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
The N8’s 12MP centerpiece
As I had briefly mentioned earlier, the Nokia N8 has what is probably the best camera to make home in a mobile phone. And Nokia is making no bones in letting people know about this. While Apple may talk about letting in more photons with a backside illuminated sensor, Nokia has actually gone ahead and done something about it—both with the optics and sensor size. At the heart of the N8’s camera is a 1/1.83” sensor which is in fact larger than most point and shoot cameras (which often carry sensors ranging from 1/2.3 – 1/2.5” in size) that are currently available. While a large sensor can’t do much by itself, Carl Zeiss has provided a decent 28mm equivalent lens that makes good of the sensor, given the tight confines and dimensional restrictions of a mobile phone. In fact, much of the N8’s physical profile is dictated by that optical system.
Just to drive home the point as to how serious it is about the N8 as an imaging device, Nokia has equipped the phone with a real xenon flash (and an AF-assist lamp in the same housing) along with an active neutral density filter that automatically slides in place if you were to try and take pictures with a lot of bright light in it. This combined with features such as face detection and video stabilization (not image) make the N8 a reasonably good replacement to most entry-level point and shoot cameras currently available. The N8 could pull off pretty good shots without much issue in all but the poorest of lighting conditions. In poorly-lit scenarios, the N8 succumbs to its camera phone roots and produces visibly noisy pictures that lack detail. Pulling down the ISO manually and using a tripod would help, but this IS a phone after all.
I haven’t been able to pull up a guide number for the xenon flash, but suffice to say that it is an order of magnitude better than the LED/dual-LED flash found in most phones. Also, since the N8 lacks a motorized lens, it has a digital-only zoom which Nokia has consciously restricted to 2x for still photos and 3x for videos for the sake of maintaining image quality. The average size of a 4000x3000 pixel (12MP) image taken by the N8 is about 2.4MB which means it is compressed a fair bit. When set to “Close Up” mode the N8 can focus on objects as close as 3”.
Shots with the N8’s brilliant 12MP camera. The gallery has more camera shots.
Speaking of video, the N8 can record 720p video at 25fps with stereo sound. The N8 has 2 mics; one next to the camera module and another on the front of the phone. In test, the N8 could capture pretty decent audio even in moderately noisy and windy environments. It looks like the positioning of the mics and the noise cancellation algorithms together are doing a decent job of cutting out the background noise. In use, the N8 captured 720p video at an average bit rate of about 10 Mbps in the H.264/AVC format. The N8 makes use of something called an active hyperfocal system to maintain focus between about 60cm to infinity, without having to use a continuous focusing system. To describe this in a little more detail without diving too deep, the hyperfocal length of a lens is a measure of some distance at which, if the lens is focused, everything from a particular point (60cm in case of the N8) to infinity will be in complete focus. In the N8, the camera and software adjust the position of the lens if needed, to maintain this hyperfocal length and hence the “active” moniker. Because of this, the N8 can make do without hefty auto-focusing motors and deliver good focusing performance.
Bench Video
Demo Video
The camera interface itself is pretty straightforward and easy to use. You can easily change the captured image resolution, white balance, color tone, flash, scene mode and ISO options. There are quite a few still photo and video editing options available on the phone and the N8 seems to do a reasonably quick job of post processing. The one thing that I found quite annoying, was having to make all edits in one go on the N8. You cannot “save” a project as such; you have to make all your edits at once and save the file.
In-phone editing options on the N8
The N8 does not support panorama shots out of the box and I found this a bit surprising. Only when I casually dug through the Ovi Store did I find the “Panorama” app by Nokia.
Why this isn’t included from the get go or even pointed to by a link somewhere beats me. Either way, the panorama app does its job without any issues, although I must say I had to read the help section to try and understand how to get it working; not the most straightforward implementation for taking panorama shots. As with most camera phones now-a-days, the N8 also supports geo-tagging photos and videos. At the end of it, the one thing that’s blatantly clear is that the camera on the N8 is not a checkbox feature. It really is a well-engineered piece of hardware that Nokia seems to have integrated very well with the N8, instead of just tacking it on as an after-thought.
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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.