The Nokia N8: A Great Phone. Review on Nokia N8

Despite the negative reviews given to the Nokia N8 at its launch because it had an ‘outdated’ OS (Symbian^3), I went ahead and spent my hard earned money on one in March 2011, and have never regretted doing so. I have updated the firmware twice through the OVI suite, and I’m happy to state that the phone has never restarted or hung till date. If a phone works well and answers one’s needs, who cares which OS it has? Many reviewers say that there aren’t enough applications available for the N8, but one just needs to visit OVI and many other websites to realise that there are more applications available out there (paid and free) than one would ever need.

The N8 has a well designed, all-metal body with a minimalistic layout. It is a pleasure to behold and handle, and has a 3.5” display protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass. However, this glass tends to pick up facial sweat during conversations, necessitating frequent cleaning. I suppose this problem is common to all similar phones. Battery life is OK, going up to about two days with average multimedia use, and up to about three days with battery saving mode on. Extensive use of the camera flash tends to drain the battery.

The phone’s multimedia capabilities are obviously its USP, and they are, without any doubt, extraordinarily good, if not the best around. The 12 MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens takes outstanding daylight photos, while the xenon flash-assisted ones are also very good. Image editing on the phone is rather advanced, with quite a few options. The video recording is HD and of extremely good quality, but panning, if required, must be done very slowly to avoid jitter. I would advise users to be careful not to let light fall on the protective glass covering the lens while taking photos or videos. Also, care should be taken to avoid any reflective object near the lens when the flash is used. These things tend to make the photo or video hazy. The face detection works well, as does the auto focus, but there is a marked tendency towards red-eye when the flash is set to the ‘auto’ position.

Music playback on the handset is not very loud, but it has sufficient volume and clarity. Searching for individual tracks is easy, and there are a number of equalizer presets, but no user equalizer settings. Hopefully Nokia will provide this in an update. The supplied headphones are absolutely fantastic. They have all the necessary controls on the cord and I find them even better than my Sennheiser headphones.

The phone supports only English at present; I suppose support for other languages will come in further updates from Nokia. The e-mail client requires setting up only once and from then on the phone can automatically check all inboxes periodically for new e-mails and download them to the phone’s inbox for reading at one’s leisure. The phone has its own zip application for expanding compressed files, and also its own Adobe PDF reader to handle PDF files. The Quick Office application is like having Microsoft Office on the phone; one can create or edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Text Messaging, Bluetooth, FM Radio, GPRS and WLAN work well, and setting them up is a breeze. However (and this is a big minus) there is no FM recording. The FM transmitter feature is useful in a car or with a music system, but the range is limited up to about 2 metres.

Another very useful feature on the N8 is the mini-USB port that allows the user to read or write to flash drives. However, this requires a special adapter cable that is supplied with the phone, so you will have to carry the adapter cable with you if you really want ‘USB on the Go’. An HDMI adapter cable is also supplied with the phone to enable the user to connect it to an HD TV or display. I don’t own an HD TV, but I’ve read that the TV or display itself becomes a touch screen when the N8 is connected. I’ve also read that one can also connect an ordinary (non HD) TV to the N8 vide a special Nokia A/V cable that is plugged into the headphone socket, which also doubles as an A/V socket. However, I can’t confirm this.

The supplied applications work well, but the biggest grouse I have against the phone is the inbuilt dictionary. It may be suitable for a third grader, but not for more advanced users. Many common words are ‘not found’, and for those that are found, the meanings given are sketchy and insufficient. Thankfully, there are third party dictionaries available. I cannot report on the Social Networking capabilities of the phone as I don’t use Social Networking. OVI maps and navigation are extremely good. It would be a godsend if one ever gets lost on the road. The inbuilt games are rather good, and I found the free versions of ‘Angry Birds’ rather addictive. Finally, to answer a commonly asked question, the phone isn’t slow at all. It may not be greased lightning, but it’s no tortoise either.

So that’s my take on the Nokia N8; a terrific phone that’s well worth the price. Well done, Nokia!