#N8ReviewZA Disclaimer/Forward Looking Statement:
I’ve never owned a Symbian S60v5 device such as the N97, or a Maemo (N900). And while I’ve been in the presence of both the N97 & N900 (at the same time) for about 10 minutes, I regret not putting my SIM card in either so cannot pass appropriate judgment on either. What I can tell you about the N97 is it has annoying double tap, and the one I saw today – November 25 – has a screen that’s gotten a bit scratched.
Before moving ahead, my question to @NokiaRSA was “can the N8 replace my E90 ‘godphone’?” This review will be on the unorthodox side as far as reviews in general go — this is the Nokia N8 in use..
QWERTY vs Touchscreen -- A tale of two touch and a QWERTY...
First impressions:
I got my N8 on Tuesday, November 16, 2010. Set it up almost immediately. It’s very much an Ovi (Cloud computing — basically, online services) product, so you really can set it up without a PC – in fact, I’m yet to use the PC so manage the device — but USB charging works.
Sales package contains: N8, N8 User Guide, Ovi Suite disk, PC USB connector, HDMI connector, car charger, USB on-the-go connector, earphones (3.5 mm industry standard). No microSDHC memory card included, but it will accept up to the 32GB currently available (the 8GB microSDHC in my E90 has half the capacity of the N8′s on board memory).
The latest & earliest N Series - that N70 still works lol (click to enlarge)
When you switch it on, fill in your Ovi account credentials when prompted. The service is integrated so only one sign in for Ovi Store, Sync, Maps, etc. But you can switch off individual services – like Maps.
It also prompts you to sync data (gallery), contacts, bookmarks, calendar, etc. But beware: if you have a large library of photographs, songs and videos on your older mobile, you might want to uncheck Gallery, and leave that sync for overnight.
I won’t lie, it is a snappy device, but there is the odd moment when it can slow down a bit. Rebooting/holding power key (disconnects the battery) works. In general, it is faster and more responsive than the N97 – or my E90, obviously. (More refined OS, 680 MHz CPU compared with a dual core 330MHz on the E90, and more memory both for storage and RAM.)
It is a solidly and beautifully built device – if you own an E or N Series Nokia such as the E71 or N95, you’ll expect nothing less. My E90 is still as solid as the day I got it, but the paint is going bad in certain spots. The anodized aluminium shell (the paint – colour – is in the aluminium metal) of the N8 means that it will retain its good looks well into its 70s with just a modestly healthy diet, a lots of social contact.. It’s got gorilla glass on top of the screen. Unfortunately, the first thing I did when I took it out of the box was nearly drop it, so cannot comment on screen durability and/or destruction testing of any kind. You’re going to love the responsive screen, well, and more..
N8 12 MP & Xenon Vs. N70 2 MP, also note the paint work on the N70 camera cover (click to enlarge)
Camera button, Screen lock/unlock slider & volume rocker neatly placed (click to enlarge)
MicroSD(HC) & SIM card slots open. MircoUSB (click to enlarge)
HDMI & 3.5 mm AV connectors (click to enlarge)
Battery life – so far so good, last about 2 hours longer in general use than the E90.
Correction: Battery life much better than the E90. Edited the Youtube video – came up with a final cut (see below) after some three hours, uploaded the 9MB file — the battery died nine hours after starting.
Aesthetically designed.
Short History Lesson ~ my experience with Symbian N/Eseries:
The N70 was the first Nseries multimedia – content generation – phones. What I liked about the N70 was the full Opera Mobile browser – which could still easily handle the desktop version of Facebook in 2008. The N70 also had a photo editor. You really should try both these features on the N8.
The E90 Communicator ‘godphone’ – is a full feature business/mobile office Eseries device. It could do anything, and it still does a lot. The E90 is a basically Mini netbook, but the largest Nokia N or Eseries built – and a great weight trainer (You can even get Sports Tracker for it!) It has remained my preferred ‘communicator’ till I saw the N8 earlier this year.
So in the E/Nseries, basically there’s been Symbian S60 v2 SP3, S60 v3 SP1 & SP2, S60 v5. And now Symbian ^3. The N70 was S60 v2 SP3; phones like the E71, E90 – S60v3 SP1; the E72 is a S60v3 SP2. The N97 Mini is an S60v5. The N8 is a Symbian^3, a giant leap from the S60v5 experience. Nokia will now continuously support ^3 through its Qt developer framework — and integrate updates intended for ^4 into ^3. Qt makes it easier to develop for Symbian and many other platforms – necessitating a single write – with less code.
Which in English means the phone receives updates, new software and remains useful (current) for longer. For example, apps like Gravity; Nokia Email Messaging really gave my E90 a nice boost. (Most of the benefits of Qt start at Symbian ^3.)
At last tweet, Nokia/Symbian twitters like Nokia, Ovi Daily App, Ovi By Nokia, and Qt By Nokia said something about over 400,000 developers having signed up to Qt.
FOTA – Firmware (phone software) upgrade Over The Air is something owners of older S60v3 phones like the E90, E71 & N95 will appreciate. I have performed a single update on my E90 – taking it from 7.xx to V300.34.84 but this is risky behaviour in uncertain energy situations.
Growth & Support
Opera Mini with impressive text input -- a unique feature to this app for the moment
Ovi Store/Music Experience:
If you ever browsed content on the Ovi Store, on a previous Nokia, you’ll know that it’s a clunky, and time-consuming process. Not so on the N8. The Ovi Store experience has been redesigned, it’s fast responsive and clean. The Ovi Music is similarly efficient. Browsing/purchasing music is easy-peasy lemon-squeezy. Purchases can be made through credit/debit card. Or your phone bill – your prepaid account. Simply purchase credits from Ovi Music, which start at R50.00 for R50.00 worth of Ovi credits (US1.00 = ~ ZAR7.15). Ovi Music has been available on a select number of Nokia phones. I downloaded NFS Shift – about 81MB from Ovi pretty fast. Music files are far smaller, go much faster.
Responsive & Efficient
Screen:
The N8 features a 3.5 in 640 x 360 pixel capacitative, multi-touch OLED screen. It is a beautifully designed screen, videos play great on it. Because of its lower resolution, some images — especially very wide images taken with the Panoramic app will not display as well on the N8 as on my E90 (800 x 352 px) at 100% image zoom. This includes Panoramics at the 180° and greater that I tested. Still, this does nothing to diminish the phone’s ability to edit and upload a very high standard of photography.
User Interface (UI):
The N8 has a single button on the front, which acts a unlock initiator as well as main menu key and open applications manager. Volume control rocker, screen lock/unlock slider and camera keys are built neatly into the side of the N8. You are unlikely to activate the screen lock/unlock slider when the N8 is in your pocket — especially when you got a protective cover on the N8 — the blue one in this post.
Text input is a big change from what you may be used to on a non-touch Nokia – especially the S60v3 phones. The text input takes you away from what you’re doing to a text input screen. It is difficult to edit a page the length half of this post on the N8, because scrolling, copy & paste appear vague. I know that the developer of The Twitter App Gravity is developing a text input that stays on Gravity, and gives you a count in the 140 character limit for tweets (as well as notifications for Direct Messages DM, and mentions @ on the home screen). Speaking of Gravity, you’re going to go insane with kinetic scrolling — previously available on S60v5, #justsaying 
When typing, there is a delay when you tilt the N8 from portrait T9 text input to landscape QWERTY text input. Given the state of the N8′s hardware – first rate – I’ll assume that this will be an issue sorted out by Firmware upgrade. In general, Nokia produces fine upgrades – typically, the phone gets better with each upgrade. This is natural development process.
Before you start doing anything, go to the Ovi Store and get Swype for free – it’s a nice predictive text app for the QWERTY keypad, and works like a charm, adds punctuation, and diacritical (accent) marks – you’ll love it forever. If you’re writing in Português, Français or Español, make sure you’ve set the Writing language accordingly.
Some tricks: tried to write BMX, landed up with °C: {n . c}; N8: {n c}. Just lock caps for BMX & N8, for best effects 
Basically, the menu structure for S60v3 is a more tap root build – think carrot. ^3 on the N8 is more fibrous – thanks to the three home screens.
Look, this talk about roots is beside the point. You can customize 8 shortcuts on the screen (6 will display on the outer) of the E90 – in addition to the email & calendar that appears on screen. You can also change the standard shortcuts from New SMS & Contacts to whatever you want — and there’s a further line of shortcuts, and another ‘own’ key available. But with 3 customizable home screens on the N8, you can customize potentially up to 72 shortcuts — if you really, really, really wanted to.
Further, like the E90 (S60v3), you can add folders in the Menu. For example, in the Applications folder, create a ‘Social’ folder for Gravity, Nimbuzz, Facebook, MXit, etc., ‘News’ for Bloomberg, Currencies, Airline Industry Review, etc, and, Utility for stuff like Swype — or just put that in Applications/Tools. Then move Need for Speed Shift to the Games folder, and if you get a scientific calculator, move it to Applications/Office. Just makes it easier to navigate hundreds of apps, and looks nice.
Anything on those screens can be accessed/modified. For example, if you hold the power indicator, you get power/connectivity management. ◄ This is an astonishing discovery for someone who is yet to read the manual in its entirety. Although, I’ve had the manual for about a month before I got to test this baby.
And that points to how easy it is to navigate the phone. The menu structures/libraries are more or less the same as previous Nokia phones, so it is easy to navigate/find.
Customizable. Simple.
Camera:
A3 page width taken with the E90's 3.2 MP camera - barely legible (click to enlarge)
A3 page width taken with the N8's 12 MP camera - clearly legible (click to enlarge)
The N8 comes with a super massive 12 MEGAPIXEL Carl Zeiss camera & xenon flash. Takes brillant pictures under any conditions aided by that xenon flash, and films at 720p (HD quality) 25 fps (frames per second). The camera’s only mobile rival is that on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). You can view HST images here.
You can view my N8 images here: #NeReviewZA Flickr set
The N8 User Group at Flickr.
N8 camera sans Flash (click to enlarge)
N8 12MP, with Xenon Flash, in direct sunlight (click to enlarge)
A nice pre-installed app on the N8 is Panorama — allows you to take panoramic shots. Canon produced the Fisheye, which can take panoramic shots, but the N8 produces potentially much larger area (up to 360°) clean, seamless shots. Here is an example of a Fisheye photograph at airliners.net. This here is the Fisheye group on Flickr. There’s a panoramic shot in my Flickr link above, which you can also view below (click*).
~270° Johannesburg Panoramic -- cool huh? (click to enlarge)
Nokia’s in the Flickr Community. Together, these Nokia handsets constitute the single largest mobile upload community – N8 has a long way to go compared with N95 uploads. It shouldn’t be long given the phone’s simple messaging, upload facilities.
Because of the integrated mail, it’s a breeze uploading to whatever community you fancy: Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube – what ever you fancy. And there are more options available at Ovi.
Just a random pic taken with the N8 (click to enlarge)
Taken at 100% Zoom (click to enlarge)
Picture & Video Editing:
You know a phone is underpowered when it struggles to load the picture gallery. Not the N8. Picture gallery loads quickly.
On the N8 you can zoom in pictures to 100%, the E90 can go to 800% – but do you really 800%?
The N8 is at its core a social content cataloger and manufacturer – for a social world. The N8 has photo and video editing tools. You’ll need these if you’re to upload to visual media sites such as Flickr, Youtube, etc. The following was made on the N8 (at around 9MB, the upload took less than 60 seconds – not enough time for a Kodak moment):
Maps:
A good friend of mine saw one of the pics in the N8′s library and instantly recognized it as just south of Melbourne, Australia — tried out an enterprise* maps (surprisingly poor, hmmm..). The Nokia Maps upgrade that came with the firmware V300.34.84 on my E90 was already impressive — just a little slow. The N8, of course features up-to-date Ovi Maps. You really need to try Ovi Maps to get a feel for their superiority. Super fast, and responsive. The N8 features free navigation – the voice can be your own. You’ll place that Tom Tom on eBay, or Cash Traders or just give it away maybe.
Your Landmarks can be synced under the ‘Favourites’ heading on your Ovi/Maps profile. Unfortunately, editing landmarks marks in Symbian ^3/Anna is no easy task — there is no mark all/multiple feature as per S60v3, so if you wanted to backup/send multiple places, you’d have to do it one-by-one.
Now, whenever your N8 uses GPS – Ovi Maps, Gravity, Foursquare (#4sq) – a small GPS satellite icon appears on the screen. You can share your location on Facebook from Ovi Maps.
The N8 picked up GPS from further inside the house than the E90.
Ovi Maps are Class A level product. But how do I get a screen grab without Screensnap?
Web browser:
The South African bank FNB has this Share Swarm as a service to customers of its Share Builder & Share Investing products. The good news is that it loads the swarm correctly, displays all the Top 40 movers (Share Builder). The bad news is you can’t scroll past a certain number of shares listed on the site, so can’t see long-term share movement history for those shares.
Google search, desktop search assistance - look familiar? (click to enlarge)
My preferred browser for Nokia is the native browser. It’s just easier to manage the bookmarks, especially since I use PC Sync. The N8′s browser is technically a very capable piece, specifically compared with S60v3. However, it could do with some improvement. There is also some stability issues. Even better is that there are rumors of a browser replacement in the N8′s next firmware/software update. For now, it’s happily miles ahead of my E90. If you’re not happy, go for Opera.
For the most, the N8 renders web pages correctly and fast. And that counts.
These pages load correctly on the N8, but not on my E90: The World’s New Tallest Building – (Time) Photo Essays, Airline Reporter – An airline blog on airline news, (Flightglobal) Flight Dailies [web magazine]
Business Report (@busrep) loads quickly, correctly (click to enlarge)
Video playback:
The N8 plays a load of web video formats. A personal favourite of mine is those short stories that The Boeing Company posts to its site. For example, the 1 million pound 747-8 Freighter certification take-off test in Southern California, and other Boeing Q3 highlights. A lot of weight in that Flash 9 clip. If it can play that, everything else is a piece of cake. The E90 Communicator has Flash 3.0 support (after the V300.34.84 firmware upgrade), but the gap here couldn’t be clearer. The E90 also has RealPlayer to play web videos off youtube —- OR NASA TV if that’s your thing. (At NASA, click Other options/Real for either S60v3, or the N8. By the way, the Space Shuttle Discovery will make its final flight within the next few weeks.)
Many features – like the RealPlayer – are common on S60v3 Nokia phones such as the N95, E71 and E90.
In fact, the first NSeries — the 2005 N70 — had Real just in time for the launch of Youtube in 2005. The N8 is the spiritual successor to that N70.. Well, it’s the successor to all NSeries mobiles, but I guess you get the point.
Media phone. Flash support.
In the first 5 hours, the N8 consumed ~130MB of data. Watch your data; make use of Wifi networks.
FM Transmitter:
First tried on a crappy radio — changed tuner first… Here’s what you do, set the transmission frequency to a favourite/set station on your radio, stick the N8 close to the radio (obviously with the same transmission frequency as the radio)*, and Bob’s your uncle, you’re a DJ! It transmits any audio data playing on the phone – music, video, youtube (and probably, obviously those preinstalled Web TV channels).
Phone sync:
Says that sync failed after Ovi Sync, but all my most recent Ovi Calendar entries are there. Hmmm… Liked that the Calendars (Family, Historic Dates, #Avgeek, etc) created on Ovi earlier this year appeared on the phone. They’re moving in the right direction.
Shazam:
Locks its instance of web browser (the Youtube link), does not allow you to watch videos, and locks webpage pinch zoom.. (By signing into your Google Account in web browser, you should be signed in to Youtube every time you access it, whether through Gravity or Shazam.)
Games:
Need For Speed Shift on N8 is a quarter mile at a time, those ten seconds, I’m free compared to Global Racer on the E90.
![Need For Speed Shift (click to enlarge) [tilt to turn]](http://paulo26m.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/nfs-shift.jpg "Need For Speed Shift (click to enlarge) [tilt to turn]")
Social Networks:
There are enough apps to satisfy the socially inclined. I see there’s Nokia Social Networks, which is okay. You can and should get Gravity – the integrated Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Google Reader & Flickr, etc app – there is no other like it – really sets the app standard for Nokia (and others, take note) – and it’s totally awesome. Also Nimbuzz works fine – as always a great IM (instant messaging) app – Facebook, Windows Live, Yahoo, etc, etc. Nimbuzz also has a fine Twitter client. Nokia Email Messaging works great on the N8 – there is some lag, at times, it seems to quickly collect when you click it. A notable feature of Nokia Email Messaging is the choice for email display format – yip, HTML is finally there. For the South African market, MXit already has an IM app ready – looks pretty good. If you like, you can browse the full desktop versions of Facebook, Flickr easily on the N8, albeit with minor limitations at this point in time.
There’s Threaded SMS in Nokia Conversations, Messaging. Email is now exclusively handed by Nokia Email Messaging.
Connectivity/Reception:
Well it’s a Nokia. As far as aerials go, Nokia put the first one inside the phone many moons ago. They know connectivity. (BTW, call & data reception work.) I don’t make use of Wifi. The N8 picks up Wifi hot spots in places my E90 didn’t know existed. It super sensitive. And, it shows WiFi/WLAN networks in offline mode. Without a SIM card.
If you’re sending a file via Bluetooth from a gallery/file manager, and Bluetooth is off, it will turn off again. If you first turn on Bluetooth, it will stay on till you turn it off.
Issues:
I like apps like Quickoffice & Shazam – hopefully some day soon, we’ll be able to purchase upgrades directly from Ovi – in addition to from the developer – if we so choose.
You should practice care with UTG (USB on-the-go). There is potential for data corruption if you do not disconnect safely (obviously). Further, UTG may not be able to read USB flash drives with active passwords.
Pricing:
The N8 pricing is hugely competitive. MTN (South Africa) is currently advertising contracts for the N8 side-by-side with some phone from an area in another Universe, and another dim light from America’s Cap. Yes, I know I think that MTN N8 contract starts at R279 pm x 24, the Universe R20 more pm, and the dim light a further R20 more pm.
So, who is this phone for?:
I’m keeping mine. I like the idea that a Nokia touchscreen can challenge my ideas on QWERTY.
The N8 is the complete package. If media (photography, video) is your thing, this one’s for you.
If you add social networks, the N8 is a powerful proposition.
If you like to time your exercise workouts (record the map in case of cycling, etc), this one with Sports Tracker is for you. I just want to wake up as early as Sports Tracker says the sun will rise.
Here’s an idea: Driving, need maps/navigation? Stick the N8 on your dash. (And near the radio so you can transmit your own music to your radio.)
The following are a couple of rounders to complete this blog. I felt the blog was incomplete without these changes (6 June 2011):
E90, Home Screen, Primary display -- Apps here: Gravity, File Manager (native) Blue, Bloomberg, Nimbuzz, Camera, Nokia Maps, MXit, Theme: Dark (E71 theme)
E90, Home Screen, Primary display -- Apps here (changed from above): Skype in place of blue & Messenger (Windows) in place of New SMS, Image: The Boeing Company
N8, Home screen № 1, Landscape -- Theme: Hacking Terminal, Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28320862@N04/
N8, Home screen № 1, Portrait -- Apps here: Gravity, Shazam, Nimbuzz, Borg
N8, Home screen № 2, Landscape -- Apps here: Office (native folder), Bloomberg, Mobile Documents, LinkedIn; Image: The Boeing Company
N8, Home screen № 2, Portrait -- Apps here, pt 2: Sports Tracker, Wellness Diary (beta), Need For Speed Shift, Games (Native folder)
N8, Home screen № 3, Landscape -- Apps here: Camera, Pixelpipe, ScreenSnap, Panorama, Dictionary, BabelPhone - Chinese_English (S60v3 app), Quickoffice (viewer - purchase from ovi store, when??), Currencies, Lunar Phase Calendar, QTorch, Angle Meter, Night Light...
N8, Home screen № 3, Portrait -- Apps here, pt 2: Formula1.com, ESPN F1, MXit, Skype, Tools (native folder), Applications (native folder), DrJukka.com Y-Browser (S60v3 app), Opera Mobile; Image: airliners.net id = 1695750
E90, Main Menu
E90, Folder organising apps (Installations folder in main menu) -- clear the clutter -- Pixelpipe & ScreenSnap where new installs at the time -- Pixelpipe is not an S60v3 app, and does not work on the E90
Office Folder E90 - as I think it should be arranged -- The second calculator is a sci/fi beta (Beta Labs) & only works on the small screen, Dictionary is not native to the E90 -- it is common on many other S60v3
N8 - as I'd like to arrange folder apps
N8 - many apps jump out of their folders following a USB Mass storage link-up with a pc
N8, application manager, note Swype -- This what happens when you connect USB in Mass storage mode & Swype is installed on the mass storage (or removable microSDHC memory card). So install on phone memory, this and Gravity (you'll want to keep Tweeting, Facebooking, etc..)
E90, Music player with album art -- the light bulb is Lights On (app that keeps backlight on when charger plugged -- you can disable the screen icon)
N8, Music player with album art
N8 Music Player album selection - album art has not been imbedded in mp3 that you rip from your legal collection, to you'll need a tag app (pc) to do this
N8 - Music Player - Playlists
E90 Calendar - days & events displayed side-by-side. Ovi Sync (over air) still duplicates entries (btw, Ovi - the brand - is no more)
N8 calendar - days in the month view
N8 calendar - day events. Symbian ^3 shows calendar events by category, but as per the E90 (S60v3), Ovi Sync duplicates entries -- the problem seems to originate at the website
E90 -- Gravity on S60v3 -- search results by typing @ -- easy search of users you follow
E90 - Gravity -- S60v3 -- #Hashtags search -- commonly used tags in your twitter stream (white theme)
N8 -- Gravity -- ^3. This exact same app will work on S60v3. On ^3 (N8), it has other powers such as kinetic scrolling and the ability to watch youtube, and some other web video. If you have a Nokia, you really should have Gravity. This is an older version - I've upgraded. (black theme)
N8 -- Need For Speed Shift
N8 - Need For Speed Shift
Useful Links · Nokia · Nokia N8 · Nokia Account (Ovi Services) · Nokia Email Messaging (Push Email Subscription) · Nokia Support Discussions (Nokia user community solutions)
