While It’s probably clear for me that the 5800 is not an iPhone contender, and I think it’s not even supposed to be, it’s clear some of the details that makes the iPhone stand out from the competition. Don’t matter if it’s Nokia, Samsung, LG. The problem is always one:

It is not about putting touch and transitions. It’s about the whole package. It should be consistent, responsive, integrated and with visual clues to whatever you’re doing.

If you take time to look at the videos :
http://gizmodo.com/5058503/nokia-releases-5800-xpressmusic-tube-full-video-tour

What will strike you in the first seconds are several minor things that unfortunately ruin most of the experience, even the whole device / software looking quite solid:

a. Lack of responsiveness : 2 presses? Press and nothing happens for more than 1 second? Touch to zoom and it takes half a second?

b. Still carrying the past on it’s shoulder: Focus when there’s no focus? Ok, if you want to mix hardware controls with touch controls you can focus on another features but not on the list.

c. What is that pick? I am a guitar player, but to kill the stylus by putting a pick that is funny :) The portrait qwerty, the full qwerty the T9 and recognition are hitting that spot : Let’s try to please everyone. At least for me, IMHO this is where things get really ugly. Trying to please everyone is one of the most dangerous decision a design team can make.

d. Build on top of legacy: Ok you need to maintain S60 compatibility, but come on, s60 was not made for touch. Even with series90 the touch was not planned for fingers. Legacy is the worst nightmare of all.

e. the icons. Oh, the icons. The GUI icons for Camera, Video player and so on are really bad. I hope this are not the ones in the final package, but that looks so amateur :/ What is that recording light?

f. Transitions where is not needed, missing when needed : From one screen to the other a simple fade, but the selected item title slides up and decreases size to fit the former title space’s. Complicated.

g. Keyboard flying around? Consistency at least in the input method is key. The keyboard is supposed to be in the same place always, but if you look when adding a feed to your favorite friend, the keyboard goes to the middle of screen, with buttons bellow. Not good.

So, there’s a lot of things going on in the video, but they are there. At least Nokia didn’t trying to make the videos be something the device is not. The real deal seems to be there, and you know what you’re getting.

I will for sure try to use one soon, and post here if my impressions based on the video are right, and see if I can at least detail in really fine-grain level some of this small things, somebody can be reading and can be helpful!