We liked
We enjoyed a lot of things about the Nokia N8 once we had become used to the foibles of the UI.
The media experience is cracking, if a bit simplistic, and the performance above average.
The camera works well in most conditions, and the video recording lives up to its word – it really is high definition and looks it.
The range of video and audio codecs supported is dizzying, and even those it's not supposed to play back still work.
Widgets are a nice touch, and one we wish Apple would get involved with. Talking of which, being able to watch Flash video on the handset was brilliant too (when it worked).
The anodised aluminium shell is likely to win a fair few admirers, and the Nokia N8 is streets, towns, even counties ahead in terms of battery life compared to some phones, easily offering a two day use under normal conditions.
We disliked
Symbian^3 and the UI. Everything that we didn't like about this phone can be traced back to the user interface and Nokia's stubborn approach to updating its ageing platform and user interaction.
Basically, Symbian^3 feels like the old version of S60 with a spot of spit-and-shine and some new features on top – more home screens, added widgets and multi-touch do not suddenly make it a decent smartphone platform.
Essentially, the Nokia N8 works in the same way as the Nokia N97 and the Nokia X6 should have worked when they were released, offering swift operation and a bevy of cooler features, instead of the bug-filled handsets we were given.
The internet browser still feels like a throwback to phones of yesteryear, and the lack of QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode beggars belief.
No decent games included from the start mean many won't get to realise the full power of the GPU until you really start exploring the Ovi Store – and to be honest, the other handsets' (like iPhone 4) performance would probably far outstrip it anyway, when you consider the range on offer and the addition of elements like the gyroscope and equally impressive GPUs.
Verdict
We started off really not enjoying the Nokia N8 – it has so many little things that are far inferior to the competition from the outset that it was hard to find the treasure within.
Having been ardent fans of Nokia in a past life, it's not fun seeing phones like the N8 coming out – yes, it's not a bad phone overall, but given the sheer weight of resources behind its development we can't help but wonder how things haven't improved to a class-leading performance yet.
If a smaller company like Acer had made the N8, we'd be congratulating it on an excellent device to build on in the future – but this is the biggest mobile manufacturer in the world we're talking about here.
What's weird is there's nothing disastrously wrong with the Nokia N8 – the elements like media playback and FM transmitter are pretty darn good, and things like Bluetooth 3.0 are a real nice touch.
But the UI has become all important on a mobile phone these days and Nokia hasn't managed to nail that yet. Slow moving home screens, a convoluted apps system and very confusing social networking integration show how behind the times the Nokia N8 is.
Instead of the Dolby Digital output and 12MP camera, we'd have preferred it if Nokia just made a phone that operated as well as the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC's best.
The Nokia N8 is a decent enough phone, that manages to perform its tasks ably and offers up some nice headline specs.
However, it lacks in terms of wow factor for the software experience – let's just hope MeeGo can provide the smartphone platform to put Nokia back towards the head of the smartphone game.
If you've always used Nokia phones, are a real Symbian fan and know how to use it top to bottom, or you've never played with a smartphone before, then the Nokia N8 works well. You'll get a top notch camera, a good battery life and a more-than-useful media player.
But today's smartphone war isn't played out on the hardware battlefield any more - it's on the user experience as company's battle to impress consumers looking for their next expensive purchase.
To that end, Apple, Google, Palm and even Microsoft have come up with something completely new to improve the smartphone experience for the user.
Nokia still hasn't mastered that with the N8 - sure, there's a lot you can do with it, but by the same token the user experience still needs to be as glossy as the specs if Nokia expects the undecided user to choose the N8 over other more mature smartphone platforms on the market today.
This is a much better Nokia phone than anything the company has ever created (apart from the N900, which always felt like more of a side project than anything else) but it's still a decent user experience (and a few other foibles) away from being anywhere near an industry-leading device, and that's what Nokia needs right now.
Possible keypad configurations on the Desire in portrait: QWERTY, Compact QWERTY (2 characters to each "button") and Phone Keypad (or T9).
