One of my primary concerns moving to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was, how would I type on it ? Would I get used to the whole Touch Typing Interface ?
Luckily the 5800 sports a variety of methods for text input. From typing on the touch QWERTY keyboard to Handwriting with the stylus, here’s an introduction to the Messaging Application and text input on S60 V5 on the 5800.
Jumping right in.
The Messaging Application on S60 v5 (on the 5800) :-
Now, S60 V5 can be used in either portrait mode or landscape mode, and the options tiles move accordingly. We’re going to try to stick to just portrait mode for this review.
S60 v5 is pretty similar to S60 v3 and its predescessors in this regard. You have to usual categories under the Messaging Application.
- New Message :
Lets you compose a new message. Users of S60 will find this UI a bit familiar. At the top is where you enter your contacts name, or number. You can even just type a bit of the contact’s name and S60 will automatically find the contact and send to him/her. For example: If I want to send a message to my friend Kimberly, I can just type “Kim” and (provided noone else in my phonebook has a name starting with those three alphabets) the messaging application will automatically send to “Kimberly“.
At the bottom you have the Send Message Icon, the Add Contacts Icon, and lastly the Add Attachments Icon.
The Messaging Application automatically detects what type of message you’re writing, depending on the type of attachments you have. If your message is only plain text, it’ll know its an SMS message. If you have an image or sound clip, it’ll know its an MMS message, etc.
There’s a lot of attachments you can insert in your message.
Under Options, you’ll find a whole bunch of selections and a couple settings to tinker with.
For example, you can increase the Font Size, if you’re having trouble reading the text.
There’s Message Header Fields, if your message is an MMS or Email.
There’s also Sending Options.
- Inbox :
This is where all your incoming messages are stored. There’s practically no limit to the amount of texts you are allowed to store. As you can see above, the sender’s name or number is the title, with a short summary of the message below it. If its a file or business card received, it’ll tell you what type of file it is.
In S60 V5, you can touch any of the tabs at the top, to move there. Depending on the type of message received, you have a “Reply”, “Compose New Message” and “Delete” icons at the bottom.
Clicking (or Double Tapping) on a message will bring it up.
Here you can view the whole text of your received message. You also can either switch to the next or previous message using the arrows on the top.There’s also a variety of options here.
Most of the options’ names speak for themselves. Automatic find can be pretty useful at times. It automatically finds any phone numbers or website links in your received message.
- Mailboxes (In this case My Gmail and My ZOMGitsCj Mail) :
This is where all your emails are stored. You can store them as headers or set it to download the whole email. You can also configure when and how often you would like the 5800 to automatically connect to a network data plan and check for new email.
- Sent :
This is where all your sent messages are stored. You can configure the amount of sent messages you want to store, or set it not to store any.
- Drafts :
The name speaks for itself really. Here’s where all your incomplete texts and messages are stored, that you wish to complete at another time.
- Outbox :
This is where you can check the status of a message that is currently being sent. If there was a problem with sending, the message will be found here with a “Deferred” status. Otherwise messages usually have the “Sending” status before being successfully sent, and transfered to the Sent Folder.
- Delivery Reports (Not shown in picture):
This is a folder which stores your delivery reports, telling you if a message successfully went through or not. You can choose to turn this on, its off by default.
- My Folders :
Here you can transfer and store messages from the Inbox or Sent folders. Useful if you want to organise the messages you receive.
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Text Input on S60 V5 (on the 5800) :-
Now that we’ve covered the Messaging Application, there’s the various methods of text input on the 5800.
There are 4 main methods of text input in S60 v5 on the 5800. When the N97 releases, this might change a bit, since the N97 has a full QWERTY hardware keyboard.
They are :
- AlphaNumeric Keypad :
This will be pretty familiar to most phone users. The traditional AlphaNumeric keypad layout, where you have to tap a key a certain number of times to get the alphabet you want, or hold it down to get the number or symbol. Example if I want to type “ZOMG”, I’ll have to tap the 9 key four times to get “Z”, the 6 key three times to get “O”, the 6 key one more time to get “M” and the 4 key once to get “G”.
The front and back arrows let you move between text, although you can also use the touchscreen to get there directly. The Back arrow icon is used to delete an alphabet.
A nice feature that I’m glad they didnt leave out, is T9 predictive text. You can switch on predictive text in the options (its off by default), to get T9 going, and use it in this mode.
As always, pressing “#” switches between upper and lowercase, “0″ (zero) is the space key, and “*” brings up a list of symbols.
If you’re a Nokia user or used to Nokia phones, you’ll find this very familiar.
At the top the green check button is if you’re ready to send your message, the horizontal bar icon is for options, the pencil ABC icon is to show you the status of your alphabet case. Clicking this icon lets you turn off/on predictive text, switch from upper to lower case or vice versa, or switch to number mode.
At any time, you can switch from this mode of text input, to another by clicking the keyboard icon.
Here’s a short video showing you how it all works :
- Mini QWERTY Keyboard :
Out of all the input methods, this is the one i used least. It basically puts a mini QWERTY keyboard right there on the messaging screen. The various icons and options have the same function as in AlphaNumeric Mode.
The up arrow icon lets you write in uppercase. Tap it once and the next alphabet you type will be in uppercase. Tap it twice, and it’ll stay in uppercase for all alphabets. Tap it twice again and it’ll return to lowercase and so forth. “AB” puts you in alphabet mode, “1*” puts you in numeric and symbols mode, and the last “az” icon lets you use special symbols.
There’s also the spacebar and the Enter key.
However, one good thing, is that you can move around the Keyboard on the screen using the Move icon tool.
My thumbs were too large to comfortably use this mode. You’re probably expected to use the Stylus or something. Definitely not my favourite of all the input methods.
Here’s a video showing you how it all works :
- Full Screen QWERTY :
This is the only input mode that switches to, and is used in landscape mode. It basically puts up a full screen QWERTY keyboard for you to type on.
The symbols and icons have the same use as in Mini-QWERTY keyboard mode. You just have to touch an alphabet to input it. Once you’re done, touch the green arrow and you’re ready to send your message.
Here’s a video, showing you how it all works :
- Handwriting :
For this mode, it’s preferably you use the stylus included in the back of your 5800. It places a small “writing pad” on your screen where you write with your stylus.
As you write each alphabet, it appears on the message :
And you’re not limited to just writing one alphabet at a time. You can write multiple alphabets which will be processed :
Here’s a short video showing you how it all works :
You can switch between alphabet mode, to numeric mode and symbol mode using the icons on the side. And if you dont like the positioning of the writing pad, you can move it around.
Coming back to Handwriting, if you find the 5800 doesnt recognise your handwriting correctly enough, you can always “train” it to, using the Handwriting Trainer under the options menu :
Handwriting Trainer lets you go through each alphabet, number and symbol so you can show the 5800 what your handwriting is for each and “train” it to recognize it.
If you’re uphappy with your handwriting for a certain alphabet, number or symbol, you can always delete the training for that character and re-do it :
You can even assign shortcuts, where you draw or write a certain symbol, and a pre-determined set of alphabets or words appear for it.
There’s a lot more options under “Settings” for this mode. You can Calibrate the Touchscreen, Define Pen Trail width, etc :
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And thats Text Input on S60 V5 on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. As you can see, there’s definitely a mode that you’ll like more than the rest. I switch between Full Screen QWERTY and AlphaNumeric T9 alot because I find those are the best and quickest method for me.
Not to forget, S60 V5 also supports Bluetooth Keyboards if you wish to use that instead.
When the Nokia N97 comes along, it’ll be adding a hardware QWERTY keyboard to this list. Probably a couple revisons too. Till then, S60 V5 has more than plenty of ways to input text for anyone.
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
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