Nokia N8: No iPhone killer

If we start with the hardware, it’s beautifully designed and built. The anodised aluminium body feels great to hold and the 3.5-inch 640 x 360 display, which dominates the front, is bright, clear and very sensitive to touch. Then we come to what makes this phone truly spectacular: the camera. On the back of the N8 we find a raised platform for the 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. Face detection, common in smartphones now, is there as is basic shooting modes like macro, landscape, etc. Also in terms of video the N8 shines. The 720p video (25fps) is in class with much more advanced cameras and camcorders. Overall, photos and video from the N8 look very good. In fact, they look like something out of a good compact digital camera, not something from a smartphone, and that’s high praise.

Inside, we find an ARM11 processor running at 680MHz. With so many other smartphones clocking in at 1GHz today, the N8’s speed may not seem as much but the phone keeps working away without apparent slowdowns. You will also find plenty of memory, with 16GB built-in and MicroSD card slot for up to 32GB more.

Then we get to the software side of the N8. It runs Symbian 3, the latest iteration of the operating system used in most Nokia devices. They’ve updated it quite a bit but mostly behind the scenes, so to speak. Multi-tasking is improved, for example. But you see very little of the updates on the user interface front, which makes Symbian 3 look and feel old compared to the competition. It’s a bit clunky to use in part and not as good-looking and easy to use as what Apple and others offer.

For example, the Web browser on the N8 is nothing to brag about. Apple’s Mobile Safari in iOS and even Android’s Web browser are both still much better than the browser in Symbian 3. In terms of phone and messaging functionality you will find all that you need, in typical Nokia fashion. Symbian 3’s music and video player apps are pretty good. You can transfer music to the phone by simple drag and drop or using Nokia’s software for Windows and Mac. You’ll find some basic equaliser controls on the N8 and you can go through albums by flicking your finger like with Apple’s CoverFlow.

Speaking of apps, Nokia is seriously behind in this regard. Although the Ovi Store offers some good apps, for example the Dhs 36 Twitter app ‘Gravity,’ the selection is not as wide as with other app stores nor does it have all the big-name apps you’ve come to expect on modern smartphone platforms.

Overall my view is that in hardware design the N8 is excellent and Nokia deserves full marks for that. But with Symbian’s future being uncertain to say the least, the lack of apps, and the outdated interface, should you buy the N8? If you want the best camera for photos and video on a smartphone today, yes; if not, you better be a big Nokia fan to want to buy the N8.

—emiratesmac@gmail.com