First, my ‘blink’ response to the Nokia 5800 launch:

Love that industrial design, it's just so undeniably Nokia. Wow! The screen resolution is stunning, can't wait to try that out with 640 x 360 encoded movies. The plectrum is a cool addition. Oh dear, the touch screen is resistive, I hope it's not as bad as the screen on LG Viewty. The UI looks nice, certainly better than most touch devices. Camera is pretty much what everyone expected. Video capture looks interesting, there is a widescreen capture mode, I really hope they have improved the quality of video capture. No N-Gage support yet? ‘Comes with Music’ sounds awesome, such a good price too! This is going to be massively popular with teenagers. Huh! What is nHD? That's a bit of a cheek, describing a screen that's not even VGA as some variant of HD. I wonder what the AAS guys think of the 5800?

Now, a week later, the considered response:

I've read through all the technical blurb, viewed countless videos and photos, played around with the 5800 page on the Nokia site, pondered over Eldars early review and this is what I think of the 5800 a week later...

I’m really excited to play with the 5800 for myself, much like the iPhone I truly believe that this is one of those gadgets that has to be used for a month or two to truly get a flavour for what's on offer.

Having said that, it does seem that the 5800 will not be the video capture powerhouse that I was hoping for. Eldars sample videos show considerable frame dropping and compression noise, very disappointing. Photo capture looks nice, and should be more than adequate for its intended audience.

Web browsing on the 5800 looks to be a pleasant experience. WebKit, support for flash and that gorgeous nHD(!) screen will make for a potential iPhone 'killer' web browsing experience.

I still have concerns over the feel of the resistive touch screen that Nokia have chosen for the 5800, but those that have used it claim that it’s one of the best of its class, so there's still hope.

The new Symbian S60 5th edition UI looks pretty snazzy. But I'll avoid making too much comment on this until I've tried it for myself, the 'proof of the pudding' and all that!

‘Comes With Music’, despite what was said at the launch event, does indeed have significant catches. I would be extremely surprised if the music that's downloaded by new 5800 owners in 2008 is still being played in 2012. The DRM restrictions, coupled with the current wave of anti-DRM sentiment will probably hinder this new music strategy in the long run. As I've mentioned before, I would have much preferred to see the entire music strategy based on a music store without restrictions much like the Amazon music store. ‘Comes with Music ‘could have been a bulk purchase discount; pay an extra £60 when purchasing the device and get 15 to 20 albums worth of free downloads with no DRM. Having said all that, I think the ‘Comes with Music’ deal will find a market amongst teenagers and should prove to be a significant factor in driving sales in the short term.

The 5800 seems like the perfect device for the rumoured forthcoming Nokia Movie Store, that glorious wide screen, TV out and touch screen controls all make for a superb video playback device. It doesn't seem as if the Nokia Movie Store is go for launch in 2008, but when it does eventually premier I’d expect the 5800 to be the first featured device.

Finally, I must consider the obvious question. Is the Nokia 5800 the iPhone killer that many seem so eager to arise? There are two schools of thought. Some believe that the 5800 will completely trump the iPhone in all respects, others take the view that they are not even competitors. Personally, I stand somewhere in the middle. I can see that on paper the 5800 has enough big guns to blow the current iPhone completely out of the water, but therein lies the problem; (actually, there are two problems, but I’ll leave the second one for another day)

Like all the iPhone killers before it, the 5800 appears to have its guns aimed at the iPhone 3G circa July 2008. It's almost a given that Apple will refresh the iPhone in January 2009 and quite likely launch a slightly smaller and much cheaper iPhone Nano around the same time.

If Apple can bring an iPhone Nano to market in January 2009 (before the 5800 sees the light of day in many countries) and price it at under £199 PAYG, would this not create a bit of a headache for Nokia and the 5800?

In conclusion, I'm excited about the 5800, it may well be the most important Nokia device launch since the N70. I'm disappointed in the lackluster video capture, but thrilled by the iconic Nokia hardware design and the capacious screen. Now if only Nokia had the guts to stick with the code name.  (^_-)

I’d love know your thoughts on the 5800, is it a true ‘hero’ phone, or is that yet to come?