Noknok

If you have a Nokia 5800 – one of the best selling mobile phones the world has seen to date – then finding a replacement can be a difficult task. Is the Nokia N8 the ideal solution? Some of our readers definitely think so, and we agree to an extent. To find out why the Nokia N8 is the ideal replacement for your Nokia 5800, join us after the break…

At the beginning of this week, we put the idea out that the Nokia X6 could be the perfect replacement for your Nokia 5800. Some of you disagreed, however, highlighting the similarities between the two, and the fact that the Nokia N8 could be a better choice. Prices in the smartphone world have certainly tumbled since the launch of the Nokia 5800, so perhaps the Nokia N8 will indeed fall within your budget.

If you can afford the Nokia N8, there’s definitely a lot to get excited about, and enough to differentiate it from your existing handset to make it well worth the upgrade. One of the best bits about the Nokia N8 is its screen – at 3.5 inches it’s a lot bigger than the 3.2-inch panel on the Nokia 5800, and it also uses more responsive capacitive technology rather than resistive technology.

The camera is perhaps the biggest single feature to get excited about on the Nokia N8. With a staggering 12-Megapixel resolution, Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash, it really is capable of taking photographs to match dedicated cameras, along with high-definition video recording – putting the Nokia 5800’s 3.2-Megapixel snapper to shame.

Nokia has also overhauled the operating system on the Nokia N8, with this handset being the first to get the brand new Symbian ^3 operating system. With finger-friendly touchscreen buttons, multiple home pages and an interface that’s designed around the touchscreen, it promises to be more user friendly than the Symbian S60 5th Edition OS found on the Nokia 5800.

Check out our Nokia N8 hands-on preview

Showing off its high-end credentials, the Nokia N8 also comes out on top when it comes to the design and build, being the first Nokia to be constructed from anodised aluminium. In comparison with the plastic finish on the Nokia 5800, it feels every bit the range-topping device.

The 16GB of integrated memory in the Nokia N8 also shames the 8GB microSD card storage of the Nokia 5800, with an additional microSD card slot found in the Nokia N8 to increase storage space if required.

Overall then, there can be no doubt which is the better phone, with the Nokia N8 taking the spoils and highlighting just how far the smartphone market has moved on since the launch of the Nokia 5800. Although the Nokia N8 may well prove affordable on a contract, however, it’s still likely to prove expensive on pay as you go. As such, if you need something a little cheaper, we’d still consider the Nokia X6 as a replacement for your Nokia 5800.