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Nokia’s first ever mainstream entry in the world of touchscreen phones is about to be released in the UK, and now, it’s time to see why this phone is so eagerly anticipated. Say hello to the Nokia 5800.

Phones we’d rather forget – Nokia’s early attempts at a touchscreen phone

A lot of people seem to be under the incorrect impression that the Nokia 5800 is the first touchscreen mobile phone Nokia have ever made. It’s not. Actually, there have been a few touch-based phones released under the Nokia badge. Beginning with the 7700, the world has seen a few Nokia mobile phones that work by you prodding and poking the screen. They had a relatively big (for the time) touchscreen in common, but unfortunately, they shared something else: they were utterly rubbish.

Only one of these mobile phones, the 6708, displayed any promise, but it was made exclusively for China, and thus, it never saw the light of day in these sceptred isles. Unfortunately, that meant that the phones we got were a poor breed, indeed. However, those bad recollections have now been removed due to the debut of a new Nokia mobile phone, which comes with a touchscreen, and which is considerably more alluring…

Nokia 5800 – musical genius

The first phone on the roster is a completely new member of Nokia’s Xpress line of music mobile phones, the mouth-watering Nokia 5800. This one’s pretty obviously designed for music and media, as it has a dedicated XpressMusic touch-key that opens a list of shortcuts to music, videos, the web, and more. Then, of course, the Nokia 5800 has a 3.2 inch touch-sensitive display, to actually play with all your media content. Essentially, the Nokia 5800 was created as a little handheld entertainment centre, and as music phones go, this is just about the sweetest. The Nokia 5800 also comes with a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA internet connection and sat-nav, making it a wonderful all-round mobile phone, as well as a superb media gadget. Oh, and it has a lanyard to attach a fake guitar plectrum. Pointless, but brilliant.

So, is the new Nokia 5800 really the best touchscreen phone on the market? And how about it’s other life as a music phone (since it’s an XpressMusic handset, like its predecessor, the first phone to wear the Xpress badge, the Nokia 5310)? Well, there can be no doubt that the playback quality is simply exceptional on the Nokia 5800, with beautiful clear sound, and pumping bass. of course, the interface helps, too, since it makes accessing everything on the 5800 a breeze. All in all, then, the Nokia 5800 is one accomplished little mobile phones, and it’s very clear that Nokia have hit a home run with it!

There are plenty of good reasons to want to be able to watch movies and listen to internet radio from just about anywhere. For one, if you’re spending a lot of time in transit, it makes dealing with waits at airports and train stations a lot easier. For another, if you happen to be on the road because of business, it’s a lot simpler to send an email that you got to your destination safely rather than wake up your significant other or family with a phone call. And if you’re traveling with small children, you might find that activities designed to keep them entertained can turn into yesterday’s news a whole lot faster than you were expecting.

That’s the biggest problem with entertainment on the road: before the days of wireless internet, you were stuck with exactly what you packed, unless you felt like spending a whole lot of money to get something else. This meant that if you were in an airport for hours, you were going to have exactly the music on your mp3 player or Discman, and that your children were only going to have the coloring books and video games that you packed for them. That can definitely wear thin after awhile, and can be seriously troubling if you are in the middle of a major delay.

Today, things like wireless internet make it a lot easier to get fresh entertainment. Whether it’s a business traveler checking in for a more “serious” purpose, getting details on the weather via streaming website content or tweeting at friends, or it’s just catching up with your favorite television programs on a laptop, there’s something to be said about having technology at your fingertips. And even travelers who have smartphones can get in on the game in places that are hot spots, meaning a lot more variety than before.

The only negative about traditional wireless internet, however, is that it tends to go out at the most unfortunate times. And in places like train stations and airports, where wireless is often not free, there is also the downside of having to pay after your first hour, with prices often far too high. A wireless network in a hotel is also far more likely to slow down because of so many users, and wireless in hotel rooms often is resigned to the very same fate.

However, a new form of wireless makes it possible to get online and stay online, whether you want to listen to internet radio for three hours or watch a movie while you wait for your plane to finally show up. Called WiMax, this technology depends on towers that are able to magnify a signal for miles, rather than just for a couple of feet. This means that you can take your laptop on far more than just your morning commute, and that it will not lose your wireless signal anywhere along the way. And in airports and train stations, when the wireless is lagging because everyone is using it, you will still be enjoying a speedy connection, since you’re on a network all of your own. When it comes to entertainment on the road, nothing beats this new form of wireless.