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
Down to the numbers
Nokia has packed the N8 to the gills with features and this trend continues on with the connectivity. The N8 boasts support for 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 (both powered by a TI WL1271A chip), and yes, the N8 is a quad-band GSM and penta-band 3G/3.5G phone. What this means is that you will have complete voice and 3G/3.5Gdata coverage practically anywhere in the world. Looks like Brian has had his prayers answered! And if set so, the N8 can automatically switch between GSM and UMTS bands, depending on availability.
| Nokia N8-00—Network Support | |||||
| Penta-Band UMTS | 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100 MHz | ||||
| Quad-Band GSM/EDGE | 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz | ||||
| HSDPA/HSUPA | 10.2Mbps / 2.0Mbps | ||||
But in spite of packing in so much hardware, the Nokia N8 put out some decent battery life numbers. And this is a bit surprising considering the fact that the N8 comes packed with the same 1200mAh BL-4D battery as the decidedly lower end E5!
*Just like with the E5, the N8’s default browser would stop loading the AT test suite pages (only over WiFi) after a couple of iterations without closing the browser and manually restarting the test.
Although I couldn’t test it specifically, the GSM-only talk time battery life of the N8 seemed a decent bit more than the 3G battery life, as I was able to get away with moderate non-3G voice and data usage for about 2.5 days without having to recharge.
Now down to the performance numbers. As mentioned earlier, the N8 unfortunately has the same browser as the E5 and as such, shows similarly poor performance.
Update: As pointed out in the comments by astute observers, the version of Opera 10 tested from the Ovi Store is incorrectly labeled 10.1 when it is in fact 10.0. We've installed and tested Opera 10.1 on the N8 and updated the graphs below to reflect the correct results for both 10.0 and 10.1. Browsermark shows an improvement of nearly 94%, and SunSpider has gone up almost 9x, which is a nice improvement to say the least.
As Brian pointed out in his GLBenchmark article, we’ve included some numbers for the N8. GLBenchmark does not yet officially support Symbian^3, and the version I ran on the N8 was for S60 5th Edition. Although I didn’t have any issues running other S50 5th edition apps, the Egypt test in the GLBenchmark suite refused to run on the N8. It would show the loading screen for some time and then exit to the home screen. I have included numbers for the PRO test below.
As you can see, while no SGX 540, the BCM2727 in the N8 is almost on par with the Adreno 205 and SGX 535 GPU’s, though the test runs at 640x360 on the N8 compared to 800x480 on most other devices we have numbers for.
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jaydip - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
There is a much bigger issue surrounding the N8 apart from the obvious.My friend bought this in the month of November and so far he had to visit nokia care for 3 times to make it working.The phone just shut down and did not power on at all.The nokia care guys were clueless and unable to help much apart from updating the firmware.So far the phone has spent more time in nokia's own "care".I know that a review unit will seldom be faulty but it is worth pointing it out.akse - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
There was a manufacturing issue concerning some of the phones at the early production phase. I guess it is fixed now.http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/11/18/evp-nikl... There is an interview about the issue.
Voldenuit - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Yes, the problem was real, nokia admitted it, and it has been fixed.People with affected phones can get a replacement at a nokia service center.
guidoq - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
I don't think so. More iphone coverage please.Bhairava - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Buy a 90$ Nokia e5230 and a 100$ entry level camera and you have the same risult. Really, nothing less.Jesus.
Bhairava - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Well i was wrong, Nokia 5230 is 160$.Voldenuit - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Then you have to carry 2 devices with you. What are the odds you'll have your point and shoot with you when you're out and about and a photo op presents itself?Can you edit, geotag and upload your images from your $100 point and shoot?
Plus, the sensor on the N8 is bigger than most entry level compacts, and the lens is really great (speaking as a DSLR user with several Leica lenses here).
N8 isn't the answer for everyone, but it's definitely a compelling option for a photo enthusiast.
zodiacfml - Thursday, January 13, 2011 - link
same thoughts. :pcheezyuser - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
Whats wrong with this phone? I dont see any major problems. For those guys in the States, it might suck but For Guys here in India, Nokia rocks, 24k rupees for an unlocked nokia n8 is better than a 42k locked iPhone considering the average work income is around 20k rupeesN8fanMAN - Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - link
"I´d like to take pictures anytime I want and look them over big flatscreen but sh**, I cant buy 500$ N8 caus my friends have 1000$ IPHONE. Oh, they _cant do_ really nothing with it but still they would laugh their ass off if I bought Nokia"This kind of unmatured flood and feelings all over the globe. If you value your hard earned bucks, and want a modern phone in reasonable price with good camera there should be no logical doubt that N8 is the choice of the day. If other companies flagships weren´t so expensive, situation would be different but its not, just like nokias half-empty promises.
And what about the bullshit about batterylife omg... ANY smartphone will dry your battery if you keep wlan and widgets always running and online. I spend easily a weekend taking pictures, listening music, playing games with my friends and of course speaking (in 3G) and that was no problemo for N8.
If you dont need good call quality, camera, navigation, hdmi and other goodies then just buy 120-150$ blade / san fransisco android 2.1/2.2 phone. There is still wlan, bluetooth, 3g, gps and 3.5" multi-touch