As far as I can remember, I think this is the first time I try to review gadget. I love gadget but I used to skip that part because I’m not good reviewer and the biggest problem is the language barrier. My command in English is no good, but I don’t care now. And so this post, if you feel you have read better review elsewhere, I don’t feel offended if you skip this part. Just straight to the point.
Nokia N8 – I’m no reporter or journo who have access to the latest gadgets from manufacturers or distributor. Nor am I an affiliate to Nokia or it’s subsidiary. Reviewing the loaner unit versus review your own gadget can sometime produce different story. There’ll be at least little bit bias or exaggerate some of the feature . Hopefully not here.
This Nokia N8 is truly mine, and perhaps, I’m quite proud being one of the first owner although that’s mean it left huge hole to my wallet. Yeah, I pre-orderded this phone online and pick-up from Nokia Sunway last Sunday.
So why Nokia N8? I’m so used with iOS and Android (and Blackberry last year) leaving me feeling little bit odd coming back to Nokia.
Design, design and design. That’s it! That’s how Nokia N8 is on it’s own class. It has the design you have never seen before on any smartphone in the market. You know what I mean if you stay updated with the latest smartphone news. Each smartphone looks identical, close to each other generally, and differentiate by only minor cosmetic. The N8 design, I couldn’t find the exact word to describe the N8 design (lack of vocabulary), but it’s the idea of coming up with the design that gives the upper and bottom end of the phone narrower from it’s wide body that really make Nokia N8 stand from the crowd. Most will love it the moment seeing it. True.
And on top of that, the use of metal to construct this phone also gives it sturdy and exclusive feels . It looks solid and comfortable once you holding it. In fact, it is pretty thin phone if Nokia can thinking how to embed the camera and it’s Xenon flash, level with the rest of the body surface.
Talking about the screen, in the era of giant screen, one can argue why Nokia N8 has 3.5 inch screen only. It’s their decision, but I think, it is something to do with making it appeal to all level of people. Kids, women and etc, not only to gentlemen or geeks who prefer the larger screen, which is the better to them. The screen is made from Gorilla glass which said to be scratch proof, so you don’t have to spent a penny to protect it.
Nokia N8 3.5inch screen is capacitive touch screen AMOLED with resolution 640 x 360 pixels. The underlying touch screen software has undergone pretty huge improvement, I guess. I have tested the pre-production firmware and pretty disappointed with the outcome. The screen is lagging and sometime not really responsive are some of the common stuff that I have experienced before. But production firmware seems totally different. I’m quite surprise with how smooth the touch screen gestures it is now, although it is not as good as iOS or Android. I can scroll to the left and right of the home screen and up down on the application screen without issue. But as I said, it is far from perfect, but at the same time, it is something that won’t piss you off.
As the screen is AMOLED touch screen, you can expect to see the high quality of image displayed on the screen. Indeed, the screen is bright, the color is vibrant and produce crisp and sharp photos. And to me that’s more than enough.
Video playback and HDMI – I have posted separate post for that. That’s one of the first few things that I have tested as I’m too eager to use the HDMI port 
Fortunately i doesn’t let me down. I’m quite please with the quality of video playback, it is smooth, clear and amazing in both N8 screen as well as the LCD TV. There are 2 things that make it great, the support of 720p HD quality video, and the Dolby sound system, though I’ve not tested the later part just yet. Yet another additional stuff that you might want to try is how you can play the games in the big screen. This make more sense to the games that require less interaction with the touch screen such as racing games and etc. To me, this is bonus and how I wish iOS devices has such feature out of the box.
Camera – N8 comes with 12 megapixel camera, xenon flash and standard Carl Zeiss lens at the back and 3 megapixel front facing camera. That’s said, it support video call, a must have feature after the ‘Facetime’ era. The camera is easy to use, using one special button at the side of the phone to initiate the camera and snap the photos. The photo quality is great, exceeding my Sony point-to-shot camera. You can configure the camera setting to match your needs such as the white balance, aperture and etc. Nokia N8 also comes with photo editor, and it is pretty neat. You can edit the camera on your phone and save it with less hassle.
The software - Now comes to the part where most reviewer giving it’s not so good review. N8 is the first Symbian s^3 smartphone and the world eagerly wait it to see the final outcome. To be fair, it is pretty good OS, the underlying process run quite well but perhaps it is the user interface is what making it looks so outdated. I’m particularly dislike the font and icon which seems does’t really fit with the N8 touch screen UI. The fonts looks bigger than it should be, and bold (it is not, but it looks), while the icon looks outdated, the design looks so 90′s.
The home screen looks nice albeit with only 3 screen, not a big deal to me although other OS comes with more than that. Just like other OS, the home screen can fit the shortcut to application as well as widget, although it takes longer route to get it done. On the home screen, you have to long press the screen before the menu to customize the screen appear. You need sometime to get used with it, but afterwards, it works just fine. I have recorded video below showing how to modify the shortcut and widget as well as browsing the home screen menu.
From the home screen, pressing the main button will bring you to the N8 main screen. This is where you can configure the telephone as well as shortcut to all application installed. That means, you need to press keys 2 times before you can browse to the applications list, although you can still create the shortcut to reach the application list from the home screen.
Nokia N8 comes with multitasking, which can be accessed from by long pressing the button or just click the option button. You can scroll to the left and right or close the application you no longer needed.
Email client – As someone that use email quite frequently, I found that the email client in N8 is little bit dull and looks less interesting. The dark background doesn’t looks professional to me. But it works as it is intended to and I’m fine with that. But if they can make it white background and unify mailboxes, that would be even great, right?
Ovi Store – Reviewers comment that the Ovi Store shipped in Symbian^3 is better, and I’m quite agree with them. You can browse the store without Ovi account but you’ll need one to download one. Paid application is available as well which can be paid only with credit card. But when it comes to the apps itself, you gonna be little bit disappointed especially if you comes from iOS or Android. The apps are limited although you still find hit apps such as Angry Birds, NFS or Asphalt but it still lack other prominent title used to found on other app store. But as reports recently made published that 50% of smartphpne owners doesn’t even download app, I guess only half of us care what’s inside the app store.
Conclusion – It is not extensive review, but I think I have cover most of Nokia N8 crucial part. Nokia N8 with it’s solid design is really one piece of stunningly beautiful hardware, externally and internally. But as thousands of blog out there keep reiterating the same point, I myself can’t denied the fact that the software aka Symbian^3 is far from perfect to accompany the hardware and subsequently launch an assault to the iOS and Android or even RIM. Like my colleges alway said, it’s so close but yet so far. If Nokia can produce the same beauty of hardware in Meego platform, I’ll still buy it. Not because of the OS, but because of my admiration to the piece of beautiful hardware
