Nokia N8 On Pre-Order for £420 In the UK

Two UK websites are taking orders for Nokia’s flagship N8 phone, quoting release dates in late August, although Nokia has not confirmed a launch for the device – its first to run the Symbian^3 operating system.

The N8 is Nokia’s most anticipated phone for years, representing a bid to fight back against the iPhone and Android, using a new version of the open source Symbian operating system, a 12 Megapixel camera, HDMI video output, multi-touch, 16GB of memory and other features, but its launch has suffered delays and is now planned for the third quarter of this year (ie before the end of September).

Pre-order for £420

The phone is on MobileFun for £419.95, with a quoted release date of 26 August, while Play.com has it for £419.99, with a release date of 31 August. Both phones are SIM-free.

This is the first Nokia phone to use Symbian^3, the latest version of the Symbian operating system, which has been made open source, and is being touted as a competitor to the iPhone and Android. However, the phone arrives with doubts alongside Nokia’s hopes.

Gartner analyst Nick Jones likened Symbian to the Titanic, as Nokia-backed development of the operating system concentrates “too much effort on stuff that really doesn’t matter,” while failing to make the user experience as good as Apple or Android phones.

Early reviews of the N8 suggest it is very feature-rich, but not friendly to use. The company has said future phones in the N range will use the Meego Linux version it is developing jointly with Intel. Intel execs have added to the confusion by hinting that the switch may be temporary, with future N-series devices returning to future versions of Symbian.

Although Nokia is losing market share, and is reported to be looking for a new boss, the company still has a massive market share in phones generally, as well as in smartphones.