News

No "Tube" for Nokia fans at CES even now

by James Sherwood | posted on 13 January 2009

The Consumer Electronics Show. It's the biggest gizmo show in North America. Nokia is an also-ran in the US market. It has its coolest ever product - the "Tube"5800 phone. So...does Nokia roll out the drums and sound the trumpets in Las Vegas?

Does it heck. After denying British punters a touch screen Tube in their Christmas stockings, Nokia has announced that the much-hyped phone will launch - in the UK this month.

Also known as the 5800 XpressMusic, Tube goes on sale on 23 January from 10am. Not just anywhere, either - only at Nokia stores in Regent Street in London and Heathrow’s Terminal 5. It costs £249 ($371/€272) when sold SIM free.

You can pre-order the phone online, but Nokia’s website warns that online shoppers will receive the phone in February.

After the end of January, the handset will appear in Carphone Warehouse, Phones 4U and network operators’ stores. Tube is Nokia’s first fully touch screen-operated phone and has been hotly anticipated since a blurred photograph was published online last year.

Aside from the choice of fingertip, stylus or “exclusive plectrum touch” operation, you’ll also get the option of an on-screen keyboard or handwriting recognition for data entry.

The screen measures 3.2in and the device can be used with a single hand, thanks to a drop-down music bar that gives access to the phone’s audio catalogue. Nokia’s Music Store can also be thumbed through, literally.

Music is a big feature on Tube and your favourite tracks can be played back through headphones connected into the 3.5mm jack, or blasted out from the integrated surround sound speakers.

Content is stored onto Micro SD memory cards of up to 16GB, while the phone can connect to the web over both HSDPA 3G and Wi-Fi.

You get around nine hours of talk time from the 5800, or it’ll just sit awaiting orders for up to 17 days. The 5800 will play tunes continuously for 35 hours.

The camera is a 3.2-megapixel snapper that’s also able to capture 30f/s video. Assisted GPS is incorporated for navigation and geo-tagging of your snaps and videos.