First Impressions of the Nokia 5500

[Rafe]

Rafe's had his hands on the Nokia 5500, the latest S60 phone from Finland. Targetted as a feature phone (as opposed to a smartphone), the 5500 has the angle of being a great sports companion phone, with lap times, clocks, pedometers and a robust construction. Read on for a phone that will take S60 into a whole new market.

Read on in the full article.

[langdona]

Nice preview.

I'm not sure about this device it seems a bit gimmicky to me and gimmicky things tend to be either be a surprising success or spectacular failure. I doubt if it will appeal to the true keep fit/sport enthusiast but may well be popular with people with good intentions. At least (unlike most gym memberships that are used a couple of times and then discarded) you can still use it as a Phone come MP3 player when you get fed up with all that jogging.

I notice a E70 in the comparison photograpgh did you have a chance to preview that as well?

[Rafe]

Yes the sports function may be a bit gimicky, although they are actually quite well specified. I imagine semi serious exercise / active person would find them useful. It is still a full S60 3rd Edition device with all that entails. I'd defintely recommend it to people who like that sort of styling and are looking for something small.

I've played with the E70 a few times now and I think Ewan wrote a preview late last year. It is a nice device, but in keyboard mode it does need two hands (which I'm not sure about). It also quite bulky. On the other hand the keyboard is good, the screen is nice and it has a decent feature set. It is also the only Eseries device with a camera.

We're hoping to do a review of the E70 shortly.

[zainman]

in the last para Rafe, u say 2005, i'd like to correct that. its 2006 :-) (this is about the availability of the phone) you'll know what i mean..

[ravis_31]

Nice preview Rafe..Just one thing,is the music player stereo or mono?
How about the battery life?

[Bassey]

It does look like a nice device. I always have a second, smaller phone that I can use when I'm going out somewhere where I'm worried it might get damaged. This has the advantage of being very small and more solidly built than you average phone whilst still having a lot more useability than my current "pub phone" of choice, an SE T68i.

[Rafe]

Music player is Stereo. Battery life - I only had a short time with it and you can't really judge these thing on prototypes.

[Ewan]

Ravis, Nokia's definition of a music phone is a device that at a minimum can play 128k stereo MP3. If they've labelled it as a music phone, then by their rules it'll have to be stereo.

[ravis_31]

Thanx guys,i wanted a s60 phone the size of a 6230 and this just fits my bill..i alread have an n-gage qd but hate its monophonic sound.I was looking to get the N91 as the prices come down but this seems to be an good alternative.

[clumsy]

I have a 5140 that I have repeatedly managed to drop on a variety of surfaces - including down stairs... I'm looking to replace it and the 5500 looks to be one of the best contendors. But, how durable is it? WIll it stand up to the kind of punishment my 5140 has managed to survive?

Cheers

[nj7]

It´s a good smartphone, without 3G. The selling point could be the price.
If is low, like 3230, with is small body, than could be a good seller. A cheap and small s60 device... sounds good!

[Rafe]

Its probably going to cost less than the 3230 after the intial inflated-after-launch period.

I just bought my Nokia5500 some two weeks back (despite the bad keypad reviews!!!)....and am already facing problems...
the phone heats up while talking for more than 4/5 minutes, secondly the voice gets lost although the phone connection is still on........anyone faced these problems????
:(