Nokia 5800 Xpress Music Still A Fan Favorite

Nokia5800XpressMusicThe Nokia 5800 Xpress Music has been out for some time now and there have been newer models offered by Nokia since. However, due to the crazy high demand for cell phones with extended music capabilities this phone still seems to be a fan favorite and sales still soar.  There are a lot of great features for music lovers on this Nokia model. The inline remote seems to be one of the features that many people seem to not be able to live without.  The music controls being on the headphone wire makes for easy operation and is a nice added feature of the 5800 XpressMusic by Nokia. The ability to expand music storage using the sd card slot also seems to be a big winner for music fans.  This is one feature that Apple refused to add to the popular iPhone and this may be one reason that some die  hard music fans don’t even consider the iPhone when they are looking for a mobile phone rock out to their tunes on.  The full featured Xpress Music also boasts a very impressive loudspeaker that allows it users to listed to music without any headphones attached.  The loud external speaker is said to be one of the best on any mobile phone to date. If you want to see all the specs on this music phone you can check out the details here : Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Or you can buy it online and save with Amazon here:

Popularity: 38% [?]

Thoughts on the Nokia N97 v20 Update

In case you haven’t heard, the N97 received a v20 update. The update added more kinetic scrolling, upgraded the Maps and Music Player applications, dropped in an older version of Nokia Messaging (10.1.0.13), and improved memory/battery life. Sounds good, right?

While there are some nice improvements, in the end v20 isn’t the deal breaker that it was rumored to be. It won’t encourage more people to buy an N97, and nor will it have any sort of major impact on current N97 owners. But let’s go over some of the changes:

Kinetic scrolling is a welcome addition to the N97’s touch UI. It’s present in almost every menu – but strangely enough, not in the “new” version of Nokia Messaging (mine was downgraded from .14 to .13 – more on this later). I don’t really have anything to complain about – it works well for what it’s worth.

Nokia Maps and Music have both undergone some major changes. Maps has been updated with a snazzy new look and 3D map display capability, which essentially just tilts the viewing angle of the map to produce the 3D effect. Unfortunately, I found map scrolling to be pretty slow, and the fact that I still had to purchase a license for turn-by-turn directions left me going back to Google Maps. One thing to keep in mind: your old downloaded maps are incompatible with the new version.

Music Player, on the other hand, has been changed for the better. Kinetic scrolling has thankfully been added to song scrolling, as are album covers. Also, when scrolling using the scroll bar, the application pops up the current letter in the middle of the screen. Great feature. Overall, Music Player is fast and responsive. The only wonky thing that I found was tapping the album art in the Now Playing screen: it pops up the volume control on the side, for some reason.

I haven’t been able to really test out the new battery improvements, but from what I can tell it seems to last longer. Don’t know if this is due to the placebo effect.

What Wasn’t Changed

Threaded SMS. It’s there on the N900, and I can’t imagine it adding it to the N97 would be THAT huge of a deal. It’s just a change in the way messages are displayed.

Nokia Messaging is still a piece of crap. Sorry, but it’s true. No kinetic scrolling in the Inbox view, extremely slow scrolling, slow display of email meta data, and pretty much just slow everything. I quit using it.

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Popularity: 85% [?]

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic: First Impressions

I just got the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic. I like it.

Let’s do some first impressions.

I’ve had the 5530XM for roughly five hours now, and my first impressions are based on my usage during that time. Full review coming soon.

Good (For Now)

- Size: I love the size. It’s not too thick, and not too big either. Weighty enough to know that you’re carrying without being a burden a la N97 or (shudder) N90.
- Build quality: Even though the 5530 XpressMusic is mostly made of plastic, like the 5800, it looks and feels a heck of a lot better. The material on the front is some kind of metallic plastic, and Nokia changed the back cover from the rubbery 5800 cover to a smoother plastic. Overall the phone feels extremely solid.
- Snappy interface: Yes, it’s still Symbian S60 Fifth Edition. But the whole experience feels snappier than say, the N97, thanks to some slick transitions.
- Speakers: Thank you, Nokia, for not screwing this up. The speakers sound just as good as the 5800’s, and that’s a huge plus.
- Touch-screen: The 5530 uses a resistive touch-screen, but it feels pretty sensitive. More sensitive than the 5800.

Bad (For Now)

- Slowdowns: they’re rare, but they happen – most notably when scrolling through songs while playing a track in the Music Player.
- Kinetic scrolling: it’s in most places, but Nokia left it out in the folder view. Strange that no one picked that up.
- Virtual keyboard: the keyboard is better with iPhone/Android-esque pop-up letters, but still flawed. Instead of recognizing keypresses *as you’re pressing the keys*, the keyboard only recognizes something when you press and let go.

Overall, I’d have to say I’m impressed. I like the 5530 XpressMusic, and while the 5800XM had more desirable features (GPS, Carl Zeiss, 3G, etc), I prefer the 5530.

Popularity: 90% [?]

Nokia N81 8 GB Unlocked Smartphone US WARRANTY with 2 MP Camera, 3G, Wi-fi, MP3/Video

Nokia N81 8 GB Unlocked Smartphone US WARRANTY with 2 MP Camera, 3G, Wi-fi, MP3/Video

With dedicated music and gaming keys, 3.5 mm headphone connector and 3G and WLAN connectivity, the Nokia N81 multimedia computer is a true mobile entertainment powerhouse. With a sleek, polished surface and keys that light up when you activate them, accessing content on the 3D multimedia menu is fast and intuitive. Equally impressive, the Nokia N81 is configured to find, buy, manage and play music and games purchased from the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage games service. Nokia N81 8GB is based on the N81 but replaces the memory card slot with 8GB of internal memory. It is Symbian smartphone in slider design, targeted for multimedia, especially music and games. For music help the stereo speakers, the 3.5mm jack and the Stereo Bluetooth, while for games the phone is used in landscape mode. Its connectivity options include 3G, Wireless Lan (WiFi) and microUSB.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

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