The new Nokia 5800 Tube is probabily, since it was unveiled in October, the most awaited phone of 2008. The implementation of the s60 Touch UI and the very attractive price tag were the key features, to expect it to be among the best-sellers of 2009 in the mobile industry.

Nokia announced first that the phone price was expected to be of 279 € + VAT. The low price, as said below, was one of the greatest surprises.

But only one month later, rumors began to spread in forums and communities, saying that the price was to be retouched to 429 € in most countries, including taxes.

So, the phone launch is approaching and some stores are already taking preorders at the price of 429 €.

Many users are disappointed, because the price is higher than expected, but last minute news are telling that the  price could still be a (good) surprise in some countries at least.

According to latest news, Nokia’s official price is still 279 €  + VAT.  The problem is that regional Nokia divisions, in each country, will be allowed to offer the phone in a bundle with additional features/services. So, especially for Christmas, some countries are offering the phone at 279 €  + taxes + a 100 €  voucher of "Comes with Music" songs, plus a 3-months subscription to Nokia Maps.

So, here’s why in some countries the price became 429 €.

The same sources are telling that, probably starting from January, the phone will be sold, at least, in some countries, without additional services (so, without "comes with music" vouchers), for the retail price of 279 € +VAT (In Italy, this would mean a price of 335 € wich is a unusual price, so probably, 349 €).

And we all hope so, Nokia.

source: Engadget

I’ve come across a nice video by Stuff.tv Magazine, it’s showing a Nokia 5800 Hand-on, with quite clear images of the Touchscreen and Operating system response. Great focus, like on every review of the last days, on the multiple text imput methods, here showing the Full Qwerty touch imput, mini-qwerty to use with included pen, and classic keypad imput with numbers and multiple letters.

Also, some websites are reporting that the first country to get the 5800 release will be Russia, probably on the first days of December. This is because russian market is in some ways different from other european markets. Nokia aims to fight there, against the growing iPhone-mania. Also, The Nokia 5800 sold there will be more expensive (around 450 Euro, while in other countries the price will be 299 Euro + Taxes).

Then, the Tube will be available in Spain and some other countries before the end of the year. The rest of the world (including Italy), will get it on the first months of 2009.

Sources: Dailymobile, Mobile-Review

One of my worst fears about the upcoming Symbian 5th edition was about its compatibility with older applications. This is because there are today thousands of good apps for 3rd edition phones, and making a completely new Os could require years to remake and update all the existing apps.

However, it seems that the Incompatibility that regarder the upgrade from 2rd edition Symbian towards 3rd edition will not realize this time. You can see in this screenshot the new Nokia 5800 running the 3rd edition version of X-plore by Lonelycatgames, one of the most popular applications for Symbian. It seems that older applications will run with the help on an emulator, that will add a keypad in the lower part of the screen to compensate the lack of support for the touch UI.

Source: Mobile-Review; Rodrigostoledo

The upcoming Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone will be the first handset to feature the new generation of Symbian Os, bringing Touch support, and other improvements over the 3rd edition series.

The Nokia 5800, formerly known as the "Tube" will be on stores probably on early 2009. However, some very lucky bloggers already have the possibility of trying it. One of those is Eldar of Mobile-Review.com, a Russian mega-website offering previews, hands-on and reviews of nearly every mobile phone in the market.

Eldar wrote, some days ago, a great article showing in-depth the new Symbian 5th edition interface. Here, he analyzes all the aspects of the upcoming 5th edition Symbian. And the article is really worth looking at, as the are a lot of screenshots, and some videos, taken from the 5800 Symbian interface.

 (Click to view in full size!)

(and notice, the new official Symbian Theme seems to be inspired to a well-known thememaking  style!, even if personally, I don’t find it fantastic at all. I think I could have done better )

Go to the article (external link)