Long distance dial

The world of touchscreen mobile phones is starting to get exciting, as the biggest brand in the business has waded in with not one, but TWO mobile phones: the sexy Nokia 5800 and the utterly awesome Nokia N97. Early attempts – woeful touchscreen phones! Many people are under the false impression that the Nokia 5800 is the first touchscreen mobile phone Nokia have ever made. It isn’t. The opposite’s true, because there have been several touch-based phones released under the Nokia brand. Beginning at the 7700, there have been a few Nokia mobile phones that work by touch. They had a relatively big (for the time) touchscreen in common, but but unfortunately, they shared something else: they were irredeemably hideous. Only one of those devices, the 6708, showed any potential, but it was destined exclusively to be sold in China, and thus, it wasn’t meant for us in the UK. The mobile phones WE got were, and I use this phrase with much feeling, total, and complete garbage. However, those unpleasant memories have now been removed because of the launch of a pair of new Nokia mobile phones, both of which have touchscreens, and both of which are much, much nicer. . . Nokia 5800 – rockin’ in the free world The first phone up is a totally new entrant into Nokia’s Xpress range of music mobile phones, the stunning Nokia 5800. This one’s quite obviously designed for music and video; you can tell by the separate XpressMedia button that opens a list of links to music, videos, the internet, and so on. Then, of course, the Nokia 5800 has a 3. 2 inch touchscreen, to let you play with those different media files. Basically, the Nokia 5800 was designed to be a teeny portable jukebox and movie player, and as music phones go, this is just about the sweetest. The Nokia 5800 has also got a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA data access and sat-nav, making it a wonderful all-rounder, as well as a superb media gadget. Oh, and it has a lanyard to fasten on an imitation guitar plectrum. That’s pretty cool, that. However, the Nokia 5800 is very definitely a mid-range phone; it isn’t, nor will it ever be, an absolute powerhouse. That role falls to a separate device. . . Nokia N97 – a mobile multimedia monster! With the Nokia 5800 all set to bring touch-based mobile phones to the mid-range market, that leaves a great big gap at the very top-end, and yes, there IS a touchscreen mobile phone waiting to be unleashed to fill that gap: the frankly awesome Nokia N97. This uses the same Symbian S60 Touch interface and packages it into the frame of a proper, full-tilt smartphone. Which means it has an even more huge, 3. 5 inch screen, a slide out QWERTY keypad, and the camera now weighs in at a meaty 5 megapixels. The Nokia N97 is, in a very definite way, destined to be the new flagship Nseries mobile phone, and it really is as hyper-powered as the rumours said, with HSDPA, sat-nav, digital compass, and integrated Flash, meaning you get an internet experience that tops any other mobile phones! Put it like this: the Nokia N97 is simple incredible. It gleefully relieves itself over other mobile phones and as the Nokia 5800 angles to take over the mid-range, I’m predicting that the Nokia N97 will utterly DOMINATE the world next year!