UPDATE: The 9th of March is now the lucky date of launch, a month ahead of the information recieved earlier. I suppose this is what happens when you get information from a number of different sources. As this date is only 2 week away, i will definatley have an unboxing video and hands on for you as soon as i can get my hands on one.
Following on from my previous post regarding launch dates for the 5800, I have been able to get ahold of information confirming that it will launch end of March, start of April on Optus, Virgin and Three networks, with Optus having 18 months of “Comes with Music” downloads and the other having the standard 12 months.
Nokia is believed to be making this annoucment official on Feb 25th according to itnews.com.au
The Nokia “Comes with Music” service gives customers access to over 5 million tracks available for download for free for the alotted time bundled with the handset. This esentially gives you millions of dollars worth of music for free if you have the quota to download it….but the catch is it’s not DRM free…..sigh.
Optus is to have the blue variant of the handset along with Three, with a black/silver version coming down the line for Three customers. Virgin will carry the red version and at this stage, Vodafone and Telstra are yet to join the party though there are rumours of a Tesltra version being released but i have not seen any evidence of this.
I have had a chance to have a play around with this handset and from the little time I had it seems to be a very nice device. It runs Symbian S60 5th Edition, which is their touch-based version of the platform and in parts did seem a bit janky but maybe that was due to the software it was running at the time. The interface worked well and the resistive touch screen, although resistive…yuck, was very nice to use, the many different ways of input a nice, including alpha-numeric keypad, mini qwerty, full qwerty and handwriting recognition. Videos look very nice on the 640×360 16:9 widescreen. All in all the device is a great intro for Nokia into touchscreen handsets and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store for us beyond this and the N97.
Sorry for my ignorance but what is the date “the 9th of march” in relation to, if you say that the networks will be launching the phone at the end march, early april?
Thanks in Advance!
Hi Lucas,
Here is the latest update for the Nokia 5800, from another leading blog… http://www.tube5800.com/nokia-5800-and-comes-with-music-to-hit-australia-on-mar-20/
Regards, Ducapi
Hi Ducapi,
Yes Nokia has released a statement saying it’s official release is March 20. The release was made on Feb 25th in line with what itnews.com.au said. I will have an unboxing video and list of contents up as soon as i can get one, hopefully the 20th
Cheers
Hi Lucas,
Is there any word yet on when Vodafone Australia will have this handset? Nobody seems to be able to give me a straight answer
Thanks.
Hi Jackie,
Sorry for the late reply, as far as i am aware only Allphones have the facility to be able to connect this phone on the Vodafone network.
Cheers
Lucas
Hi Ducapi,
This date refers to the launch date i have received. It is the first actual date that i have received from anyone, everyone has been given me periods. Sorry for the confusion, i will update the post.
Thanks again for your comments