Nokia 5800 Review of Hardware

March 19th, 2009 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

We started with a Nokia 5800 unboxing, but let’s now continue. I’ll tell you what I think about the hardware and physical aspects of the phone based on my 3 days of usage. I’ll talk about features, applications, or software-related stuff in upcoming posts along with the usual videos.

nokia 5800 (3 of 1)

Appearance

You cant go wrong with the Nokia 5800 having a black and shiny body with a mixture of curved and straight edges. It looks good and my friends agree. When the keyguard is on, the screen and button lights turn off, showing a shiny front surface. There are nice lines on the back that becomes visible depending on how light hits it.

nokia 5800 (2 of 2)

Build Quality

The Nokia 5800 is a touchscreen phone in a candybar form factor. There’s no moving slider to worry about wobbles, etc. Plastic is certainly the key material on this phone, but the 5800 surprisingly does not feel cheap. I don’t hear squeaking when I squeeze and don’t hear rattles when I shake it. Ricky from Symbian-Guru agrees by giving the Nokia 5800 build quality 5 of 5 stars.

Removing the battery cover is possible just by pulling it away from the phone. There’s no other button to press like in my previous phones, Nokia N85 or Nokia N95. It is locked on by 7 clips. Again, the material is plasticky, but it seems hard enough that I’m not worried it’ll break.

Size

The dimensions are 4.37 x 2.04 x 0.61 in. That size is typical for many candybar phones. It’s not too wide, making it very easy to wrap my hands around it. Like what Rafe from All About Symbian wrote on his Nokia 5800 review, “think of your typical candybar smartphone, remove the keypad and lengthen the screen and you’ll get pretty close to the feel of the 5800.”

Display

The Nokia 5800 has a 3.2in display with the resolution of 640×360 pixels. That’s 16:9 aspect ratio, great for watching widescreen movies and videos. The touchscreen is hard, so I don’t see “ripples” when I press. Graphics are sharp thanks to the high resolution. It’s good, but not as good as the Nokia N85 with OLED screen. For comparison, take a look at the Nokia N85 vs Nokia 5800 screen by CJ.

Buttons

When the phone is on keyguard, I see 3 buttons with grey lines. When I turn the phone on, they become green, white, and red buttons. The green button is for making or receiving phone calls, while red is for ending calls or heading back to home menu. The white one is for application menus. They are easy to press and best of all, emit no light leakage that nit-picky people look out for.

nokia 5800 (1 of 2)

Side. On the right side of the Nokia 5800 are the volume controls, keyguard, and camera button. I’m right-handed so the keyguard placed on the right side is very convenient for me. When I’m done using the phone and want to avoid accidental button press, I just flick the keyguard with my right thumb.

Speakers

The speakers on the Nokia 5800 are probably the best I’ve heard so far on any phone I’ve owned. I like songs with a lot of bass, and the 5800 handled them REALLY well. You have to listen to the Nokia 5800 yourself to know what I’m talking about. Don’t believe me? GSMArena has objective results that the Nokia 5800 has remarkable audio quality.

Built for videos. Both the left and right speakers are placed on the right side of the Nokia 5800. The placement is perfect for watching movies on the phone, but gets covered when holding the phone with the right hand during a loudspeaker call. Nevertheless, the speakers are loud and gave me no problems hearing my callers.

Connections & Ports

Micro-USB. The Nokia 5800 connects to your computer via wire with a micro-USB cable. The port is located on top of the 5800 for transferring data only. It will not charge the phone while using this connection.

Standard 3.5mm jack. A 3.5mm jack is on top of the Nokia 5800. This seems to be the standard placement on recent phones now because it is a lot easier to listen to music while the device is in the pocket. That same jack also connects to the TV-out cable where you can connect the Nokia 5800 to a TV. This is great to show off to your friends and family the widescreen video recorded on the phone on a bigger screen.

MicroSD and MicroSDHC. The Nokia 5800 takes microSD and microSDHC cards on the left side. The door to the slot made of hard plastic and is secure when closed. The retail package comes with an 8GB card already inside the phone. What’s weird is that you have to go to file manager first then tell the phone you would like to remove the card. Otherwise a warning message says it is unsafe to remove the card without telling the phone. I did not have to do this on the Nokia N85.

SIM card Slot. Below the microSHCD slot on the left side of the phone is actually a SIM card slot covered by a door similar to the one for the microSDr. It’s easy to insert a SIM inside, but you’ll need to open the battery cover and remove the battery to slide the SIM out.

Stylus. There’s a 3.5in stylus within the battery cover. I think it’s useless, but Nokia put it there for people that might want it. I can imagine it very useful for handwriting notes, but I know I won’t be doing that on this phone.

Camera

The 3 megapixel camera on the Nokia 5800 is not protected by a lens cover. To activate the camera on the phone, you simply push down on the camera button. I don’t want to talk about the camera functions and the way it works yet because that will be in an upcoming part of the review.

The Nokia 5800 has dual LEDs for camera flash. However, it’s not as bright as the xenon flash on the Nokia N82. An advantage with using the LEDs, is that you can use it as a continuous light source when creating videos in poor light conditions. More thoughts on the camera and picture quality later.

Final Thoughts

The Nokia 5800 looks nice, has a pretty good build quality, sharp display, and great speakers. I don’t see anything to complain about when it comes to the hardware or physical aspects. In the next few days, I’ll actually turn the device on and review my usage experience. I’ll let you know if it affects the top 5 things I do on my phone. Stay tuned.

To read more about the Nokia 5800, head over to Dial-a-Phone, one of our sponsors, for pricing, deals, and other user reviews.

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View Comments »

  1. William J Sisti on 19 March 2009:

    the more i read the more i want them to ship me my pre-order!

  2. Vincent on 19 March 2009:

    They already send out pre-order, mine was shipped March 18-09

  3. Mobiele Telefoons » Mark over at The Nokia Blog wrote up his review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. … on 19 March 2009:

    [...] Nokia Blog wrote up his review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Give it a read if you dig the 5800XM http://bit.ly/ihtU Tags: fresh, [...]

  4. sharomyga on 19 March 2009:

    finally, my pre-order has been shipped!

  5. sharomyga on 19 March 2009:

    btw, nice review, waiting for part 2

  6. Ola on 20 March 2009:

    @sharomyga, When did you pre order yours… I pre ordered mine about 4 weeks ago and they say its probabaly gonna ship three weeks from now… Can’t wait that long…

  7. Mobiele Telefoons » RT @sloanb: Mark over at The Nokia Blog wrote up his review of the Nokia … on 20 March 2009:

    [...] at The Nokia Blog wrote up his review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Give it read if you dig 5800XM http://bit.ly/ihtU Tags: fresh, [...]

  8. Nokia 5800 Review of Hardware | The Nokia Blog | Betterseller.de on 20 March 2009:

    [...] We started with a Nokia 5800 unboxing, but let’s now continue. I’ll tell you what I think about the hardware and physical aspects of the phone based on my 3. Original post: Nokia 5800 Review of Hardware | The Nokia Blog [...]

  9. EJC on 20 March 2009:

    Yes! They’ve finally shipped it!

  10. djsm on 20 March 2009:

    when did you ppl buy your pre-ordered for 5800 cause i pre-Order mine march 1 at 7am and mine still says backorder. thanks just want to here some hope. thanks

  11. WOM World / Nokia » Blog Archive - Does the 5800’s hardware match expectations? on 20 March 2009:

    [...] Guim has been using the 5800 XpressMusic for a few days, and brings us his thoughts on the physical aspects of the device over at The Nokia [...]

  12. Sameer on 20 March 2009:

    can you tell me where got that wallpaper?

  13. sharomyga on 20 March 2009:

    @djsm, 02.18.2009 pre-ordered mine

  14. kay on 20 March 2009:

    I just got mine today. It’s a great phone. Even though I was mad that it took so long for them to ship it, but now that I have the phone and seeing how nice it is, I forgot about all the angers. Except now I have to contact Nokia, because I didnt get the black phone case that it come with it.

  15. djsm on 20 March 2009:

    you dont get the black phone case with the NAM 5800 only other country’s you do. hey when did u pre-order phone.

    thanks

  16. jhay on 21 March 2009:

    did anyone get a extra stylus? I didn’t get mine

  17. EJC on 21 March 2009:

    @djsm, I pre-ordered mine Feb 23.

  18. sharomyga on 21 March 2009:

    whoever received the phone from nokiausa.com can you confirm if it includes extra stylus and carrying case like in euro version?

  19. AQ on 21 March 2009:

    @sharomyga,

    I didnt get the carrying case neither the extra pen stylus. Suxs I thought it came with all of that. Im gonna call in and tell them that I didnt get any of that. Lets see what they say. I was hoping for the carrying case at least.

  20. Mark Guim on 21 March 2009:

    @sharomyga, looks like the NAM version did not get either an extra stylus or the case.

  21. illusionado on 22 March 2009:

    5800 is the most satisfying 500$(?) touch phone ^^

  22. sharomyga on 22 March 2009:

    that is sad, I don’t know why they doing it..

  23. TheNokiaBlog, video Nokia 5800 unboxing « P@ssioneMobile on 22 March 2009:

    [...] Fonte:thenokiablog [...]

  24. Mark Guim on 22 March 2009:

    @sharomyga, i don’t need to use the stylus.. want mine?

  25. jhay on 22 March 2009:

    That’s sucks no extra stylus or case :(

  26. Kamal Rockett on 24 March 2009:

    i can't wait to have this in my possesion, I love my Nokia.

  27. dan (shpe) on 25 March 2009:

    check my multi-touch alternative for zoom/rotate/pan controls: http://concepts.shpe.ro/ZoomRotate.php

    video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oji_Csv2m_0

  28. sharomyga on 25 March 2009:

    thanks for offer ;) , are you serious?

  29. jhay on 26 March 2009:

    I got mine for 400 bucks with md-6 speakers with two day fedex shipping from mobilecityonline :) .. I'm not sure if they;re still offering the md-6 speakers

  30. sharomyga on 27 March 2009:

    Finally received mine, overall experience is very positive, in fact I love the phone ;-) , however got two problems out of the box. First cannot see my contacts when connect to Audi car kit via blluetooth, it says “button not used”. The second one is “famous gap” I've read so many times about it, was hoping not to get one on my Nokia 5800 but got one, besides people say it varies from phone to phone. The one I have is bretty big, you can see stuff inseide the phone through it.

  31. Pnoy in US on 31 March 2009:

    I don't know if you know about it already that Nokia released new firmware for 5800 yesterday but some people said that nothing happens when they tried to update it. Perhaps in some version is not available yet. Here's the article:

    “Today Nokia released new firmware update for the 5800 XpressMusic. Being quite a major release it brings improvements in a number of areas. According to Nokia it should improve the performance and the user interface as well as add some new applications.

    The new firmware version brings in the Mobile Dictionary and Application Update Apps to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The first one offers you voice playback and text-to-speech, supporting 38 languages.

    As the name suggests Application Update manages the new updates for your installed apps, making them easy to keep up to date.

    The 5800 XpressMusic new firmware revision also brings two new camera features. The first is the burst mode, which allows the primary camera to take multiple photos with a single key press. The second is enabling the secondary camera to take photos. Up until now it could only be used for video-calling.

    As usually lots of bug-fixes and performance improvements complete the change log. According to Nokia the 5800 XpressMusic handsets that get the new firmware should have faster user interface and greater download speeds.

    Considering the enormous popularity of the 5800 XpressMusic it's hardly surprising that Nokia are rushing to fix all those irritating bugs that plague its first S60 full touch handset. Despite some hardware issues it had recently, the handset is selling in volumes, making it quite likely that this is not the last firmware update it will see.”

  32. ajay verma on 6 April 2009:

    how much colour configuration in n 96…………..

  33. gfong on 16 May 2009:

    can it zoom in/out of the photos like iphone?

  34. Nokia 5800 on 17 May 2009:

    nokia had release their hottest economic smartphone for their lovely costomer.
    nokia 5800 bring much interesting application and interesting to own.
    Im from Malaysia and i have bought this smartphone twice one for mine and one for my brother.

    I have review so many website and blog before purchase this smartphone.
    This is blog i recommend to refer because it compared nokia 5800 with other smartphone.
    take your time, have a look for a minute.

    nokia-5800-touchscreen.blogspot.com

  35. goku on 10 June 2009:

    SOME PPL SAID nokie 5800 is freaking lag..

  36. SmartAss on 19 September 2009:

    And you can`t freaking spell.

  37. shaven on 14 October 2009:

    This Phone Is Standard

  38. krzysztof on 21 November 2009:

    Not very interesting phone

  39. gs1 on 12 December 2009:

    Phone died in 5 days. 4+counting attempts to repair by nokia.

    if you find anything wrong. RETURN for REFUND immed if possible.
    Purhcased at NYC flagship store. I had the phone working for 1st 5 days. When the battery started to discharge, i tried charging. It didnt charge at all. Store gave me new battery saying battery was at fault. Again same issue. It wudnt even turn on with the charger connected – so clearly its not just battery problem. By the time this battery discharged , the 14 day return period was over – pretty sure they knew it.
    Then started the saga of sending to nokia service center – PALCO. Already sent 4 times. each time had to ship back same evening or next day. Same problem for “repaired” “replaced” and “repaired again” phone.
    First they claim its “repaired”, then 2nd time they claim “cannot be repaired…so replaced”…why did they send it then?
    but the so called replaced also had same issue – how can this be co-incidence?
    again sent…they claim repaired….but same issue.
    When i call….they dont agree to send me a courtesy phone since its clearly their mistake and 4 attempts are enough to figure out im being cheated.
    They wont give me refund or replacement.
    They wont even agree to send me a email saying they take responsibility to resolve the issue.
    5 is not my lucky number….i have no hope it will get resolved.
    looks like they will continue playing ping-pong till end of 12 months.

    WORST set of people.

    Bottom line: NEVER BUY UNLOCKED PHONES- even if its nokia flagship store
    NEVER BUY NOKIA
    RETURN WHEN YOU CAN

  40. gs1 on 12 December 2009:

    Phone died in 5 days. 4+counting attempts to repair by nokia.

    if you find anything wrong. RETURN for REFUND immed if possible.
    Purhcased at NYC flagship store. I had the phone working for 1st 5 days. When the battery started to discharge, i tried charging. It didnt charge at all. Store gave me new battery saying battery was at fault. Again same issue. It wudnt even turn on with the charger connected – so clearly its not just battery problem. By the time this battery discharged , the 14 day return period was over – pretty sure they knew it.
    Then started the saga of sending to nokia service center – PALCO. Already sent 4 times. each time had to ship back same evening or next day. Same problem for “repaired” “replaced” and “repaired again” phone.
    First they claim its “repaired”, then 2nd time they claim “cannot be repaired…so replaced”…why did they send it then?
    but the so called replaced also had same issue – how can this be co-incidence?
    again sent…they claim repaired….but same issue.
    When i call….they dont agree to send me a courtesy phone since its clearly their mistake and 4 attempts are enough to figure out im being cheated.
    They wont give me refund or replacement.
    They wont even agree to send me a email saying they take responsibility to resolve the issue.
    5 is not my lucky number….i have no hope it will get resolved.
    looks like they will continue playing ping-pong till end of 12 months.

    WORST set of people.

    Bottom line: NEVER BUY UNLOCKED PHONES- even if its nokia flagship store
    NEVER BUY NOKIA
    RETURN WHEN YOU CAN

  41. buy nintendo dsi r4 on 26 January 2010:

    The 5800 will keep you entertained longer..I would give 9/10 for 5800 but camera is not that bad but video is better plus all that lovely big high pixel screen and all the smartfone add ons..

  42. SamiLogi on 1 February 2010:

    the 5800 is a great phone. i got a good deal on mine from gsmallover.com. i saved lots by getting it online cuz i didn’t have to sign a new phone contract but i also didn’t have to pay full price for my phone. the apps aren’t the beeest but i’m not that into apps anyways.. the phone is great. hands down.

  43. Nikola on 2 March 2010:

    Nokia 5800 has the worst build quality ever and the original case sux to

  44. rama10 on 18 April 2010:

    are yaar now nokia 5800 has been very bad phone. Every thing not perfect,camera is 3.2 mp but quality is not even 2mp, it is written as xpressmusic but sound quality is not as good as nokia n73(which was best ever phone), touchsreen not responsive like other brand(samsung,sony,LG). Don't buy this phone. Now i m planning to sell it. Don't appreciate this phone. Nokia ha launched a fake set.

  45. Disappointed Nokia Customer on 20 April 2010:

    Defective Nokia 5800 Phone. Purchased from Nokia online USA February 2010. Phone worked for 1 month, then began experiencing freezing, restarts and complete failure. Now 2 months old, the phone freezes and attempts to restart every 15 minutes. Memory card formating, hard rest, and software updates do not resolve the problem.

    Nokia support is slow. 2-3 business days for responses and decision for repairs. I have been waiting for one week for a repair authorization.

    In my opinion, Nokia cannot manufacture “smart phones.” Their entire “high end” products have poor software and hardware engineering. After being a long time Nokia customer, the current Nokia brand and Nokia 5800 have been a disappointment, and they have lost me as a customer. My recommendation: do not purchase Symbian 60 type phones or any Nokia “smart phone”, they are not reliable, and remember, you get what you pay for in software/hardware quality.

  46. Soundje on 16 May 2010:

    I have the 5800 for one week now and very pleased with it. The sound is amazing for a phone, with earplugs and the build in speakers. The touchscreen sometimes don't responce so you have to press a bit harder but it works. One nice thing are the three buttons for accapeting and hanging up the phone. It works a lot better than the touch buttons. It is a simple phone but with all the featers i need and want.

    One thing is on the downside and that is the camera. In normal light outside it makes great pictures but inside with light switched on it is a bit disapointing. The older 7373 makes better pictures. Compare it with the N82 and you will cry because the N82 makes a lot better pictures also thanks to the xeon flash.

    In all, it is a funny phone with WiFi so internet at home works well. For music it is a great phone but for the pictures, better take a photocamera with you. But on the other hand, it is a music phone so pictures “is an option”. Oh one thing has to be said, if you listen to hardcore house with a lot of base, on the bould in speakers, it will sound crappy but hey, it is not a discophone so keep the settings a bit in reason and don't turn it op to 120%. ( for the “baseheads” kids among us )

  47. Soundje on 16 May 2010:

    * my excuses for the crappy english, it is a bit late and i am tiered ;)

  48. Soundje on 16 May 2010:

    I have the 5800 for one week now and very pleased with it. The sound is amazing for a phone, with earplugs and the build in speakers. The touchscreen sometimes don't responce so you have to press a bit harder but it works. One nice thing are the three buttons for accapeting and hanging up the phone. It works a lot better than the touch buttons. It is a simple phone but with all the featers i need and want.

    One thing is on the downside and that is the camera. In normal light outside it makes great pictures but inside with light switched on it is a bit disapointing. The older 7373 makes better pictures. Compare it with the N82 and you will cry because the N82 makes a lot better pictures also thanks to the xeon flash.

    In all, it is a funny phone with WiFi so internet at home works well. For music it is a great phone but for the pictures, better take a photocamera with you. But on the other hand, it is a music phone so pictures “is an option”. Oh one thing has to be said, if you listen to hardcore house with a lot of base, on the bould in speakers, it will sound crappy but hey, it is not a discophone so keep the settings a bit in reason and don't turn it op to 120%. ( for the “baseheads” kids among us )

  49. Soundje on 16 May 2010:

    * my excuses for the crappy english, it is a bit late and i am tiered ;)

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