Nokia N8-00

In many ways, Nokia N8 was keen on making a difference when it was announced back in 2010. It had to usher a new dawn for touchscreen Nokia smartphones. More importantly, it had to beat compact cameras in their own game. Almost 2 years have passed, the dawn never came. Symbian ^3 even in its new avatar was much unpolished, and failed to bring Symbian into reckoning. But we have not found a more capable camera phone either. And yes, Nokia N8 did sell well.

As Symbian Belle knocks at the door today, which is by some distance, the best Symbian OS ever, there is also a painful realization that the N8 hardware is rather outdated. Well, save the camera module. With the advent of SuperAMOLED plus HD screens and dual-core processors, N8’s 3.5” AMOLED of nHD resolution and 256 MB ram do seem modest. Rumors suggest Belle will be the last update to the phone. Does one buy it? On the flip side, you have a true wonder of a camera, capable of putting even dedicated cameras to shame. Symbian OS makes sure the hardware is still enough to enable you play HD games. The aluminum unibody is a pleasure to handle. And finally what squares the deal is that the price has come down too. Still, does one buy it?

Pros:
1. A true gem of a camera. The 1/1.83” camera sensor is still the biggest on any smartphone. It is ably aided by an almost perfect Carl Zeiss lens capable of shooting 12MP photos and a powerful xenon flash. Numbers aside, the camera produces images of stunning quality. Resolved detail remains downright impressive across all situations, more so in less lighted conditions, where the huge sensor comes in handy. There is not much purple fringing, or any other lens distortion for that matter. In other words, humbling achievement by a mobile phone.
2. The aluminum unibody feels sturdy and as if is built to last.
3. Humungous 16 GB on board storage which can be further expanded by a memory card.
4. 3.5” AMOLED screen of nHD resolution provides nice colors, good brightness and decent sunlight legibility.
5. Video recording is stuck at 720p, but the output is rather nice. With continuous autofocus and best-in-class dynamic range, it actually produces better videos than many 1080p camcorder phones out there.
6. All round retail package with a lot of goodies.

Cons:
1. 680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and Broadcom BCM2727 GPU give an impression of an outdated phone. There have even been Symbian phones with more processing power. 256mb RAM doesn’t help either.
2. Symbian browser lacks behind the competition.
3. Relatively lesser applications compared to Android or iOS.

Competition:
If you are bullish on having a good camera-smart phone, apple iPhone 4s comes closest to N8’s imaging skills. It also comes with an out-of-the-world UI, fast processor, the most advance GPU and ups the video recording capabilities.
Comparing prices, Sony Ericsson Ray offers a very capable 8 mp camera with latest android (planned upgrade to ICS). The Sony Bravia display is among the best in LCDs. Resolutions is high as well, although screen estate is small (3.3”). Sony Ericsson Neo V offers a similar package with a downgraded 5 mp camera but a 3.7 inch screen.

There is very slight chance of you reading this review and yet not having a thing for cameras. The N8 is head and shoulders above all competing phones when it comes to taking pictures. And this is exactly why N8 has gained immense popularity. It will probably go down as a legendary phone. A true imaging king, a pioneer of Symbian ^3, and more importantly, a tribute to the N-series.

I have brought this phone as I found that all I wanted was packed in this. This is really a nice piece of hardware to have if you are price conscious.

Pros:
- AMOLED screen (I wanted 3.5" as I found Galaxy S with 4" was very big for phone)
- Symbian OS 3 (better than old Symbian 40/60 variants)
- Integrated Ovi provides apps and social networking
- 3 windows and customizable widgets
- I loved maps, especially with update got pinch-zoom on it
- 720p and below video plays well (not tried interlaced though)
- high MP camera and HD recording. Also lens cover and Xenon flash.
- Considerably good battery life

Cons:
- bit sluggish at times especially when it rotates from landscape to portrait
- felt its bit heavy, but being fully metallic, I excused it too.
- Symbian is dying. But who cares until the phone delivers what I want at EOD.

All in all, I say its worth investment.

I OWN THIS PHONE HAD BEEN USING IT FOR PAST 1 YEAR NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. BEST CAMERA WITH XENON FLASH and CARL-ZIESS LENS. ONLY PHONE WITH STANDARD MICRO-HDMI PORT RATHER THAN CUSTOM MANUFACTURER PORT Eg. Sony Erricson Experia Arc. Extremely robust with all aluminium body. extremely flexible usage it has dual ports for charging i.e 2mm pin and Micro-USB so even if you want to use External hard drive via usb interface it can still be charged. One Aspect That Probably most people over look that it actually is 16gb phone with 14.2 GB usable memory but my SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 16 GB has ONLY 11GB Usable. And the cpu about which every is angry that it is only 680MHz is also very good and helps to save battery. My phone lasts upto 2 days usage with single charge with around 16 hrs of music and 5 hrs of calling.

Awesome phone and now at a budget that i can't imagine i am ordering for a second one in SILVER Colour.

Go ahead and enjoy NOKIA.

First of all I would like to say that my dad bought this phone a month ago so I have not used the phone 24x7.I myself own Samsung Wave(the qwerty keypad model).So I will basically help you to draw out a comparison between Samsung and Nokia Phones.

1. If you are a basic regular phone user by which I mean you just go for calls and some extra features like music or camera then all Nokia Phones are better than samsung in this regard (however samsung phones come with better earphones; so if you can upgrade your nokia headphone there's no match, nokia phones have a better music engine; the only models better in sound than nokia are Apple and high-end sony-ericsson models(I have previously owned sony'sW595 and even experienced iphone's music-they're truly awesome))
Talking about the camera, its pretty awesome!!! Undoubtedly its the greates asset of this phone(and I really mean it;I have a sony 7.2 MP camera I bought 3 years ago but man! this nokia camera is wonderful--it simply dwarfs my sony DIGITAL CAM's camera-(and note that my digicam has Carl-Zeiss lens).

2.If you're buy a phone just for show-off and for the display-screen then go for samsung-they have great touchscreens especially the super-amoled ones(it beats nokia N8 screen)

3.Now coming to the OS easily samsung beats nokia but I don't think majority of basic indian users need a high-end OS for any reasons(I mean c'mon guys if you're buying a phone primarily for calling and photos or music or internet where's the problem?)
For tech-savvy users OS will be a problem as the domain is limited to a few applications from the symbian store;and you cannot csutomize and enjoy the OS like you'll enjoy on samsung or HTC

Black color is same as Dark Grey...