I just came across yet another up close video demonstration of the Nokia 5800 created by Smashpop - this time showing off Global Racing Thunder. You'll notice it makes full use of the accelerometer. You control the car with the movement of the phone. Great to see this much expected functionality out of the box.

Check it out...



And perhaps a slight failure by Nokia when implementing touchscreen with the popular Bounce game. As you'll see below, you control the movement of the ball with your finger instead of the accelerometer. BOOOO!!! Doesn't look too fun...



Props to Mobile-Review.com for that video.

For full coverage of the Nokia 5800 with a ton of pictures and video, click here to view the "5800 tag" over at SmashPop. They seem have gotten a great look at Nokia's first S60 touch device.

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I have never been fond of full touchscreen devices. I would love it if my N82 or the Nokia N95 had touchscreen - but not at the sacrifice of a real keyboard for text entry. A combination of both would be ideal. Granted - I haven't yet tried out the Nokia 5800, but if it's anything like the iPhone then it's not for me. However, I've been reading a few reviews around the web that some people - who actually thought they wouldn't like the text entry on the 5800 (like myself), think it's good and easy to use. I can't wait to get my hands on one, hopefully soon.

Check out this video by Mobile-Review.com which I found when browsing Daily Mobile. It shows a hands-on closeup view of the Nokia 5800 and it's text entry methods.



Below is a video look at the Nokia 5800 Radio & Music Player, again thanks to Mobile-Review.com...



A video of the Nokia 5800 Video Playback thanks to Smashpop...



The media features - being able to actually touch the screen to use the controls, is what is really attracting me to the Nokia 5800. From the looks of it Nokia has done a great job implementing the S60 media features into a touch interface. Not to mention the screen looks beautiful and the sound quality seems crystal clear and loud. If the text input features are actually usable and useful, then it looks like the 5800 will be a huge winner.

What are your thoughts? Has Nokia nailed it on the head? Have any readers here got their hands on the Nokia 5800?

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Nokia has really drawn a fine line between the E and the N series family of smartphones. That is, as we all know, enterprise solutions for the E-series, and multimedia entertainment for the N-series. But still, you can see some good media capabilities on the E66 despite this line. Don't expect much though if you are a hardcore N-user as you will likely be disappointed.

Camera

So far, as well as the E71's, the best camera you could ever get from an E-series device: 3.2 mega pixels with auto focus and led flash. The camera software has the same interface, but has a laggy version of the toolbar which can also be found at the right side. No built-in geotagging, but eh, why Nokia? The E71 has this feature, why no love for the E66?

Image processing is speedy, and snappier than the N82. I bet this is not because of the lesser resolution, but the faster processor.

I took sample pictures and macro shots are good, more than acceptable, thanks to the dedicated macro-mode. Some are blurred though, so you gotta have rock steady hands when dealing with low light conditions, even outdoors, cloudy days in particular. Still I was able to get good close-ups and you'd think it's got a potential up its sleeves to fall in line among the top 3.2mp camera phones, but..

Non-macro, pictures are too grainy. More often than not, they are overexposed, and always struggle to balance bright and dark areas especially on landscape subjects. I tried fiddling with the settings (the ones I use and work best with my N82) but things just got even worse. I will never be pleased or contented with the pictures taken by the E66's camera. Spoiled by the N82 I guess, :)




With regards to video capture, QVGA of up to 15fps is unconvincing. No video stabilization. I'll just let the video sample do the talking. Download here.

Gallery

Arggh, this beautiful device is still stuck with the same old lackluster gallery application, just like its e-series brothers. Very incompetent compared to the gallery of the N-series multimedia beasts.




Good thing, images are separated from videos. The nice fading transition when switching the display orientation looks great when viewing pictures. There are also 3 animated flash screensavers that comes with the phone, which compliments with the default theme very well.

Video playback supports MPEG-4, .mp4, .3gp, and RealVideo file formats and H.263, H.264 codecs.

Music

The same music player that we can see on S60 V3 devices.. Loudness and stereo widening options are available for an improved sound quality. Equalizer is only five bands, and no music visualization feature.



As you may have already know, the E66 has a 2.5mm audio jack, bummer it is. The loudspeaker is just horrible, so I bought a 3.5mm adapter to check out its sound quality through my Philips headphone. I was initially surprised by the great sound performance, and at the back of my mind, afraid to know it's quality is better than the N82.

But after shifting back and forth listening with the same file through the E66 and my N82, the sound quality really stood-out better on the N82. I am no expert on this but, for me, treble and mids are quite good on the E66, but fails with bass. Also, white noise is very noticeable particularly on vocals.

I used the E66 as my primary device, and planned to keep the N82 at home during the whole trial period (so that I can really see the goods and bads of the device through everyday use). But just a few days after, I ended up bringing both devices at work. I can last for 2 weeks without the awesome camera, but never without my favorite headphone and mp3s.

The N82 may be better regarding music experience but the E66's performance is indeed respectable. And most people will not really notice the difference unless audiophiles. I am actually satisfied with its sound quality, but the 2.5mm jack is really a big step backward for me.

Internet

As with other top of the line Nokia devices, the E66 also has the superior S60 internet browser. This means full-desktop version of websites with Java / ECMA Script support and Flash Lite 3 for flash sites such as YouTube. Featuring 3G, HSDPA and WiFi, the user will surely have the benefit of a fast and satisfying online experience. Plus the built-in accelerometer which works like charm with the browser.




Full screen browsing is now possible, in both display orientation. Full screen is absent on the N82 when surfing in landscape mode. Also, switching from full to normal screen is now easier as the option is available through the left soft key, instead of digging down Web Settings.

Also, not surprisingly, the E66 can be used for tethering (using the device as a modem to connect your PC to the Internet). And a new highlight, the Intranet application, allowing the user to connect to his/her company's intranet by setting up company-specific VPN policies.

Share Online is also built-in, enterprise professionals can now enjoy direct uploading of photos and videos from the device. (Current services available: OVI, Flickr and Vox)

And being an S60 device, there are endless possibilities for the E66 through a wide array of third party applications available to further expand its online prowess.

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P.S - sorry for the much delay of this part, been super busy at work last
week.

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This post will be all about the enhancements and software customizations I have seen on the E66. Pretty neat improvements and new features added...

General Feature Enhancements

• Automatic Screen Rotation, depending on how the phone is held. A pleasing fading transition takes place when the display orientation is changed. This is a nice feat when viewing pictures or browsing the web.
  
• Power-saving feature where the screen goes completely blank, as if the phone is turned off, after a period of time. Holding down the dpad will show the current date and profile, and a large time display (white on black, with back light) until the dpad is released. Way better to check the time than my N82's hard-to-read power saver.
  
• Notification light, where a blinking light surrounds the center of the dpad when you have unread messages or missed calls. This feature can be turned off if preferred.
  
• Breathing light, where a soft fading light surrounds the dpad for every 10 seconds (as if the phone is breathing) when left unused for a period of time. Adds an elegant touch, and looks good at night. This feature also can be turned off to save some battery life.
  
• Flip to silence alert sounds through the aid of the built-in accelerometer. But eh? Makes no sense. Why not just press the 'Stop' or 'Cancel' button, you ask. Yes, I actually thought the same. But I find this feature useful every morning, when the phone alarms to wake me up ;-). Too sleepy that I am, it's way easier to just grab the phone and flip it to silence the alarm, instead of using my fingers to feel and press the correct button. Flipping automatically snoozes the alarm unlike stopping it if I accidentally pressed the wrong key.
• Full Screen web browsing both in portrait and landscape mode is possible.
  
• 2-step scrolling acceleration. Only 1-step on the N82 which is a pain on loooong lists.
  
• Remote Lock feature, as the name implies, allows the user to lock the device remotely. If turned on, the user should set a lock message (at least 5 characters, case sensitive) . In case of loss, the user can lock the device by sending the defined message to it. If remote locking is successful, a confirmation message will be received by the sender, stating that the phone and memory card has been locked.
  

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Stand-by / Home Screen

There are two different home screens that the user can personalize: Business mode which you can choose to set up with shortcuts for work-related emails, calendar entries and applications; and Personal mode for personal email account, music and other applications enjoyed during free time. The handset's theme and wallpaper automatically changes depending on the selected mode. Such a nifty feature I would love to have on my N82.

And I was surprised when I learned that the user can now modify which shortcut bars will be displayed on the home screen! So if you are like me, you can opt to remove the Search bar and WiFi Scanning options from the standby. Or if you prefer, only meeting entries or to-do notes are displayed on the screen. Arghh.., I wish this would also be built-in on the N82.

Another gem here is the notification icons for missed calls, new messages and new voice mails. A pop-up menu is displayed when you highlight an icon where you are given more options. To find out more about this, check this video-look made by Mike for the E71 which also features this amazing home-screen.

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Messaging

Date is displayed beside each messages on the list. If the message is received or sent during the current day, time is showed instead. Such a simple yet a very handy feature. There's also a new setting, Folder View where the user can choose whether the messages are displayed in 1 or 2 lines. See screenshots below:

Instead of reading, you can also opt to just listen to your messages through the built in text-to-speech feature. Highlight a message, hit Options > Listen and the feature triggers. On the home screen, a long press on the left soft key launches the message reader as well and reads all new messages that you may have. I don't have a need for this feature. But it's there so I tried it. More often than not, I find it hard to figure out the words that the speaking voice is reading, as the voice is nearly muffled and intonation is sometimes improper. Adding the fact that English is not the mother language here so most of the text messages I receive, are spelled out by the speaking voice, instead of reading them out. Even with email messages I have, which are mostly English in content, the way the speaking voice applies pauses, stops and punctuations make it sound annoying for me. But hey, this is a welcome addition which other people may find useful, dealing with important messages while driving and some other similar situations.

Also, printing messages is also possible on this mobile device, through WiFi or Bluetooth connections. You can print text messages, email, web pages, images, calendar entries, notes and contacts. You can set the paper size, orientation, page margins, headers and footers. I was not able to try this feature, but here are screen shots of how it goes on the phone:

Since this device is targeted to business-oriented individuals to whom email is completely an important functionality, I expected to see a totally different and a much improved messaging application than the N82 has currently. But I was disappointed.

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Contacts

There's the "smart dialing" feature which displays a list of contact entries when you start to dial numbers on the home screen. This feature interprets the dialed numbers as T9 text input and updates the list matching the equivalent text. For example, when you dial numbers 6 and 2 on the home screen, contact entries matching "ma" are listed. A pop-up menu is displayed (scrolling from right to left) when you highlight one of the results and press the right of the dpad. This menu contains contacts-related actions for the currently highlighted contact entry. This pop-up menu is also available on the Contacts application itself.



Also, depending on the network, conference call of up to 6 participants is supported.

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Calendar

Viewing options were enhanced with some smooth scrolling and tooltip transitions (TaTs in da haus?). Presentation of calendar entries is tweaked for a faster and easier overview, and for a better viewing pleasure. In months view, an outline of all entries are displayed as a list. The list smoothly scrolls up and down if there are many calendar entries for the highlighted date. This new calendar application really outshines the one that other Nokias have. I never thought the s60 calendar can be this good.

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Darn, if only some of these software improvements will be applied for the N82 as well, like the home screen and smart dialing, that would be awesome. I still hope, T_T.

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I have already confessed how gorgeous this device is on my initial post. Now, I will dig down the hardware design and share my experiences so far regarding it. There will be regular comparisons with my current phone, the Nokia N82 (warm titanium)...

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Starting with the front panel, there you see the 2.4" LCD screen with a QVGA resolution (240x320 pixels). No bangs nor whistles since 2.4" is the smallest screen size you can get on most high-end devices and QVGA is kinda outdated nowadays. But I believe, this is more than enough for the device's targeted consumers and it is respectable considering the dimensions of the device. And just so you know, it was an eye opening experience when I first laid eyes on the screen as it is evidently brighter and more vibrant than my N82's. Maybe because I got used to the N82's screen which is, as far as I know, the poorest among the N-series line. The size of the E66's screen also looks and feels bigger than the N82's at first glance.

At the upper portion of the front panel, you will see the light sensor, the earpiece and the front camera (for video calls only). As Nokia always do, voice quality is clear and very audible during phone calls.

The 5-way dpad is surrounded by four dedicated shortcut keys (called One-Touch Keys) including the home, contacts, e-mail, and calendar key. The backspace key can be found right under the dpad. The user can define two separate application shortcuts for each of the One-Touch keys (except from the home key). Yes! Two applications. One for a brief press, and one for a long press. Indeed a good job done here Nokia!

It is also notable the the dpad is nicely elevated and it is more pleasant to use than my N82's.

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Dark-gray text over white finish, that's the E66 keypad and I simply love how good it looks. The keys are of the ideal size. As you can see on the picture, each of them have their bottom-part edged in a sloping manner to leave the user a divided and raised feeling of the keys and a more satisfying feedback when typing. Such a great keypad this baby has.

However, I noticed a significant decrease on my typing speed when using this keypad as oppose to my N82's. I got used to the N82's keypad which is more responsive even with gentle/quick key presses and each keys feel more well divided from each other. With the E66, everything's good for me when typing at a "relaxed" and normal pace, but at my optimum speed, errors start getting into my nerves. Ever since I started using the E66, there's always a feeling of comfort and ease whenever I shift to my N82 and start using its keypad. It's not that I'm saying the E66 keypad is awful, I believe it is one of the finest among other Nokias. It's just that I think the N82's keypad is better. Maybe it's just me. Lots of people have cursed the N82 because of this subject, but based on experience, I am confident to say that the N82's keypad is the best one I have used so far.

On the other hand, I like the placement of the backspace button. The most common error I get from using the N82's keypad is pressing the Multimedia Key instead of backspace which is very annoying! On the E66's case, I have not experienced a single mistake when deleting characters.

The * key doubles as a switch to turn Bluetooth on and off when at the home screen. Sweet! The microphone btw is placed just below the * button as seen in the picture above.

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At the back of the device, the 3.2MP camera and a single led flash can be found at the upper portion and the loudspeaker at the bottom left. For a better grip, the silvery battery cover is elegantly patterned with slightly curved lines. Though a magnet for fingerprints, the glossy silver on white combination really worked for a stylish and classy attempt on the E66. Mostly women will really be drawn by the looks of this device.

As a Nokia N82 user that I am, I really did not expect anything from the E66 camera. But hey, its the best you can get from the E-series family today. I will show you sample pictures and videos taken by the E66 on my next post.

You will need to open the battery cover first to take advantage of the hot-swappable slot for microSD cards. There are two release buttons on either sides of the phone (lower area) which are used to open up that stainless steel battery cover.

When I bought my N82, one of the first things I noticed is how horrible the loudspeaker sounds. Firmware updates gave a slight improvement but still unbearable. Tolerable for phone calls maybe, but never for my mp3s. So how's the E66's loudspeaker? Let's just say that, when I tried to listen some music with it, and then with the N82's loudspeaker after, I feel proud and
appreciative of the sound quality coming from my N82, lol.

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The headset connector can be found at the left side of the phone. In view of its placement, and this 2.5mm audio jack, it is truly a big turn-off for a lot of users who loves music on the go. I myself cannot live with the packaged HS-47 headset for my mp3s, and particularly never with an adapter to use in conjunction with my favorite 3.5mm headphone.

More on the left side is the Micro-USB port, infrared port, and one of the battery cover's release buttons.

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On the right side, there are the volume keys, the dedicated camera button and the other release knob for the battery cover. Between the volume up and down keys is the voice key, which can be used to mute and unmute active calls. This key is also utilized for Voice Commands and Push to Talk applications.

Lonely is the red power button on the top of the device. Thankfully, the charger port is now located at the bottom unlike on the N82 which is annoyingly at the left side.

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Forget the headset connector, forget the microSD slot, the E66 indeed is not only well built, but also a well designed business slider. My wish to Nokia, please... share the blessings of good looks and build quality with the N-series pals as well. Hopefully, start with the upcoming first N-series touch-screen release ;-).

That's all for now. On my upcoming posts, I will talk about the improved tweaks on the software, internet and media.

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