Its no secret that Profimail is my favorite email application for S60 and I’m happy to announce that once again they have updated Profimail to version 3.14 Read more
Another little minor update, so if you’re like me and like to have the latest software on your mobile, direct your s60 browser to http://www.google.com/gmm to download this version.
The internal memory on S60 phones is a very precious item. We are always looking for memory thieves to make room for our precious data.
The four tips I’m gonna give bellow are very small, but also very useful to reduce the memory waste on our devices.
Read more
Yet again my favorite Email client in s60 has updated their software. Its a minor update a few bugs here and there but its a lot snappier now. Again don’t forget to download it to your memory card.
If you don’t know by now Mojos Mobile, spearheaded by Boris Raczynski CEO & Founder, is a premiere mobile application developer who has shocked the Nokia S60 community with their most recent release of Twittix, a native s60 Twitter client, with a plethora of options to make even the most advance user very happy.
Just wanted to formally welcome OscarB to the Nokia Mobile Talk team, he hails from “la madre patria”(the mother land) of Spain. OscarB will be covering the Nokia and Symbian news in Spain which is very popular. OscarB comes from a programming background and he was actually the person responsible for translating one of our favorite Twitter clients for s60 Twittix to the Spanish language. Oscar has a great Nokia collection presently using the N95 8gb, the Nokia 5800, and his trusty E61. So stay tuned for some very cool and interesting post from our friend from Spain. Que viva Espana, Ole.
This short list will dramatically increase the usage of your s60 smartphone. So rock on and download some these puppies, don’t blame me if you get Nokia-itis.
In terms of design, the responses of all that I showed the 5800 to varied from “Wow, nice phone” to “What a brick”, but I personally find that the 5800’s minimalist looks and angular tubbiness to be pleasant to the eyes. Slightly thinner and wider than the W810i, the 5800 is a joy to hold in my small sized hands, although slightly harder to pocket when used with a silicone protector.
The keypad layout of the 5800 is notable for its near total absence, except maybe for the Call / Menu / Hang Up trio on the bottom of the fascia and the touch sensitive Shortcut Bar button next to the Xpressmusic branding.
So, how DO you type or dial on the 5800? Nokia has (thankfully) provided a whole set of virtual input methods for the Symbian 9.4 / S60 version 5 that runs on the 5800, including:
Coupled with its vibrating haptic feedback system, touch based input on the 5800 is a joy. It does lag slightly from time to time (one of the major hurdles of software based input), but it’s otherwise acceptable enough for blind one handed typing at my “normal-average” speeds.
What else do we have on the fascia? There’s the earpiece hole up top , next to which we have the iPhone-esque contact sensor (blanks out the screen to any touch when you put the phone to your ear) and 3G secondary camera (with the Media Bar button – yes, that’s a button – right below it).
Now, moving on to the left side of the 5800, we find the plastic covered access slots for the microSD card and also the SIM card, and the hole for the lanyard.
On the right side, we have the volume controls (sadly bound to control VOLUME ONLY, could’ve done well as scroll buttons OR track change on hold like on the W810i), the camera button and – in what is probably Nokia’s few “true” strokes of genius – the wonderful keyguard switch nestled right in between.
The keyguard switch (I like to call it the ”lock-slider”) brings new meaning to the phrase “slide to unlock”, and even though it’s not without its flaws (sometimes I have to slide it a few times to unlock the screen), the action of picking up your phone while sliding the lock has quickly become an automatic reflex.
Bye bye, “press menu key and then press * to unlock” or the variations thereof.
The top of the 5800 is occupied by the power button, the AC charger port, and 3.5 inch (a standard port, thank you Nokia!) audio jack cum TV-Out connector and the microUSB port (that doesn’t charge, boo).
On the very sparse bottom is the mic opening and… not really anything else.
On the backside of the 5800, we have the camera module up top: a Carl Zeiss optic equipped 3.2MP module with Auto Focus – the normal fare, nothing exceptional (more on that later). Down on the bottom we have the plastic stylus snug in its silo.
Ergonomically, everything is where it’s supposed to be, even if the left side could be more properly used up (Scroll key? Gallery key? Anything I can map later to something else). But other than that, I have found that the 5800 is generally sound in terms of ergonomics.
Build quality wise, this ain’t no E-series, so it’s a full on plastic fantastic and nearly everything is made out of ABS plastic. Even so, it is built well with only a few creaks or gaps, and it generally feels solid in my hands.
Of the parts that do creak, there is one creaking section on the front fascia (left bottom side) that drives me mad. Sadly, this seems to be a common enough occurrence amongst 5800 users (in Malaysia at least, as observed from the Lowyat.net Forum’s 5800 thread). Some users have also reported light leakages on the front fascia (particularly around the Trio buttons on the bottom of the fascia), but in my particular sample everything’s fine. There is also the famous problem with the earpiece, where the earpiece volume fluctuates from low to inaudible randomly; again, my own sample seems free of this problem and it will also be readily repaired at your nearest Nokia Care Centre if it ever happens to you.
In retrospect, the 5800 is as well built (even better in some aspects) as my old W810i, although the generally smooth plastic used on the 5800 is far inferior to the textured plastic used on the W810i in terms of slippage and tactile feel.
In my old W810i review, I did mention how a “drop test” would be the paramount test of build quality? Well, the 5800 definitely passes this, as my friend dropped his the other day and it survived the ordeal fine. There are even more torturous tests done on the 5800 (which it survived, generally), which a quick Google search would easily uncover.
THREE MONTHS LATER: This thing is better built then it feels like in the beginning. It has survived more drops (covered in a case of some sort most of the time) then I would have liked to count, although the screen (particularly on the lower left side) has developed some creaking tendencies when pressed. The Full Screen QWERTY keyboard is much less useful then first anticipated, much more so with the lack of predictive input of any kind. Alphanumeric + T9 is far slicker in comparison. The lack of hardware keys are still noticeable and the creaks less so. I sent the 5800 for repairs on the earpiece out of paranoia (without it ever going crazy in the first place) and it’s now working fine, no problem.
Next: The vast Screen, Navigation and OS
In April 2008, the word came the Nokia was hard at work on their first Symbian S60 based, fully touch “computer” (a word Nokia had at one point obsessively substituted in place of “Mobile” or “Smartphone”): the mobile they codenamed the “Tube”.
As the months went by and more information was leaked about Nokia’s first mass market Touch mobile, I found myself in the predicament of having to reassess the need for pockets filled to the brim with electronics. Already, I had two Mobiles and the Axim in my pocket at all times; which would translate to utter discomfort with jeans plus my overflowing stature.
My pockets were ripping at the seams due to overcrowding.
I knew something had to be done (which in geek-think translates to: “Something new has to be bought”), and after long days of deliberation, I decided to consolidate the huge Axim and one of the phones – i.e. replace them both with one smartphone (or at least smarter then what I had at the time) that can fill the role of both.
And then I came across the initial rumours of the Nokia Tube, and was enamoured instantly. Too long had I been without a proper Symbian S60 device in my pocket, and the promise of S60 PLUS the flexibility of a Touch interface titilated me to no end.
That was probably in October of last year. Months-long, deep sessions of thought ensured, before I finally relented and got myself the Tube (by then renamed as the 5800 Xpressmusic) in January, 2009 – just a few days after the official Malaysian launching.
This review will be split into 4 main sections, with each focusing on:
EDIT: This review was partly written almost 3 months ago, when I first got the 5800 (and back then I had no idea where to publish it either). To reflect the changes that have occured in those 3 months, there will be a part at the end of each section dedicated to me ranting about how the 5800 has warmed up to me after 3 months. Look out for it under “THREE MONTHS LATER”.
Now, enough of all this, let’s move on to the review itself ! Check tomorrow for the next installment 
DISCLAIMER: The 5800 in the review has been USED by it’s owner, as such I am sorry it does not look spanking clean. As such, it is a poor representation of what you get from the box (it’s a swell representation of what will happen to it after heavy use though). Some parts of the 5800 in this review (the fonts especially) has been modified by the Author, and is again a poor representation of what you will get out of the box. Just making sure… 
