Gadgetrepublic.com - Gadget Review

The XpressMusic mobile handset comes to market long after the iPhone and its ilk but when it comes to touch screen technology some things are definitely worth the wait.

The 5800 XpressMusic has very capable touch interface and beats many other manufacturer's offerings in terms of accuracy and feel.

Off the bat the first thing that stands out about the XpressMusic is its sheer choice of input: you can simply use you finger or the included stylus or plectrum and you can even hand write your text messages once you train the 5800's hand writing recognition software with your scribbles.

Now usually when a touch screen comes with a stylus it is because the interface is lacking that sensitivity that has you abandon finger pressing and end up tapping with your fingernail or a paperclip out of sheer frustration.

This is not the case with the 5800: outside of the iPhone this felt like the best and most accurate touch interface I have used to date: there was no misdirected taps or finicky sensors that felt like they were only covering half the icon.

I also like the buzzy feedback that gave you a definitive sense of having made contact. The only drawback is that it seems as though Nokia designed menu items to be touched twice.

This was quite annoying at times as I had to press once to select and a second time to actually launch or open the application.

Also the scrolling menu bar at the side could have done with being a little bigger - I wasn't sure if it would be sensitive enough to detect my finger scrolling along it and used the plectrum instead.

Typing text on the handset is quite a relief - you have a choice between the usual alphanumeric or a virtual QWERTY keyboard when sending text messages - a good design feature.

Interface aside the XpressMusic as the name would suggest is heavy on the music focus as well as other multimedia.

In order to give you instant access to your music, imagery, video and web content at all times there is a dedicated media button on the top right-hand corner.

Although the earphones (3.5-mm headphone jack) hat came with the XpressMusic didn't look very expensive, in combination with the device, sound was high quality and immersive.

As for belting out music for friends - it has a surround sound speakers built in.

While Nokia remains very focused on music with this handset - it supports most digital music formats - the interface for flicking through from album to album or song to song is quite, well, ordinary but there is access to the Nokia Music store, which rivals the iTunes one for choice.

Web access is great - a big improvement on pervious non-smartphone Nokia handsets. The pages are displayed in full and can be zoomed into and flicked through.

This has always been a bone of contention for me with 'internet-capable' devices because unless you're paying big bucks for a fancy smartphone it seems as thought he average punter has to put up with an 'internet-just-about-capable' device with horrid interface.

I can safely say that this is a phone I'd surf the web on and with its price-point it will most certainly be a huge seller amongst teens and young adults.

There are many other reasons to give the XpressMusic a shot - the 3.2-megapixel Karl Zeiss lens, the Ovi Share features for syncing contacts and uploading video and photos online and of course Ngage, which has addictive games like Monopoly and the ability to share scores with friends in your gaming community.

But one feature that will excite most users is one that will be accessible to owners of Nokia handsets: the Ovi Store.

The Ovi Store has not launched yet but when it does later this year expect it to have the same impact as the iTunes App Store - this promises to bring great applications straight to your phone.

Price: From €49 on Vodafone and €99 on O2

By Marie Boran