LifeDrive

This review is pretty much a personal opinion and observation but nevertheless, there might be some stuff that you may find interesting. I’m a gadgeteer and whenever I get something new, I always blog about it. Except that I was really busy with my academics that I did not have any enough time to write about it. But! I have it here now, and it’s my new phone, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic:

It was a sudden and drastic change since I am used to smaller phones as well as non-touchscreen ones. Still, I got used with it quickly, which is good because most of the devices released now are sometimes hard to handle. I got used to it quickly probably because it also uses a Symbian S60 Platform.

The 5800 XM’s length is larger than that of the N80. To compensate, 5800 is thinner. 😀

Now, I really liked the way Nokia managed itself into entering the touchscreen world. Their interface is as user-friendly as any S60 Device. The icons are big enough to cover your fingers, making it easy to point things on the screen.

I changed the theme. The display is still sharp.:D

The best bit of this OS is that there are four options in text inputs. One is the conventional Alphanumeric Layout, the Full Screen Keyboard, an Mini-QWERTY Keyboard and Handwriting Recognition:

The Phone is also loaded with applications. But, if you’re not satisfied, you can download more interesting apps from Nokia’s Ovi Store. I got this screenshot app from the Ovi Store.

The phone has an accelerometer inside, which means you can download games that are motion-sensitive as well as navigate through your software with your preferences of landscape or portrait view. Here’s the menu in landscape mode:

Although Nokia has still a long way to go in this category of touchscreen OS. even at v31 OS, there are still problems encountered such as erasing the messages in your memory card, which can be totally irritating and disappointing if it happens frequently. But in the major aspect, the software is still tolerable, its interface and loading speed. Still, minor flaws can pile up into a big one.

Hardware-wise, the phone feels a bit cheap because of its plastic body. The body is also glossy so you might hate it for putting excessive fingerprints on it. But the body looks excellent and fit for the performance of the phone itself.

The camera can perform nice macro-shots thanks to its autofocus Zeiss optics. The only problem is that the video camera is so baaaaad. Totally bad. However, the options in the camera are as vast as any high level Nokia camera phones.

There are other features that this phone has like the integrated GPS. They might come in handy for busy people. The packaging is also neat as it comes with a lot of things you need. For example, the conventional charger and software cd is there but it also comes with accessories such as the pic-charm that you can use as an alternative to your stylus. It is also preloaded with music, depending on what country you bought that phone.

Overall, the phone is good, it’s nice to handle, good response and the software is jam-packed to comply with your everyday mobile needs.