I bought a 5800 mainly because of the free navigation (and WiFi internet). I am delighted with it, but have some comments, having used Garmin, TomTom and other GPS devices.
1) The maps are excellent. It knew about a recent one-way system in my small French village.
2) It is great to be able to update maps on demand for anywhere in the world, and store them on a removable micro-SD card.
3) The French female voice is excellent, precise and concise, except that I wish she would not say "maintenant" (now) all the time - it is not needed and slightly annoying. It would be good to have an option for fewer voice instructions.
4) The speed warnings are good - a perfect match to most speed signs in France. But it would be good if instead of a warning of excessive speed, the message simply mentioned the speed limit.
5) The screen map is rather small of course, and it is not helped by the navigation bands at the top and sides (yes you can switch them off). But better use could be made of the small screen. Mini-opera is an example of an app that has an almost perfect user interface for the 5800's small screen.
6) The internal GPS unit is surprisingly sensitive, even compared to my excellent bluetooth GPS, which also works well with the 5800. But if I orient the phone horizontal, the GPS antenna is pointing down, and if I point it up, the map is upside down - a design oversight ? Surprisingly the GPS does still work with the antenna pointed down, but not quite as well. It even works when the 5800 is simply carried in my pocket while walking. I switched off A-GPS so location takes longer but is similar to other non-assisted GPS units.
7) Searching for places is excellent, and easier to use than on my Garmin nuvi, especially the ability to go to a point on the map, and the auto identification of features centered on the map is great. Finding services and favourite locations also works well. Curiously, if I am in France and search for Melbourne, it won't find it, even if I search for "Melbourne, Australia". First I have to search for Australia, then search for Melbourne. This is not a problem once you know about it, and it is amazing that I can even navigate within places on opposite sides of the world without an internet connection - eg from France find an hotel near an address in Australia.
8) The battery life is surpringly good, at least with voice navigation off and screen dimmed in walking mode. Excellent for roaming for hours around cities without getting lost, or even in the countryside, though of course not enough terrain information for serious hiking. (I would like to persuade Memory-Map to convert their Ordnance Survey mapping to Symbian now they have done that for iPhone).
Because of my need for Memory-Map for hiking, I also considered a Windows phone and an iPhone, but decided that a SIM-free 5800 was the best choice for travelling. Mapping alone is sufficient reason to buy the 5800, even if I still need a separate GPS for hiking. It is easily the best application on this phone. Bravo Nokia !
Hibou, Grenoble France (retired Australian physicist) Nokia 5800XM, iPaq, Win-7, Memory-Map GPS... Technology, Travel & Tramping
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