Nokia 5800 in stock now: Nokia’s first full touchscreen mobile phone!

Just in case the title didn’t give it away, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia’s eagerly awaited first full touchscreen phone, has launched at long last and is now in stock at Mobiles.co.uk. The 5800, formerly known as the Tube, was first spotted early last year and even made a cameo in the recent Batman film The Dark Knight before it had even been officially announced which surely got people chomping at the bit to get their hands on it. Well finally the wait is over; the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is now in stock at Mobiles.co.uk and available on O2, Orange and T-Mobile with a range of fantastic deals. But why should you care? What’s so special about the 5800? Well it does feel like it’s been in production for an eternity so lets refresh our memories and remind ourselves why the Nokia 5800 is such an exciting new phone.

The Nokia 5800 is Nokia’s first full touchscreen mobile phone (yes we do know they make touchscreen internet tablets and no we don’t count them as proper phones). As such, there was a lot riding on the user experience of the 3.2 inch TFT touchscreen but thankfully it exceeds expectations. The touchscreen is responsive and tactile enough to keep up with even the fastest of fingers but forgiving enough for those who are taking their first steps into the touchscreen world. Of course in 2009, a phone has to try a little harder to get our attention and luckily the 5800 has enough under its bonnet to mix it with the big boys.

The 5800 XpressMusic takes itself seriously as an internet device (possibly drawing from the internet tablet heritage) thanks to HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity putting high speed web browsing at your finger tips. Couple this with an impressive web browser and the excellent display (with built in accelerometer for rotating the screen) and you’ve got yourself one powerful internet device. Elsewhere, the 5800 supports numerous music and video file formats and comes bundled with an 8GB memory card giving you somewhere to store 1000’s of tracks and hours of video. And if photography is your thing, the 5800 features a 3.2 Megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, Autofocus and digital zoom plus video capture at 30 frames per second. And finally for those of you who like to get out and about, the 5800 has a built in GPS receiver with Nokia Maps pre-installed.

Have i forgotten anything? Probably. The 5800 is packed full of top of the range features which firmly cement it as one of the phones of 2009 and definite contender for best touchscreen mobile phone. In stock now and available on O2, Orange and T-Mobile, click here to check out the latest offers and get yours first!

Coming soon: The Sony Ericsson W705

Initially starting life as sub genre of the main product range (for instance the W800 was basically a re-branded K750i), the Sony Ericsson Walkman range now commands your attention on its own. The latest addition to the Walkman range, the Sony Ericsson W705 is certainly no different with a spec list that doesn’t look out of place amongst the mobile elite, all packed into a phone that simply oozes class. The slide phone catches your eye with a striking brushed metal finish that looks stunning in silver. This is complimented by a comfortable size that is still small enough not to be a burden but big enough for a pleasurable user experience. But enough about what the phone looks like, with the expected release just over a month away, why should we be getting excited about the W705?

Well first things first, the W705 is clearly a music phone through and through (as if the Walkman branding didn’t give it away!) so what have Sony Ericsson got in store for us? Well, Sony’s award winning audio technology promises to deliver sound quality in its purest form thanks to Clear Bass, Clear Stereo and premium headphones. SensMe lets you create playlists based on mood, Shake control lets you change track or volume with a flick of your wrist, TrackID finds the name and artist from simply recording a few seconds of a track, an FM radio lets you tune in to all your favourite stations and support for the PlayNow arena, Sony Ericsson’s new music store, lets you download the latest tracks straight to your phone. All your music is managed in the Walkman player which lets you shuffle, sort and play all your music and supports a wealth of file formats including MP3 and AAC.

So the W705 has music well and truly covered, but what else is hiding under that smooth, shiny exterior? Well for those who love to browse the internet, HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity have got you covered offering high speed internet at the push of a button. What’s more, the excellent web browser is complimented by the ability to stream video from popular sites such as YouTube. If photography is your thing, the 3.2 Megapixel camera should be more than adequate featuring digital zoom and video recording. Memory on the phone is a respectable 120MB which is expandable up to 8GB (and is likely to arrive with a 4GB card in the box). To round it off, the Sony Ericsson W705 features Bluetooth v2.0 and support for 3D gaming making it an excellent all rounder and much more than just a music phone.

Expected to launch in March, click here to keep updated on all developments for the W705 and keep an eye on the Blog in over the next few weeks for our full review.

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Review: Part 2

Picking up where we left off from yesterday, here we look at the usability and features of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic as the operating system, camera and music player all go under the microscope. For the impatient among you, we also give our final thoughts on Nokia’s next touchscreen phone.

The phone sports the same version of Symbian as found on the 5800 which is great news for those of you (and there’s alot of you out there!) who enjoy downloading apps. The Ovi store features a wide range of free and paid apps including games, maps and social networking applications. Looking at the numbers, the 5530 actually includes a slightly more processor meaning applications run smoother and the general interface of the phone is a little bit slicker. We wont bore you with an in depth look at the Symbian operating system as chances are you know what its all about. Just as a brief round up, Symbian offers the aforementioned downloadable apps, the ability to customise menus, creating shortcuts and moving folders, adding email accounts to your home screen so you can benefit from push email and the ability to multi task, letting you run multiple applications at once.

As for new stuff, as soon as you switch on your new phone you’ll notice the changes as they all sit on the home screen. The most hyped and, luckily for Nokia, nicest addition is the scrolling contacts bar at the top of the home screen. Sitting alongside your full contacts list, the scrolling contacts bar lets you add your most frequently used contacts for easy access. As well as adding a thumbnail which pops up when they call you and serves as a quick way of flicking through your contacts, tapping on the contact will open that person as a business card. From here you can call, text, email and check web feeds. By adding web feeds, this means you can add a persons social networking profile to their contact, such as Facebook, and then with a few quick taps check status, recent photos uploaded and all the other perks of Facebook. Best of all, Facebook is one of several web feeds that can be added to a contact.

The name XpressMusic puts some weight on the 5530’s shoulders as we automatically expect the phone to be an expert portable music player. It doesn’t get off to a great start; despite the phone sporting a 3.5mm audio jack (which is a nice addition) Nokia have decided to move it to the bottom of the phone meaning when in your pocket the most comfortable way to carry the phone will be to have it upside down. This slight annoyance out of the way, it’s pretty much business as usual for an XpressMusic device. Opening the music player either from the short cut bar on the home screen or the main menu takes you to the music library where music is sorted by artist, album, your own playlists, podcasts, genres and composers. Tracks support cover art, below which you get a time lapse display which you can drag along to get to a specific part of the track. The stereo speakers (found above and below the screen) are great boasting impressive sound quality and volume levels though for the best listening experience you’re best off plugging in your headphones. The 5530 will also take a memory card supporting up to 16GB of expandable memory letting you store thousands of tracks. All in all, the 5530 is a great music phone and bridges the gap between music phones and dedicated music players.

The camera on the 5530 is much the same as that found on the 5800. You get a 3.15 Megapixel auto focus camera with an LED flash. The 5530 does unfortunately lose the Carl Zeiss lens (most likely in an effort to lower manufacturing costs) though you’d be hard pushed to spot the difference between a photo taken with this and and one taken with the 5800. The camera interface is nicely laid out. Firing up the camera application presents users with a display dominated by the viewfinder, with a small portion on the right designated to the settings bar. The 5530 lets you choose how to use the camera; there are physical camera buttons on the side or for those who want the full toucshcreen experience, on screen icons that let you capture images and control the digital zoom. As for the actual photos, the results aren’t going to trouble the 8 Megapixel heavy weights such as the N86 8MP and the Viewty Smart but still produces some good quality images. There is a good level of customisation from light sensitivity to exposure so if you fancy yourself as the next David Bailey you really can tinker to get the perfect shot. For most though the automatic settings will prove good enough for simple point and shoot photography. There are drawbacks, as well as the omission of the Carl Zeiss lens, the 5530 also lacks shutter settings such as face and smile detection and the LED flash is weak once you get past a couple of meters. All in all, a good camera none the less.

The only department where the 5530 really shows its true colours as a cheaper version of the 5800 is in the connectivity options on offer. As you’ll no doubt be aware, the 5530 is not a 3G device so if you enjoy web browsing, be prepared to wait. The addition of Wi-Fi is a nice touch and to be fair Wi-Fi connections can be found in tons of different public places but for those times when you’re not in a hotspot, the 5530’s lack of 3G does become very apparent. The other major feature to get the chop from the 5800 spec list is GPS. Personally this wasn’t as bigger deal for me as i rarely use the feature on my phone but it’s something that is nice to have should the situation call for it.

So, the pros and cons. The 5530 has a classy design, made from stylish materials that manage to outclass its predecessor. The size of the phone is also one of the 5530’s crowning glories. With bigger phones becoming the norm, it’s nice to have a sleek compact phone that fits snuggly in your hand and slides unassumingly into your pocket. The touchscreen is a joy to use and still feels precise and user friendly despite the decrease in dimensions and as for the operating system, Symbian just keeps getting better and the ever growing list of apps available on the Ovi store remind us what a great OS Symbian is. And the cons? Well, if you do a lot of web browsing or downloading then the 5530 probably isn’t for you. We can’t criticise Nokia for leaving out 3G as this isn’t what the 5530 is all about but still, going back to a GPRS device when you’ve been spoilt with HSDPA is a tough pill to swallow. Despite loving the design, i wasn’t as fond of the three buttons that sit beneath the touchscreen. Lacking the sensitivity of the display, they would have benefited from some physical feedback as you may find you’re unsure whether your tap has registered. Another minor niggle is that when navigating through menus, you must stick to the scroll bar or risk opening random applications when trying to scroll down the page, not a deal breaker but a slight annoyance non the less.

Despite these flaws the 5530 still comes out on top. For it’s price range the 5530 is easily the best in its class. Compared to the LG Cookie and Samsung Tocco Lite, at first glance there isn’t much to separate the three but dig a little deeper and the Symbian operating system and Wi-Fi put the 5530 in a league of its own. A great touchscreen device with an impressive feature list (albeit without some bells and whistles) and a smart phone operating system all wrapped up in a budget phone that looks much more expensive than it is. Expected to launch in mid August, click here to register for updates and we’ll let you know as soon as the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic is available to order.

Nokia E72 Coming Soon!

For veterans of this Blog, you’ll know that we made no secret of our love for the Nokia E71. It really is hard to describe how good it feels in your hand with the kind of high quality materials that would feel right at home in a Vertu handset but thankfully without the price tag and with a spec list that’s just as impressive. In short, we loved the E71. But, the mobile phone industry is ever changing and manufacturers cannot sit and dwell on the successes of the past but must always look ahead to the future. So, what do fans of the original have to look forward to? Why its successor, the Nokia E72 of course!

In terms of dimensions, the two phones are almost identical, with this latest incarnation coming in marginally longer and a mere 1g heavier but it’s what they managed to pack into that extra gramme that’s most impressive. More on that in a moment, first, just take a look at the phone. Ordinarily it’s hard for a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard to look good but the E72 looks brilliant! Decked out in high quality materials with a nice ridged metallic black and highly polished black plastic face, the E72 has a more rounded finish which gives it a more universally appealing design. The keyboard has also grown in size to improve usability. As Apple have proved, the combination of high quality black plastics and shiny silvery metals goes together like cheese on toast and the E72 certainly has a certain iPhone flavour too it.

Away from its good looks, the E72 provides the perfect balance of work and play. For the business minded, the E72 will again offer true push email letting you send and receive emails from up to 10 different accounts and supporting Microsoft Mail for exchange. To compliment the impressive email capabilities, the E72 also features a document editor, letting users edit Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files directly on the phone before attaching and emailing them. The processor receives a healthy boost up to 600 MHz (compared to 369 MHz found in the E71) and the HSDPA connectivity will now max out at 10.2 Mbps. Wi-Fi connectivity is also included as is built in GPS, a digital compass and Nokia Maps pre-installed. And of course, the E72 runs on the Symbian platform meaning you can customise it 6 ways from sunday through services such as the Nokia Ovi store.

Now onto the fun bits; the E72 features the most powerful camera ever found in an Eseries device with an impressive 5.0 Megapixels on tap. Autofocus and an LED flash are also included and the E72 will also shoot video and features a front facing camera for all your video calling needs. The multimedia player is joined by a 3.5mm jack meaning you can bring your own personal headphones along for the ride and with hot swappable memory up to 16GB, you should have more than enough space for music and movies.

In case you can’t tell (i’m hiding it well), we’re really excited about the Nokia E72. If it can capture the magic of the E71 and bring enough new goodies to the table, the E72 will definitely be one to look out for. Click here to register for updates and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available to order.