Nokia N8 Review: Nokia's New Flagship
by Mithun Chandrasekhar on January 12, 2011 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Nokia
- N8
- Symbian
- Mobile
Conclusion
Now is not a good time to be Nokia. Once the king of the (smartphone) hill with an overwhelming majority of the smartphone market share, the lack of evolving to changing consumer demands in a fast enough manner has seen its smartphone share plummet. With Apple and Google thoroughly beating Nokia in its traditionally weak markets (North America for example), and taking the fight to its traditional strongholds (Europe and Asia), they don’t seem to be showing any signs of slowing things down. In fact, it almost seems too little too late for Nokia with the N8 and Symbian^3. Had the N8 launched at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, before the explosion of Android slate devices and the iPhone 4, the N8 would have clearly been the best smartphone with little competition.
But it’s not all so gloomy. Nokia still commands massive brand recall in a lot of major markets. And the N8-00 is a solid smartphone; hands-down the best mainstream phone Nokia has put forth to date (again, ignoring the outlier than N900 is). In fact, Nokia sells the N8-00 as a ‘mobile computer’ and while I’ve always thought of this as being a marketing gimmick for their Nseries devices, I am fairly convinced that the N8 actually befits this tag. With most definitely the best camera ever seen on a mobile phone, the N8 is a worthy replacement to basic point snf shoots. With excellent media handling capabilities, HDMI out and the very useful USB-To-Go capability, the N8 actually fulfills basic HTPC duties with no fuss. And Ovi Maps, a definitely capable replacement for dedicated navigation devices. As is clear from this review, Nokia has made sure to implement whatever features it has included in the N8, with great attention to detail. And thankfully this time, this attention to detail has also mostly translated to the software side of things…traditionally Nokia’s weakness.
Symbian^3 is a definite and marked improvement over the previous Series 60 5th Edition without any doubt. With Symbian^3, Nokia has finally entered the modern smartphone market and it makes a strong showing here. There still are issues that Nokia needs to fix ASAP—the browser, mail application and Ovi Store being the major ones. If Nokia executes on the continuous and ongoing incremental updates to the Symbian^3 platform that it has committed to, in a timely manner, we may finally have a Nokia device that we can recommend without any obvious compromises or flaws. And with one such update promised for the N8 sometime in Q1 2011, it may be the device to recommend, after the update.
As an interesting side note, the Nokia C7 is a cheaper alternative to the N8. If the top-notch camera in the N8 doesn’t pique your interest and you’re willing to forego half the storage (now 8GB), you will get everything else the N8 has to offer, potentially better battery life, plus NFC-support, for a decent amount less than the N8.
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Voldenuit - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Actually, the camera in the N8 is easily as good as a good dedicated compact, and better in some respects than most (especially the lens).Also, the free lifetime worldwide GPS with offline capability and turn by turn navigation is a great touch. Other reviews have had no problem with the GPS lock, so it could be that mithun's review unit had problems. I've had very fast and accurate GPS reception myself, even indoors and in urban areas.
HDMI out and mkv support is also a rare feature.
Battery life has also been outstanding in my experience. While the review paints a middling or negative picture of the battery life, in my experience, I have had to recharge my N8 much less frequently than my friends using Android (GalS, Desire, Bravo). My last charge cycle was 5 days and 21 hours with 15% battery remaining (light use including email, facebook, a couple calls - on GSM and music).
Build quality is unmatched by most other smartphones. Unibody aluminum construction is something last seen in the HTC Legend and Schubert, and gorilla glass is very nice (though fortunately becoming more common in modern phones).
The screen has also been favorably compared to the iPhone4 retina display, although the upcoming E7 with its Clearview screen which is polarized to reduce glare will be even better outdoors. Resolution is low, but viewing angles and color are great and it is very legible outdoors once you turn up the brightness.
Having good telephony features (call quality, reception, speakerphone, LED notification light) is a feather in its cap as too many smartphone makers neglect basic telephony tasks.
It's not for everyone, but don't knock the people who pick it as their phone of choice, because it really does very well in many categories.
chick0n - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
wow, what a moron.I mean please, please make sure u have a f-king clue b4 u start another bs again.
jesus.
melgross - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Brilliant post. Keep it up.Clint_ZA - Wednesday, January 26, 2011 - link
Really? All those reasons not to own it?I have two in my household. First one was acquired for myself and after three weeks I was so impressed I got one for my GF. I, therefore, speak from personal use.
"Wifi pathetic" - This one is particularly strange. I have three computers scattered around my house, a wireless receiver for a media player, I have an HP wireless printer, I have used a wireless-G router and a wireless-N router. With the wireless G router I had dead spots where the PCI adapters in the PCs would not pick up wireless. My N8 did. My printer often battles to pick up the network but in the same spot my N8 has no issues. My N8 also switches between my wifi at home, wifi at work and my SPs 3G connection with total ease and no intervention from me.
So this begs the question as to why you think the wifi is pathetic?
"screen res" - the screen resolution is perfect for the size of the screen, The chasing of higher resolutions is similar to the megapixel battle where numbers are increase to fool the unknowing public while never bothering to improve quality. Many people have viewed my N8, including iPhone owners, and not one has commented on poor resolution!
"battery" - My N8 comfortably lasts a full day with intense use! I have never pushed it further so would not be able to tell you how much longer it would last because, since acquiring my first smart phone, I am in the habit of charging my phone next to the bed every night. Perhaps the good battery life is linked to your previous complaint regarding the processor. All these Ghz processors are just battery eaters and not necessary on a symbian device.
You are clearly an Android fanboy so probably worthless trying to convince you but perhaps others reading your comments will take them with a pinch of salt!
StormyParis - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
who cares about which OS a phone is running, as long as it runs the apps you need ? To me, this is geek snob, same as disserting on where your coffee beans come from is coffee snob: nobody cares except geeks.melgross - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
No. A geek snob is someone who asserts that even though his phone only has1% of the apps other phones have, it's enough, because who needs all those great apps that he can't get?Exodite - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
I agree completely.One thing I, even as a tech geek myself, have truly come to appreciate with the boom of mobile platforms and devices in the recent years is that we're finally moving away from software execution platforms to service-providing platforms.
The hardware, OS and software shouldn't be relevant as long as the device offers the services its user needs.
Samus - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
6+ months to market? I've had mine on T-Mobile since October. The E7-00, basically the same phone with a physical keyboard under a flip out screen and an 8MP camera instead of 12MP is schedules to be released within the next 3 months as well, along with TWO other, less expensive models based on Symbian^3guoxing - Monday, June 27, 2011 - link
this phone is really good !!! but if anybody want to buy itI suggest you go
http://www.2011bestphone.com/?p=153
to know more about it !!! i think it wil help you very much
jigglywiggly - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Just give me the camera, and this phone can go to hell lawl. It's awful.