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X6 of the new Xseries or RM-559

Sometimes it seems to me that Nokia takes the success of the Nokia 5800 for granted, and all models that will follow should utilize its experience to some extent - heaven forbid that they change the way things are, shift the balance a bit, and market might not be happy with the result. And that's exactly the reason why we are witnessing the avalanche of announcements of various Nokia 5800 editions, including the 5800 Navigation edition, a version that comes boxed with a Bluetooth headset, let alone variations featuring various movie-related content. But the first real development of the Nokia 5800 idea was the affordable Nokia 5530, that was put on a diet both in terms of physical size and sales package. But it will follow in the footsteps of its sibling - we'll definitely see more sophisticated versions of it some time down the road, with GPS and more memory onboard, possibly even 3G connectivity. All that will back up a 40 Euro heftier price tag and here you go - you've got a "totally new" offering.

So, the question is, what the next iteration of the Nokia 5800 will look like - apparently, a replacement is in order, as it's next to impossible to maintain the 5800's sales on the same level without altering its price. While it hasn't been sucked out dry as yet, it's pretty close. Nokia have decided not to test their luck and roll out a "new" phone sporting a brand new design, same hardware and a 5 MP camera, plus 32 Gb of bundled memory (and updated software - much like the Nokia N97 mini it packs in kinetic scrolling feature and some other improvements, but its standby screen is identical to that of the Nokia 5530).

The phone comes armed with exactly the same hardware, and even its loudspeakers are located in the same places and feature similar volume levels as in the Nokia 5800. In all honesty, though, I have mixed feelings about this update - if it wasn't for the more affordable Nokia 5800 (and the difference is quite substantial at 200 Euro), this phone would have been most welcome. But as it stands today, it's unreasonably expensive and at the same time positioned as the company's music-minded flagship, which it is not, at least not in terms of hardware (it can't even stand up to the N97 and N97 mini audio quality-wise). While Nokia promises to throw in a decent pair of earphones into the box, I haven't seen them yet, so not much I can say. Software-wise it won't be much different from the Nokia N97 mini, so I'm not going to post any screenshots here, as the X6's centerpiece is its design.

This open opens the Xseries and doesn't offer anything groundbreaking in terms of software - it comes jam-packed with apps right out of the box, which is Nokia's latest trick that supposedly makes up for the phone's overly hefty price tag. In reality, though, Nokia has become a prisoner to its own pricing policy, as it just can't afford to come up with a cheap touchscreen-enabled phone without ruining the sales of its current flagships. I'm afraid I am getting a feeling that there is not much logic behind their strategy in the touch phone segment and the release of the Samsung S3650, whose price won't exceed 130-150 Euro, will put everything into place.