Gadget News

The world of touchscreen mobile phones is starting to get exciting, as the most recognised face in the industry has brought out not one, but TWO mobile phones: the sexy Nokia 5800 and the unspeakably mind-blowing Nokia N97.

Many people are under the false impression that the Nokia 5800 is the first touchscreen mobile phone Nokia have ever made. It’s not. Actually, there’s been several touch-based phones released under the Nokia badge. Beginning with the 7700, we’ve seen a couple of Nokia mobile phones that work by you pressing directly on the screen. They all shared pretty big touchscreens, but unfortunately, they shared something else: they were irredeemably rubbish. Just one of those devices, the 6708, displayed any potential, but that was destined exclusively for the Chinese market, and thus, it wasn’t meant for us in Britain. The mobile phones WE got were, and I use this phrase with much feeling, utter, and complete bobbins. However, those unpleasant memories have all been removed due to the debut of a pair of new Nokia mobile phones, both of which come with touchscreens, and both of which are so much more alluring…

Nokia 5800 – sound, vision and touch

The first phone up is a completely new entrant into Nokia’s Xpress line of music mobile phones, the gorgeous Nokia 5800. This phone is very obviously designed for music and media, as it has a dedicated XpressMusic touch-key which pops up a list of shortcuts to music, videos, the internet, and so on. Then, of course, the Nokia 5800 has a 3.2 inch touchscreen, to let you use those different media content. Basically, the Nokia 5800 was designed as a teeny handheld jukebox and movie player, and as music phones go, this is just about the sweetest. The Nokia 5800 also has, built-in, a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA data access and sat-nav, so that it’s a superb all-rounder, in addition to being a wonderful media gadget. Oh, and it has a lanyard to clip on a fake guitar pick. That rocks.

However, the Nokia 5800 is very definitely a mid-range device; it isn’t, nor will it ever be, a full-fat top-ender. That position belongs to another handset…

Nokia N97 – mind-blowing…

With the Nokia 5800 on track to deliver touchscreen mobile phones to the mid-range market, that leaves a great big gap at the absolute top-end, and yes, there IS a touchscreen mobile phone coming soon to fill that gap: the frankly mind-blowing Nokia N97. This uses the same Symbian S60 Touch interface as the 5800, and crams it into the body of a proper, full-on smartphone. Which means it’s got a massive, 3.5 inch screen, a flip out QWERTY keypad, and the camera now weighs in at a meaty 5 megapixels. The Nokia N97 is, in a very definite way, destined to be the new flagship Nseries mobile phone, and it really is as high-spec as the rumours had us believe, with HSDPA, GPS, digital compass, and integrated Flash, meaning you get an internet experience like no other mobile phones! Put simply the Nokia N97 is unbelievable. It gleefully relieves itself over other mobile phones and while the Nokia 5800 aims to take over the mid-range, I reckon that the Nokia N97 will totally DOMINATE the world next year!