The Nokia N8 does not have Windows 7,
Android or an operating system that is as cool as the iOS. It runs on
the Symbian Anna OS that is a lot better than the original Symbian
software. But, the phone has a lot to offer in aspects other than the
OS. Read on to learn more about the Nokia N8 specs.
Nokia N8 Specs
The Good about the Nokia N8 specs
12 MP camera is a showstopper and will definitely take pictures like no other cell phone camera. HD video capture is also pretty amazing. Multimedia capabilities of the Nokia N8 are also pretty impressive. The phone has a great music player.
The Bad about the Nokia N8 specs
Symbian Anna can be frustrating in certain aspects. To start off, the keyboard will always be cramped. The phone’s 680 MHz processor can also be a tad slow in launching some applications.
Summary of the Nokia N8 sepcs
If you are used to Symbian or even like Symbian, you will love the Nokia N8 as it is probably Nokia’s best Symbian phone to date. But, if you are coming from an iPhone or an Android smart phone, the N8′s hardware will easily be overshadowed by the shortcomings of the Symbian Anna operating system. The N8′s processor and on board memory will also put it behind most smartphones that are being sold today.
Design – Nokia N8 Specs
This is a phone with superb build quality. It has a brushed metal finish that looks and feels very luxurious. We say that the build quality is awesome because we happened to drop this phone (by mistake of course!) from about 8 feet. Don’t ask how but we did it. It fell on a hardwood floor and there was hardly a scratch! That impressed us mightily. We actually remember seeing a YouTube comment on a Nokia phone that said “Nokia would be a fine manufacturer of tanks”. We though that was funny and a little apt in describing the build quality of the Nokia N8.
The front of the phone has one single button with a LED back light. This LED back light will serve as a blinking notification when the phone has missed calls, new messages or emails. The phone is 4.47 inches tall and 2.32 inches wide. The thickness is pretty sizable at .51 inches. The phone is pretty compact and the weight of the phone comes in at 2.91 ounces. The only flaw when it comes to this phone’s design is that the 12MP camera has a rather large housing that causes the phone to stick out a little at the back. But, Nokia have managed to keep the protrusion looking classy. Some might even think that it looks fashionable.
Though the phone is almost 4.5 inches tall, the usable display is just 3.5 inches. The display puts out a 640X360 resolution that is great to look at. But, one has to remember that many phones now offer much better displays in terms of resolution. The 3.5 screen size might be frustrating for people with big hands as the Symbian keyboard is not as good as the Android or the iOS Qwerty keyboard. In fact, if you have large hands, we would ask you to stay away from this phone as the Symbian keyboard can be something that you will never get used to.
Symbian Anna – Nokia N8 specs
Symbian Anna is a dramatically improved version of the Symbian operating system. However, even this improved version comes with many drawbacks. For example, the Qwerty keyboard is still pretty mediocre when compared to the well spaced out Android or iOS keyboard. If you want to type out messages in a hurry, you will probably make a lot of mistakes with the N8′s Qwerty keyboard.
Symbian Anna has other shortcomings too. For example, when you are browsing and want to enter in a new URL, the on screen keyboard will almost entirely block out the browser. This will make you feel a little disconnected with the whole browsing experience. The problem has to do with Symbian Anna as well as the N8′s odd screen dimensions.In our opinion, the phone’s screen is too rectangular. The height is very less when compared to the width. As a result, web pages that are not optimized for cell phones will load in a manner that is very difficult to navigate or read. You might have to do a lot of scrolling, both horizontally and vertically, if the web page is not optimized for mobile browsing.
The N8′s user interface gets a nice touch in the sense that one can hold down the main menu key (long press) to bring up all the open applications that can then be quickly accessed. Since the Nokia N8 is capable of multitasking, this is a pretty useful option to have. For example, you can have a music player running, a web browser open and also an email account downloading and uploading emails. When using the music player, you can quickly long press the menu key and bring up the running applications menu, to close down the browser or the email account if you wish, limiting both battery life wastage as well as data usage.
The N8 comes with three customizable home screens. Each screen has customizable widgets that can be used as shortcuts to access contacts, email accounts, social networks and so on. One can toggle between home screens by simply swiping the screen from right to left or left to right or by pressing the three button icon at the bottom of the screen.
Camera – Nokia N8 Specs
The 12MP camera on the Nokia N8 is really awesome. It comes with a very powerful Xenon flash that you can use to take great close up pictures even in utter darkness. Within a 4 feet range, the N8′s camera is simply unbeatable although the flash will not work very well for ranges in excess of 4 feet. Outdoor pictures are pretty awesome as well. The camera has Carl Zeiss optics. Carl Zeiss optics are not necessarily a compact feature. This is why the camera is housed in such a way that it protrudes a little bit, to make room for the advanced optics.
One thing to remember about the Nokia N8”s camera is that the camera is set to 8MP mode by default. So, make sure that you set it to 12MP mode if you really want to reap the benefits of this excellent camera.
HD video capture on this phone is pretty amazing. The microphone picks up great sounds and the camera also has a video stabilization option that will do an amazing job of stabilizing your video, even if you are walking around while shooting the video. If you are a shutterbug, you will just love this phone for the camera alone.
The Nokia N8 specs also include a pretty good front facing camera that is great for video calls over a 3G network. Just remember that the front facing camera does not work very well in low light conditions. You will need good lighting if you want to look good in video calls.
Storage space – Nokia N8 Specs
The Nokia N8 specs include 16GB internal storage. This is expandable to 32GB with a removable SD card. The SD card is pretty easily accessible, by removing a small rubberized plastic flap on the side of the phone.
Call quality – Nokia N8 Specs
Call quality is pretty good. Background noise is minimal although we thought that the volume could have been a little higher in handset mode. The speakerphone quality is excellent. We had 20 minute conversations on the speakerphone and we don’t think the other person even knew that we were on speakerphone. Nokia ships the N8 with Nokia headphones that can also handle calls. These headphones have a small clip like device that you can tag on your shirt’s collar. Call quality on the headphones is pretty amazing. The other person we spoke to actually said that our voice sounds clearer when we used the headphones than when we used the handset. When you listen to music and get a call, the phone nicely cuts out the music and plays your ringtone. You can take the call without touching your handset. Once you end the call, the music starts off from where it left.
In general, call quality on the Nokia N8 is pretty good. We loved it.
OVI Maps – Nokia N8 Specs
You might have noticed that this phone is being advertised as a navigator. We tried the navigator option and got very good results. It will be better if you downloaded the maps before you used them as this will result in faster performance. The N8 can be used very efficiently as a turn by turn navigator. The redraws are pretty quick, especially if you have downloaded the maps.
OVI Store – Nokia N8 Specs
Nokia’s OVI store is quite small in comparison to the Android marketplace and the Apple app store. While the Apple app store has 250,000+ plus titles and the Android marketplace has about 85,000 titles, the Nokia OVI store only has about 20,000 titles. But, Nokia phones have never been known for their apps. To give credit to the OVI store, the apps are very neatly organized into best sellers and categories such as fun, office, entertainment etc. The search function is also pretty good.
Processor and performance – Nokia N8 Specs
Nokia N8 specs include a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor. We would have loved to see a 1GHz processor for this phone. A dual core processor would have made this phone a super success if it also came with a larger screen size. But, the 680 MHz processor does a pretty decent job. Launching of some applications like music player or camera will result in a brief pause, every now and then. The delays are very tolerable although we would have loved to have not seen them at all.
Battery life – Nokia N8 Specs
Battery life can be a little disappointing if the phone is used heavily. Though the manufacturer claims that it will provide 5.5 hours of continuous talk time, we found that it well short by about 25%. But, even with the reduced performance, battery life was very manageable. You can easily last through an entire day of browsing, emails, calls and music play.
Conclusion – Nokia N8 Specs
Many people who bought this phone are those who fell for the phone’s
build quality and the phone’s camera quality. However, a more informed
buyer might stay away from this phone as it features Symbian Anna, that
has already been discontinued. Nokia has moved on to the Windows OS
which puts a question mark on the updates that might be available for
the N8, if it receives any updates at all.
The processor is also a tad slow and the screen’s dimensions are a bit off, with the screen being too rectangular for our taste. Other things to love in this phone are the multimedia capabilities and excellent call quality.
The N8 was called the iPhone killer when it first came out. But, will the N9 or the future N10 match up against the next generation iPhone, the iPhone 5? Read more about the iPhone 5 news and rumors here.
Nokia N8 Specs
The Good about the Nokia N8 specs
12 MP camera is a showstopper and will definitely take pictures like no other cell phone camera. HD video capture is also pretty amazing. Multimedia capabilities of the Nokia N8 are also pretty impressive. The phone has a great music player.
The Bad about the Nokia N8 specs
Symbian Anna can be frustrating in certain aspects. To start off, the keyboard will always be cramped. The phone’s 680 MHz processor can also be a tad slow in launching some applications.
Summary of the Nokia N8 sepcs
If you are used to Symbian or even like Symbian, you will love the Nokia N8 as it is probably Nokia’s best Symbian phone to date. But, if you are coming from an iPhone or an Android smart phone, the N8′s hardware will easily be overshadowed by the shortcomings of the Symbian Anna operating system. The N8′s processor and on board memory will also put it behind most smartphones that are being sold today.
Design – Nokia N8 Specs
This is a phone with superb build quality. It has a brushed metal finish that looks and feels very luxurious. We say that the build quality is awesome because we happened to drop this phone (by mistake of course!) from about 8 feet. Don’t ask how but we did it. It fell on a hardwood floor and there was hardly a scratch! That impressed us mightily. We actually remember seeing a YouTube comment on a Nokia phone that said “Nokia would be a fine manufacturer of tanks”. We though that was funny and a little apt in describing the build quality of the Nokia N8.
The front of the phone has one single button with a LED back light. This LED back light will serve as a blinking notification when the phone has missed calls, new messages or emails. The phone is 4.47 inches tall and 2.32 inches wide. The thickness is pretty sizable at .51 inches. The phone is pretty compact and the weight of the phone comes in at 2.91 ounces. The only flaw when it comes to this phone’s design is that the 12MP camera has a rather large housing that causes the phone to stick out a little at the back. But, Nokia have managed to keep the protrusion looking classy. Some might even think that it looks fashionable.
Though the phone is almost 4.5 inches tall, the usable display is just 3.5 inches. The display puts out a 640X360 resolution that is great to look at. But, one has to remember that many phones now offer much better displays in terms of resolution. The 3.5 screen size might be frustrating for people with big hands as the Symbian keyboard is not as good as the Android or the iOS Qwerty keyboard. In fact, if you have large hands, we would ask you to stay away from this phone as the Symbian keyboard can be something that you will never get used to.
The Nokia N8 is a classy looking phone, with a sleek metal brushed finish. Build quality is also excellent.
Symbian Anna is a dramatically improved version of the Symbian operating system. However, even this improved version comes with many drawbacks. For example, the Qwerty keyboard is still pretty mediocre when compared to the well spaced out Android or iOS keyboard. If you want to type out messages in a hurry, you will probably make a lot of mistakes with the N8′s Qwerty keyboard.
Symbian Anna has other shortcomings too. For example, when you are browsing and want to enter in a new URL, the on screen keyboard will almost entirely block out the browser. This will make you feel a little disconnected with the whole browsing experience. The problem has to do with Symbian Anna as well as the N8′s odd screen dimensions.In our opinion, the phone’s screen is too rectangular. The height is very less when compared to the width. As a result, web pages that are not optimized for cell phones will load in a manner that is very difficult to navigate or read. You might have to do a lot of scrolling, both horizontally and vertically, if the web page is not optimized for mobile browsing.
The N8′s user interface gets a nice touch in the sense that one can hold down the main menu key (long press) to bring up all the open applications that can then be quickly accessed. Since the Nokia N8 is capable of multitasking, this is a pretty useful option to have. For example, you can have a music player running, a web browser open and also an email account downloading and uploading emails. When using the music player, you can quickly long press the menu key and bring up the running applications menu, to close down the browser or the email account if you wish, limiting both battery life wastage as well as data usage.
The N8 comes with three customizable home screens. Each screen has customizable widgets that can be used as shortcuts to access contacts, email accounts, social networks and so on. One can toggle between home screens by simply swiping the screen from right to left or left to right or by pressing the three button icon at the bottom of the screen.
Camera – Nokia N8 Specs
The 12MP camera on the Nokia N8 is really awesome. It comes with a very powerful Xenon flash that you can use to take great close up pictures even in utter darkness. Within a 4 feet range, the N8′s camera is simply unbeatable although the flash will not work very well for ranges in excess of 4 feet. Outdoor pictures are pretty awesome as well. The camera has Carl Zeiss optics. Carl Zeiss optics are not necessarily a compact feature. This is why the camera is housed in such a way that it protrudes a little bit, to make room for the advanced optics.
One thing to remember about the Nokia N8”s camera is that the camera is set to 8MP mode by default. So, make sure that you set it to 12MP mode if you really want to reap the benefits of this excellent camera.
HD video capture on this phone is pretty amazing. The microphone picks up great sounds and the camera also has a video stabilization option that will do an amazing job of stabilizing your video, even if you are walking around while shooting the video. If you are a shutterbug, you will just love this phone for the camera alone.
The Nokia N8 specs also include a pretty good front facing camera that is great for video calls over a 3G network. Just remember that the front facing camera does not work very well in low light conditions. You will need good lighting if you want to look good in video calls.
The Nokia N8 12 MP camera will capture some pristine pictures, both indoors and outdoors.
The Nokia N8 specs include 16GB internal storage. This is expandable to 32GB with a removable SD card. The SD card is pretty easily accessible, by removing a small rubberized plastic flap on the side of the phone.
Call quality – Nokia N8 Specs
Call quality is pretty good. Background noise is minimal although we thought that the volume could have been a little higher in handset mode. The speakerphone quality is excellent. We had 20 minute conversations on the speakerphone and we don’t think the other person even knew that we were on speakerphone. Nokia ships the N8 with Nokia headphones that can also handle calls. These headphones have a small clip like device that you can tag on your shirt’s collar. Call quality on the headphones is pretty amazing. The other person we spoke to actually said that our voice sounds clearer when we used the headphones than when we used the handset. When you listen to music and get a call, the phone nicely cuts out the music and plays your ringtone. You can take the call without touching your handset. Once you end the call, the music starts off from where it left.
In general, call quality on the Nokia N8 is pretty good. We loved it.
OVI Maps – Nokia N8 Specs
You might have noticed that this phone is being advertised as a navigator. We tried the navigator option and got very good results. It will be better if you downloaded the maps before you used them as this will result in faster performance. The N8 can be used very efficiently as a turn by turn navigator. The redraws are pretty quick, especially if you have downloaded the maps.
OVI Store – Nokia N8 Specs
Nokia’s OVI store is quite small in comparison to the Android marketplace and the Apple app store. While the Apple app store has 250,000+ plus titles and the Android marketplace has about 85,000 titles, the Nokia OVI store only has about 20,000 titles. But, Nokia phones have never been known for their apps. To give credit to the OVI store, the apps are very neatly organized into best sellers and categories such as fun, office, entertainment etc. The search function is also pretty good.
Processor and performance – Nokia N8 Specs
Nokia N8 specs include a 680 MHz ARM 11 processor. We would have loved to see a 1GHz processor for this phone. A dual core processor would have made this phone a super success if it also came with a larger screen size. But, the 680 MHz processor does a pretty decent job. Launching of some applications like music player or camera will result in a brief pause, every now and then. The delays are very tolerable although we would have loved to have not seen them at all.
Battery life – Nokia N8 Specs
Battery life can be a little disappointing if the phone is used heavily. Though the manufacturer claims that it will provide 5.5 hours of continuous talk time, we found that it well short by about 25%. But, even with the reduced performance, battery life was very manageable. You can easily last through an entire day of browsing, emails, calls and music play.
Conclusion – Nokia N8 Specs
Though
the Symbian Anna Qwerty keyboard on the N8 is improved, it is still way
to cramped, especially if you have large stubbly fingers. In our
opinion, Symbian Anna is a deal breaker for this otherwise excellent
phone.
The processor is also a tad slow and the screen’s dimensions are a bit off, with the screen being too rectangular for our taste. Other things to love in this phone are the multimedia capabilities and excellent call quality.
The N8 was called the iPhone killer when it first came out. But, will the N9 or the future N10 match up against the next generation iPhone, the iPhone 5? Read more about the iPhone 5 news and rumors here.
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