I've had my hands on the Nokia 5800 for a few days now and have gotten a ton of use out of it as my main device. Like I said in my previous article about the 5800 I've never used a touchscreen device before so this is turning out to be an extremely interesting experiment. It turns out that I've approached the way I use the home screen in entire different way then on my N82 or E71. This wasn't on purpose, just the way it works out because of a few likes and dislikes of the 5800 home screen.

Home Screen Themes

First off I'll show you the different home screen options that Symbian S60 5th Edition gives us. In the settings they are called Home Screen Themes.

Shortcuts Bar:



This is the same active standby home screen you get with S60 3rd edition phones like the N82, N95, etc. You can choose four shortcuts across the top and your calendar entries, music playback, and search are shown. I was pretty bummed to see only four shortcuts and such small calendar entry fonts. Seems like a huge waste of real estate with the enormous screen.

Contacts Bar:



This is like your "Fav-5" that T-Mobile has. You choose four of your favorite contacts to be show on the home screen. When you click on one you get the latest contact information you've had with them including calls, emails, texts, and their rss feeds. I like the idea and gave it a try, but just didn't find it useful to me.

Basic:



Just a plain and simple background. No shortcuts, calendar entries or notifications of any kind. Cool thing is you can choose an image and it will fill up the entire screen, unlike S60 3rd Edition which cuts off the image and looks awkward. I'm so thankful for this new full screen wallpaper on the 5800. Keep in mind you can also set a full screen wallpaper for the other two home screen options.

Hidden Shortcuts

With that said, the new S60 touch interface features a few hidden shortcuts that are very handy. These shortcuts are only made possible because of touch screen.

Tap the battery signal area:



As you can see you get a pop-out in the top right corner of the screen. It gives you the time, connection status, and new message notifications. Touch the time and it takes you to the alarm. Touch the message icon and it takes you to the new message or dials voicemail. Touch the connectivity and you got to the Connectivity application which controls the Network, WLAN, Bluetooth, USB, and all other connections. If you're bluetooth or WLAN is ON, it the pop-out will show the proper icons. Say you click the bluetooth icon, it takes you to the bluetooth settings. Very handy all around.

Touch the date or profile area:



A pop-out opens allowing you to go to your calendar application or change the current profile. I especially love the calendar shortcut.

Touch the time:

No need for an image here since there is no pop-out. If you touch the clock in the upper left corner you're taken to the clock application where you can modify the time, check world clocks, and set alarms. Another great shortcut.

Media Shortcuts Bar

Yet another set of shortcuts media bar. The actual touch button isn't on the screen, but right above it on the right side next to the XpressMusic label. Touch it and you get the following pop-out:



Here you can access the Music Player, Gallery, Share Online, Video Center, and the Web Browser. I've found this to be one of the most useful shortcut tools I've ever used on a mobile device. It would be even better if we can customize it, but right now it's not possible.

Summing Up All The Shorcuts, Not Including The Home Screen Themes

So just how many shortcuts do you get when just using the Basic home screen theme? Let's go back over it...

Music Player, Share Online, Video Center, Gallery, Web Browser, Clock, Connectivity options, Message/Voicemail Notifications, Calendar, Profiles, Clock/Alarm application, and Contacts.

I counted 12.

The Way I use The Home screen - Completely different

I didn't expect this to happen, but it has. I don't use the home screen as active standby any longer. No need for the shortcuts bar, search, music playback info,or latest calendar entries. The Basic home screen theme is what I have chosen to use which is completely different than my usage with my N82 and E71. Those 12 shortcuts that are still usable with the basic home screen theme and it's plenty for me. Having the ability to now use a photo as a full screen wallpaper - like I said earlier, is great. I love being greeting with my wallpaper of choice every time I unlock the device.

"What about your all your favorite application shortcuts?", you might ask. This is what I'll cover in the next article. The 5th edition menu is slightly more versatile than the 3rd edition menu, giving me more flexibility.

Stay tuned in a few days for the next segment of my Nokia 5800 review. Once again, let me know if you have any questions. I'll be answering questions from this and my previous article in the next part.

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