Hey guys, Nokia's FINALLY admitting that the earpiece problem is in fact A PROBLEM...
Although anybody buying their 5800 after the end of Jan got the 2nd, improved batch... No more earpiece problem, only other problems...
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/02/27/...y-be-defective/More detailed news about it here:
http://www.mobile-review.com/articles/2009...0-brak-en.shtmlExcerpt:
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This indicates that the problem probably lies in a thin oxide film that forms on contacts and breaks down whenever moved. Although the question remains as to why similarly designed earpieces found in other phones (like Nokia N85 and Nokia E71) don’t suffer from this effect as well? However it turns out that they do too, just like the Nokia 5800, but the number of failures is insignificant.
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Based on the analysis of these results, we devised two primitive ways to fix the phone – the first option is to solder in the contacts, and the other one is to use a sealant in order to limit the exposure of the earpiece’s contacts to moisture. However neither method proved successful, as the earpieces on both phones we used for this experiment started malfunctioning, although it took them slightly longer to get into that condition.
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Those of you who have already encountered this issue and had your 5800 XM repaired, the only thing I can recommend is to take your phone back to any service center and get them to replace the earpiece again. And if you are about to buy a 5800 XpressMusic, but wouldn’t like to visit Nokia’s service center at least once, then pay close attention to the phone’s production date – it seems that all units manufactured in February are defect-free. Unfortunately, there is no way to learn about a new phone's production date from its box or manual - to do that you will need to contact a service center and tell them your IMEI code, and this is the only way to do that at this point in time. However the good news is that given how popular this phone is, it's safe to say that by mid March local retailers won't have any flawed units left in stock. So another option would be to wait until April before buying the 5800 XpressMusic.
Everyone should decide for him/herself whether the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic's pros outweigh its cons, including the added possibility of the earpiece defect. My opinion that this phone is the best offering in its class hasn't changed at all. While this phone's earpiece is its weakest spot, it's simply one of the things you need to be aware of and have the whole story on your hands, rather than rumors and guesses. However I shall warn you that any attempt to disassemble the phone and fix the earpiece on your own may nullify your warranty, on top of that, there is a very slim chance you'll manage to bring it back to life.
Hmmmmmm....
This post has been edited by Eiraku: Feb 28 2009, 10:57 PM