Mobile Phone News:

By all accounts the Nokia 5800 is finally due to be officially unveiled this week (tomorrow, in fact), so as a bit of a warm-up to the announcement of the first-Nokia-touchscreen-phone-that-isn’t-actually-their-first, I’ve been inspired by an article on Mobile Gazette. Let’s take a look at some of their previous touchscreen mobile phones.

You see, the Nokia 5800 isn’t the first of Nokia’s mobile phones to have a touchscreen, contrary to what some people might be saying. But (and it’s a big but), as you’re about to see, it’s first one that actually looks like you’d want to own it…

Nokia 7700

Ok, granted, this one never made it into full production, but this was Nokia’s very first ever attempt at a touchscreen mobile phone. It was announced at a time when Nokia mobile phones were going through what can only be described as a mad phase. So, we got mobile phones like the teardrop-shaped Nokia 7600 (which was rubbish), the Nokia 3650 (which had a mental keypad), and the NGage (which at least looked weird for a reason). Nokia mobile phones, at the time, weren’t exactly looking sensible.

So, you shouldn’t be surprised when you see the Nokia 7700, since it looks, as many people here have pointed out, like it was designed by someone who couldn’t tell the difference between vertical and horizontal. As we know, though, looks can be deceptive…

It’s a shame, though, that they weren’t with the Nokia 7700, because as mobile phones go, it was ludicrously low-spec, slow as all hell, and god-awful to use!

Nokia 7710

So, Nokia being Nokia, they redesigned it, to try and make it a bestseller. The result was the Nokia 7710, and this mobile phone DID go out to retailers, who promptly sold about 3 of them…

The big problem with both these early touchscreen mobile phones from Nokia was the interface, Symbian Series 90, a completely experimental operating system that was packed full of bugs new features. The problem with being experimental and new was that it, at the same time, wasn’t very good. Oh, and the lack of 3G and WiFi in both these Nokia mobile phones was a massive, massive oversight.

Hard to be a multimedia device when it takes 3 weeks for any media to actually download onto the phone. A Nokia N96, this ain’t!

Nokia 6708

So, with Series 90 placed firmly in the bin, what did Nokia do next? Simple, they got somebody else to make a mobile phone for them, branded it as a Nokia, and sold it in China.

Erm…

Actually made by BenQ, the Nokia 6708 was the first, and only, Nokia mobile phone to use the Symbian UIQ operating system. So, it was a proper touchscreen interface, not the Series 90 abomination. It’s just a shame it only ever saw he light of day in China, since it actually looks like quite a nice mobile phone.

Actually, what it looks like is a primitive version of a Sony Ericsson W960i, and with very good reason, because as we all know, Symbian UIQ is what Sony Ericsson used in all their top-end smartphones, until recently. UIQ have now gone on to join the Symbian Foundation, so who knows…

We may actually see a new version of the Nokia 6708 when Symbian Foundation mobile phones start appearing!

Nokia 770

Finally on this list is a Nokia device that isn’t a mobile phone at all…

Nope, what we have here is the Nokia 770, and it’s not a phone, but an ‘internet tablet’. Or, in other words, it’s a mini palmtop PC-type thing, running on Linux, that doesn’t have a mobile phone antenna in it, and connects up to the web through WiFi. And although there’s no way the Nokia 770 can be considered a mobile phone, it is important, since it brought us the Nokia N800 and N810 tablets, it was their first dabble with open source software (which leads nicely to the Symbian Foundation), and it helped to showcase Linux as a platform for mobile devices.

All of this brings us back up to date with the Nokia 5800, with its brand new operating system, a brand new interface, and its sights set firmly on giving the iPhone a kicking… and whilst it may not be Nokia’s first touchscreen mobile phone, it looks like it will definitely the first one you want to own.

But hey, I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, if, as planned, the Nokia 5800 is officially unveiled…

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