Nokia N8 Hands-on and First Impressions
I met with Nokia folks at the Dolby offices in New York City to preview the Nokia N8. I wondered about the location, but it made sense after remembering that the Nokia N8 is world’s first handset featuring Dolby Digital Plus. The whole ordeal was only an hour, so it left me wanting more. Read on for video and photos.
Nokia started by showing a clip of a surround sound test. A voice from the movie clip would say “this is coming from the left speaker… the rear speaker, etc.” It was cool, but it got even better when they showed movie trailers. The Nokia N8 was connected to the home theater system via the HDMI port. The picture and sound were incredible. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to enjoy this at home since I don’t have a home theater system.
Ira Frimere, the Product Manager at the demo, continued to talk about features and showed several aspects of the Nokia N8. I was sort of familiar with some of the stuff they showed thanks to Nokia Conversations’ three-part videos. My eyes were locked on the Nokia N8 during the presentation and was anxious to play with it myself.
Towards the end before another group of bloggers and journalists were scheduled to preview the device, I asked Ira if he can summarize for me on video what they showed us in 2 minutes. Take a look below.
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Impressions
I played with a green Nokia N8 for only a few minutes at the demo. The color was not exactly on top of my list. The black one looked better in my opinion. The N8 felt rugged, tough, and solid in the hand. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but I have a feeling it will grow on me.
I didn’t have time to dive deep into the OS. The interface of Symbian^3 felt expectedly similar to Symbian^1 found on the N97, N97 mini, X6, etc. The major differences I noticed during my hands-on were the multiple homescreens, Cover-Flow albums (not sure how Nokia calls it), and the visual multi-tasker. The homescreen widgets and app menus felt basically the same. Next time I have the opportunity to look at the Nokia N8 and Symbian^3, I would like to pay more attention to how it handles offline mode and switching between wifi and 3G connections.
There was multi-touch aka pinch-to-zoom on the photos and web browser, but not on Ovi Maps. It felt snappy! I was disappointed that I couldn’t test the web browser because there was no wifi and the AT&T services could not get a connection at the location.
I played with the camera on the Nokia N8 a bit. I’m a fan of wide-angle lens and the Nokia N8 has it! Digital zoom looks good. Objects didn’t appear blurry or pixelated on the screen when zoomed in. The face detection focus was pretty cool, too. I couldn’t give the xenon flash a proper test, but flash properly fired when I took a photo of an object against a large window with morning sunlight shining in. It looked good from the device’s screen, but I couldn’t upload it online for closer inspection.
Overall, I think the Nokia N8’s 12mp camera with xenon flash and HD recording will be the major selling point for me. Those who hate Symbian will most likely still hate Symbian^3. The UI changes aren’t noticeable but that was already expected. The Nokia N8 will be available late summer of 2010 for EUR 370.
Mike Macias on 15 June 2010:
Mark,
Did you get a chance to type on the N8? It's the only part of the device that has me worried. Hopefully it's a good experience. I love my physical keyboards.
Mark Guim on 15 June 2010:
I tested by typing on the browser's address bar. The onscreen qwerty shows up in landscape mode. No portrait qwerty. It was pretty responsive.
There were times when it didn't register what I pressed. Since the N8 has a capacitive screen, you don't press harder to re-enter the letter, but change how u position the finger on the button. Not sure if you know what I mean?
Nonso Obikili on 15 June 2010:
I noticed there is nothing on the product page or in any of the demos on Nokia conversations about upnp support. Do you know if this is supported? Since most other Nokia's from the n79 up do I will assume it does. Just seems like something they would publicize but haven't.
Mark Guim on 15 June 2010:
I used to require physical keyboards, but onscreen qwerty's are fine if done right (and on larger screens).
Mark Guim on 15 June 2010:
Good question. I don't see it mentioned on Forum Nokia's device details either
Mike Macias on 15 June 2010:
hmm… I know what you mean – a little bit. the only phones I've had an all touch experience with was the iPhone 3g and 5800.
When you say “if done right” would you say that the N8 onscreen qwerty was done right? I sure hope so because I haven't been this excited about a device since the N82 was rumored to get NAM 3g (which never happened of course).
Mark Guim on 16 June 2010:
I would like it better if it had a portrait qwerty.
I know it only takes a second to turn the phone sideways, but if the iPhone and Android were able to implement it… why not Symbian?
Roosevelt Davis on 16 June 2010:
Could the problem with Nokia market stance here in the states be due to the fact that they don't market their Nseries devices through carriers here in the states via AT&T or Tmobile? For a midrange device it's something special and very curious to know what the new MeeGo or Symbian4 is going to bring to the table. They say Nokia is possibly back but I say when did Nokia fall off.
Jade Bryan V. Jardinico on 19 June 2010:
I want that color!
Valid on 22 June 2010:
Thanks for this small review.
I do dislike Symbian but it's not so bad. Waiting for browser review and stuff.
Damn, if ONLY it ran Meego.
Sak500 on 23 June 2010:
Always try to buy some new nokia phones. Owner of N70, N80, N900. But I felt robbed after buying an N900 6 months back with Nokia almost ditching it immediately to work on meego based phone. THere has been almost nill support from Nokia other than releasing an update after 4 months of the last update
I will not waste money on this one for sure.
NOK fan on 23 June 2010:
They should analyze if the number of Nokia Product Manager demos is directly correlating with Android and IOS market share increases. Seriously, why would Nokia allow its product managers to put viewers to sleep with amateur productions. If the Product Managers are not excited and passionate about the N8, why bother?
rj on 25 June 2010:
iphone killer! iphone is only innovative smartphone, but nokia n8 is a multimedia beast and have high quality features.
Roosevelt Davis on 4 July 2010:
I'm still trying to figure out what's so great about the Iphone besides the games. I had two versions of the Iphone and that was the 3g and 3g s. Good touchscreen and as I said previously great gaming but other then that quite boring and that's why I went for the N900 and ended up buying 2 of them. The new Iphone 4 UI looks the same as the old one except the pixel count is better. Tired of hearing the comparing of every phone to the Iphone and people making it better then it really is. It crash alot on me as did the browser to. I think what the N8 brings to the table is awesome and brandnew
Mark on 8 July 2010:
True I am not a fan of Symbian, but I am guessing since someone has downloaded the Meego on their N900 (http://thenokiablog.com/2010/07/02/nokia-n900-m...), I am sure we will be able to download Meego (a fully developed version) onto the N8.
Mark on 8 July 2010:
I feel the same way…Disappointing that they ditched the N900…But I have read on some blogs that there are people downloading the Meego onto their N900. I am just waiting to see when it is fully developed and will try it. I hope this helps and we won't feel robbed. Here is a link to one such person: http://thenokiablog.com/2010/07/02/nokia-n900-m...
Jimmy on 14 July 2010:
I had a N97 and gave up after 6 months….traded it for an iPhone 3g(no contract + new.) the experience has been much better with the iPhone. The real selling point is availability and stability of apps. My N97 had issues with my music library after the second firmware upgrade. After many times trying to reach the customer service with Nokia, was finally told that there was not much they could do for me.
Yeah, it is frustrating having to deal with the Apple and At&t nazi control issues. Why can't I use my own songs as ringtones? The N97 could, but if you can't access your music…..whats the point?
guest on 30 July 2010:
The new iPhone 4 only got a hardware revamp. Despite Steve Jobs promises, iOS4 still has NO REAL MULTITASKING!!! It's a simple app switcher. When you return to an app it's still where it was.
I am also missing a homescreen allowing a quick glance at my emails and calendar entries.
I acknowledge that the iPhone 4 looks and feels really great, but its OS now feels as outdated as Symbian.
The real strength of Apple is how it manages contents through iTunes. I buy an app ONCE and can install it issue free on all my iPhones and iPads linked to iTunes. The OVI Store is really bad compared to that and everytime you change your device you have to take the hassle to ask the developer to authorise changing the license to a different IMEI, which is ridiculous.
It's amazing how Nokia did not react three years ago with an N8 and the right hardware. Now it may be late. I'll wait 6 months to see if I return to Nokia.
laptop battery shop on 10 August 2010:
My N97 had issues with my music library after the second firmware upgrade. After many times trying to reach the customer service with Nokia, was finally told that there was not much they could do for me.
Valid on 17 August 2010:
“Overall, I think the Nokia N8’s 12mp camera with xenon flash and HD recording will be the major selling point for me. Those who hate Symbian will most likely still hate Symbian^3. The UI changes aren’t noticeable but that was already expected.”
I quite agree with that
tho lately i see a zillion undercover nokia-ers telling how symbian ³ is super awesome (yet never used it) as in prolly better than meego, android, ios – lol