Features Review : Nokia N8

SHARP SHOOTER: The Nokia N8 has an impressive 12-megapixel camera.

The highly customisable Nokia N8 is one feature-packed phone.

AFTER browsing Nokia's website for the feature-packed N8, we found out that the smartphone's tagline is "What Will You Do With It?"

That's a good question because frankly speaking we have no idea where we'd even begin.

Do we start with taking HD videos and photos using its impressive 12-megapixel camera? Do we play around with the games and social networking apps we've downloaded from the Ovi store? Or do we browse the Web with it?

Oh, we suppose we could use it to make calls too, but that seems downright pedestrian at this point.

FRONT VIEW: The N8 is encased in an aluminium body and its front features the 3.5in capacitive touchscreen.

Hardware

Nokia is selling the N8 as a smartphone that can... well, do pretty much anything, really. As it says on the box, the N8 can perform everything from social networking to web browsing, although the impressive video/camera system is clearly the centrepiece of the package.

But before we get into the inner workings of the N8, let's take a look at the hardware: The device itself is encased in an aluminium body and its front features the 3.5in capacitive touchscreen.

This is pretty standard fare for current generation touchscreen phones, and the N8 was fairly responsive to our touch.

In fact, we rather liked how the phone vibrated mildly when we pressed buttons on-screen; it provided some nice tactile feedback.

Flip the phone around and you'll see the N8's much-touted 12-megapixel camera, which protudes from the back like a hump.

This disqualifies the phone from being called sleek but the tradeoff is worth it; the camera comes complete with xenon flash, Carl Zeiss optics and the ability to shoot HD videos at 720p quality. Or, put simply: Wow!

The camera is honestly the best thing about the N8; if you're a casual camera user, the point-and-shoot functionality will be more than sufficient to capture sharp, high resolution (4,000 x 2,248-pixels by default) pictures.

If you're more of an enthusiast, you can play around with options like the white balance, colour tone and macro setting to get a more perfect shot.

The video-capturing feature is further complemented by the HDMI port located on the top side of the phone; when you're done recording your masterpiece and editing it with the N8's built-in (albeit very simple) video editing app, you can plug the phone directly into a compatible wide screen TV to share your video with friends.

The slot-in simcard and microSD ports.

Not so simple

Once you're done "oohing" and "ahhing" at the N8's hardware, you'll likely find yourself less impressed with the software that's running inside it.

The N8 runs on the latest Symbian ^3 OS, which means - technically speaking - it has a lot of capabilities and raw power under the hood.

Unfortunately, for the average user, this seems to equate to complexity. For starters, it took us a while to customise the three homescreens (which we could populate with a mailbox, our favourite contacts, Twitter feeds and more).

The only way we could, say, change the wallpaper was to choose that option from the Options menu when it's opened in edit mode, while edit mode is in turn accessible by choosing the appropriate option in the Options menu when not in edit mode.

On another occasion, we tried to get the N8's otherwise functional web browser to connect via a local WiFi network instead going through our expensive 3G plan. For this to work, we had to go through five layers of menus, disable a bunch of automatic settings and make an offering to our ancestors.

Your mileage will vary of course, but don't be surprised if you have to run across a gauntlet of prompts, buttons and configuration settings occasionally, particularly when you first start.

Symbian ^3's ability to multitask also acts as a double-edged sword; the benefit of having multiple applications running at once is balanced by the drawback of accidentally leaving unused apps running in the background. (This can very easily be done by an average user.)

Fortunately, the N8 seems to have sufficient grunt power to accommodate average operations with a few stray apps running, so you'll only really notice low-memory problems when you're, say, browsing a Flash-heavy website while the camera and photo-editing program are humming in the back.

On the plus side, if you're an experienced Symbian user or a power user who loves configuring settings, you'll appreciate the level of customisability and control the N8 offers.

The phone comes with a number of decent apps - such as the GPS navigation app, the social networking app that lets us upload photos from the camera directly to Facebook, and the free version of the game Angry Birds (woo hoo!) - but you can always download more from the Ovi store.

Last we checked, the Ovi store has a decent selection of apps, and we could pay for our purchases directly using our phone credits. Just don't expect a selection to match Apple's iTunes store.

The rear view of the n8.

Broken key

Despite the relative complexity of the N8, we would have still called it a "great" phone if it wasn't for one significant misstep in the software design: The keyboard.

When you're using the messaging system (or any app that requires the on screen keyboard, such as the web browser), you'll notice two things.

First, the keyboard is only available when the phone is oriented horizontally. When oriented vertically, the keyboard is replaced with a traditional handphone number pad, so enjoy typing with the old T9 predictive text.

Secondly, the keyboard seems to be a "sub-application" that takes up the entire screen. This means when you're writing a reply, you can't actually see the message you're replying or even send the message until you close the keyboard.

Conclusion

So, the Nokia N8 is technically what was advertised: A touchscreen phone that's utterly jam-packed with nifty features. However, aside from the camera, most of these features require a fair amount of improvement before they can truly be called excellent.

So what will we do with this phone? Take really nice photos, mostly.

Pros: Impressive video/camera system; lots of features.

Cons: Keyboard system could be improved; too many buttons and options menus to go through.

N8
(Nokia)
Smartphone
Operating System: Symbian ^3
Network: 3G, GPRS/EDGE, HSDPA
Display: 3.5in capacitive AMOLED touchscreen (640 x 360 -pixels) Camera: 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, xenon flash
Memory: 16GB internal
Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, HDMI port, micro USB, 3.5mm AV, FM Radio, FM transmitter
Standby/Talktime: 400 hours/350 minutes
Expansion Slot: MicroSD
Other Features: GPS, web browser, radio tuner, simple video and photo editing, Ovi Store
Dimensions: 113.5 x 59 x 12.9mm
Weight: 135g

Nokia admits power problems in N8 handset

POWER OFF: Nokia says that a small number of its N8 phones are not turning on after recharging. - AFP

HELSINKI: Nokia Corp said its top N8 model, aimed at making up lost ground in the smartphone market, has had power problems with some handsets not turning on after recharging.

The fault is limited to "a small number of handsets" and will be fixed in line with Nokia warranty rules, Nokia spokesman Eija-Riitta Huovinen said. She gave no details of whether the problem was regional or how many handsets are affected.

"We've had a lot of positive feedback about the N8. This problem involves really a small number," Huovinen said.

The N8, which looks like Apple Inc's iPhone, features a 12-megapixel digital camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a 3.5in display. It is built on Symbian 3, a new version of the Symbian software with photo uploading connections to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Available also in North America, Nokia's worst market, the N8 is meant to compete with the iPhone that has set the standard for today's smartphones and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerrys that are the favourite of the corporate set.

More recently, Google Inc's Android software has also emerged as a choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

And the N8 has been beset with problems.

It was unveiled in April with deliveries expected in the summer but Nokia did not start shipping it internationally until the end of September.

The latest fault, though relatively small, comes at a bad time as the fourth quarter traditionally means strong growth in the wireless industry.

"This doesn't help the Nokia brand, that's for sure. The problems have been mounting for the past few years and every little negative headline adds to that," said Neil Mawston from London-based Strategy Analytics. "It's not a great start for their supposed iPhone or Android killer."

In September, Nokia replaced its Finnish CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with Microsoft executive Stephen Elop, a Canadian, the first time the company appointed a non-Finn at its helm.

The choice of a North American executive to lead a Finnish company was seen as reflecting the increasing dominance of US and Canadian companies in the evolution of the top end mobile phone business.

Nokia reported a third-quarter net profit of 529mil euro (RM2.7bil), up from a net loss of 559mil euro (RM2.8bil) last year, but said it had lost market share to 30% in the period - from 34% in 2009.

Despite setbacks, it is still the global leader in handsets, including smartphones, selling 26.5 million smartphones in the quarter - up 60% on a year earlier. Its closest rivals, Apple sold 14 million and RIM 12.5 million. - AP

The Full Review of Nokia N8

Symbian v3 brings some improvements, just not quite enough...

The quick review of N8 has been posted on September 20, 2010. Nokia’s time in the doldrums has been well-documented, but with a revised UI and a boatload of top-end tech, it’s hoping the new N8 will catapult it back to the sharp end of the smartphone game.

With the N8, Nokia has seemingly thrown all the tech it can think of at the new handset in a bid to rival the likes of Android and the iPhone – a 12MP camera with ‘proper’ Xenon flash, XVID and DIVX support, HD video capture, Dolby Mobile sound and an HDMI-out port are just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s also got the stylish anodised metal shell and an OLED screen, along with a dedicated graphics processor, so from the outset Nokia is clearly looking to rival the big boys when comparing spec sheets.

The new Symbian^3 offers up a newer user experience, albeit one that many previous Nokia users will be familiar with.

There are now three home screens to play with, with a large number of widgets to on offer as well. However, you can’t litter the icons across the screen willy-nilly, instead being forced to put them into specific icon-based widgets.

While Symbian^3 is designed to be a more ‘next-gen’ smartphone platform, right from the outset it’s clear that it’s more of a re-tooled and re-badged version of Symbian S60 rather than a new OS.

Things like swiping across home screens and having to wait for the phone to catch up, rather than it moving under your touch, as well as having to drill through so many menus to get to some applications and options show that Symbian still has a long, long way to go to catch up with Android or iOS.

Nokia N8: Screen and camera

However, the hardware provides a number of positives – the capacitive OLED screen really shows of colours nicely, and although the 640x360 screen isn’t as impressive as its higher-res rivals, the contrast ratios are still excellent and web pages and video look crisp enough.

The display also shows up fairly well in bright light – it’s not jaw-dropping, but certainly performs better than the HTC Desire, which might as well be transparent on sunnier days. We’re also excited by the camera. If you’re a photography buff you’ll obviously prefer a dedicated DSLR or dedicated compact, but for a quick snap here and there, the combo of a 12MP sensor, Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash really offer up some crisp shots.

There are a number of options to alter your photos, including contrast and exposure correction and a variety of scene modes to improve picture quality.

Nokia has included a dedicated camera button on the N8 too, which has a staggered press to allow you to activate autofocus. Hitting this button when not in photography mode will start up the camera, but it does take a while to boot up – best hope it’s not a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot.

The 720p video mode is similarly good – not only does the noise reduction really help with elements like windy scenes, but the HD video is clear and crisp, especially when you output it to a larger TV. However, it doesn’t have the same wow factor as the iPhone 4’s HD recording, despite packing nearly identical specs.

Music is also well catered for on the N8, with a dedicated music widget and easy to user interface. When used in landscape mode, album cover flow whips along particularly well, and the on-screen music control buttons are similarly easy to hit.

The inline headphone remote included in the box is good quality too, and with 16GB of internal memory it’s easy to think this could be your dedicated MP3 player.

However, video is not as impressive – some file types (such as m4v) won’t play back correctly, and many others will play in 4:3 rather than widescreen as the pixel count is too high to stretch – despite managing to do so easily on the like of the Samsung Galaxy S or the Apple iPhone 4.

Nokia N8: internet

The browser on the N8 is supposed to have been given the Symbian^3 treatment to help take it to the next smartphone level, but sadly that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

On paper it seems like it will be one of the best: pinch to zoom and Flash video support (via Flash Lite 4) promise a decent experience. But it’s a touch slower than the other mobile browsers out there (although on a par with the BlackBerry Torch) and the pinch and zoom is very laggy indeed. Plus when you zoom in the text doesn’t reform to fit the screen, so you have to scroll left and right to see the words at the right size.

Menu options are hidden two button presses away, so reloading a page is a real pain – although the Flash video generally works well, despite being a little choppy, especially on the heavier sites.

Battery is a plus point on the Nokia N8 – given it’s only got a 1200mAh battery we were a bit worried, but the low-powered 680MHz processor clearly helps push things a bit further. We easily managed a couple of days’ use with the N8, although it wouldn’t get very far into a third day; we found that the lack of internet use (due to the poorer performance) helped conserve battery pretty well, so that might change other users’ experiences.

Nokia N8: keyboard

One major downside of the Nokia N8 is the text input. For starters, using the N8 in portrait mode means you can only use the multi-tap method – no mini QWERTY here, despite having the size to do it. In landscape mode you only get a QWERTY option, with an ill thought-out layout (and no auto-capitalisation on the ‘i’) it takes some real effort to achieve any kind of accuracy.

The main saving grace of the Nokia N8 was supposed to be the cost – but now it’s finally landed on the official Nokia website, it’s not that impressive either.

True, in Malaysia it’s only RM 1800 for a 16GB smartphone, which is almost RM 100 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy S and nearly RM 400 cheaper than the same priced iPhone, but given the compromises needed to use the Nokia N8 it feels expensive.

In a straight battle, it’s hard to see who (other than devout and die-hard Nokia fans) would take a look at the Nokia N8 when the HTC Desire, iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy S and arguably the new BlackBerry Torch all offer a more complete and easy to use experience.

Nokia fans will love the N8, Symbian V3 is an improvement and Nokia has certainly got the hardware right in terms of specs. But Symbian has been overtaken by other operating systems. What we'd really like to see is the N8 on Meego or Maemo 5. 

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Nokia N8 Specifications:

OS: Symbian^3
Processor: ARM 11 680MHz
Storage: 16GB with microSD slot
Screen: 3.5-inch 640x360 capacitive OLED
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, 10.2Mbps HSDPA, a-GPS, HDMI, FM transmitter
Camera (res, flash, focus): 12MP with AF, face detection and Xenon flash
Video (size and frame rate): 720p HD @25fps
3G Talk time: 350mins
Dimensions: 114 x 59 x 13 mm
Weight: 135g

Quick Review on Nokia N8

Nokia N8

Spearheading Nokia's fightback to regain the spotlight in the smartphone race are four models - the previously announced but not yet available N8, the E7 Communicator, C6 and C7.

The N8 was billed by company executives at Nokia World here as the "ultimate entertainment smartphone and the world's best camera phone."

Nokia said the phone has received the highest-ever demand for online pre-orders, suggesting that the company may have a hit on its hands.

The phone is due to be available in selected markets next month and in Malaysia before Dec 31, 2010. Expected price would be around RM 1800.00

It has a 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and Xenon flash, 720p HD video recording, Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound, HDMI connection, 3.5in capacitive multi-touch AMOLED screen (640 x 360-pixels), 16GB internal memory and a microSD card slot (up to 32GB card supported).

Nokia's N8 also has an accelerometer and proximity sensor, WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, Ovi Maps, digital compass, full Qwerty virtual keyboard and a dedicated social client for live updates from Facebook and Twitter.

Nokia strikes back

NOKIA'S HOPEFULS: (l-r) The Nokia C6, C7, N8 and E7. Nokia is banking on these four Symbian ^3-powered smartphones to regain the lead in the smartphone race.

Nokia brushed off its recent top management reshuffle and used its annual Nokia World conference here to signal that it is not ready to give up in the high stakes smartphone battle despite being overshadowed by the competition, such as Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices.

In fact the company came out swinging and took some well-aimed digs at the two competitors, its fiercest rivals in the smartphone space now.

Apple was first in the firing line as Nokia made fun of its senior vice-president of iOS software, Scott Forstall, for inadvertently using the Finnish company's well known tagline "Connecting People" in a video.

"For us, it is not just a feel-good tagline, it's our mission," said Nokia executive vice-president for markets Niklas Savander in his opening keynote.

The company also said that it sold more smartphones than Apple and Android combined in the last quarter.

"On average people buy 260,000 Nokia smartphones every day - that's more smartphones sales than any other company by far. Period," Savander added.

Ever since Nokia started making Symbian 60-based smartphones, it has shipped 300 million devices to date and currently holds just over 40% of the market share, the company said.

Savander also reinforced Nokia's strategy to continue making handsets to cater to different market segments and user experiences despite opinions that the company should concentrate on just the high-end smartphone section.

"We will continue to expand the availability of smartening features because everyone - not just the well-off - should have easy access to the Internet and modern mobile communications," he said.

Savander added that Nokia was not going to apologise for the fact that it wasn't Apple or Google or anybody else. "We're Nokia and we're unique," he said.

He also spoke about the company's push into the mobile location and navigation space and said that - contrary to popular perception - it is Nokia, not Google, that is the leader in mobile navigation.

He said that Ovi Maps is far less data hungry than Google Maps because it is optimised for mobile use. In terms of global reach, he said Ovi Maps is available in 78 countries and 46 languages.

The reason that Nokia is intent on "owning" the mobile location and navigation space is because more than 800 million people will have access to GPS-enabled phones by 2013, Savander said.

"Your phone will be able to analyse your location, friend's locations and take into account your tastes and needs. This 'science fiction' story is now in place and soon everyone will have a coordinate. The impact of this is huge," he said.

The fightback

Despite delivering stinging ripostes to Nokia's competitors, Savander admitted that the company hasn't been as competitive as it wants to be in the smartphone space.

But he quickly added that all that was about to change as the company is about to shift into high gear to regain the spotlight in smartphone leadership.

"Nevermind the past. Today is about the here and now, about three words: Nokia is back."

Spearheading the fightback are four new models - the previously-announced N8 entertainment phone, the C6 and C7 for social network users, and the E7, which is the successor to the business-centric Communicator (see sidebar).

At the heart of these new phones is the new Symbian ^3 operating system, which was talked-up by outgoing Nokia executive vice-president for mobile solutions, Anssi Vanjoki.

He began his keynote by vigorously defending the new Symbian OS against criticism that it is the same old system by those who have just looked at screenshots of it.

"It's like dismissing the performance of a new car with a new turbo-charged engine before driving it just because the dashboard looks familiar," Vanjoki told the audience.

He said the majority of improvements are under the hood with over 250 new features and enhancements such as support for multiple home screens, visual multitasking, gesture-based interactions and a noticeable reduction in prompts.

The new devices, which are also tightly integrated with enhanced Ovi services and apps, reinforce the company's vision of a mobile industry that is increasingly being defined by socially connected, location-based devices and experiences.

The phones will include a completely updated Ovi Store that promises a friendlier user interface and a new collections feature to quickly access popular apps and games available now, or soon, such as Foursquare, Angry Birds and Need for Speed Shift.

There will also be free access to the latest beta release of Ovi Maps which amongst others, adds visibility to subways, trams and trains in 85 cities around the world, real-time traffic, safety alerts in or out of navigation mode and speed limit warnings.

In addition, there are improved search capabilities and users can share their location immediately via text messages or e-mail to other browser-enabled phones.

Developer focus

With the smartphone business being predominantly about apps, Nokia is also taking steps to make it easier for developers to create more applications for the Symbian platform.

With Symbian ^3, Vajonki said that the fragmentation of the old Symbian system would be a thing of the past and that Nokia is developing strategies to ensure development consistency and a broader distribution base for applications.

For instance, developers can now write an application on the Nokia Qt platform and it will work on all of the company's smartphones without any further fuss. Nokia also said its development tools are now more efficient and reduce the lines of code needed to write an app by as much as 70%.

Other methods to attract more developers include enabling in-app purchases and introducing a wider range of app pricing options such as subscription models, micro-transactions, or "try and buy."

Nokia has also removed the time consuming and costly step of app signing - developers can now get their Symbian and Java apps signed at no cost just by the click of a button, the company said.

In addition to the refinements to the Nokia Qt software development kit (SDK) for smartphones, Nokia also announced an SDK for its Series 40 Touch and Type feature phones.

Currently Nokia said Ovi Store has 13,000 apps with about two million downloads a day. In comparison, the Apple App Store has 200,000 apps and the Android Marketplace is home to 80,000 apps.

However, Nokia executives pointed out that Ovi Store is just one of the many channels available for Symbian apps and that many thousand more are available at other sites.