Nokia to give 5800 a capacitive touchscreen?
updated 08:10 am EDT, Fri April 17, 2009
Nokia 5800 Capacitive Soon
Nokia may give the 5800 XpressMusic and more of its phones an upgrade to a capacitive touchscreen, tips from Taiwan's phone part makers would claim. Although Nokia built the 5800 around a resistive touchscreen, which requires pressure and is sometimes better-suited to a stylus than finger input, the company has supposedly ordered a switch to capacitive screens with the explicit goal of rivaling the responsiveness of Apple's iPhone and newer Korean phones like the LG Arena or Samsung's i8910 (Omnia HD). About 2 million of the upgraded phones would be shipped between May and June based on these plans.
It's not certain whether the N97 will also receive the treatment. The rumor suggests the more advanced touchscreen phone will ship in the spring, but Electronista has heard from Nokia staff that it's more likely to ship in July and, so far, has only tried prototypes with resistive touchscreens.
More phones with capacitive screens are nonetheless anticipated and may include an ultra-thin device as well as a model with a QWERTY keyboard.
The 5800 is one of Nokia's most popular individual models and sold 3 million units just in the first four months of its existence. It's at times regarded as a budget alternative to the iPhone and therefore is most likely to benefit from a switch to a capacitive screen.
