N8 hands on review

buffalobill said:
It's turned into an organisation unresponsive to clients. There's the official discussion forums to which no one from Nokia will respond, for example. Customer problems/queries remain unanswered for a year or more. That's a very bad sign of a massive, uncaring corporation out of touch with its customers.
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This is Nokia's biggest problem in my opinion - their phones are superb but their customer service and easy availability are shockingly bad. I couldn't even find a Nokia store in London for pete's sake!

buffalobill said:
To take it a step further, they're only now getting the idea that the phone is a computing device and what we're into at the moment is a battle of the operating systems.
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This in nonsense. Nokia have brought out the one and only mobile computing device with a phone built in thus far (N900). The crucial difference is that Nokia has differentiated between a smart phone and a mobile computing device. Smartphones will run Symbian 3 and eventually Symbian 4 and will compete head-on with Android and iPhone. Mobile computers on the other hand will run Meego and will offer a full computing experience. There is no competition to it at the moment and as these devices become more powerful and capable, Android and iPhone will be left behind with their smartphone concept. Anyone who has used an N900 will know the difference (proper multi-tasking, terminal access, installation of linux software, etc).
 
joelus said:
This in nonsense. Nokia have brought out the one and only mobile computing device with a phone built in thus far (N900). The crucial difference is that Nokia has differentiated between a smart phone and a mobile computing device. Smartphones will run Symbian 3 and eventually Symbian 4 and will compete head-on with Android and iPhone. Mobile computers on the other hand will run Meego and will offer a full computing experience. There is no competition to it at the moment and as these devices become more powerful and capable, Android and iPhone will be left behind with their smartphone concept. Anyone who has used an N900 will know the difference (proper multi-tasking, terminal access, installation of linux software, etc).
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Please explain the difference as I regard the smart phone as a mobile computing device.
My original point stands: That Nokia is a great hardware manufacturer struggling to come to terms with the fact that software is now the key driver. I'm going to quote from this review:

Camera - the interface

Having poured superlatives on the N8 in most of the preceding 3000 words, it's time to rein in my enthusiasm slightly. What would have been nice for the N8's camera would have been to have had a new, totally reworked interface, something that would make using the camera more of a pleasure. Instead, it's the same old clunky S60 5th Edition camera application with, seemingly, almost nothing changed - right down to the use of having to double-tap to action dialog items - something which has been banished from the general Symbian^3 interface. But not here.

Moreover there's the inexcusably clumsy way that the panel of settings (for, among other thing, setting the 'scene mode', white balance, exposure...) lets you adjust some parameters but you have to dive into the totally separate UI of the S60 menu to find 'Settings' and adjust other parameters. Even little things like auto-hiding the settings panel after selecting your (e.g.) scene mode would have helped. Instead, switching from 'Auto' to 'Close-up', perhaps the most common camera operation, requires no less than five taps - a major disappointment in view of the work Nokia has put into the hardware.

Will the Camera application be reworked in a future firmware update? I doubt it - it's very stable, if nothing else, and Nokia won't want to tamper too much with a module that's deeply tied into the hardware and already working so well.

To close Camera down, it's easiest to simply press the N8's 'Home' button - stabbing at the small 'Exit' label on the screen is often a lot harder to accomplish. Not having a protective camera glass slider to 'open' to launch Camera is a shame - that's still what makes the N82, N95 and N96 'feel' like cameras, but I do accept Nokia's explanation about keeping bulk down and keeping the camera available for augmented reality (and other lateral thinking) uses.


Supporting applications

The N8 comes with the usual S60 5th Edition image editor and a brand new Video editor, which we'll cover as part of our look at the N8's application set in a future review part. Both work well, surprisingly so, in the latter's case, although as noted in part 1 of this review, the absence of Nokia's Share online from the N8 means that if you want to upload your new photos or videos then you're going to have to install the free third party app Pixelpipe Send and Share. Not a problem, Pixelpipe is a true technological marvel, but you have to wonder how many users won't discover this in the Ovi Store. Not having a built-in video upload to YouTube is going to be the very first thing that is 'missed'.

Nokia's solution for 'sharing' photos is to use the image uploading built into their new Social suite. Which would be OK if the software didn't horribly, appallingly, mangle every image in the downscaling from 12 megapixels to 720x540 pixels, barely better than a 2003 VGA photo - what on earth is the point of a 2010 top-spec camera phone being crippled to behave like a 7650 from a previous era? This, surely, can be fixed easily in a Social 'service update', as soon as humanly possible?

In summary

As ever, the story with Nokia's smartphones is one of superb hardware rather let down by quirky and unfinished software.

Not that I would buy a phone on the basis of its camera.
I'll repeat what I said earlier, I probably would have loved to have an N8, but it's too late and they were too slow.
 
buffalobill said:
Please explain the difference as I regard the smart phone as a mobile computing device.
My original point stands: That Nokia is a great hardware manufacturer struggling to come to terms with the fact that software is now the key driver.
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For whom though? Am I honestly in the minority in my thinking that hardware is far more important? Is everyone else being swayed by the American-centric view that software and pretty interfaces are the driving criteria?

If I look hard enough I am likely to find software that allows any phone to do anything. The same cannot be said for hardware. The ONLY complaint I have heard about the N8 thus far is "aged looking" and "clunky" interface. If that is really the biggest complaint then I am stoked! Even in that review a solution is given to the one complaint and the other it is hoped will be fixed with a firmware update. I'm lead to believe their is already talk of a new browser update being sent out.
 
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I was looking at getting the iphone 4 but the N8 supports 10.2mbps HSDPA on the 900mhz band whereas the iphone 4 only supports 3.6mbps.
So just going to wait for Cellc to come out with a package so that I can use it as a modem for my laptop without having to swap sims everytime.
I wonder if CellC will be able to bolt on the 12 month package to the sim.
 
SaiyanZ said:
I was looking at getting the iphone 4 but the N8 supports 10.2mbps HSDPA on the 900mhz band whereas the iphone 4 only supports 3.6mbps.
So just going to wait for Cellc to come out with a package so that I can use it as a modem for my laptop without having to swap sims everytime.
I wonder if CellC will be able to bolt on the 12 month package to the sim.
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I thought both the iphone 3gs and 4 were HSDPA (7.2 Mbps)?
 
Engadget gave this phone a 5/10

Who are also credible reviewers.

whats the general consensus on this phone
 
Dang! then they probably gave the iPhone 0.000005 / 10 since this phone is a million times better.
 
Rouxenator said:
Dang! then they probably gave the iPhone 0.000005 / 10 since this phone is a million times better.
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That isnt biased at all.

what are other websites rating this phone because like the N97 which was given mixed reviews in the beginning, this phone could be rubbish and not up to date.
 
I took a look at the GSM Arena review, very nice with great photos, and videos of the phone in action. I'm really not that impressed with the N8 compared to the iPhone or Galaxy S. The UI is just primitive, even though it's a big improvement speed-wise over previous Nokia phones and has a capacitive touchscreen, I don't dig the OS.
 
The look and feel might not be as sexy - but the OS does a lot more on a lot less and overall the phone as a whole is unbeatable.
 
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