Nokia N8 First Look: Better, but far from good.

Calling it as you see it Ben is worth more to us Nokia fans than any sort of attempt to “say what we want to hear” believe me! Is there going to be more from the TRMP team on the N8?

I’m renown as being somewhat harsh on Nokia, however, the criticisms above are more niggles, that labour on what i would regard as minor issues.
S^3 is not as slick or polished as iOS or Android, but that’s the only real issue i have with mine. N8 is a huge step up for Nokia, make no mistake about that!

The impact of ‘niggles’ will vary according to personal preference, but after a week of being unable to reply or forward any email it’s reached deal-breaker stage for me.

As nice as the camera is I honestly can’t think of anyone – even the most enthusiastic snappers – I’d recommend this to in preference to something with a worse camera that worked better as a smartphone…

I’ll be posting more as I spend more time with it and we’ll have to see what we can do about a video…!

My headline would have been, N8 good, but far from excellent, which indeed, is my opinion, just recall the N97 for a minute, and compare the two

Hi Ben just out of curiosity what in your opinion do you think is better? From reviews I’ve read about most smartfones the N8 looks pretty damn good in pretty much every dept. Alright ui isn’t perfect but which one is…from android to ios4 they all have plus and minus’s. surely looking at the N8 from a balanced point of view its amazing what they have put into a smartfone.
I’ve used iphone and must admit a screen full of icons is very boring it has a very nice UI very slick and apart from that it does the same as all the rest I’ve also used android not perfect either used one for a while.
i agree with nokia its what you do with it that counts.

But the N97 was so dire almost anything looks good compared to it

There are plenty of ‘better’ options depending on what you need. I’d even go as far as suggesting another Nokia with a more mature software set – I’m not anti-Nokia just fed up with impressive specs ruined by buggy software.

Don’t buy on the specs… look at what it’s like to use in real life.

Great review Ben. Do you personally think the Nokia N8 will reverse Nokia’s fortunes in the smart phone market?

Excellent review, Ben. You nailed it in my view.

Did you do your testing on the orange unit pictured at the beginning of the article? That’s a pre-release unit as designated by the “C0″ on the top left of the handset. You might want to see if some of your issues have been cleared up with a production handset & the latest 011.012 firmware update from a few days ago

Valid points! Good one.

I’ve had my N8 for just over a week now, and I have to say I don’t entirely agree.

There are a few niggling things, like the fact that I’ve not managed to get a day’s use out without the battery going, and it’s still got a few clunky and inconsistent bits clogging up the UI.

But, certain things that still cripple the N97′s firmware seem to have been fixed in this early N8 firmware. It’s only crashed once (in 11 days), and the hard key lock/unlock actually does what it should, rather than getting in a constant cycle of confusion like the N97.

I’ve had no problems with the native email client – there’s a very simple way to adjust the size of the font – MULTI-TOUCH! Yes, that’s right, pinching and spreading works on native email, native web browser and native picture viewer (but strangely not on Ovi Maps).

Somehow your review missed the HDMI-out and USB On The Go. HDMI out works really well for content stored on the device – not quite so well for stuff on external drives. Having said that, the USB-OTG ability to plug in any USB memory stick or hard drive and let the phone act as master is awesome. My 500GB Seagate works a treat. Watching HD content from my hard drive on my HD telly splutters a bit, but copy content to the phone first, and it works fine.

I’d totally agree with the complaint about the native soft keyboard (especially the fact that it modally takes over the screen in both landscape and portrait), but take a look at the Swype Beta for Nokia (works well on my N97, but doesn’t currently work on the N8). That even lets you move the keyboard around on the screen. Until they get that working on the N8, the alternative from the Ovi store, SlideIt actually works really well. Especially in Portrait.

Maybe I hadn’t set my expectations particularly high, but I’m extremely happy with mine. The N8 is much more than just a great camera!

Ben,

Thanks for the comment – good to hear from another user. To address your points / question:

- Yes multi-touch will increase font-size, but not reduce it below the (ludicrously large) minimum for plain text emails.
- I didn’t ‘miss’ the HDMI or USB OTG, I just haven’t found them worthy of comment in this first-look so far (see our pre-release coverage for images of them in-use tho’).
- I agree this is more refined than many previous Nokia offerings (especially the N97) but to be honest Nokia has *so* much catching up to do in this area I think iPhone / Android should be the comparator… not necessarily a specific device, but because those platforms set the benchmark for usability on medium to high-end smartphones in most cases.

Good spot… I am actually testing a production-release N8 with latest firmware although the picture does show the ‘C0′ pre-release model I had hands-on previously.

I had to use the older image for speed as I submitted this post over some wobbly 3G connection whilst travelling and haven’t re-uploaded the newer gallery of images I’ve taken.

Thanks very much!

In a word… ‘no’.

It may be the beginnings of a turn-around, but a Symbian^3-based imaging device was never going to be the best platform to show a massive change in. Let’s see the E7 and the first Meego device out the door… *then* we can begin to make some commentary about the market.

I guess you will be doing a review of the E7 when it comes out? I shall look out for it

Ha! I must have Mobile Stockholm Syndrome then, because at the end of 6 months of the N97 being my daily, primary phone, I actually liked it. And even worse, I am still fond of it 5 months after decommission it. ;oD

I suppose there has to be *someone* who likes it I did hear the later firmware updates made it much more usable, but you deserve a medal for putting up with it until they came along…

Hi Ben,

I didn’t not really like it last summer when I trialed it for two weeks. But I had one from November ’09 – May ’10 for a project, thus most of the major updates had already came down the pike. By the time I used it daily, other than the camera, I found it to be very usable and I love the keyboard & tilt screen. But as I said in my very last post on the N97, I was not ‘power’ using it, as it didn’t have my favorite apps in the six months of daily use, so I didn’t run up against the memory problem that bothered others.

I *do* admit to having different opinions from the mainstream on a wide variety of subjects and am ok with that.

;o)

cant really argue, the buttons at the bottom of the screen area are frequently dont register (firmware / hardware)

ovi maps is awesome, the built in twitter is ok, but just ok, dabr is probably better.

if only nokia would piss their pants. my nexus one seems like an Amiga next to a zx81.

but the camera and battery life are both awesome.

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im sorry ben but i have to disagree with you here on some points…first note im an avid nokia fan…
secondly i think you may know your way around symbian a bit? but i stand corrected in the messaging
isnt there a setting for text size? (small large largest) the default is small..so maybe a change of setting
may solve this issue?
im not trying to find a band aid for the keyboard..but try swype? needless you can try telling other manufacturers ” i dont like your keyboard i need options” and see if you ever get any..its their way and no way else…i had a more pleasant time on the n8 than on the iphone (i found it hard to type as the phone kept hitting the button above the one i wanted) and ive tried for about 2 weeks and couldnt ever get it done mistake free (no name calling here!)
another disagreement with you (but then to each his own) you havent found being able to plug a usb into your
device a “worthy mention”…*sighs…to each his own…
i think nokia has a real gem on their hands..and i quite like symbian and the ability to manipulate my device the way
i see fit….not the way the manufaturer sees fit…some say old UI..i say familiar UI….with most market share you cant
exactly just “switch” to a whole new experience…you have got to slowly move their without too much inconvenience….and that is what nokia seems to be doing….
(especially with the announcement that there will be no symbian^4…all the plans for symbian^4 and further will be gradually released to the current “symbian^3″ and onward devices…thus the name is now symbian..(without the ^x version)….so yes this phone is going to be a gem……

nokia create nice model i buy this phone
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