After denying British punters a touch screen Tube in their Christmas stockings, Nokia has announced that the much-hyped phone will launch in Blighty this month. Also known as the 5800, Tube goes on sale on 23 January from 10am at Nokia stores in Regent Street in London and Heathrow’s Terminal 5. It costs £249 ($371/€272) when …

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 16:21 GMT Sam Turner

Time to come clean ...

... how much commission does the Register receive from Apple for mentioning the iPhone in every single review or article on mobile phones? Do they pay in cash or shiny things? If we have a Bluepeter-style collection of milk bottle tops, can it stop?

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 16:21 GMT Paul Murphy

Sounds as though it's got everything but bluetooth.

Quite a neat package, it'll be interesting to see what happens when it hits the streets.

ttfn

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 17:22 GMT James Dunmore

Operators

No rumours about which operators will be doing it? I heard that this will "compete with the iPhone" due to being cheap - so if it can be given away on a competitive tariff (compared to the expensive iPhone tariff), then nokia will shift a lot of these....

So which networks .....

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 17:22 GMT Richard

@it'll be interesting to see what happens when it hits the streets.@

Probably bounce or smash I guess. Might need a good stamping on to finish it off though.

Of course there is only one way to find out it is better than an iphone ..... FIGHT

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 17:22 GMT Anonymous Coward

Nope, looks like it's got bluetooth too

I wondered about that myself, but it's listed here:

http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/5800_XpressMusic

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 17:22 GMT Bod

@Paul Murphy

It has bluetooth also.

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_5800_xpressmusic_-2537.php

But for touch from Nokia, there is better to come (e.g. the N97). 5800 isn't the iPhone killer. I doubt the N97 will be either as it's not as stylish, but it will do a hell of a lot more than the iPhone. For those who prefer functionality over style it will be a winner.

The 5800's appeal will be in the music offering probably (sadly DRM'd though).

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 17:22 GMT Tom Haczewski

WTF...

...is 'plectrum touch'? I'm assuming the only thing this is useful for is the inevitable guitar-strings application?

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 17:22 GMT Anonymous Coward

@paul: Of course it's got bluetooth, it's a nokia.

All nokia phones that I've seen in the last 5 years have proper bluetooth. This one is no different to other S60 devices - it should support just about anything you can think of, except maybe the phonebook access profile. I'm not sure if that's been added since I bought my last phone, I have an N95 which is quite old now.

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 20:40 GMT Thomas

I'm sure I read that this is a fairly rubbish handset

Though I suspected it was from the early videos, so maybe I'm just selectively recalling. In any case, I think it suffers from the same usability issues as lots of the 'iPhone killers', i.e. they've tried to stuff all the iPhone features onto it but been too cheap to put a GPU in. So they can tick all the maps/internet/etc boxes, but in actual use it's full of laggy, fairly fixed movements that feel like sludge.

Then again, it's perfectly possible I'm thinking of some (or most) other 'iPhone killers', as I would expand on Sam Turner's point and say that labelling everything an 'iPhone killer' from one week to the next just gives the impression that every previous iPhone killer is a failure and makes it more difficult to remember their names. Maybe part of the success of the iPod was having every other MP3 player since branded an 'iPod killer' irrespective of its quality? It lumps them all together and makes it difficult to identify whether any particular one actually is better than the iPod/Phone.

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 20:40 GMT Mr Bear

So Reg, the iPhone, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone....

Well according to that review finder sat to the right of my screen, the iPhone hasn't made it into to the top 5. However the HTC Touch HD is sat nicely in 2nd place. So I'd guess it's safe to assume that it is an iPhone beater. So shouldn't you move on and start looking for a HTC Touch HD beater instead? Or is it just that iPhone is a much catchier word to work with. Or as mentioned above are you actually getting kick backs to advertise the iPhone rather than maintaining some degree of principles and going with the device you seem to think is the best?

Oh and when you do a review can you let us know what formats they can handle for reading books and how long they last when just turned on with the odd button press to change page. Some of us aren't that interested in playing music or taking photos and just want something to read while waiting for software to install.

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 20:40 GMT Tanuki

Queue Here for Judgement Very Soon(tm).

No doubt Nokia's advertising agency has followed the leading-edge of FruitCo's hype-aware strategy-boutique and already started recruiting teams of sad, manipulatable individuals to stand in queues outside NokiaShops to give the impression that there's actually a demand for yet another piece of function-impaired bloatware fashion-jewelry.

Coat? Mine's the one with the ex-army PRC320 radio on the back - it's the only thing that gets a signal round here!

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 20:40 GMT Anonymous Coward

Lovely...

Which network will have it though... on contract? I'll happily hold out until I know.

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 20:40 GMT Richard Sloan

Not Nokia's first touch screen

Nokia released a touch screen phone quite a few years ago, but it never really caught on. Having had a look at a colleagues one it is actually pretty good for its time.

http://www.nokia.co.uk/A4221110

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Wednesday 7th January 2009 20:40 GMT Chris Haynes

But, seriously...

Will it blend?

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Thursday 8th January 2009 00:34 GMT kode

Quite nice phone

I bought this phone a couple of days ago to my mom for her 75th birthday, and I've been playing with it for a bit to teach her all she needs to know. My own phone is N82 and I can say that I really will miss the touch screen when I finally hand the 5800 to my mom.

The GUI works pretty fast and I like it since I'm used to using S60 in N82. I've never used an iPhone but I'm a mac user so I can understand that probably iPhone's GUI is much slicker both in the eye candy and in the usability. But then again S60 gets the job done just nicely. But I do wish that Nokia and Symbian would take S60 to the next level and keep making it better and better.

The 5800 has got nice speakers, the gps works fast and well, the screen is bright and the touch screen works pretty well both with fingers and with the stylus. I actually haven't remembered to use the plectra at all :D, but I can actually understand why it's included. I don't have the biggest fingers (I'm an average sized male) but it takes a little time to learn to write with two thumbs with the full screen keyboard. I'm not sure if the current full screen keyboard is the most efficient one, but then again I've only used it for very little while. Actually the biggest reason I got this phone to my mum (besides the GPS) is that she can finally write text messages easily, either with the stylus with choosing the letters or by writing the letters on the screen and let the text recognition system translate it.

So, after a few days of use I really like the phone. It's not perfect, but in this price range I think it's got quite a lot to give. After N82 I'm not that fond of 5800's camera, since it's not really that great, but then again N82 is more expensive. My next phone probably will be some later touch screen model, maybe N97, but I do wish Nokia keeps the prices down like they did with 5800.

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Thursday 8th January 2009 11:06 GMT Anonymous Coward

Nokia phones

"You get around nine hours of talk time from the 5800, or it’ll just sit awaiting orders for up to 17 days"

I call bullshit, considering the dreadful battery life on most of Nokia's recent upper-echelon of phone models. Their adverts always claim weeks worth of standby time whereas in actuality this usually equates to 2 days, IF you don't use it at all. This is one of two reasons why I stopped using Nokia phones. So I challenge anyone to get 17 days of standby time out of it - even turning every facility (bluetooth, 3G, GPS) off, living close enough to a mobile transmitter to mutate your kids, and not touching the phone at all, I reckon you'd struggle to get more than 4 days out of it.

The other reason I stopped using their phones is Nokia's usual standard of interface. Some people love them but personally I just don't get on with their phones, they feel clunky and unnatural to use. I haven't used this one yet but I have little doubt that it will feel about as natural as looking at your sister and thinking, "phwoar....I'd give her one!" - which might be acceptable in certain areas of the U.S. (and Norfolk), but to most of us seems just a little weird.

So, I'll be giving it a miss most likely, unless I feel the sudden urge to touch up my sister and put my face in a blender, in which case I might just consider buying one.

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