There's no doubt the iPhone gave everyone who makes mobile phones a wake up call. And now, the biggest name in phones has answered that call with TWO new handsets: the sleek Nokia 5800 and the terrifyingly mind-blowing Nokia N97.
Why should we care if Nokia make touchscreen phones?
It's a question that some people have asked, and it's quite an important one... Nokia clearly have a massive market share. And yet, they're only just started making mobile phones with touchscreens. Given that their previous forays into the world of touchscreen phones have been unusual at best and downright unusable at worst, why now should things be any different? Why should be that interested in the Nokia 5800 or the Nokia N97?
Well, there's a simple answer to that: the iPhone. By that, I mean that the iPhone has made every manufacturer up their game, and look at how their mobile phones work, how they interact with the user, and how they can enrich the user's life. Nokia, it seems, have taken that to heart, and have created an entirely new operating system; a whole new software world to build their touchscreen phones on. That, in itself is a compelling reason to pay attention to their new handsets, but it's not just about the software. How we, as users, react to mobile phones is based purely on our feelings, and what Nokia have done here is craft a pair of mobile phones that can genuinely make you feel better than ever!
Nokia 5800 - touch and listen...
The first phone up is a completely new member of Nokia's Xpress range of music mobile phones, the gorgeous Nokia 5800. This phone is pretty obviously built for music and media, as it has a dedicated XpressMusic touch-key that opens a list of links to music, videos, the internet, and more. Then, of course, the Nokia 5800 has a 3.2 inch touch-sensitive display, to let you use those different media content.
Essentially, the Nokia 5800 was designed to be a teeny portable entertainment centre, and as music devices go, this is just about the prettiest. The Nokia 5800 has also got a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA internet connection and sat-nav, so that it's a brilliant all-round mobile phone, on top of being a wonderful media box. Oh, and it has a strap to fasten on an imitation guitar pick. That is really very funky. However, the Nokia 5800 is very definitely a mid-range phone; it's not, nor was it ever meant to be, a full-fat powerhouse. That job falls to another device...
Nokia N97 - raw, phone-based power
With the Nokia 5800 on course to bring touchscreen mobile phones to the mid-range market, that leaves a very big gap at the very top-end of the product range; well, there IS a touch-based mobile phone coming soon to take its place as the top-end powerhouse: the utterly awesome Nokia N97. This uses the same Symbian S60 Touch operating system and packages it within the shell of a proper, full-fat smartphone.
So it has a massive, 3.5 inch screen, a flip out QWERTY keyboard, and the camera's been upgraded to 5 megapixels. The Nokia N97 is, as should be glaringly obvious, destined to be the new flagship Nseries mobile phone, and it's truly as high-spec as we'd heard from rumours, with HSDPA, GPS, digital compass, and integrated Flash, meaning you have 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'm predicting that the Nokia N97 will utterly DOMINATE the world next year!
About the Author:
Expert on mobile phones, having worked in the industry for over 7 years.