(Credit:
Nokia)
By now, you've heard about the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, which was announced at the Nokia Remix event in London on Wednesday. Sure, the main headline may be the 5800's touch screen (a first for Nokia's cell phone line), but the handset isn't all about looks; it's got musical talent too.
Like the company's other Xpress Music phones, including the Nokia 5610 Xpress Music and the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music, the 5800 offers some advanced multimedia capabilities, particularly in the music category, but unlike previous models, the 5800 steps it up with the Nokia's Comes With Music service. What the heck is that you ask? Good question.
To provide a little background first, Nokia first unveiled its plans for the service back in December 2007. Nokia Comes With Music isn't an add-on service, but rather comes preloaded on select devices and gives you a year of unlimited access to any songs from the Nokia Music Store. Everything's included in the price of the handset; there are no additional subscription fees.
To give you a better idea of what is and isn't offered by the service, we've compiled this short Q&A about Comes With Music, which were answered with the help of a Nokia representative. Also, if you have a question about Nokia Comes With Music that wasn't covered here, please feel free to post it in the comments section and we'll do our best to get answered for you.
Q: Comes With Music lets customers buy an unlimited number of tracks from the Nokia Music Store but are there any limitations or restrictions?'
A: Comes With Music gives people a year of unlimited access to the Nokia Music Store catalog--from millions of tracks from a wide range of artists, including international hits and local talent--with the capability to keep all downloaded tracks.
Q: After a year, what's the cost to continue the service?
A: Once the Comes With Music first year service has expired, users can keep all the music they've downloaded and continue to update their collection with a la carte purchases. Pricing of a la carte depends on the Nokia Music Store pricing in the various regions.
Q: Will the tracks just be limited to use on the phone or can they downloaded to users' computers as well?
A: Nokia provides seamless access to a world of music--people can download music directly to their Comes With Music device or via their compatible personal computer. Plus, people can easily transfer tracks and playlists between their Nokia device and computer using the Nokia Music for PC software.
(Credit:
Crave UK)
At a swanky meeting yesterday, we got to play with Nokia's glossy new Xpress Music handsets, the 5320 and the 5220. Both are set to be affordable, mid-range models available from the third quarter of this year in the U.K. During our swift fondling sessions with the phones, we formed some early opinions.
Firstly, and most importantly as far as music phones are concerned, Nokia told us it has put brand-new audio chips inside these two new models to improve sound quality over previous handsets. This is a sensible decision, as more people are turning to mobiles as their primary music players. For some inane reason, the phones were on display with headphones that can only be described as utter bullshizzle, so we couldn't judge for ourselves whether the new chips were making a real difference.
Another good move was the decision to shift the native 3.5-millimeter headphone socket to the bottom of the handsets, as opposed to the side-mounted design seen on the N95, for example. The 5320 also has dedicated side-mounted gaming keys for use with N-Gage software, which felt very natural to use when we had a swift play. It also supports up to 8GB of microSD memory and HSDPA, but not Wi-Fi.
Both phones were easy to use, with decent keypads, good screens, and ergonomic designs, although we weren't all that keen on the 5220's asymmetrical look. The 5320 had a curious "Say and Play" feature that lets you speak the artist or song you want to listen to, and the handset automatically plays it. To our genuine surprise, it worked when we tried it out. How this will function in real-life situations, however, remains to be seen. Our "friends" yelling "Daphne and Celeste!" at us will get old pretty quickly.
Curiously, there was no confirmation of whether the 5320 or 5220 would support Nokia's Comes With Music service. However, both handsets are certainly a step in the right direction for Nokia, most notably because of their well-positioned headphone sockets and upgraded audio chips.
(Source: Crave UK)
- prev
- 1
- next
