18.9.09
5800 Little Touches - A Review of Nokia 5800
I've been itching for a new toy for some time now. An Acer Aspire One 531 did its best to fill the void a couple of months back, but it is just a not very powerful WinXP computer, and the OMC IT'S TINY novelty wore off very quickly. Not that I've changed my mind about the usefulness of a proper, but still teeny-wee computer - I'm still very much pleased with the decision to get one, but, well, it's always been a tool, not a toy. (How I managed to type this last bit with a straight face, I'll never know.)
So, my itch kept getting worse. I needed a toy to play with. But what? The fact that I've been traveling a lot lately, that I've been taking all my SIM cards (six of them) with me on those travels, and that I've had only one modern phone (Nokia E66, a superlatively excellent device) to share between them, nudged me in the direction of a new phone. The Sony-Ericsson G502 was my first choice (because it's a) an excellent phone and b) not a Nokia), but it turned out impossible to find for the money I was willing to spend on a non-smartphone. I briefly toyed with the idea of getting a cheap 'feature' phone, but that one got rejected very quickly. Dumbphones don't make good toys.
That is when I set my eyes on the touch. Touchscreen phones are all the rage right now, and even though I intend to fight to keep my handheld computer (PDA) and my phone separate for as long as I can (or the manufacturers responding to the demands of stupid people who don't know any better allow it), I can see the writing on the wall rather well. My first GSM phone was also my first touchscreen PDA (a Handspring Visor Prism with a phone module, in case you're wondering, back in 2001), and it made me realise that any device that's big enough to be a handheld computer is too big to be a phone, and vice versa. All my phones since then have been small, small devices that featured the fastest mobile connection (GPRS, EDGE, whatever) available at the time and could be used as modems for proper computers (laptops and PDAs). But, like I said, the times are changing. Resistance is futile.
I did consider the iPhone. Unbelievably, I really did. But, I'd have to pay a lot for one with a two-year contract (on a plan I wouldn't like), and an exorbitant amount without a contract. I also really want to be able to access my computers' file systems and get software for them from more than one source. Plus, the most hyped smartphone on the planet is intentionally crippled in so many ways (no tethering, no Bluetooth file transfer or anything else) which I wouldn't believe possible if I haven't seen it with my own eyes. But that's Apple for you. On one level, I admire their insistence on limiting the users' ways of breaking things (and let's face it, people are dumb, unwilling to learn to operate their technology properly, and should never be allowed to use real computers), but on the other level, I don't want those limitations applied to me. Plus, there's no PDB reader for it. So, no iPhone.
All WinMo devices got summarily rejected, not because I don't like WinMo (I kind of do like it), but because I'm not willing to give up an arm and a leg to get one.
The devices using 'non-standard' systems (such LG Cookie and Arena and Samsung S5600) were out of the question, because if I wanted to re-test the viability of the phone-that-aspires-to-be-a-PDA(-with-a-touchscreen) concept, I needed to be able to put all kinds of software on it.
I also had an eye on Nokia E52, but I realised I didn't want another Eseries device, and especially not one that's actually bigger than the one I already have.
Which left me with one choice: Nokia 5800 SomethingMusicWhatever. A touchscreen smartphone that I could get for not too much money. A 12-month contract and $150 later, I had it in my hands.
Now, everything that could seriously be said about this phone has already been said in two good reviews of it. Therefore, I shall concentrate on my personal impressions.
The design. It is thick, and its blocky shape makes it seem even thicker, but that's an illusion. In reality, it's only 2 mm thicker than the Nokia E66 (which gives the impression of being a slim device), it sits in my pocket very nicely, and it's comfortable to hold, so, well, I don't care. The raised rim around the screen you'll hear the reviewers whinge about is unnecessary, but it doesn't get in my way, so why should I care? Yes, the phone is made of plastic, but it doesn't feel flimsy and it doesn't feel cheap, so again, why should anyone care? It's a good-looking, solid-feeing phone.
The unlock slider key. Honestly, I find it preferable to the more common, press-and-slide *cough*iPhone*cough* method.
The (touch)screen. It looks nice, I have absolutely no objection to its image reproduction. It is, however, a touchscreen, so something should be said about that aspect. You'll hear the 'official' reviewers whinging about it being a resistive touchscreen. To that I say, so bloody what? I can use only one stylus at the time, anyway, I don't care about the bloody multi-touch! I've been using the resistive touchscreens in conjunction with one stylus since the afore-mentioned 2001, and I hate smooth surfaces covered in thumbprints and enough skin grease to cook bloody chips in! Which is precisely why I don't want a capacitive screen and its skin-only use. Sadly, this is as far as I can get with my approval of this touchy-feely Symbian of Nokia's. The useless atrocity of a stylus that gets shipped with it came as the first sign of trouble. The plectrum thing that one's supposed to carry around, hanging sadly from the phone is just... No. Here I have to agree with the reviewers: the touchscreen S60 is a half-baked product, and whoever is responsible for it should be put before a wall and shot. Twice. Why they decided to release the schizophrenic system of sometimes taps and sometimes double-taps will, I suppose, forever remain a mystery. There are sensible ways of doing a touch interface on a resisteve screen, like the WinMo's tap for do, tap-and-hold for a right-click-like context menu, and double-tap for other things (like zoom in/out or select), but S60v5 on the 5800 doesn't use any of them. I wish it would recognise my quick double-taps as the two presses it needs to activate some list items, but it doesn't, at least not always. Add to that the not very good 'handwriting recognition' (Graffiti (or something like it) is the one and only way to do handwriting on something as dumb as today's computers, and this device doesn't support it), and I remain most particularly unimpressed with Nokia's take on the touchscreen interface.
Input methods... Full screen portrait mode QWERTY > handwriting recognition (with a proper stylus) > other methods that aren't worth mentioning (12-key keypad on a touchscreen? please).
Having said that, and standing by the statement that the S60v5 team manager needs to be shot publicly as a warning to others, I have to say that the interface is usable. It's not even a diamond in the rough, no. It's an unfinished piece of shit, but it's still usable.
But that brings me to another point. Software. You expect your good old S60v3/compatible Java apps to work on this fancy S60v5 thing? Keep expecting. They might work, providing they use just the two soft buttons, don't have any kind of special GUI, and don't expect a d-pad or any other kind of physical buttons to be there. Which means DivX Player doesn't work, MobiPocket Reader doesn't work, Twibble, MetrO and Opera Mini barely work, and the list goes on. Bloody fucking stupid. A note to myself, for the future: next time, buy something that uses a non-dying OS, like WinMo or Android. All this makes me kind of glad the 5800 is supposed to be just a spare phone/internet device, and not my main hand-held computer.
Office? The QuickOffice document viewer is free to download. The editor goes for $40. A PDF viewer costs an additional $20. To be fair, I have to mention that an Eseries phone (E66), while it has a PDF reader, doesn't come with an Office editor, so that's another point against Symbian and for WinMo.
Music player? Camera and gallery? I don't care. I have a dedicated music player which is aircraft-friendly (which the 5800 isn't), and I carry with me a proper compact camera (because, kids, and this is very important: your phone IS NOT a camera!) most of the time, so I don't expect to use these features much.
Battery life? Now, this was a semi-pleasant surprise. With my average use (a few calls, a few texts, some BT and WiFi use, dicking around with a few new apps and stuff), a single charge lasted for four days. Now, while it still doesn't come even close to the ideal of more than a week without recharging, it's not bad for a smartphone. It's better than the E66 can do...
To conclude...
So, my itch kept getting worse. I needed a toy to play with. But what? The fact that I've been traveling a lot lately, that I've been taking all my SIM cards (six of them) with me on those travels, and that I've had only one modern phone (Nokia E66, a superlatively excellent device) to share between them, nudged me in the direction of a new phone. The Sony-Ericsson G502 was my first choice (because it's a) an excellent phone and b) not a Nokia), but it turned out impossible to find for the money I was willing to spend on a non-smartphone. I briefly toyed with the idea of getting a cheap 'feature' phone, but that one got rejected very quickly. Dumbphones don't make good toys.
That is when I set my eyes on the touch. Touchscreen phones are all the rage right now, and even though I intend to fight to keep my handheld computer (PDA) and my phone separate for as long as I can (or the manufacturers responding to the demands of stupid people who don't know any better allow it), I can see the writing on the wall rather well. My first GSM phone was also my first touchscreen PDA (a Handspring Visor Prism with a phone module, in case you're wondering, back in 2001), and it made me realise that any device that's big enough to be a handheld computer is too big to be a phone, and vice versa. All my phones since then have been small, small devices that featured the fastest mobile connection (GPRS, EDGE, whatever) available at the time and could be used as modems for proper computers (laptops and PDAs). But, like I said, the times are changing. Resistance is futile.
I did consider the iPhone. Unbelievably, I really did. But, I'd have to pay a lot for one with a two-year contract (on a plan I wouldn't like), and an exorbitant amount without a contract. I also really want to be able to access my computers' file systems and get software for them from more than one source. Plus, the most hyped smartphone on the planet is intentionally crippled in so many ways (no tethering, no Bluetooth file transfer or anything else) which I wouldn't believe possible if I haven't seen it with my own eyes. But that's Apple for you. On one level, I admire their insistence on limiting the users' ways of breaking things (and let's face it, people are dumb, unwilling to learn to operate their technology properly, and should never be allowed to use real computers), but on the other level, I don't want those limitations applied to me. Plus, there's no PDB reader for it. So, no iPhone.
All WinMo devices got summarily rejected, not because I don't like WinMo (I kind of do like it), but because I'm not willing to give up an arm and a leg to get one.
The devices using 'non-standard' systems (such LG Cookie and Arena and Samsung S5600) were out of the question, because if I wanted to re-test the viability of the phone-that-aspires-to-be-a-PDA(-with-a-touchscreen) concept, I needed to be able to put all kinds of software on it.
I also had an eye on Nokia E52, but I realised I didn't want another Eseries device, and especially not one that's actually bigger than the one I already have.
Which left me with one choice: Nokia 5800 SomethingMusicWhatever. A touchscreen smartphone that I could get for not too much money. A 12-month contract and $150 later, I had it in my hands.
Now, everything that could seriously be said about this phone has already been said in two good reviews of it. Therefore, I shall concentrate on my personal impressions.
The design. It is thick, and its blocky shape makes it seem even thicker, but that's an illusion. In reality, it's only 2 mm thicker than the Nokia E66 (which gives the impression of being a slim device), it sits in my pocket very nicely, and it's comfortable to hold, so, well, I don't care. The raised rim around the screen you'll hear the reviewers whinge about is unnecessary, but it doesn't get in my way, so why should I care? Yes, the phone is made of plastic, but it doesn't feel flimsy and it doesn't feel cheap, so again, why should anyone care? It's a good-looking, solid-feeing phone.
The unlock slider key. Honestly, I find it preferable to the more common, press-and-slide *cough*iPhone*cough* method.
The (touch)screen. It looks nice, I have absolutely no objection to its image reproduction. It is, however, a touchscreen, so something should be said about that aspect. You'll hear the 'official' reviewers whinging about it being a resistive touchscreen. To that I say, so bloody what? I can use only one stylus at the time, anyway, I don't care about the bloody multi-touch! I've been using the resistive touchscreens in conjunction with one stylus since the afore-mentioned 2001, and I hate smooth surfaces covered in thumbprints and enough skin grease to cook bloody chips in! Which is precisely why I don't want a capacitive screen and its skin-only use. Sadly, this is as far as I can get with my approval of this touchy-feely Symbian of Nokia's. The useless atrocity of a stylus that gets shipped with it came as the first sign of trouble. The plectrum thing that one's supposed to carry around, hanging sadly from the phone is just... No. Here I have to agree with the reviewers: the touchscreen S60 is a half-baked product, and whoever is responsible for it should be put before a wall and shot. Twice. Why they decided to release the schizophrenic system of sometimes taps and sometimes double-taps will, I suppose, forever remain a mystery. There are sensible ways of doing a touch interface on a resisteve screen, like the WinMo's tap for do, tap-and-hold for a right-click-like context menu, and double-tap for other things (like zoom in/out or select), but S60v5 on the 5800 doesn't use any of them. I wish it would recognise my quick double-taps as the two presses it needs to activate some list items, but it doesn't, at least not always. Add to that the not very good 'handwriting recognition' (Graffiti (or something like it) is the one and only way to do handwriting on something as dumb as today's computers, and this device doesn't support it), and I remain most particularly unimpressed with Nokia's take on the touchscreen interface.
Input methods... Full screen portrait mode QWERTY > handwriting recognition (with a proper stylus) > other methods that aren't worth mentioning (12-key keypad on a touchscreen? please).
Having said that, and standing by the statement that the S60v5 team manager needs to be shot publicly as a warning to others, I have to say that the interface is usable. It's not even a diamond in the rough, no. It's an unfinished piece of shit, but it's still usable.
But that brings me to another point. Software. You expect your good old S60v3/compatible Java apps to work on this fancy S60v5 thing? Keep expecting. They might work, providing they use just the two soft buttons, don't have any kind of special GUI, and don't expect a d-pad or any other kind of physical buttons to be there. Which means DivX Player doesn't work, MobiPocket Reader doesn't work, Twibble, MetrO and Opera Mini barely work, and the list goes on. Bloody fucking stupid. A note to myself, for the future: next time, buy something that uses a non-dying OS, like WinMo or Android. All this makes me kind of glad the 5800 is supposed to be just a spare phone/internet device, and not my main hand-held computer.
Office? The QuickOffice document viewer is free to download. The editor goes for $40. A PDF viewer costs an additional $20. To be fair, I have to mention that an Eseries phone (E66), while it has a PDF reader, doesn't come with an Office editor, so that's another point against Symbian and for WinMo.
Music player? Camera and gallery? I don't care. I have a dedicated music player which is aircraft-friendly (which the 5800 isn't), and I carry with me a proper compact camera (because, kids, and this is very important: your phone IS NOT a camera!) most of the time, so I don't expect to use these features much.
Battery life? Now, this was a semi-pleasant surprise. With my average use (a few calls, a few texts, some BT and WiFi use, dicking around with a few new apps and stuff), a single charge lasted for four days. Now, while it still doesn't come even close to the ideal of more than a week without recharging, it's not bad for a smartphone. It's better than the E66 can do...
To conclude...
- I shall never, ever buy my main phone from an operator - the branding and the lack of firmware upgradability is too annoying. But this is a general observation, not related to just this particular phone...
- Despite of all the things I've written, annoyed as I might seem, I don't think the 5800 is a bad phone. It isn't great, like the E66 is, but it's not bad, either. I mean, even TrustedReviews gave it an 8, and they sounded like they didn't like it very much.
- A touchscreen phone should have a d-pad and some physical buttons. A Graffiti(-like) handwriting system is a must, too, but I'm just dreaming here - the plebs like their on-screen QWERTY keypads too much for any manufacturer to consider including a better input system.
- The software situation might improve. I'm not holding my breath, but it's possible.
Labels: nokia 5800, review
7.7.09
From a Netbook with... An Acer Aspire One 531 Review
I could just admit I can't be bothered posting here any more and move on. (Move on to what? I have no idea. There isn't anything I want to move on to.) I can't even be bothered to share my more interesting dreams (there have been a few lately) with my 0 readers. Four years is a venerable age for a haircut blog, and I could retire it and still feel good about it, but it still has at least one purpose to serve. So...
Anyway.
I've been intrigued with the concept of the tiny, but proper computer ever since Asus came out with the EeePC. However, there was a limit to how small I was willing to go, and minuscule screens, Celeron processors and pitiful battery lives of the early specimens just didn't do. Ten inch screens and six-hour batteries finally made things acceptable, and I've been eyeing first the Samsung NC10, and then the Asus 1000HE when it came out. Considering that I've developed a habit of going on long weekends in foreign countries and spending a fair amount of time around airports and on planes, I could see an empty niche my regular laptop was both too large and too impractical to fill (not that I didn't try to squeeze it into it, but lugging Rosie and its oversized feeding bottle on my back through a full day walk around London finally convinced me it was a bad idea).
Eventually, I went and got myself an Acer 531 two or so weeks ago. Why that one, and not one of the afore-mentioned two? Because in this country, if you want to buy a netbook, you can choose between Acer, Acer and maybe a Lenovo. And if you want one with a big battery, your choice is reduced to just Acer. You never could buy the NC10 in Croatia, and the only Asus netbooks on sale around here are the leftover 904 ones (at the same price they were sold when they came out, I might add). Why? Fuck knows.
Back to the Acer at hand... My first reaction was, OMC, it's so tiny! Look at it, a real computer, but tiny! And it's got cute tiny keys... Tiny keys... OK, this last feature isn't so cute (re-using the keyboards from the old 9" models is bad, mkay, Acer?), and I would've punished that particular design decision by purchasing either the 1000HE or the NC10 (both of which are marginally faster, too)... Had I been given a choice. But I wasn't. Yes, I'm bitter about it. The said keyboard is decidedly uncomfortable to use, and its flimsy build doesn't really help with that. On the other hand, I didn't buy it so I can type the draft of my epic fantasy series on it, so it'll probably do. Still, typing this post has been a painful experience.
The touchpad, whose size and overly firm buttons every reviewer on the internet and beyond has complained about isn't that small, and nobody in their right mind uses those buttons anyway, so I'll give it a passing grade. Also, I'm using an external mouse right now, which is a sensible thing to do in any case.
There's one thing I'm happy with, and that's the battery life. Turn off the radios and dim the screen a bit, and there's enough juice for 7 to 8 hours of office work. With the wireless on, it'll run Eve for about 4 hours, and the old games (no wireless) for even longer. I'll be able to keep myself sufficiently entertained during my travels.
There isn't much to say about the rest, which is the standard netbook fare. The Atom N270, 1 GB of RAM, and that carrot-awful Intel 945 chipset/graphics chip are adequate for anything one would want to run on a netbook, including Eve in the AFK mode. It's still slower than my old Pentium M/mobile Geforce 5650 laptop, but it's also 1/3 of its weight. A fair trade, as far as I'm concerned.
And finally, since it's very quiet even under load, even if it never does anything but play music while I sleep (through external speakers, the built-in ones are of barely adequate quality to make the system noises, but that's the standard netbook fare, too), I'll consider my money well spent. I don't think it'll come to that, and will be testing that quite soon.
Another thing I should probably mention, that's been a source of immese annoyance for me. The 'system restore' copy of the operating system comes on a hidden partition that can be booted from in case one needs to restore the computer to the factory condition, and is only accessible by the incredibly obtuse Acer's backup/restore utility. Why obtuse? Because the utility absolutely refuses to back up the OS onto anything but a physical optical drive attached to a USB port. A drive that needs to be acquired separately. It also requires two DVDs to make a backup of the Windows XP home that's on the hidden partition, which only highlights the amount of crap/bloatware Acer's products come preinstalled with for your inconvenience. You can't back up the Windows you've paid for on a flash drive, which, considering the day and age, and the fact that the computer can be booted from one, is just stupid.
Oh, and another thing. Everyone, repeat after me: a netbook is not one's main computer. Again: a netbook is not one's main computer. The second one, or even better, a third, but not the first. So, repeat again: a netbook is not one's main computer. Heed this, and you'll be happy with one.
Anyway.
I've been intrigued with the concept of the tiny, but proper computer ever since Asus came out with the EeePC. However, there was a limit to how small I was willing to go, and minuscule screens, Celeron processors and pitiful battery lives of the early specimens just didn't do. Ten inch screens and six-hour batteries finally made things acceptable, and I've been eyeing first the Samsung NC10, and then the Asus 1000HE when it came out. Considering that I've developed a habit of going on long weekends in foreign countries and spending a fair amount of time around airports and on planes, I could see an empty niche my regular laptop was both too large and too impractical to fill (not that I didn't try to squeeze it into it, but lugging Rosie and its oversized feeding bottle on my back through a full day walk around London finally convinced me it was a bad idea).
Eventually, I went and got myself an Acer 531 two or so weeks ago. Why that one, and not one of the afore-mentioned two? Because in this country, if you want to buy a netbook, you can choose between Acer, Acer and maybe a Lenovo. And if you want one with a big battery, your choice is reduced to just Acer. You never could buy the NC10 in Croatia, and the only Asus netbooks on sale around here are the leftover 904 ones (at the same price they were sold when they came out, I might add). Why? Fuck knows.
Back to the Acer at hand... My first reaction was, OMC, it's so tiny! Look at it, a real computer, but tiny! And it's got cute tiny keys... Tiny keys... OK, this last feature isn't so cute (re-using the keyboards from the old 9" models is bad, mkay, Acer?), and I would've punished that particular design decision by purchasing either the 1000HE or the NC10 (both of which are marginally faster, too)... Had I been given a choice. But I wasn't. Yes, I'm bitter about it. The said keyboard is decidedly uncomfortable to use, and its flimsy build doesn't really help with that. On the other hand, I didn't buy it so I can type the draft of my epic fantasy series on it, so it'll probably do. Still, typing this post has been a painful experience.
The touchpad, whose size and overly firm buttons every reviewer on the internet and beyond has complained about isn't that small, and nobody in their right mind uses those buttons anyway, so I'll give it a passing grade. Also, I'm using an external mouse right now, which is a sensible thing to do in any case.
There's one thing I'm happy with, and that's the battery life. Turn off the radios and dim the screen a bit, and there's enough juice for 7 to 8 hours of office work. With the wireless on, it'll run Eve for about 4 hours, and the old games (no wireless) for even longer. I'll be able to keep myself sufficiently entertained during my travels.
There isn't much to say about the rest, which is the standard netbook fare. The Atom N270, 1 GB of RAM, and that carrot-awful Intel 945 chipset/graphics chip are adequate for anything one would want to run on a netbook, including Eve in the AFK mode. It's still slower than my old Pentium M/mobile Geforce 5650 laptop, but it's also 1/3 of its weight. A fair trade, as far as I'm concerned.
And finally, since it's very quiet even under load, even if it never does anything but play music while I sleep (through external speakers, the built-in ones are of barely adequate quality to make the system noises, but that's the standard netbook fare, too), I'll consider my money well spent. I don't think it'll come to that, and will be testing that quite soon.
Another thing I should probably mention, that's been a source of immese annoyance for me. The 'system restore' copy of the operating system comes on a hidden partition that can be booted from in case one needs to restore the computer to the factory condition, and is only accessible by the incredibly obtuse Acer's backup/restore utility. Why obtuse? Because the utility absolutely refuses to back up the OS onto anything but a physical optical drive attached to a USB port. A drive that needs to be acquired separately. It also requires two DVDs to make a backup of the Windows XP home that's on the hidden partition, which only highlights the amount of crap/bloatware Acer's products come preinstalled with for your inconvenience. You can't back up the Windows you've paid for on a flash drive, which, considering the day and age, and the fact that the computer can be booted from one, is just stupid.
Oh, and another thing. Everyone, repeat after me: a netbook is not one's main computer. Again: a netbook is not one's main computer. The second one, or even better, a third, but not the first. So, repeat again: a netbook is not one's main computer. Heed this, and you'll be happy with one.
Labels: Acer Aspire One 531, review
