If you’ve used the iPhone or Android, and expect to be able to flick icons around the screen with ease, you will be disappointed with the N8 – unless there’s a big and unexpected change to the UI before the full launch.
The web browser is there, and as a major plus, it supports Flash – and has been the only mobile browser to do so. The iPhone never will unless Steve Jobs has a Damascene conversion, and the Android Flash browser is coming in the 2.2 Froyo release.
Holding the menu button down is the Symbian equivalent of Ctrl-Alt-Del. It shows you the running applications, and lets you move between them.
Basic settings can be adjusted fairly easily – it hooked onto our office Wi-Fi easily, and jobs like changing the ring tone were not taxing.
However much I didn’t warm to the rest of the device, I have to like a phone with an HDMI socket and a 12Mpixel camera.
Yes, 12 megapixels. I won’t bore you with my shots, sample photos have been on the web for a couple of months now (left), and it’s worth looking at them to see the level of detail and lack of distortion. It certainly beats the 5 Mpixels of the iPhone 4
Also, while other phones haver on putting any sort of flash in, Nokia has added a Xenon flash, which gives better colours than the usual LED flashes.
In video, Nokia offers 720p resolutions, which matches what Apple is offering in the iPhone 4 – though it looks to us as if the better optics in the Nokia get better results in video than you get from the iPhone 4.
The music player is also pretty good. Apple is still the benchmark here, but the N8’s player does a more than adequate job, scrolling smothly through tracks and allowing the right searches.
Tragically, even though the N8 has the best camera I have ever seen in any phone, it looks like it will be let down by a Symbian OS which still looks too clumsy for a luxury phone. It’s sure to have some rough parts smoothed off before the final launch, but what we saw would not win over anyone who didn’t already like the OS.
It’s going to have a reasonable price (apparently SIM-free £350 on Vodafone), so for someone who wants a Nokia with a great camera, this is exactly what you have been looking for. You can buy a standalone 12Mpixel camera for about half that, however, so I think that set of people will be too small for this phone to be real winner.
Nokia is probably already aware of this – hence the decision to move over to MeeGo.
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Retard---You CAN charge over usb or mini plug. If you don't know what your talking about you should keep your "opinions" to yourself. Dumbass.
Your article has at least 1 glaring error, which is a HUGE error.
The microUSB port on the Nokia N8 not only handles data connection from a computer, it also handles CHARGING (your claim that is doesn't is wrong), and it also handles OTG USB - meaning with a supplied cable you can connect the N8 direct to USB flash drives.
So, this means Nokia gives you 2 different charging options for your device...Nokia's pin chargers, and microUSB charging.
Wow, a whole paragraph on how the phone wont charge via USB when it actually does in addition to having a separate charger. For someone who obviously had the phone in their hand you really did your research. Another incorrect and seemingly baseless review to ignore.
Did you really use the N8? Did you just said it can't charge thru USB? All reviews I read said that IT CAN. 4 pages of waste of a review then. My 10-year old nephew would have done a better review.
Thank you for your comments.
I can only say that the phone I had definitely did not charge over USB. I checked it, and I am quite able to tell, and I don't think we need to be rude about this.
It's possible that the phone I had was an earlier pre-production model than the ones you have apparently all seen. Or maybe there was some fault in it. I made it clear that anything in my review might be down to having a pre-production model, and will be interested to know if this was the case.
I will update my review to say that others apparently have different results - and strong feelings on the matter! I'd also be grateful for links to these reviews you mention.
Also... if Nokia DOES let the phone charge over USB.... why does it provide its own proprietary charger as well?
Peter Judge
My information on the USB charging is from the Nokia (Australia) site under Specifications > Connectivity. As the phone seems to be made to not require a computer connection, I think the two options is a great idea. Next time you are at work ask how many people have a Nokia charger on them, than ask how many have a mini USB cable!
"I don't understand why it has built in a separate power connector and supplied a non-standard power adapter as well" - Peter Judge
Just shut the #%^^ up, ok? Having a really bad review is enough and you just updated it worse. Stupid, stupid moron.
Isn't having 2 ways(USB and power adaper) to charge a phone a really, really, great idea??
Do yourself a favor by removing this terrible review, get a new job and STFU. PLEASE.
"I don't understand why it has built in a separate power connector and supplied a non-standard power adapter as well" - Peter Judge
Just shut the #%^& up, ok? Having a really bad review is enough and you just updated it worse. Stupid, stupid moron.
Isn't having 2 ways(USB and power adaper) to charge a phone a really, really, great idea??
Do yourself a favor by removing this terrible review, get a new job and STFU. PLEASE.
Hey judge..u said something about why will nokia supply us with a charger if u can charge it via usb!! Well the same reason blackberry and samsung are doing it!!I bet u don't even own a mobile!
Thanks again for your further comments.
Jason - I checked and I'm the only one in my office with a Nokia charger. There were a total of five micro-USBs when I asked, from HTC and Blackberry phones.
I don't buy the idea that Nokia is any sort of standard, and don't get how they sign up to the universal charger and then don't deliver it.
Yes - I see the website that it will charge over micro-USB - but I begin to suspect they dropped thisbecause the USB connector can also act as a host.
I still don't see any confirmation that it does charge over USB in reviews - my N81 certainly didn't.
Thanks @duncan, for the point about USB hosts, my CMS keeps refusing to publish your thought though...