The Nokia 5800 is the first Nok to come with a touchscreen, so it's the first chance we've had to see if handwriting recognition on a Symbian Series 60 phone really works.
The 3.2-inch screen of the Nokia 5800 comes with an accelerometer, so you can switch from Portrait to Landscape mode simply by moving the phone.
Does this make it trickier or easy to get to grips with handwriting on your Nokia 5800? Find out for yourself after the jump... The Nokia 5800 is proving to be something of a versatile device. It comes with a great screen as we know, which we’ve looked at previously. For an overall take on the Nokia 5800, check out our 5800 review.
Once you get to grips with the nature of the 5800s touchscreen, you’ll want to start using it in other ways than simply opening apps. You’ll find a couple of virtual keyboards onboard, a mini one that sits in the bottom of the screen and is great for quickly adding contacts or short messages, for example. Then there is a full-screen keyboard best used for longer emails and documents.
However, the screen also allows you to write directly onto the screen, which is where the handwriting recognition software comes in. This is the first device to support the S60 built-in handwriting technology so it’s not something you’re likely to have experienced before. You can use it in all the main apps that use text input that come with the device and instead of tapping away on the virtual keyboard it means you can write directly on to the screen with some stunning results.
We’ve used handwriting software before but we were still surprised to see how responsive it was on the 5800. It’s a more intuitive way to use the screen, what’s more, we also found it quick and easy to get to grips with. To start using it, simply tap on the screen in your chosen document, for this example we used Contacts, but it could easily be an email or text in Messages.
Click on the space you want to write in and you’ll be sent to the virtual keyboard by default. Tap on the keyboard icon and it’ll throw up the options on offer. Choose Handwriting and an orange square will appear on the base of the screen.
Once you starting writing into the orange box the letters will be converted to text and input into your application. If, like us, you’ve got terrible handwriting it may take a little time to work out how to get the letters looking right but it’s amazing to see how quickly it gets to grips with some truly appalling handwriting. If it makes a mistake, you can simply back-swipe and the letter will be erased. It’s a neat little application and one we’ve been happily using for a while. It’s worth remembering that once you’ve selected Handwriting as your default option, it will stay that way until you change it again.
Getting to grips with the handwriting software on the Nokia 5800 is easy and if definitely something people should be making full use of. Go on, give it a try today and let us know what you think?
