Nokia 5800 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Marianne Schultz Published on May 08, 2009 Comment on this |
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| In good S60 spirit, the 5800 has good call management features and its virtual dial pad is responsive. Ring volume isn't exceptionally loud, but ringtones sound come coming out of its stereo speakers. | |
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Dialing Speed (7.75)
If you've got fast fingers, the 5800 can keep up with you. It took an average of 2.58 seconds to dial and initiate a call starting from the home screen in the unlocked state on the 5800, putting it near the top among our comparison phones where only the T-Mobile G1 beats it. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Send and End Buttons (4.5)
The 5800 has physical and virtual Send and End buttons. The physical ones are below the screen as a thin strip of raised plastic divided into 3 buttons - Send, Menu, and End. The Menu button is a little longer than the Send and End buttons, and there are no raised markings to help you distinguish between then, though it's easy enough to remember the layout. While they have good tactile feedback and travel, we don't like that they're so thin and close to the Menu button.
There are on-screen equivalents that you can use instead. The on-screen Send button is a virtual button below the * key on the virtual keypad with a phone symbol on it. While its in keeping with the monochrome color scheme of the keypad, we think it would be more obvious if it were green instead of gray. When you receive a call, this on-screen button is larger and labeled Answer.
The virtual End button appears in the active call screen in the lower right corner, and it's a good size and labeled End call.
Call Management (8.0)
During an active call, you have lots of options on the 5800. 4 on-screen buttons allow you to mute the call, put it on hold, activate the loudspeaker, and end the call. The Options menu offers the ability to open the dialer so you can make another call, lock the screen and keys, switch to a video call using the front-facing camera, and much more.
A call being initiated
Pressing the Menu key will bring you to the main menu with the call still active in the background, and you can navigate to the Voice Recorder application and record the call, including the voice of the other person on the call. During the recording, both you and the person on the other end of the line will hear a beep every few seconds. We only wish there was a way to get to this function more quickly, such as a shortcut in the Options menu.
In terms of call history, the fastest way to see the log is to press the physical Send button. Unlike the Samsung Memoir and HTC Touch Diamond, the 5800's call log, does not show you all calls in a single view, splitting them into missed, received, and sent calls only. Each log entry shows the name/number, date, and time of the call. Tapping on an entry will bring up a menu offering to dial the number, create a message to send to that number, or save the number to contacts. No information is available on call duration and individual entries cannot be deleted – you can only clear the entire call log at once.
The main call log view, all calls, and the detail for a single log entry
If you access the Call Log via the main menu, you'll be able to see call timers and packet data. Call timers will show you the duration of the last call, dialed numbers, received calls, and all calls. Packet data will show you all data sent and all data received. You'll also be able to see more detail for each entry in the log, including the duration of the call and the call type.
The call log's Settings menu lets you change the log's duration from the default 30 days to 10 days, 1 day, or no days for the truly paranoid or carefree users.
Despite its minor shortcomings in not providing a quicker way to record a call and the absence of call duration data for each call, the 5800 offers robust call management features equal or better to what we've seen on many smartphones.
Startup to Call (2.81)
If you don't always keep your cell phone and go to make a call right after you turn it on, you'll be happy to know that the 5800 doesn't take too long to accomplish this task. On average, it took 35.6 seconds to turn on the 5800, dial a number, and initiate the call, beating the über-slow HTC Touch Diamond as well as the T-Mobile G1 in this test. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Ring Volume (8.99)
At the highest volume setting, the 5800 rang out at a respectable 89.9 dB. This isn't the highest volume level among our comparison phones, but we must say that ringtones sounded better on the 5800 thanks to its stereo speakers than they have on most of the phones we've seen.
Ringtones (8.0)
To check ringtone flexibility, we see if a phone will be able to use our test MP3, WMA, and AAC files as ringtones, which the 5800 can do without a problem. Here, we also consider if you can record ringtones direct on a phone and if there's any included software that can edit ringtones. The 5800 can do the former, but has nothing to address the latter. Sounds recorded with the Voice Recorder can be used as ringtones, but there is no application that comes installed on the 5800 with which to edit existing ringtones.
Choosing a new ringtone
Non-Audio Alerts (6.5)
While in silent mode, the vibrate function is average compared to other devices we've seen, allowing it to be easily heard while it's sitting on a desk, but not as strong as we'd like to be felt easily in a pocket. An incoming call causes the Send and End buttons and the entire screen to light up and show caller ID and other information, though the only status light does not flash at you by default. With its large screen, the 5800 will do a good job of getting your attention with an incoming call or alert, but some other flashing indicator would be nice to let you know about missed items after the screen turns itself off.
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