The 5800 became an instant icon, selling 1 million handsets across the globe in the first two months of going on sale.

Blog posts and tweets have also been plentiful, where approximately 11 million articles, reviews and photos have been indexed by Google in the past 3 months. This is almost a third of what the N95 produced in over 2 years, demonstrating just how much of a talking point this phone is.

Finally, a recent poll by the good folks at Nokia asking ‘which new Nokia music phone is your favourite?’ the 5800 captured 56% of the vote, more than double the vote of other new music phones in Nokia’s Xpress Music range, such as the 5730 Xpress Music.

So, is it the best? Have your say here…

Much technology hype has been focused on the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music mobile phone’s release to the UK market. They are due to be sold from the beginning of February but are available to pre-order now at the Nokia Online Shop.

Nokia has branded the product using three categories – Play, Share and Touch.

Play:
The 5800 boasts a dedicated media bar, high-resolution widescreen video and superior sorround sound with built in stereo speakers and an advanced music player. With an 8 GB microSD card and syncing capability with Nokia Music Software for your PC – this is a huge release for Nokia entertainment phones.

Share:
3.2 megapixel camera and high video quality recording, as well as ‘Share on Ovi‘ online media sharing allows for flawless uploading and downloading.

Touch:
Perhaps the most talked about feature of the 5800 is its 3.2″ high-resolution touchscreen. It features intuitive fingertip, stylus or plectrum control, automatic screen rotation and handwriting recognition.

The best part – it’s only £250.

Featured in the Dark Knight

Reviews have been plentiful, with mostly positive responses. Here are a few of them –
diaz88 of Ciao.co.uk gave it 5 stars with ‘excellent’ look, feel, memory and capacity, ‘good’ comfort, portability and value for money and ‘easy’ for ease of use.
Zomg it’s CJ! reviewed the image and video features of the phone, concluding some improvements are possible, but no complaints  (for its target audience it will suffice).
Tech Guru reviews games, applications and sales information compared with the iPhone.
Symbian-Guru reviews music, concluding with a 3/5 rating.
A fun forum post of Symbian Galaxy commenting on the 15 features that make the Nokia 5800 better than the iPhone.