While other manufactures (hello, Samsung) rushed headlong into the touch-screen phone craze, other manufacturers were more cautious. For example, just look at Nokia. Though the cellular giant pumps out phones by the dozen, it wasn't until the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music that the company explored touch-screen cell phones with gusto (the Nokia 810 doesn't count). Positioned as a rival to the Apple iPhone, the 5800 is packed with a range of multimedia features. And it all comes in a sharp, slim package with an expansive touch screen.


We were lucky enough to check out a preproduction model of the 5800 back in October and found it to be very promising. Well, we've now had a chance to play with the final product. While our opinion of the phone hasn't changed too much, we think it has some shortcomings when compared with its competition. The user interface and input methods aren't the best and could use some refinement to take advantage of the touch screen. Also, until the Nokia Music Store launches in the United States, the 5800 doesn't offer the full functionality or advantages of an XpressMusic phone, giving the iPhone the edge with its seamless iTunes integration. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic isn't a bad phone, but when you factor in the $399 unlocked price, it's a little harder to give the handset's drawbacks a pass.

Design:
The Nokia 5800 shares design characteristics with the iPhone and Samsung touch-screen handsets like the Omnia. The candy bar shape offers clean lines with rounded corners and a black and burgundy color scheme (there's also a thin red stripe). At 4.37 inches tall by 2.04 inches wide by 0.61 inch deep, it is relatively small as touch-screen phones go, though it is a bit thicker than average. Still, at 3.84 ounces it won't weigh you down. The 5800 also offers a sturdy, comfortable feel in the hand.




Features

Each contact in the 5800's phone book holds 10 different of phone numbers, three video-calling numbers, three e-mail addresses, three URLs, a birthday and anniversary, a department and job title, an assistant name and phone number, spouse and child names, and notes. You can save an additional 250 contacts on the SIM card. You can add callers to groups, but only groups can be paired with a ringtones and photos; that's rather odd for such a high-end phone, but the phone offers plenty of tones and you can use your own melodies, as well.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music :Specifications:

General :
2G Network
3G Network :GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
:HSDPA 900 / 2100
:HSDPA 850 / 1900 - American version

Size :

Dimensions : 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm, 83 cc
Weight : 109 g

Features
OS : Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5
CPU : ARM 11 434 MHz processor
Messaging:SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser : WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio : Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games : Yes + Java downloadable
Colors : Black, Red, Blue
GPS : Yes, with A-GPS support; Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch
Java : Yes, MIDP 2.1
- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/WAV/еAAC+/WMA player
- Photo editor
- Organizer
- Voice command/dial
- Flash Lite 3.0
- TV-out
- T9

Performance

We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Nokia 5800 Xpress Music world phone in San Francisco using AT&T service. Call quality was strong on the whole. We enjoyed clear conversations with little static or interference. Voices sounded natural, and the volume was loud. Our only complaint was that at the highest volume levels, the audio had an echoed effect.