Nokia Rolls Out a New Music Phone – Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

While LG and Samsung are setting their sights on the touch-screen market, Nokia has released another music phone – the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. Oh yeah, we’d like to mention that the 5800 is also a touch-screen phone. The Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, an eye-catching slim touch-screen phone that looks vaguely like you-know-what. Though Nokia is quick to dismiss the iPhone comparisons, its almost inevitable.

The 5800 features an expansive 3.2 inches touch screen with tactile feedback that serves as the primary interface tool. The outside is mostly black but you’ll be able to exercise a bit of personal style by choosing from three versions–each has a thin colored ring in either gray, red, or blue. At 4.31 by 2.04 by 0.61 inches and 3.85 ounces, the 5800 Xpress Music falls between the iPhone and the LG Dare in size and weight. Exterior controls include a volume rocker, a dedicated power button, and a camera shutter.

Features are more like the Dare than the iPhone. Inside you’ll find a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording and a Carl Zeiss lens, messaging, stereo Bluetooth, a microSD card slot, 81MB of internal memory, USB mass storage, personal organizer apps, a speakerphone, a 3.5mm headset jack, assisted GPS, a music player, and PC syncing. It’s also a full world phone with support for four GSM bands and two HSDPA bands.

Getting music on the 5800 Xpress Music is easy. Besides the traditional methods of syncing with a PC or transferring songs via Bluetooth or a memory card, you’ll also be able to access songs over the air from Nokia‘s music store using the company’s new Comes With Music service.

THe 5800, furthermore, runs on Symbian Series 60, 5th edition, with an interface that is both attractive and easy to use. The main menu uses a series of icons, while the music player features album art. An accelerometer will rotate the display from portrait to landscape mode automatically; in landscape mode there’s a full QWERTY keyboard. The 5800 also will have a Contacts Bar that will highlight your four favorite friends on the home screen. With one touch you’ll be able to access a history of text messages, phone calls, e-mails, and photos.

The 5800 comes with a stylus and a secondary tool that looks like a guitar. The 5800 Xpress Music should land in Europe and Asia in the last quarter of this year.

The suggested retail price at this point should be close to $391 (279 euros). However, that price is not fixed and might change in time.