Comments on: New Nokia 5800 XM firmware to make wishlist a reality; kinetic scrolling, improved camera and more

By: Allen

Allen — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:11:35 +0000

I have bought a Nokia 5530 and I thing that Nokia solved most of 5800 problems unfortunately without 3G and GPS.. (Kinetic, Screen of glass, etc.)

By: Soner

Soner — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:25:52 +0000

People looking for a pretty phone go for the iphone, but keep this in mind, it relies on its apps to make it a great phone. The 5800’s UI is way behind but the phone makes up for it with features. I owned an Iphone first and then went to the 5800 because of java, flash, internal gps, better rez screen, way louder speakers (yes two, not just one, start up time (the 5800 takes all of 10 seconds unlike the iphone), stability (I hated how the iphone would constantly loose a signal and it would crash all the time), and of course signal strenth. Nokia’s signal strength is unmatched. While I had 2 bars with the iphone I would have 4 with nokia. Places where the Iphone would not call it the 5800 still hard a bar. If you want features and have a low budget go with the 5800 but if you want something flashy and don’t care go for the iphone.

By: Make a Wish List

Make a Wish List — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:10:15 +0000

I have added this mobile device to my christmas wish list!

By: Hary

Hary — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:26:39 +0000

@Anthony,

No this is not the same firmware as described in this article. Are you a NAM user like me?
This FW version V21.2.025 was released before 10 days or so for NAM users.
I recommend upgrading it as it has improved stability and also device overall is faster and browser too.

http://forum.dailymobile.se/index.php/topic,9030.0.html

By: Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:13:49 +0000

I connected my 5800XM this morning to Nokia PC Suite and and it prompted me to update it. V21.2.025 is currently downloading and installing on the phone. It’s 127MB. Is this the same update that that is referenced in the artical?

By: Hary

Hary — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:14:04 +0000

@Moo,
I didn’t say Symbian UI is best, it is not, Nokia also knows that and every Symbian user also knows that. But just a flashy UI like Apple is not the only thing you want in your wishlist.
And about signle-click and double-click, there is a certain method and explanation for that.
IF you don’t know, look at Nokia’s video about touchscreen use on their website. Even without video, you can easily figure out after using phone few times that where to do single click and where double click. This method was developed for Asian customers where this is more popular.

@David,
If you haven’t figured out that the best way to search a contact in S60v5 and S60v3 is to use their search functionality, which is so good. IT filters the alphabets for you in the order they exist, so you don’t have to look at the entire keyboard and make typing mistakes. I think that is the best implementation of address book search. IF you think you should use scroll bar, then i think you don’t deserve this phone, since you don’t know how to make use of its enhanced features like above. You also can’t figure out that there are several apps for 5800 ad s60v5 already. Its a shame. ITs better you go to blackberry or iphone.

By: christexaport

christexaport — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:20:52 +0000

The 5800 is putting up iPhone sales numbers, so its very important. Its one of the biggest selling phones in the world right now. No phone at its price point comes close. It competes with devices twice its price, which shows part of its prowess.

By: christexaport

christexaport — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:20:05 +0000

The 5800 is putting up iPhone sales numbers, so its very important. Its one of the biggest selling phones in the world right now.

By: christexaport

christexaport — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:18:41 +0000

@ david,
You having problems finding apps? It seems you’ve fallen into the spoonfed Apple way of finding apps instead of how every other PC platform does it, which is just using Google. There are multiple Symbian App Stores and app depositories.

Since 5th Edition is new, not as much exists for it as 3rd Edition, but many 3rd Edition apps work just fine on 5th Edition. Here’s a few suggestion to fit your probable needs.

You MUST sign up for Files on Ovi, a free remote file access service. You can stream all your music and access all your data remotely, and it cost you nothing.

For IM and VOIP, try Nimbuzz, which I’ve found to be excellent, supporting all the major protocols, including MySpace Chat. Alot better than Fring, IM+, and Palringo.

I know you might be used to using an app for everything if you had an iPhone, but the browser is alot better. If you find it too slow, its because it loads all the Flash content and Javascript, which you can disable if you wish for more speed. I prefer to see all of the web in a slightly slower browser than speeding and leaving most of the content behind. That being said, the Gmail app is superfluous, as Nokia Messaging performs well with Gmail, and will monitor all of your POP, IMAP, and webmail accounts simultaneously with full PUSH service for instantaneous email delivery. I swear by it. The default email client will become Nokia Messaging once it leaves beta.

I don’t know how you’re unable to find a chess game. Did you even bother to just fire up the web browser, use Google, and search for “N97 chess game”? I found a plethora of options here:

http://www.google.com/search?q=N97+chess+game&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=

I believe Dr. Jukka makes a free chess game in widget form. Check his site for that and other options:

http://www.drjukka.com/

Nokia did away with the default VOIP client to allow the third party developers to create their own UIs and add value through apps or whatever they could to increase their monetization. You can use Nimbuzz as a VOIP client, as well as most of the other IM clients on S60. The experience will be improved because of the competition.

What firmware is your 5800 XM? Is it carrier branded? Even my N97 is stable now, and rock solid, so I’m surprised to hear your device is not. Maybe you need to update the firmware, you may have a rogue app causing issues, or your device may need servicing. Try a full backup, then reflash and see if it improves.

I agree with scrolling. The scroll bar was sadly implemented. I do suggest this, however. Try hitting the open areas above and below the scroll bar. Hitting there will automatically scroll the screen down or up one level respectively. Its not as good as kenetic scrolling, which I expect to see in all menus soon, but it works well once you get over not having kenetic in the menus.

I’m shocked that you can’t find much to love with such a cheap phone. It does any and everything the iPhone can do, and plenty it can’t. I think you must view the 5800 more as a quirky PC than a phone, because it has few limitations, and it can be whatever you wish (unless you wish it were an HTC Hero or an iPhone…). I prefer the 5800 to both of those devices, and no Blackberry Pearl could ever be its contemporary.

By: John Jacob Jingleheimer

John Jacob Jingleheimer — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:52:20 +0000

It also has a resistive touchscreen and a UI that looks like my first Atari.

By: stewie325

stewie325 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:35:05 +0000

“The handset was a bit dated before it even came to market and it has been a tiny bit difficult to keep caring about it.”

At launch the 5800 had copy/paste, MMS, 3mpx camera, full search feature etc…

By: Viipottaja

Viipottaja — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:22:10 +0000

Beeve,

LOL, it has sold 6.8 million units so far so the updates will matter to a LOT of people.

By: David

David — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:26:12 +0000

@canismajor
“huge huge selection of application”?? It seems we are not speaking about the same phone. I have it since January now and am still looking for 2-3 nice apps. The only app I used to like was mobbler to listen to lastfm, but now that we have to pay for lastfm, I am left with… nothing. Fring is useless on the nokia (the sound quality is horrible and the UI is everything except user friendly). Gmail is buggy… There is not even a “chess” application and the Nokia built in VoIP support I had in previous version (like N82) was removed…
Also… “incredibly stable”? I had numerous freeze in the last few months… don’t see how it can get worse…
And the touch screen… try to find a contact by scrolling the list… if you don’t throw away your phone, I ll buy you a bier
And well… I do see the comparison to a whore inappropriate… now that I have used the phone for a few months, I wouldn’t even pay for it…

By: CanisMajor

CanisMajor — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:01:11 +0000

@Beeve,

When it comes to a phone, being a whore is good. The more customers the phone sleeps with, the better. So, you paid the 5800 a nice compliment by calling it a whore.

@Invid,

The reason S60 users love the UI is that it is
1) Pretty intuitive (especially with a D-pad, the touch less so)
2) Incredibly stable (no random reboots, freezes, etc) with a full-suite of Nokia applications that are equally stable
3) Very speedy boot up time
4) A huge, huge selection of applications
5) A wide selection of form factors, with consistent UIs across all

By: Imtiaz

Imtiaz — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:53:49 +0000

Err, did anyone care to notice that the original post at the dailymobile.se forum did not confirm the enhanced homescreen to be like N-97?

It only mentions enhanced homescreen and the whole blogger lot who copy pasted that ran with that story as if it were declared true. Wonderful!

All praise the stupidity of the internets.

By: Moo

Moo — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:15:03 +0000

The Symbian UI is okay, my problem was with doing things by touch. At some places, touching once gets the job done. At other places you need to touch twice. Scrolling works differently in different applications/ features. The on screen keyboards are awful, and I played with all possibilities. Implementation of the touch functions is moderate at best – a lot of things stayed in a menu – what do you have the touchscreen for?! When I buy a touchscreen phone, I want to be able to do things by touching the screen. If I need to go through menus for everything, what do I need a beautiful touchscreen for? I ordered this phone in preorder in the US (Valentine’s day promotion) and paid almost $400 for it. Within 2 months it’s already been reduced to $300 and nowadays you can find it for as low as $230 if you’re willing to wait for a good promotion to come by (Nokia, Dell and Amazon all had promotions like these).
After using the phone for a month, I went back to my Blackberry Pearl, with which I could do so much more in less time. The iPhone and the Pre are the only two touch devices that I’ve seen so far in which you can do something just as quickly and painfully as you could do in a non-touch phone.

By: travis

travis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:11:41 +0000

XM 5800 is cheap and the best.

By: Hary

Hary — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:44:39 +0000

Well, Moo said he had many nokia phones before, if it was true, then he should have had no trouble with the UI. There should be no learning curve involved in that case. He should have been more comfortable than most.
But yes, you cannot compare with i-phone as they are 2 different products targeted with their own unique features and diff. target markets. If you want everything that i-phone has and then also want to just pay <$300 for an unlocked phone. (true unlocked i mean, not like i-phone, who is not even sold unlocked), then you should have not bought this phone anyways.

By: Moo

Moo — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:04:50 +0000

I had it. It’s a piece of crap, and Nokia’s support and customer service were crappy as well. And I was a long time nokia fan and had many nokia phones before. I can’t say anything good about this phone. It felt like a half baked product with terrible UI. Hopefully this update will help some of the users out there. Mine went on eBay and I lost money in the process, but at least I didn’t need to convince myself every day that my phone is fine.

By: 5th

5th — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:14:42 +0000

sto sto sto sto sto sto sto sto sto sto sto STORM 2 Hell YEAH!!!!

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:05:55 +0000

I have a NAM 5800 and I like it quite a bit…

The only thing I wish it had is more compatible apps (myspace and Hava Player, Nokia Internet Radio) and kinetic scrolling in the web-browser and across the UI.

I kinda wish it had Push Notifications…

But I mean in general I like it… I can tether my 5800 connection with my iPod Touch via Joikuspot and I have a cellular/data capable iPod Touch.

By: Hary

Hary — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:14:02 +0000

Mr. Beeve,
5800 XM is a very good phone, though it does not have the leisure of an Apple app store equivalent.

I and millions of other users would be very happy if the above features are included in the next firmware and i hope that they also release that firmware for US customers on time.

Open your eyes and research a bit before making comments. Its Nokia’s best handset in last year, you can also notice that in Nokia’s earnings results last week.

By: Invid

Invid — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:39:00 +0000

No problems with competition here, I just wish I could understand the appeal of the device. I know S60 fans love them though, just can’t figure out why.

From the reviews I’ve seen, the UI sucks. I guess it just shows how regional differences colour perceptions. If I was given one of these I wouldn’t even open the box, just sell it and buy something better.

By: toRii

toRii — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:04:58 +0000

^ *rolls eyes*

i’ll never understand why some people can’t just be happy with competition. it benefits US, the consumer.

By: wallyson

wallyson — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:02:04 +0000

I know what’s on your mind Beeve.

Funny thing about this phone is how high it rates among users. (found this on another website).

By: Beeve

Beeve — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:46:12 +0000

You know, you can take a whore off the corner and dress her up to look nice and respectable. She’s still a whore. (Unless it’s Julia Roberts I guess). The moral to the story being that there’s a one in a million chance that this will matter to anyone.