Please check out Palm Addicts for all the mobile technology related news you may be interested in. Plus, check out all the wonderful giveaways that Sammy generously gives away from time to time!

It’s time for another installment of Palm Discovery’s wReview Wednesday!

Nokia N8 smartphone

A BIG thanks to Lydia of Womworld for offering me the wonderful opportunity to try out the latest Symbian^3 OS smartphone, the Nokia N8.

I, like many others was quite enthusiastic about trying out the Nokia N8 since it was running the Symbian^3 operating system. However, to my disappointment, the Symbian^3 OS was not really a new OS but more like an updated version of the old Symbian S60. With that in mind, I’d like think of the Nokia N8 as an update to the well loved N95 except there is no slide out keypad. It is meant as a high end smartphone that focuses on the multimedia like video capturing and playback and camera. And in that respect, the N8 did not disappoint.

The Nokia N8 is a candybar style phone that offers a generous touch screen that extends from top to bottom. Rotate the N8 clockwise so that the top of the phone is now facing the right and the screen will also rotate to render in landscape mode. It comes with a non-removable battery and as such, offers a SIM card slot and a microSD card slot on the side to allow access to the SIM and memory. There is an HDMI port at the top of the smartphone and the necessary adapters are supplied to enable the connection between the N8 and your home entertainment system. The power button and the 3.5mm audio port is also located at the top. On the other side of the smartphone is a dedicated camera button on the side that acts as a camera launch button and of course a camera shutter button. The smartphone offers a 12 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash. But what I found surprising is that the headphone jack supports 3.5mm instead of the typical 2.5mm for most smartphones. This is great news for many of us who have been complaining about smartphones not supporting 3.5mm. Overall, the N8 is a beautiful smartphone that will make those who have owned or wanted to own a Nokia N95 to give this a second look.

Thanks for visiting and supporting . If you are not reading this article from Palmdiscovery.com, the website you are reading it from is copying and posting my content without consent. Please visit Palm Discovery for the original source of the material.

For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

More details of the Nokia N8 smartphone (taken from Nokia Europe’s website)

Dimensions:

Size: 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm
Weight (with battery): 135 g
Volume: 86 cc

Display and user interface:

Screen size: 3.5″
Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) AMOLED
16.7 million colours
Capacitive touch screen
Orientation sensor (Accelerometer)
Compass (Magnetometer)
Proximity sensor
Ambient light detector

Hardware

Power Management

BL-4D 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
Talk-time (maximum):
GSM 720 mins
WCDMA 350 mins
Standby time (maximum):
GSM 390 h
WCDMA 400 h
Video playback time (H.264 720p, 30 fps, maximum): 6 h (via HDMI to TV)
Video recording time (H.264 720p, 25 fps, maximum): 3 h 20 mins
Video call time (maximum): 160 mins
Internal memory: 16 GB music playback time (offline mode, maximum): 50 h
Operation times may very depending on radio access technology used, operator network configuration and usage.

Memory

Internal memory: 16 GB
MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB

Operating Frequency

GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100
Automatic switching between WCDMA & GSM bands
Flight mode

Software & applications

Software platform & user interface

Symbian ^3 for Nokia
Java MIDP 2.1
Qt 4.6.2, Web Runtime 7.2
HTML 4.1
Software updates Over the Air (FOTA) & Over the internet (FOTI)
Flash Lite 4.0
OMA DM 1.2, OMA Client provisioning 1.1

Photography

Camera
12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
Large 1/1.83″ optical format image sensor
Fullscreen 16:9 viewfinder with easy-to-use touch screen parameters
Xenon flash with automatic red-eye removal
Face tracking/detection software
Autofocus
Focal length: 5.9 mm (equivalent to 28mm in 35mm film format)
F number/Aperture: F2.8
Still images file format: JPEG/EXIF
Zoom up to 2x (digital) for still images
Zoom up to 3x (digital) for video
Secondary camera for video calls (QVGA, 640 x 480 pixels), still image and video capture
Favourite settings feature
Still camera manual controls for white balance, scene mode, exposure compensation, colour tone, viewfinder framing grid, sharpness, contrast, flash control, light sensitivity (ISO), self-timer, face detection

Check out the rest of the Nokia N8 specs here

Slideshow of the Nokia N8 smartphone

Screenshots

The Nokia N8 almost seems like it’s bigger than other smartphones but when compared to the other devices (as shown in the overview video below) like the Nexus One, iPod Touch and even the E71, it really isn’t. What I guess gave me the impression that it seems bigger is perhaps due its thickness and the size of the screen compared to the others.

Please note. I mistakenly did a factory reset on the Nokia N8 BEFORE I transferred all the pictures I originally took to compare against my other devices. As a result, I do not have ANY picture that I took with the Nokia N8 to show you the quality of the pictures. Please accept my deepest apologies. I do have some screenshots taken of the Symbian^3 OS which I did retrieve before I reset the N8.

Video of Nokia N8 smartphone

Overview of the Nokia N8 smartphone

Nokia N8 smartphone Part 1

Nokia N8 smartphone Part 2

Nokia N8 smartphone Part 3

Nokia N8 smartphone Part 4

Nokia N8 smartphone Part 5

Here are my observations:

I Liked:

HDMI support

For those with a home entertainment system, having a smartphone like the Nokia N8 with an HDMI port and adapters to allow you to connect your smartphone to it is heavenly. All those family videos can now be instantly played at home directly from the Nokia N8 without any waiting to convert or transfer the file or anything else. Just connect and play. It can’t get any better.

Size of the screen

Although the size of the screen may not rival too many smartphones out there, having 3.5 inch screen is no slouch either. Especially when watching videos and movies in landscape mode, it looks so nice. The videos are rendered in great detail and I’m amazed at the quality.

Volume and sound from the smartphone

Similar to a previous point, one of the best thing about this Nokia N8 smartphone is the volume! I have not encountered a smartphone that offers the level of volume that this Nokia N8 offers. Especially when watching action flicks or videos on the Nokia N8 when I crank up the volume, I am amazed at the sound quality and spacial effects that this little smartphone can do. Of course, you are watching a movie on a 3.5 inch screen but it still packs a punch!

Side screen Lock button

One new button that I found is useful is the lock button on the side of the device. Simply slide the button down and the screen lock is triggered. Compared to my old Nokia E71 where I have to press the Menu and the * button combination, I find that this button works great.

Menu button at bottom

At the bottom of the smartphon is the Menu button. You press it and the screen turns on. If the screen is locked, you simply tap on the virtual Lock button on the screen and it will show the Home screen. I find having this menu button is important as I use it to wake up the device.

Side volume buttons

On the side, there are a pair of volume buttons that will allow you to turn up or down the volume on the device. Unfortunately, compared to my Nokia E71, there is no mute button.

SIM card slot

I always like any smartphone that offers a SIM card slot that is easily accessible without having to remove the battery cover, battery before I can access it.

microSD card slot

Similar to the previous point, I like it when a smartphone allows easy access to an expansion memory card so that I can easily pop it in and out without again, having to remove the battery cover, battery before I can access it.

12MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and flash

Of course, anyone who wants the Nokia N8 obviously expects that the camera will offer decent camera specs like the 12MP resolution, the Carl Zeiss optics and of course, the flash. As mentioned before, I do not have any pictures that I took with the N8 before I did the reset on the smartphone so all my pictures have been wiped out. Sorry about this.

I Didn’t Like:

non-removable battery

Considering that many Nokia smartphones I have tried offer a removable battery, I am confused why Nokia decided to make the N8 have a non-removable battery this time. I dislike smartphone or devices that do not have a removable battery because, over time, batteries will die regardless of how well you take care of it. When the time comes to get a fresh new battery, I will have to send it off to a certified Nokia repair shop to replace it? What?!!! That is too silly.

Symbian^3 OS is really an updated Symbian S60

One huge disappointment for me was to discover that the Symbian^3 OS is nothing more than an updated Symbian S60 with a cosmetic makeover for some menus and interface. The grid or list menu of apps and settings are still there. The main difference is that the interface looks a bit more polished than it was for Symbian S60. Otherwise, it felt very much like Symbian S60.

no transreflective screen

As opposed to the transreflective screen that the Nokia E71 had which allowed the viewing of the time in the lock screen without pressing a button, the Nokia N8 did not offer that. Instead, the lock screen always shows a black background with white letters and numbers. I think for battery conservation, I would prefer to have the older transreflective screen so that I can still see the time without wasting battery to power up the lock screen.

camera bulges out

I am a bit confused why the camera on the N8 seemed to bulge out compared to the rest of the device. I think that I would much rather prefer to have the entire device flush with the camera so that the camera wouldn’t look like a sore thumb. That’s my personal preference, of course.

widgets drain battery dramatically

Although it is well known that widgets tend to take up some battery life out of a smartphone but in the case of the Nokia N8, it totally drains it in a matter of hours! I’m SERIOUS! When I’ve disabled the home screen widgets from accessing the internet, the N8 offers OUTSTANDING battery life. But, once they are enabled, the battery drains so unbelievably quickly that I got caught several times with a low battery and it turned itself off automatically to conserve battery. I have a Nexus One smartphone and even when I leave the widgets on and accessing the internet, the battery drain on the Nexus One is NOWHERE close to that of the Nokia N8. Within hours, on the Nokia N8, the battery is practically on a seriously low level.

Relies on virtual keyboard/keypad to input text

Being someone that has a bias for QWERTY keyboard smartphone and devices, it’s not surprising that I would list the virtual keyboard as a dislike. Even on other devices that have virtual keyboards or keypads, I would much rather prefer a QWERTY style smartphone with a smaller viewing screen than a larger one simply because I find I type better on the actual keys themselves than the virtual ones.

frustrating to type on virtual keypad in portrait mode

Again, similar to the previous point, one of the most frustrating experience with a candybar style smartphone is entering or inputting data or text, especially on a virtual keypad. I am someone who was never familiar with the typical cell phone keypad and entering text with that using a combination of presses on the numeric keypad so it was extremely frustrating to do so with the virtual keypad when I’m in the portrait mode. When I can flip over to the landscape mode, I am much better as the full virtual QWERTY keyboard layout is displayed.

Landscape mode rendered only one way

Coming from devices like the Nexus One and the iPod Touch where I can render the screen in landscape mode no matter how I flip the device as long as the device’s top or bottom is facing the sides as opposed to up, I was shocked to discover that the Nokia N8 can only render the screen in landscape only one way. I can flip the screen in a different way and the screen won’t change to landscape. That is unbelievable. I can’t understand why that isn’t possible when other devices can do that.

Review Summary

The Nokia N8 smartphone offers a beautiful looking 3.5 inch screen that renders videos, movies, and streams very well with HDMI support so that you can watch videos directly from your N8 on your home entertainment system. Plus, the spacial sound and the loud volume that it can push out definitely makes it a great multimedia playback device even when you’re not at home. And the 12 MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and flash is not surprising as it is considered the next step from their popular N95.

However, I found that the widgets on the Home screen if enabled to access the internet can dramatically drain battery life to such a degree that a fully charged battery can be low within the day even without any calls or use of other applications. And that is very unacceptable and definitely requires an update to fix. Plus, for those expecting a new OS with the Symbian^3, don’t be fooled. Symbian^3 is very much like an upgraded Symbian S60 so don’t expect much. Other than those points, the Nokia N8 is still a great smartphone, especially for those who have never owned a Symbian OS smartphone or have owned one as it offers a lot. However, as history has shown us (think the old Palm Garnet OS and the Treos, Centros), if Nokia is expecting Symbian^3 to keep Nokia fans happy until their newer OS comes, they’d better hurry because fans can only wait for so long before they jump ship.

Enjoyed this review? Check out the many other accessories review, USB Fever reviews, software reviews such as palm os software review, windows-mobile software review, symbian os software review, iPhone and ipod touch software review.

Thanks for visiting

Current Deals:
Verizon Wireless Android Phones - The Droid Incredible, HTC Eris, Motorola Devour (LetsTalk)

Check out more Deals from , and our Current Deals and Specials Page

: archives categories reviews smartphone symbian symbian^3 nokia nokia-n8 n8 hardware-review wReview-Wednesday