Bottom Row: Hundreds of early birds queue up in front of Bashundhara City and Shopper's World to get their hands on Nokia's first touchscreen music device on the first day.

Sajeeb is tired, very tired, suddenly his eyes sparkled with a winning smile on his face. He was one of the first in the huge queue in front of Shopper's World in Gulshan, waiting for hours in the cold, to get his hands on the 'Tube' codename for the new touch screen from Nokia, the 5800 ExpressMusic.
The mobile phone giant launched its first touch screen music device in Bangladesh on January 19, with a difference. This time there was an online 'early bird' offer, and a record number of 2400 signed up for it. What's in for them? Well these lucky birds won quite a number of gifts starting from Bluetooth headsets to Bose home theatre systems.
"The response has been phenomenal. People were queuing up from the night before. I went and spoke to the first guy who was in the queue and he had been there since 11:30 the previous night," said Prem Chand, managing director, Nokia EA, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star.
The following morning Prem went to Bashundhara City and Shoppers' World, the two malls serving to the early birds, and he thought they were probably queuing up because they were getting a freebee and a chance to win a home theatre system. But many of them surprised him by saying that they were there because they were waiting for a long time for a music device from Nokia with a touch screen. Their passion for the brand touched him.
The main features of the phone include the drop-down 'Mediabar' that gives quick access to the web, media files and players with a single touch. This will enable the consumers not to click through several buttons to access.
The other key thing of this product is the 'Contacts bar'. As we move forward towards digital convergence and social networking. It allows you to do many things such as email, sms, call, and social chat with the people you interact the most with a single touch.
"With this product, we thought about what the consumer wants, specially now-a-days with social networking and many-to-many communication. We thought about how to make it easier for the users to stay in touch," said Prem Chand.
When asked if this was Nokia's answer to the iPhone, Prem mentioned that this product, in many ways should not be compared to an iPhone just because it's a touch screen.
"Firstly this is not Nokia's answer to the iPhone, in many ways what iPhone has done, is pretty much we have been saying for the last five years, like digital convergence, single device to connect to the web, creating and sharing content. The N-Series have already been doing that. So when iPhone came in it gave more credibility to what we were doing," he added.
If we do compare it with an iPhone, this device has four different types of input. This is a music device, and some dedicated features such as the Media and Context Bars does not appear on the iPhone.
The iPhone for instance does not allow you to forward sms' but this device is a mobile device, a phone that has all features like any other mobile phones, which is a differentiator.
The phone is bundled with a 3.2 MegaPixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, and with a single touch images or videos can be shared via a favorite online community, such as Share on Ovi, Flickr or Facebook. The 8GB memory (expandable up to 16GB) for storing up to 6000 tracks makes this phone a multimedia storehouse.
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers all the music essentials including a graphic equalizer, support for all main digital music formats, and a 3.5mm jack. Built-in surround sound stereo speakers offer the industry's most powerful sound.
The 3.2" wide-screen display gives photos, video clips and web content a vibrant color and true clarity. With a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and 30 frames-per-second playback and recording, the device is ideal for VGA quality video recording and playback.
To me the best part about the phone was the variety of input methods including a virtual alphanumeric keypad, a virtual computer-style QWERTY keyboard, a pen stylus -- and for true music enthusiasts, a plectrum and of course, who can forget the motion sensetive gaming experience.
In Bangladesh, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is currently priced at BDT 22,995. However this is an exclusive introductory offer valid only till January 31.