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Nokia Tube 5800 touchscreen mobile phone preview (exclusive)

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on Thu 2 Oct 2008

We weren't allowed to take photos of the touchscreen wonder, however did attempt a hand-drawing. No laughing!

The Nokia Tube 5800 isn't due to be unveiled until tonight, however T3 was granted a sneak peek of the touchscreen device this afternoon. Whilst we weren't allowed to take photos of the touchscreen wonder, we uploaded a hastily drawn picture of what the mobile phone looks like, which you can see in our gallery to the right.

The Tube 5800 will be part of the XPRESS range of handsets from Nokia, joining the 5310. Whilst we didn't find out the exact launch date, we were told the Comes With Music service will be available on the Tube 5800 "in 2009" - whether that means it will launch before then, will be announced tonight.

Design

The Tube 5800 is slim in thickness and in width, much smaller than the N96 which we were expecting it to be most similar to. It's a candybar design, coated in a glossy piano black finish, with a bright red metallic strip around the edge. The front fascia is also glossy black, however the edges are encased in what looks like a transparent burgundy plastic.

Touchscreen

There's a slide-button on the right side of the phone, about three quarters down, which activates the screen. The screen itself is big - 3-inches, we'd say, so a tiny bit smaller than the iPhone's screen. The touchscreen is fantastic though, hugely responsive, and the closest thing to the iPhone we've seen so far. It certainly eclipses the usability of recent touchscreens, like the Samsung Omnia and LG Renoir.

However, the downside of the touchscreen is that it's still prone to fingerprint smears, even more so than the iPhone. The top right hand section of the phone has a touch-sensitive 'XPRESS MEDIA' written on it, and when pressed, launches the music player.

Comes With Music

As aforementioned, Nokia's first official touchscreen mobile phone will be compatible with their Comes With Music service, allowing users to download millions of tracks over a 12 month period, playable on the Tube.

User Interface

It uses the Symbian S60 operating system, however the homepage looks different to other handsets, with an almost iPhone-esque array of icons. Sadly we didn't get a proper chance to look through the entire menu, but it's standard Nokia fare - so easy to use, even your granny will be wanting one.

Price

Due to be confirmed tonight, T3 will hazard a guess at the Tube 5800 costing around £180 - £250 on PAYG, with mobile carriers offering it on contracts from as little as £25. These estimates are based on the handset being part of Nokia's XPRESS range of phones, which tend to be low to mid-end of the scale. The handset we saw this afternoon was on T-Mobile, so we'd say it's almost guaranteed to launch on there as well as other networks.

T3 will be bringing you the full story (and photos) from Nokia's London event tonight, but if you want a closer look at it sooner, watch BBC News tonight from 6pm where we give our expert opinion on it, and the Comes With Music download service.

Related Links

- Nokia Tube rumour round-up

- Will Nokia launch the Tube in October?

Link: Nokia