Holiday Gift Guide »

Chinese Nokia 5800 XpressMusic to come sans 3G, WiFi

Categories: Devices, Nokia, Symbian
By: , IntoMobile
Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 5:35 AM

It’s a sad day for every Nokia fan in China. Apparently Nokia’s iPhone killer, 5800 XpressMusic, will come without 3G and WiFi support. And while I can understand the lack of 3G radio because of Chinese TD-SCDMA standard, lack of WiFi is not that easy to explain. Why on earth would you want such a device like the Tube without WiFi support is beyond me. Sure, these two combined will make Nokia’s all-touchscreen wonder more affordable to the Chinese consumer, but will they actually want the smartphone that bad to get it that crippled? Any thoughts?

[Via: Gizmodo]

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.

  • BlueVisor

    All mobile phones in China are not allowed to have wifi, for some stupid legal reason.

    although, you can always buy imports…

  • Ali Z.

    Licensing. It comes a computing / radio frequency device and not a “mobile phone”. So Nokia would have to buy additional licenses to sell mobile phones with wifi capabilities. Which cost a lot of money and a lot of time. They probably commited to the market and probably cant wait for either any longer with Apple and LG sporting really slim devices.

    Wifi was supposed to be replaced with WAPI. Anyone know what happened to that?

  • Evivi

    Well, is it that difficult to understand?
    If everybody uses wifi, who’s gonna use the GPRS data plan from carrier?
    Without those expensive GPRS bills, how could the carriers make more money?
    Who owns the carriers? Bingo, the government.
    What does government do? Making laws.

  • Eltawil

    So if I understand this correctly, China got upset after its WAPI technology (an alternative to Wi-Fi) was rejected by ISO and as a result of that China released a law to ban selling mobile devices with Wi-Fi.

    Am I misunderstanding this, or is China just playing the role of a crying baby now?

  • Ogami_Ito

    Its not about promoting GPRS data. Its about the companies / members of WAPI paying off the government to promote its own standard. But as a result, WAPI devices are no where to be seen. No one uses it. But no one makes Wifi in China for Chinese market.

  • rockstat

    Uhhhh….I got mine 2 weeks ago from China and it does have Wifi but sadly no 3G support.

  • inc

    Really?
    Because mine doesn’t.
    gdamn I don’t see the point of getting this phone

  • Dayyan

    Dear Rockstat,

    I also got my phone in China, and on returning to Canada found that i may not have WiFi. I’d like to know how you got it, and if you could help me to get it to work on mine.

    my email is comindev@gmail.com

    all the best,
    Dayyan

  • aeris

    been scouring the web on how to customize the message alert tone on my n5800 clone >:( seems like every china phone only has standard message tones and its not custom-friendly either. Anybody here who could help?

  • yasser

    how can i get games and software for this mobile………………………………………………………………………