We have reported a rumour about the Nokia 5800 launch date, which was on the 2nd of October, but according to Nokia that date has changed in some countries and the “official” shipping process has started. With that being said, if you live in Russia, Spain, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Finland, pay attention during the following days because the Music cellphone will soon become available for purchase. Also known as XpressMusic, or Tube, the handset has a touchscreen interface, 8GB of storage capacity, and a 3.2-megapixel camera.

Jo Harlo of Nokia, comments:

When it comes to music phones, people all over the world want a device that is a great music experience and still works really well as a mobile phone, without sacrificing features.

via press

I’m actually really interested in getting my hands on that first Nokia touchscreen phone but in the mean time, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will hit Russia first. The phone will be available starting December 5th and it will cost about $550. That’s an odd decision from Nokia. I mean sure Russia is big and it will get them lots of customers but what about the rest of the world? When are we going to get it? I demand answers!

This may not be good news to the Americans but should get people in the Europe and parts of the world excited, as the 5800 XpressMusic in question here is a non-NAM, dual-band 3G (900/2100MHz) designed for the European market, that has garnered FCC’s support. If we are not mistaken, Nokia will soon push another version of the 5800 XpressMusic, the one that supports US 3G, and not just crappy EDGE speeds that this version supports, even if it knows the US isn’t as big a market as other parts of the world like Europe and India. But this is good news anyways, as European customers who are eagerly awaiting to get their hands on this baby will have to wait just a little longer to get it as the 5800 XpressMusic finishes up on its final exams.
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Nokia has just had a tiny taste of the touchscreen phones world with its 5800 XpressMusic phone. We’re expecting more phones to follow that trend in the near futures. At a recent Nokia event in New Delhi, the marketing director of Nokia India, Devindere Kishore said that: “We will have lots of touchscreen phones coming up, including an N-series device very soon.” Not that a future N-series to sport a touchscreen is such an unexpected move but we have at least a small confirmation from a Nokia official.

We know the story already. Same stuff, different handset. We’ve seen how the Chinese iPhone will loose its 3G chip and WiFi antenna. Well Nokia’s first touchscreen phone, the 5800 XpressMusic will get the same treatment. Again it looks like Chinese mobile carriers want to determine their subscribers to only use the Chinese custom TD-SCDMA network. I understand the lack of 3G but shouldn’t they be able to use WiFi if they wanted to? After all it should be one of the most important human rights! One should be able to use WiFi at any time and any place he or she would feel like, no matter of age, race or religious beliefs.

Nokia has released yesterday their first touchscreen phone. If you’re already writing long letters to Santa about how you’d been a good kid this year and how you’d love to find a 5800 XpressMusic under the Christmas tree, maybe you should stop. I know Nokia promised us worldwide availability by the end of the year. It might just be that the whole worldwide concept has different meanings for Nokia ane me.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will certainly be available in: India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the UAE, Spain and Russia. That’s Nokia’s worldwide. China, North America and quite a few European countries are left out. Not to mention South America, Africa or Australia.

Is it worth waiting for 2009 to get your hands on the 5800. I’d say yes. Although by that time Nokia might launch a better touschreen phone.

Here’s what you might be interested in waiting for:

• Symbian S60 5th Edition
• 3.2-inch TFT touchscreen with 16 mil. colors and 360 x 640 pixels
• Quad-band GSM, dual-band HSDPA connectivity
• GPS & A-GPS
• Accelerometer
• Wi-Fi, full Web browser
• 3.5mm audio jack
• MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+ player, MPEG4/WMV/3GP player
• 3.15 MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash, autofocus and VGA video recording
• 81MB of internal memory
• 8GB on a MicroSDHC card

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is here! Nokia’s first touch screen phone is among the company’s first devices to support Nokia’s “Comes With Music” service which offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store catalog.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic features the Media Bar, a drop-down menu that provides direct access to music and entertainment, as well as web and online sharing. With Flash support, you can enjoy a bigger slice of the web. The phone comes with 8GB of memory, a graphic equalizer, and most importantly, a standard friggin’ 3.5 mm jack. The phone also boasts surround sound stereo speakers.

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A couple of days ago we heard that Nokia will be launching the Tube on October 2nd. If it was only a rumored piece of news then, it has just been confirmed by Reuters. The date for the Nokia Tube or the 5800 XpressMusic is October 2nd.

Everything will happen in London, just as we heard before. That means next week we’ll have more news about the actual specs of the Tube and official pricing. Hopefully the first Nokia touhcscreen phone will be more than just an mid-range phone with a cool screen.

October 2nd seems a bit more closer now, but that shouldn’t stop us from foraging for any small detail that we can find for you guys about Nokia’s much-awaited touchscreen device, the 5800 XpressMedia aka the “Tube.” Mobil.cz was lucky enough to come across a press photo that must have been meant for the upcoming official announcement and shows the Tube clad in dark, brooding red with the usual black bezel, a nice color combination. For those who have forgotten the specs, here’s a refresher: Quad-band GSM, UMTS 2100, and HSDPA support, aGPS, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi, 3.2-inch 16-million color touchscreen display, 3.5 mm headphone jack and TV-out feature, 150MB internal memory with microSDHC expansion for up to 16GB, and a 3.2 megapixel camera with dual LED flash with Symbian S60 Taco 5 as the operating system. There you go, all that juicy enough to hold you until the announcement?

While other companies have long put in their entries for the ongoing touchscreen competition, Nokia is still yet to formally release the much-awaited Nokia “Tube” or more officially, the Nokia XpressMedia 5800. But it looks like we may not have to wait long as Pocket-Lint has a secret, vaild source that whispers a launch date of October 2nd. According to the source, Nokia’s first full touchscreen cell phone is planned to be launched at a London event together with the arrival of Nokia Comes with Music service. October 2nd is not too bad, but you should know Nokia that we have moved on and fallen for the Touch HD instead!

We’re constantly checking on Nokia to see when they’re finally going to release their fist touchscreen phone. Usual rumors say the 5800 Tube will be ready by the end of the year but it looks like we might have an earlier UK release. October 8th is the date people say the Nokia Tube will come out for the public.

Besides the introduction of the touchscreen, this device will be the first to run on Symbian S60 5th Edition. Is Nokia going to have it done in exactly one month from today?

The iPhone has been through two generations already while the largest handset manufacturer in the world seems to be waking up to the call at last, albeit a bit groggily. Nokia has now confirmed that the Tube aka 5800 XpressMedia touchscreen cell phone will be launched before this year is up. We pretty much know everything there is to know about the 5800, but an official nudge in the right direction of a price and a proper release date was missing.

Devinder Kishore, Nokia India’s marketing director had this to say about the upcoming device:

With the acquisition of Symbian, we will be able to offer our customers more innovative products and the latest technology. We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touchscreen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end.

If we go by this statement, we still have to wait at least another three months before it is launched and at the rate the other companies are churning out touchscreen devices, it might even be too late for the Finnish manufacturer to play catchup, let alone climb up to the top spot, which the iPhone currently holds.
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Their last tease still hasn’t materialized, but Nokia is determined to plough on with yet more announcements this year. Come August 18, the Espoo, Finland-based manufacturer will unveil the latest members of the Nseries family, most likely to be the N79 and N85, in a closed online event before the public announcement on August 25th. The ever elusive XpressMedia 5800 or Tube seems not yet ready for the limelight though, and the N96 is still MIA more than a year after it was announced. We already know some tidbits about the handsets in question, like the dual-slider N85’s 5 megapixel camera and Symbian S60 FP2 operating system, and the N79’s 2.4-inch display and its own 5mpx lens. The event is only four days away, so look for us to get you more on it pretty soon!