Nokia 5800 gets touched in the wild -- again
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jul 26th 2008 12:15PM
posted Jul 26th 2008 12:15PM
[Via The Nokia Blog]
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Ugliest UI ever.
yeah. It seems all the expert developers have jumped to apple or something, cuz iPhone is the only phone with an easy to use interface anymore.
The phone hasn't even been announced yet and you're already moaning? Nokia could create a phone that printed money and iDiots would still complain.
No, I love Nokia and that's aesthetic fail, at least what we've seen of it.
But still, it looks highly functional, more so than other virtual keyboards I've seen. And if anyone else is going to pull a touchscreen phone like this off, it's certainly Nokia, the number one cell phone company.
You don't need much to form strong opinions uh?
*Yawn*
Fail.
Yeah, that looks terrible! What a tiny space for content!
@derX
"it looks highly functional, more so than other virtual keyboards I've seen. And if anyone else is going to pull a touchscreen phone like this off, it's certainly Nokia, the number one cell phone company."
Don't get me wrong, I love many of Nokia's newer models, but have you actually used the iPhone's virtual keyboard? I've used just about every modern incarnation of a smartphone virtual keyboard, and I haven't experienced *anything* that comes close to Apple. In addition to the software being very responsive. the actual capacitive touchscreen is the best I've used.
I really doubt Nokia would release a really-shoddy implementation since it's trying to create an "iPhone killer", but that picture above DOES NOT inspire confidence.
And your comment that Nokia should be the best possible company to pull-off a well-implemented virtual keyboard neglects the fact that Apple is renowned for their unmatched ability to integrate well-designed hardware with very intuitive and polished software. I have a hard time believing Nokia would be able to outmatch Apple in that regard. However, if they can come pretty close and offer better features than the iPhone, then they will have a good competitor.
I would love to see a higher quality camera with autofocus and flash, decent quality video recording/conferencing, MMS, 800x480 screen, well-implemented version of Webkit or Opera, etc.
@loosely_coupled
I kind of agree with you, but when someone reads your comment they would think that you've actually tested the Nokia 5800.. (You don't know if the the 5800 will be very responsive or not) and you can't base your opinion on pictures; not until you actually try the product.. Also you said that there's not enough space? According to the pictures the "keys" are much larger than the iPhone.. I've actually tried the iPhone but I didn't like the touch feature because of that.. (And I am not saying that I don't like the UI).. Also knowing Nokia; I am sure that this phone will have features that the current iPhone will never ever do. Just like how the newer Nokia phones that are out now; there's a lot of things that the iPhone can't do.
Also I would just like to remind the people that Nokia usually aims for functionality and not just the looks... Apple in the other hand cares a lot about the looks but not the functionality..
And just want to point out.. what's the good in a phone if it looks good but doesn't have the features that you want in a phone. (or a "multimedia computer").
on screen keyboard.... Hmm I like the idea.
this article's title is the most homoerotic title i've seen on engadget today
lame ass Phone.
It's really nothing more than a touchscreen phone with an S60 touch-optimized OS. And if you know anything about phones, you'll know Symbian certainly isn't "lame ass."
-------
I get it. This current trend of making touchscreen phones of this nature was completely prompted by Apple (please don't even mention the damn LG Prada, we ALL know it's not because of them, who cares if they announced theirs first...and it was only by a couple of weeks if that much), but seriously, these phones aren't all iPhone knock offs. I guess this is what happened when flip phones and clamshells were all initially introduced. It's just a new form of phone. This damn iPhone knockoff stuff is just annoying.
I seriously couldn't care less than a damn about how the keyboard looks, I solely care about how functional it is and that certainly looks functional.
We're techno-geeks, remember Form < Function.
Pac-Man < dots
That's too funny. That's exactly what I was thinking of when I wrote that.
I'm sorry, but for a phone, form ~is~ function.
Of course, these are in-the-wild shots of a development build, so I won't be surprised when the final build is more polished.
Woa! You are reading the wrong blog, this is a fashion blog that covers consumer electronics, not a technology blog. Do you think the people writing these items are engineers? If you want techno-geek stuff look elsewhere.
lame ass phone
I am sure this phone will be on Symbian s60 platform and might belong to the N-Series rather than the xpressmusic tag or anything else.
I am sure this phone will be on Symbian s60 platform and might belong
to the N-Series rather than the xpressmusic tag or anything else.
Say it a third time and we'll believe you.
I fail to see what is so horrible about that keyboard. Engadget has a propensity to overreact I would say.
It actually looks quite functional, but it doesn't have the glamor of the iPhone keyboard. So I guess people would rather have a good looking keyboard app than a more functional one. I know from looking at it that I am less likely to hit the wrong key on this than the iPhone keyboard. However this keyboard takes up the entire screen, so they should at least have transparency so I can see what I am typing into.
I *looks* terrible in terms of aesthetics. In terms of usability, it's probably just fine, but they really should also skin those functionality buttons the same way as the normal buttons...if that happens (and I'm sure it will before the announcement), it wouldn't be half-bad imho.
Also, congrats to Engadget for picking the absolutely worst picture...
L, out of curiosity, are there other pictures of the keyboard--not necessarily better ones--from which Engadget could've chosen? If so, mind posting a link. If not, well, I guess that renders your point false.
(Not calling you out, just asking)
No, but I think that, for example, the size comparison shot (the one with the W950 and the N82) tells more than a shot of an obviously unfinished on-screen keyboard...
That horseshoe menu sucked balls, sure. But, it has been replaced with a 3D transparent menu that is very nice.
I "hate" my yellow teeth and your comment.
Look there is the stylus in the background. Based on the other 13 pics it does not seen to be needed for basic operation.At least they got that right
S60 UI is a thing from the past. Not only in terms of looks, but speeds. Talk about a touch phone that needs instant visual feedback when you move it.
S60 Touch had the potential to be something great.
Oh, I see somebody has been toying with a crystal ball again.
Honestly, how exactly do you deduct the working speed of something from pictures? Hmm? I'm eagerly waiting for an answer...
From the NOKIA promo videos (which should be showing the fastest version, or even a video running and someone tapping on it)
Add to that the initial impressions from MWC of it being painfully slow.
Add to that the fact we all saw it at the MWC, running on a very big, and capable machine, as the hardware wasn't ready yet. So yes, S60 Touch software isn't fast.
"Youtube" it.
*sigh* Those demo vids ran on an EMULATOR. Not real hardware, EMULATOR. Now if you'd actually tried the current S60 emulator, you'd see that it's MUCH slower than on the actual device. MUCH SLOWER.
You should better continue spamming the whole known blogoverse about how oh-so-great the untested Android and the completely unknown HTC Dream is going to be, because thinking beyond the painfully obvious sure as hell doesn't seem to be one of your strong points.
I agree that earlier s60 touch may have looked slow but you also have to look at the fact that recent s60 handsets have the power to run all of applications present in the phone at the same time with little or no lag what so ever. That shows what symbian is capable of doing on even relatively low (comparing to other smartphones) CPU power.
"L", listen, I have an E65 and I love it. I've had it for an entire year. Great. Very practical and has a truckloads of apps. Stable and does what it is supposed to do.
But toying with my friend's iPhone, my E65 running s60 looks like a phone from the stone age. In comparison, mine is very slow, sluggish, and in short, old gen.
I had high hopes for S60 Touch. But till now, every single review/preview/hands-on is stressing on one point: S60 Touch is eactly that; S60 that supports touch. Not the next-genish overhaul we would expect.
Android on the other hand, ran on a prototype device in May at the I/O conference, with lightening iphone-ish speeds and a beautiful UI. So yeah I think Android deserves everything I called it.
Oh and something else: S60 Touch is far from finger dependent. You WILL need a stylus.
Sure if S60 Touch turns out to be brilliantly fast and totally finger friendly then I just found my next upgrade. But till now, everything is pointing to the other direction.
The E65 was the last of the 220MHz S60 phones, and the last using plain S60 v3. Way to go to deduct the performance of a future device based on that...
The fact is: you know NOTHING about S60 Touch, you know nothing about the hardware it is going to run on, and yet you draw conclusions. Maybe you should become an analyst? I heard Gartner & Co are always in need for more clueless people who think they're important enough that everybody needs to know what they think...
Oh if you're gonna be like that (way to hold up a "I HAVE A PERSONALITY DEFICIT" flag), then please, let me know which S60 device u've held that was as fast as the iPhone. MAYBE even faster than the s60 Touch ads... you seem very arrogantly confident that unlike s60's vast history of devices, unlike the stylus-stressed campaign of s60 touch, you seem to believe it will be the next best thing.
So my humble advice is, wake up. S60 Touch so far is far from an iPhone killer. It's demonstrations were much slower than Android's, and s60 has always been slow.
My god you're dense.
*yawn*
is it all about looks now days ? thanks i am better off with functionality than looks, and apart from that oversized KB i don't find anything that kills the usability of that UI
and remember this is an s60 phone from Nokia, so most of what you see can be customized with themes and stuff, if you are into looks
FTFA
GSM / GPRS / EDGE / WCDMA / HSDPA / WLAN wireless networking and Bluetooth technology.
That's a whole lot of WIN
+GPS (with *real* navigation), A2DP, copy&paste, a browser that's also based on WebKit (just like Safari, but with Flash), a 3.2MPx AF cam, built-in TV-Out, a high-res 16:9 screen (640x360)...
And all that in a device that's actually fairly small.
Yeah, imho there's a lot to (potentially) love in that device.
Nokia has great hardware. The software backbone in actually pretty good. Great multi tasking etc. But the UI here is really 1995. It is amazing that things like nice icons, which people look at, and lack of aggressive third party involvement plague this giant. Having said that I am hoping to be proved wrong. http://www.babinokia.com has free themes for Nokia which can at least make them prettier. It is amazing that Nokia can’t do that. Embarrassing I would think.
That keyboard looks just like the one on their old 770 Internet tablet. The keyboard and alternate text input were excellent, although that old thing couldn't do a whole lot besides basic HTML webpages and music.
Johnny comelate better bring somethimg new to the party
Johnny comelate better bring somethimg new to the party
Or else, what? Last time I checked, Johnny's worldwide market share went from 38% to 40% in the last quarter.
There goes Bias Chris once again writing about a Nokia product. Do me the favor man and don't write unless your going to be fair about it. You should write about the big mess that is apple with their mobileme. If it were any other company engadget would be ripping them a new hole.
all you guys are after is the icon looks. lol/
dont worry nokia just made a collaboration with Kastor Tat UI.
i wont be surprise if this phone will be integrated with Kastor UI on final version or any future S60.
The design is very nice Just a little bit small for me but it looks like a nice device the only flaw i can see is a stylus pen
HELLO! wasn't this phone in BATMAN???????
um yeah it says to so in the article if you read it dumba$$
Ok so its maybe not as swish as the iphone, but i think it will be a great platfom, the guys and girls at nokia and symbian know what there doing
plus ive been waiting for a touchscreen smybian phone for ages, cant wait for this to come out!
I've owned a N95 for almost 2 years now. I shipped mine over to the US, when the ORIGINAL n95 was released in UK. Also, I've been a nokia fan for the past 5 years now.
Having said that, Symbian (and indirectly Nokia) kicked itself in the ass when they made it difficult for developers to get certificates to create apps for Symbian s60.
Till march of this year, getting an dev cert. was easy. Now it's soo difficult, the process back-logged for months, that its not worth it.
Before, developers would create an app, test it, release it, immediately get feedback from forum users and developers, make beta versions, and release the final polished app within a month. Now, even if you DO manage to create an app, if there are changes to be made, even a quick fix, Symbian states that a "request" has to be put in to make the changes, which might take anywhere frm 4-6 weeks to be accepted.
The apps for the s60 that they have up for sale....except for Garmin or Route66's GPS software..nothing worth it. Yeah, the "themes" created for the s60 OS will be awesome...but Symbian shot itself in the foot by making it's Application development process so restricted and opaque. And with apple providing the 3g iphone, with soo many apps ready and easy to be loaded, Verizon coming with the Blackberry Thunder, Sprint already out with the Instinct, Nokia now, only has the true Nokia fans left (in the US at least) for it's touchscreen phone.
So i'll wait for this Tube 5800 device to come out, but judging by the lack of decent apps for the Symbian OS s60 v3..i'll jump ship over to another touchscreen phone if Symbian doesn't get it's act together!
Signed,
Dissapointed at Symbian. Still love Nokia though!