Nokia India has unveiled its much awaited "Touch Music" device, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, in India.


Also announced is the scheduled launch of the beta version of the Nokia Music Store.

Nokia has also announced a tie-up with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI, Warner, Tseries, Big Music and Yashraj.

Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia said, "With more than 300 million music enabled devices sold, and a strong base of over 10 Nokia Music stores in operation globally, Nokia has been able to gain incredible amount of knowledge and insights on what people want in a music device and track important trends on how people consume music. We will continue to break new grounds in this space by building more and better services for our consumers."

D. Shivakumar, Managing Director, Nokia India said, "As Nokia's first mass-market device with a touch screen, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic turns a 'user interface' into a 'human interface' by truly putting people first. When it comes to music phones, people all over the world want a device that is a great music experience – with more memory, loud and powerful speakers, easy synchronization – and must still work well as a mobile phone with direct access to important contacts and content. The iconic Nokia 5800 XpressMusic delivers on all these counts."


The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic along with offering a variety of input methods including a virtual alphanumeric keypad and a virtual computer-style QWERTY keyboard, also has a pen stylus and a plectrum.

It introduces the 'Media Bar', a drop down menu that provides direct access to music and entertainment. The Media Bar also offers a direct link to the Web and to online sharing. The phone offers all the music essentials, including a graphic equalizer, 8GB memory, support for all main digital music formats and a 3.5mm jack. It has built-in surround sound stereo speakers and the innovative 'Contacts Bar' lets consumers highlight four favorite contacts on their home-screen and, through a single touch, track a digital history of recent text messages, emails, phone logs, photos and blog updates.

The phone features a 3.2-inch widescreen display, a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and 30 frames-per-second playback and recording.

Equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, the phone allows images or videos to be shared via online communities, such as Share on Ovi, Flickr, or Facebook. Music playlist song titles can also be shared through Bluetooth, MMS or online sharing.

The device will be available in India starting January 2009 for Rs. 21,839.

The Nokia Music Store, an online music service is a part of OVI and will go live in December 2008.