I hope I am not the only person who has occasionally thought that his mobile phone bears more than a passing resemblance to something straight out of Star Trek. Not being a Trekkie myself I cannot say whether it is a communicator or one of those handheld medical scanners, a tricorder is it? Anyway, one thing is for sure, and that is that mobile phones are getting a lot more Star Trek these days. And probably none more so than the Nokia 5800 limited edition which is being launched in the UK on May 1st, which should come as no surprise when you consider that Nokia is actually calling it the 5800 Star Trek edition.
So has it got pointed ears, or maybe it can transport you from one place to another complete with a wibbly wobbly screen effect? Err, no, sadly not. It can be set to stun though. Sort of. The mobile phone has a "special phazer app" although it has not been revealed exactly what this does as of yet. What has been revealed is that the Star Trek phone comes with no less than eight Star Trek ringtones including the obligatory red alert and the noise of that phazer gun being fired. You also get some exclusive wallpapers and animated screensavers but that seems to be about it.
Amazingly, given that this is obviously inspired by the release of the new Star Trek movie on the same day in the UK, and in which the Nokia branding puts in an appearance, the 5800 or any variation upon it does not actually feature in the film in any shape or form.
But you know what, if I wanted my mobile phone to be some kind of Star Trek toy I would probably just load up the tricorder simulation from the App Store for the iPhone, assuming it has not been banned of course, and be done with it. Maybe I could throw in that awful soundingCosmovox theremin simulator while I am at it for some additional science-fiction effects. But a whole handset dedicated to making me look even sadder than I undoubtedly already am? As far as I am concerned you can stick your Star Trek phone right in the Nexus. Beam me up, Nokia...