Nokia's iPhone fighting Nokia 5800 Tube - specs, launch window and live pic
Posted by Will on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 1:31 pm under Rumors, Nokia, Devices, Symbian
Well lookey what we have here. Hot on the heels of the Nokia Tube demonstration that showed off Espoo's touchscreen-based competitor to the multi-touch iPhone, here are some more details on the Nokia Tube.
Symbian-freak managed to score a live pic of the Nokia Tube in the wild. The S60 Touch-based handset from Nokia looks a bit awkward compared to the Apple iPhone, but then style and flair are Apple's forte. And, keep in mind that image is horribly sub-par and that the Nokia Tube is likely still a prototype and will benefit from further refinement from Nokia's design-heads.
Apparently, the Nokia Tube will not be launched as a Nokia flagship handset. A higher-end touchscreen mobile phone based on the S60 Touch OS will be shipped "shortly after" the launch of the Nokia Tube.
Dusan managed to score some specs for the Nokia Tube, and he let me run with it. The Nokia Tube should be shipped as the Nokia 5800 Tube and will sport a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus. A 3.2-inch touchscreen display with 16 Million colors will go up against the iPhone's 3.5-inch multi-touch display. To handle communications duties, there's a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM/EDGE radio with 3G UMTS/HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, and some GPS thrown-in for good measure. There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack and TV-out port on the Nokia 5800 Tube. And, just like the updated N82, the Nokia 5800 Tube will support geo-tagging of pics - a nicety allowed by the built-in GPS receiver. Expect all this techno-gadgetry at the end of 2008.
There's no multi-touch on the Nokia 5800 Tube, but there's definitely haptic feedback. It's unclear whether the haptic feedback is based on the localized haptic feedback technology that we saw with the Haptikos technology, or if the Nokia Tube will use the pseudo-haptic, whole-device vibration feedback that's been so popular on recent haptic-enabled handsets. I'm rooting for the Haptikos feedback technology that localizes screen-vibrations to the area of input.
Now, it remains to be seen just how well Nokia's first S60 Touch OS iteration will fare against the incumbent multi-touch OS on the Apple iPhone. Past demonstrations of S60 Touch have been a bit disappointing, but Nokia has stuffed the Nokia 5800 Tube with all the technological goodies that I've come to expect from the Finns - will the built-in GPS, haptic feedback, and 3G be enough to overtake the iPhone? Probably.
But then again, the 3G iPhone is believed to be launching well ahead of the Nokia 5800 Tube's year-end launch window. I can't wait to see the Nokia 5800 Tube hit the interwebs with some live, in-hand demos. Stay tuned for the latest on the Nokia Tube.
Keep reading for the spec-sheet breakdown.
[Update]
The "5800" model designation makes sense for an XpressMusic device, and the Nokia 5800 Tube shows an "XpressMedia" designation on the upper right of the device.
Nokia 5800 Tube specifications
- 3.2-inch touchscreen display with 16 Million colors
- 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
- Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM/EDGE radio
- 3G UMTS/HSDPA
- Bluetooth 2.0
- WiFi
- GPS
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- TV-out port
- 140MB on-board storage
- 111 x 52 x 14.5 mm
- 104g
- End of 2008 launch
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April 9th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
How did you get the name of the device aswell as its spec sheet but not know about the feedback?
Teo says it's just normal vibration, no Haptikos.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
do we know the screen-resolution already?
April 9th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
640×360
April 9th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Amazing to me how many phones are ripping off the ID of the iPhone. I guess the iPhone did change (is changing) everything.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
Amazing to me how many companies have been ripping off the idea of becoming a phone company. I guess Nokia really made other companies change what they produce and sell. iPhone is garbage. If Apple is telling you what apps and services you can use with your iPhone AND they force you to use AT&T…..is it really your phone? and please dont tell me that you can unlock the iphone….really? Why should you have to unlock your phone when you just paid $400-$600 for it? Be smart….dont get hustled by Apple.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Come on. I really thought the tube was going to be an iphone killer - with those specs it will fall short. Don't forget guys iphone will be bringing out a 3g version shortly. iPhone looks better so it will sell better any 15 year old knows that
April 9th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I'm always up for competition, but this is pretty sad. 140 MB onboard storage and no mention of expandibility? Your average computer in 2003 had more RAM than this phone has storage space. This wouldn't be so disappointing if the phone was just a phone, but it is meant to compete with the iPhone, and that mean media, and 140 MB (assuming that's after formatting and istalled OS, which I'm sure it isn't) is about 10 minutes of 640X480 video. I can only hope that this information is wrong, when they could throw 4GB of storage space and an SD port on for like $20. If this information is right, well, I'll just wait for Google's Android phone.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Still I feel multitouch in iPhone make iPhone far better in ease of use, but lets see what Nokia is upto.
April 10th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Though Nokia has given awesome mobiles in the past but its success is slightly in danger due to new operating system with touchscreen feature. iPhone is a strong candidate to give tough time to Nokia.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Finally a big step in device development from Nokia. But here comes Eee PC from the other end.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Used to use nokia, then they went downhill. Now Motorolla Ericsson is the top dog in high end compact phones. Would like to see there challange to the Iphone.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I'd like to see this compared with the SE P5i…
April 10th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Oh my people are giving the last day of Nokia comments already =D I thought i hitted intomobile not engadget.
I'll wait before those phones are actually out(Symbian-Freak said there should be this, one more high end and later on a flagship phone). This might be on time to market when X1 appears.
Hardware wise i'm actually really positively suprised i wasent really sure if Nokia kknew what they where doing with the first S60 TS phone and get us something horrible thick N95 like TS phone(with 2.8 screen).
just think that this should be 5800 XpressMedia phone low end cheap TS phone i think that's pretty great.
OS in a other hand dosent look that attractive thought pretty much what expected.
Biggest thing that bothers me is the lack of multitouch or any new TS input.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:07 am
This could work actually, a mid-range offering for people not prepared to cash out for an iPhone but still want a decent smart phone with touch screen. Not for me though, I so wanted what was basically a 3G iPhone that hasn't been locked down. I know you can unlock the iPhone but the it's still hassle for each update, the warranty's void (big issue over the iPhone's reliability) and the Bluetooth constraints seem to be getting ignored by the hacking scene.
I'll get the N78 for now and hold out for the top end touch-screen offering from Nokia.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:33 am
In the pic you can see it says XpressMedia on the right side of the phone.. I think taht Nokia is going to call all their touchscreen mobile phones like that… just like XpreesMusic series ..
April 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
nokia seems to be trying everthing now. the first touchscreen should have been n95 8g.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
It's interesting to see how this pans out.
Apple for style, no doubt. I feel however, that the Nokia will offer better functionality.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
I want the Tube !
April 15th, 2008 at 9:47 am
We hope that nokia will make double sim cards like samsung to solve the problem of carrying two phones in the same time
April 18th, 2008 at 7:15 am
I think we will have to wait until the Tube is launched. Withouth have used it we can't judge things like usability and stuff.
April 20th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
It really is amazing that ppl are really that ignorant to the fact that apple was NOT the first to bring out a touchscreen device…not a monoblock touchscreen device… apple however is the first company to extensively market one of the most locked up and underutilised piece of technology ever and that is wat apple has done so far… nokie had the 7710 and if im not mistaken the 7700 out a VERY long time before apple realized their "jesus phone" mind u the only likeness i can see to Jesus in the "jesus-phone" is that fact that it is being crucified in countries such as the UK where buyers actually have a shred of common sense when it comes to mobile phones and wont just buy something cuz they saw it on tv…. ive seen VERY few N95 commercials but im quite sure it outsells the iphone by a significant margin worldwide…why? becuz its not a flashy overly expensive piece of rubbish XD
May 28th, 2008 at 6:43 am
when its inruduced to the market
which coast is coming with
June 1st, 2008 at 11:52 am
i order this mobile on www.onlinemobileoffers.co.uk
June 14th, 2008 at 12:52 am
a multi touch screen, a superfast cpu, a brilliant camera, a tv (dvb), and 16gb of internal mem (expandable via sd) makes it the best ever existed cellphone…
P.S. a high mega pixel camera means something more than 5mpix