The Nokia 5800 is coming up to its first birthday – we’ve had it for 10 months now – and in that time it has sold over eight million handsets. With the Nokia 5800 Comes With Music being announced from T-Mobile, it seems there is still plenty of interest in this handset. With that in mind we thought it was time to revisit the device with our Living With the Nokia 5800 10 months on.
The Nokia 5800 has been our main device since before it launched on the 23rd January 2009 and in that time we’ve seen many a firmware update take this handset from its first fumbling steps as a touchscreen handset to a true all-round mainstream device.
Check out our original Nokia 5800 review
The design of the Nokia 5800 has always divided opinion, some saying it’s too chunk and bulky but we’ve always maintained that it’s a great look. What’s more, it’s managed to withstand a fair degree of damage over the last 10 months.
The look and feel is great in the hand and the overall shape is intended to help with the sound created by the speakers when playing music. There is no denying that the Nokia 5800 is one of the better sounding devices out there today.
As a media player it has been a really constant source of joy. Having instant access to music, movies and the internet from the XpressMusic button is a real benefit. Music, BBC iPlayer and generally getting the most out of it every day has been great. Sure, with only 70MB of internal memory you need to rely on the microSD card to store your music but other than that, this is a good all-round media player.
While the XpressMusic option has lived up to expectations, it’s not all been plain sailing, as the homescreen hasn’t really lived up to expectations. In fact, is in need of something of an overhaul, as there is too much space on the screen and being able to load more than four apps onto the homescreen would bring it in line with other mainstream handsets.
In every day use this is a fully rounded device. The camera is reasonable but to be fair, we’ve not used it as much as we expected. Email has been something of a hit and miss affair and is something we’re hoping will get sorted in the coming months.
However, what has been the overall constant with this phone has been that it just works. We’ve never once found that it’s hung or failed on us. Sure, it can be sluggish at times but we’ve been lucky enough not to have to reboot the Nokia 5800. What’s more, Battery life has been better than expected, so you can use the Nokia 5800 away for a few days without having to worry about taking a charger.
It’s been a big year for the Nokia 5800 and anyone who has used it for any length of time will attest that it’s a good all-round device. The Nokia X6 – which in many respects is the logical upgrade of the Nokia 5800 – has a lot to live up to. That said, we’re looking forward to the capacitive display and extra memory the Nokia X6 has to offer.
Overall, the Nokia 5800 remains an impressive handset and one that is certainly well worth checking out. Been using the Nokia 5800 as long as us? Let us know your experiences in the Comments below...