Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Unlocked Phone with U.S. 3G, GPS with Free Voice Navigation, Wi-Fi, and 4 GB MicroSD Card--U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)

While most people clamor for Blackberries or iPhones or the latest Androids, I found myself eager to get back to the first brand that I ever used: Nokia. I won't lie - while I find the features of today's smart phones finally starting to live up to the hype, I am just unwilling to pay 100 dollars a month for all the service and contract craziness that comes with it. The average iPhone, for example, can cost over 3 thousand bucks over 2 years. I can't stand locked-down, over priced products that fail to really create compelling value for users that pay for the total package. Many companies, in their quest to make a buck off us, prohibit certain features or limit usability in ways that I always find frustrating. An example? 10 Dollars a month to use the Nuron's GPS feature through T-Mobile - when in fact you can and should be able to use it for free. My old Motorola wouldn't so much as let me copy 1 inferior quality, .3mp photo on my desktop without data charges, or picture texting charges. Stuff like that makes me want to just end the service and throw the phone in the can.Enter the Nokia 5800:With just a texting and voice plan, I am able to use 90% of the features of this phone. GPS works, and works great so far - the trick was to turn off assisted GPS and download maps straight to the device with the Nokia OVI suite. Then, using the built in GPS for all navigation needs was possible (including Turn-by-Turn Directions). The suite, by the way, also allows you to back up your device and sync it in different ways and edit contacts and things like that. This is usually an extra-cost item you have to pay for. And why should you? Losing your contacts alone would be a HUGE step backwards for most of us, and my opinion is that such protection should be standard across the board. Especially as our phones become more central organizers in our lives!Wi-Fi is a great substitute for paying for 3G services, but 3G will be there when and if you need / pay for it. You don't really need net services anyway if you aren't downloading any of the FREE apps, themes, games, etc. that the OVI store provides. You also don't necessarily need e-mail to be harassing you all the time while you are on the move. Heaven help you if you think you can web-browse and drive! Trust me, I used to have a blackberry for work which CONSTANTLY buzzed me with the days emails - the phone became a source of anxiety rather than a handy tool. With Wi-Fi, I can connect at the restaurant, store, or friends house I am hanging with, or at school, and have full access to extra content or web-browsing without worrying about X-Mobile's extra charges. It also provides me with a nice 'not now' feeling when I really do need to get away from work! One does have to constantly specify Wi-Fi instead of "X-Zones" in my case - but you can change connection priorities to help the ensure the phone doesn't jump on the information super-rip-off without your consent.Those two features alone make this phone really stand out to me, however there is more! The touch screen is responsive, and if you can't get it done with your stubby fingers, the included stylus does the trick. The screen is about big enough, and fonts can be enlarged for readability. I won't lie though, as with other phones, I wouldn't spend much time 'browsing' the internet - only things like checking email (easy with yahoo or google so far) or checking the weather, or seeking out an app make sense to me at the moment. Otherwise, I find that I probably wouldn't get much done at all without the stylus (just not enough screen real-estate to really handle today's typical sites). I do find that the auto-rotation of the screen gets worse when multiple apps are running (fails to rotate), but if one tips it right (think, parallel to the floor!), it works every time. I can type rapidly and accurately, and enjoy it more with the vibration off and just a small beep on. This was key for me, since I've used different touch screens and qwerty keyboards and often just can't do it with my blunt fingers. My only issue with the Nokia is that the full-screen qwerty touch does not put some common symbols on the primary screen, symbols like @ for emails or ) for smiley faces (hey I like to be friendly). They are an extra tap away. Otherwise, I have been impressed with the typical responsiveness and speed. Obviously, we all wish our phone were big as a laptop at times, or as small as a credit card at others. I think Nokia's compromise is good - the phone feels and looks small, is light, and doesn't feel any more burdensome than my old Motorola flip. Brightness is more than adequate except in direct bright sunlight, where it really washes out, and text is very clear. It really seems higher res to me than it is, and font sizing is changeable pretty much everywhere, and zoom is available if needed.The latest symbian update allows a seemingly infinite number of contacts on the home screen (previous was 4 - yuck), and did link to my primary emails without a hitch, and I can manually update to read them when I think I want to! I especially like that the contacts on the home screen are 'tracked' - I can see texts for example, that I've exchanged with just that one person, and send a new one. Graphics are cool (if not as polished as some of the newer phones) and the UI in general is pretty straightforward once you spend some time with it. I do find myself getting lost a lot however, or forgetting where certain settings are, though, this is not different to me than other phones I have used - some things are always front and center, other things get buried in sub menus. It would be nice if Nokia used some of the new nifty '3d' effects like pages turning or things moving when menus were changed, to help give a visual cue that you are 'interfacing' with the UI, but again eye candy versus capability? I would rather have control than better visuals when it comes down to it."Express Music" should mean that media is no-problem with this phone, and so far, I am impressed with the overall sound quality of the phone and the included headphones / mic, though the quality of those headphones, and the fit, is a little iffy to me (these are in-ear type, I think I prefer buds). Happy to know that they put emphasis on the sound rather than the look however. Plenty of volume by the way. The phone did an awesome job of organizing my files accurately, and provides a big in your face letter to let you know where you are as you search by album, artist, etc. They should have ported that feature to the contact list as it greatly simplifies the search! No major issues there. Also, the phone did come with 8gb of extra storage, enough for 600 or so high-bitrate Mp3s. Though, given the many uses of storage on this phone I think that I would need to upgraded to 16 gb or more to really stuff this thing with songs.Call quality has been excellent so far, both for the ear piece and for the speakerphone. The speaker phone sounds better than my laptop when playing music, more balanced and a a sense of actual bass. Signal strength has been excellent, and I'll be in the boondocks this weekend to find out how it cope there (usually service drops in and out). All in all voices sound full and clear, and I can detect problems with other people's phones (thats how good it has been so far).Camera? A dual-LED Carl Zeiss at 3.2 Megapixels. After a recent fire which burned down my building, I re-discovered the critical value of having even a bad camera on hand and available, if only by phone! Hence I am forgiving of camera phones in general. I've shot mostly indoors so far, and find that exposure ranges from unusable to good, grain is pretty bad in low lighting, but the flash is quite powerful. Focus lock is a tad slow at times, and I don't know why I get some blur even when using flash on occasion. I expect that like many cameras, broad daylight will reveal its best performance, and my good photos so far are really good. There are tons of available settings however, and all around I think this camera spanks the .3 mega pixel disaster I've had to rely on previously. But I won't be throwing away my digital camera any time soon.Battery life? This baby is rated for up to 8 hours of talk time, which is excellent. Yesterday I toasted the battery in about 6 hours from a mixture of trying out the Mp3 Player and playing with the internet, setting up, etc. I assume that when I stop constantly fiddling with this thing (oh how I love my new toy) It will go for days on normal use without a hitch. This is certainly one of those phones however, that multi-tasks, and one should remember to make sure that all un-needed apps are shut off b/t uses. The phone will not warn you, but you can check this from pretty much any menu. It recharges in about 2 hours I've found, which is really good. A charger is included, but the USB cable is data-only. Pick up a powered Micro-USB cable if you want to add a charging option to the phone. I'll be picking one up as it is generally more 'portable' than an AC adapter. I am going to GPS a 2.5 hour drive on today, and head to a low signal area. If the battery proves to be really strong, or weak in these conditions, I'll report back. Otherwise, assume that it did its job!Lets Do the pros and cons:Pros: Great Mp3 PlayerGreat GPSWi-Fi rules!Easy to transfer files8 gb memory included!Excellent Call qualityCan act as a USB wi-fi hotspot if you have a data plan (is it time to drop Comcast yet?)Well executed touch screen / stylus back-uplots of free and useful apps / wallpapers / you name it.OVI Suite makes life a little easier - backups, edits, map downloads, syncing, seamless so farEssentially UNDER priced given its capabilities (compare this phone to a 4-600 dollar newer phone)Feels like a true open-source, unlocked phone (unlike Google's ad machines and Apples prison-camp approach to technology)decent camera with functional macro lensCons:UI is not an A+ - more like a solid B.Learning curve - though not necessarily worse than other smartphones. But I have been trolling the net and thumbing the manual a lot so far.OVI not as well integrated as iTunes (but I hate iTunes anyway)Not sure what documents this thing can handle (pdfs will cost you)Your girlfriend will HATE the amount of time you invest getting set up, updated, downloaded, etc.I expected a plastic case to come with it - I got nothing. Europe only I guess. But it did come with a car mount for GPS, Headphones, Charger, and 8 gb of memory, so, I'll get over it.All in all, when I got the GPS working the way I wanted, I fell in love with this little phone - it is a true powerhouse for the price, and if it lasts, I expect it will be remembered as my first great smartphone. My biggest concern now is that Nokia has not been succeeding in the U.S. lately (though make no mistake, they are a world leader everywhere else, and innovative in their own right) and I fear that a switch to Meego and away from symbian will mean the general end of support for this kind of smart phone. This platform feels as though it could only get better, so that would be a sad loss. I feel like such a 'cheater' using this phone (buying direct from Nokia means NOT being FORCED to buy a data or GPS plan from my carrier) that I really wonder if the Nokia approach of providing an open and unlocked experience can really compete against the nickel and dime wireless economy being pushed by apple, at&t, google, verizon, and others. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll get a FREE update when Nokia decides what direction it wants to take.In the mean-time, I'll be greatly enjoying a solid all-around experience with a ton of value added for a minimal cost. This phone is the real deal, if you can live with the fact that it is not quite as polished (or large) as the more popular phones available at the moment. Though, capabilities and features have already improved through one update, perhaps another one will take it even further!Why are you hesitating? Take the plunge!

I had owned various phones in the past and Nokia is the best on any comparison, for the Features available on this phone, had Apple had all these features it will cost 10 times more, most people don't even know it has extra camera on the front for video Calls along with the 3.2 MP on the back, Video is far better and there were no sluggish performance as far as I had used for more than a month, unlike iPhone this phone can run multiple applications at same time which is like multitasking in PC, so I can play music and browse websites at same time and switch to GPS , attend a call and type an SMS.. And it goes on...all at same time, iPhone cannot do more than one at a time, we get millions of free software, games, themes etc., unlike Apple App store, no need to pay more and more. Best feature, no MP3 conversion required, if you have lot of MP3 files on hard disk just drag and drop in few seconds, we can play, phone comes with 8GB of SD Card, can upgrade to 16 GB, that's more than enough, I had used the N95 earlier which costs double this price, this is not a NSeries phone from nokia, but it had all the features + touch screen of N series phone at half the price.If you like Garmin for GPS, Garmin GPS software available for this phone and installing that will make it the best GPS (it comes with Nokia's map software too) and no data plan or internet required for GPS as maps are copied to memory. It comes with lot of add on and Its not too big like iPhone and not too small, exactly made for using with single hand and I had replaced the blackberry phone used for Office with this and configured my Office outlook exchange server along with Gmail, hotmail and yahoo, how cool is that.It handles website just as a PC and there is no difference with any websites, I can login to bank accounts and do anything like PC, it has stereo speakers but the Nokia Headsets are far Superior in sound quality and build and it comes with built in Mic and buttons for music track change so we can play music and attend calls without touching phone.And FM is there to use while driving and at the Gym, Google has lot of software available for this phone like latitude, docs etc. If you want free chat software Fring ([...]) is available for free, it connects yahoo, hotmail, AOL, Gtalk and Skype users all in one place and we can even make voice calls to online users. It has the great sync software that syncs all your photos, videos, contacts, notes etc between phone and PC using Bluetooth, just switch on the PC and it does the sync automatically. We can import and export all contacts from outlook, Lotus notes etc.And there is software to use the screen as a touch screen mouse for the PC like a wireless Bluetooth mouse and that's free too.For brand conscious users like me, I want to buy a phone from a telecom company like Nokia than a computer (apple) or TV (Samsung) company, who were just trying phones as one of their business.iPhone doesn't have many of these features and only selling because of marketing, if nokia did their part, this should beat any phone for sure, I don't want to lock with AT&T for lifetime with iPhone and pay $ monthly and pay for any applications and did I say its unlocked? What else you can expect from a phone? Comment Comments (7) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Smartphone, One of Nokia's Best!, May 14, 2009By Elizabeth M. Lawinger - See all my reviews(REAL NAME)I am huge on Nokia Phones (tried blackberry 8820, didn't care for). I upgraded to this phone from the N95. I really like the N95, but since I have started texting so much, really got annoying texting on the N95 (it just has a numberpad, no qwerty). Landscape qwerty on this phone is really nice, but hand recognition is awesome! I can write faster then I can type when texting, and if you want to keep notes, memos, lists, etc... on your phone, the handwriting entry makes it go quickly. All you have to do is write on the screen and it will type what you write. A feature to love.I have tried the GPS and it is similiar to the N95. I tested it against my Garmin Nuvi, and it is very similiar. Only complaint as that after you pass a road, it takes a second or two longer than the Garmin to realize you did or didn't turn, which is only annoying if you make a wrong turn (I did so on purpose to test), But for a phone GPS, it is great. Nice for when walking around an unfamiliar metro area. Didn't use POI's much, but played around enough to know they hit all the major spots in our small town, and when pulling up a cateogry such as restaurants, the list was extensive. Very, very handy to have GPS on phone, as I never take my Garmin off my car mount, and prefer not to have to. Also, satellite lock was very quick. Nice!You can keep 4 contacts (with photo icons) on homescreen for quick calling, texting, etc... but why only 4? Wish there was more. Dialing can be a pain, you have to click several times to get to the point of calling a contact, but I have gotten accusotmed to that (same on N95). Nokia should really make it a 2 click process, select contact and call, hope they make that change. If you pull up the name you want on your contacts you can press the green (go) bar at the bottom of phone and it will call that person.Internet is nice as well, picks up on my wireless internet fast, as well as quickly at the local coffee spot, but haven't used it beyond that. Video and photos are sweet on the lcd screen. Bluetooth makes transfer of photos and music from you computer to phone a snap. The speakers on this phone are amazing for a cell phone. Very easy to do. There are lots and lots of other nice applications to play with.This is the best choice I could make for a cell phone (definetly a step up from the N95, which is a subperb phone). If you like to text and want a full keyboard (or the ability to handwrite using the stylus), keep documents on your phone, (bluetooth is quick and easy transfer back to computer), want to enjoy videos and music (with great sound), like surfing the web, want a GPS (with no need for a data plan), and are a techy-gadget person like myself who couldn't pass up the idea of having a touchscreen, this is an awesome choice. Comment Comments (2) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)