PC-Gadget-Human Technology Review

Nokia are making their play for touchscreen domination with not one, but TWO separate mobile phones. Let's take a look at the phenomenal duo of the Nokia N97 and 5800.Many people are under the false assumption that the Nokia 5800 is the first touchscreen mobile phone Nokia have ever made. It isn't. Actually, there's been several touch-based phones to wear the Nokia name. Starting with the 7700, we've seen a few Nokia mobile phones that work by you pressing directly on the screen. They all had reasonably big (for their time) screens, but unfortunately, they shared something else: they were irredeemably hideous. Only one of these handsets, the 6708, displayed a modicum promise, but it was made solely for China, and so, we never got to play with them in the UK. So, we were relegated to handsets that were total, and complete bobbins. However, these bad memories have all been removed because of the launch of two new Nokia mobile phones, both of which come with touch-sensitive displays, and both of which are so much nice.

Nokia 5800 - musical whizz

First on the list is a completely new member of Nokia's Xpress family of music mobile phones, the stunning Nokia 5800. This phone is pretty obviously built for music and media, as it has a separate XpressMusic button that opens a list of links to music, videos, the web, and more. Oh, and the Nokia 5800 has a 3.2 inch touchscreen, to actually play with those different media files. Basically, the Nokia 5800 was designed as a little portable entertainment centre, and as music phones go, this is easily one of the sweetest.
The Nokia 5800 also has, built-in, a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA internet access and sat-nav, making it a brilliant all-round mobile phone, on top of being a wonderful media gadget. Oh, and it's got a lanyard to attach an imitation guitar pick. Pointless, but brilliant. However, the Nokia 5800 is very definitely a mid-range phone; it's not, nor will it ever be, an absolute top-ender. That position belongs to a separate mobile.

Nokia N97 - power and beauty With the Nokia 5800 on course to bring touch-based mobile phones to the mid-range market, that leaves a huge, yawning gap at the very top-end, and yes, there is a touchscreen mobile phone on it's way to take its place as the top-end powerhouse: the frankly awesome Nokia N97. This takes the same Symbian S60 Touch operating system and packs it inside the shell of a proper, full-on smartphone. So it's got a massive, 3.5 inch screen, a flip out QWERTY keyboard, and the camera's been upgraded to 5 megapixels. The Nokia N97 is, in a very definite way, destined to be the new flagship Nseries mobile phone, and it really is as hyper-powered as we'd heard from rumours, with HSDPA, GPS, digital compass, and built-in Flash, so that you have an internet experience like no other mobile phones! Put simply the Nokia N97 is awesome. It easily outdoes other mobile phones and while the 5800 aims firmly for the mid-range, I reckon that the Nokia N97 will totally destroy the competition next year!