Review: Nokia N8

Thanks to Nokia we have the first Symbian^3 Smartphone which we would love to give a closer look. The Nokia N8 Smartphone is the beginning of a new Symbian era. Unfortunately, Nokia announced that it would migrate away from Symbian to Windows Phone 7, so this could be the last moment we saw Symbian on a Nokia phone.

Overview

Impress everybody

Made out of anodized aluminum, the Nokia N8 makes an extensive impression on everyone. Its 12-megapixel camera let the Nokia N8 replaces your compact camera. Also equipped with Dolby Digital Plus and an HDMI connection to see your photos and movies in HD on your TV.
With on-demand Web TV you can watch your favorite channels. HSDPA and WiFi connectivity provides an high speed Internet connectivity and with the integrated social network features, you always know what your friends are on at the moment. As always expected from Nokia, the Nokia N8 finally comes with free OVI Maps navigation software.

Symbian^3, USB on-the-go and many more

Nokia N8 feels fresh and modern on the outside. The new Symbian^3 makes you feel really different in your hands. The N8 is customizable with many widgets that you can insert in your several home screens. These screens are looking astonishing on the beautiful 3.5-inch AMOLED touch screen to life. The clear menu layout is also very easy to use. Only a few clicks are needed to access programs and to engage the functions. Spectacular is also USB on-the-go. This feature allows you to use your N8 as an USB storage use, or just to transfer files from other USB devices.

A world full of entertainment

With the Nokia N8 you are living like a photographer. The 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash are ground-breaking, and produces beautiful pictures. The first steps of your child or film your vacation in 720p video. Thanks to the HDMI connection, you can show your footage on a larger screen. The integration of Facebook and Twitter  make it easy to attract a really large audience if you put the pictures and movies online. For music, the Nokia N8 indispensable. The new look of the music player gives you the feeling that you have a real record collection, and the powerful battery let you listen for many hours. In the end the built-in FM receiver sends music from your Nokia N8 to your car radio if you tune to an open frequency.

 

Web Support

Web Support

The Nokia N8 default browser has good features, it's the first Flash Lite 4.0 appearance with ActionScript 3 supported. The best way to navigate is to let the page load completely but some more complex sites still have some notorious lags while browsing. HTML5 canvas  control is barely supported, many render problems like rounded corners, anti-alias, borders around I-frames are painful from what you don't want to expect from a smartphone.

The browser still have the same Java problems that N97 had and if you disable Java, the browser can load the page much more quicker. On the other hand you can’t expect that Java features work and some force close can happen randomly. Or will there be a Mobile Internet Explorer for N8 now Nokia collaborate with Microsoft?

 

Dreamweaver Extensions

We have tested the following extensions: HTML5 Image Enhancer, HTML5 MP3 Player & Advanced Tooltips, Sliding Panels, Sliding Billboard, Universal CSS Navigation Menu. Unfortunately the N8 is not that extensions proof as we expected. The Support of canvas is very minimal and the missing touch events are a big mistake for a smartphone like this. Luckily Nokia showed a new updated interface on a event in China. The Home screen, the icons and the notification bar will be improved. That is big news, because Nokia previously announced to quit with Symbian.

 

We start off with our own website. When it is full loaded, it looks quite nice.

After some pinching and zooming you'll see some CSS styling issues like the rounded corners and backgrounds.

http://www.DMXzone.com

http://www.dmxzone.com/demo/html5ImageEnhancer/cssmenu/index.html

Unfortunately you see that Symbian^3 won't support the HTML5 MP3 Player's SoundManager 2 with the needed Flash capabilities.

http://www.dmxzone.com/demo/html5MP3Player/demoTooltips/index.html

A smartphone should give you an environment with touch freedom. Our slide extensions (Sliding Panels, Sliding Billboard) are the perfect solutions to create iPad and iPhone like scrollable areas, sliding pages etc.. Symbian^3 is missing these needed touch event at this moment, but we will see what the future will bring.

http://www.dmxzone.com/demo/SlidingPanels/IpadShowcase/index.html

Conclusion

The screen looks really good 3.5inch AMOLED colors splashed over it. The 3D games look pretty good as well, thanks to the fast CPU and GPU. The Web browser is a different story, it's outdated and doesn't works so fast. The N8 in-built browser can do the job but it’s not good enough to keep you away from using other alternatives like 10.1 Opera Mobile 10.1 which gives a fluid and quick navigation. Unfortunately Opera Mobile doesn't support Flash. Also the music player is very good performs an outstanding quality. In short terms, the Nokia N8 is quite an all in one device, but therefore Nokia has to improve the web browser and fix some bugs. If Nokia follow these terms it can really hook up in the race on the smartphone competition.

Specs

What is in the box? 

• Nokia N8
  
• BL-4D 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
  
• USB-datacable
  
• Stereo Headset, microphone,  and ear buds
  
• Charger
  
• HDMI Adapter Cable
  
• USB Adapter Cable
  
• Manual
  
• Quick Start Guide
  

Design

• Dimensions: 113.5 x 59 x 12.9
  
• Weight: 135 g
  
• Volume: 86 cc
  
• Keys: menu, power, lock, volume, camera
  
• Colors: Silver White, Dark Grey, Orange, Blue, Green
  
• Display: 3,5 inch
  
• Resolution: 16:9 nHD 640 x 360 pixels AMOLED
  
• Capacitive touch screen
  
• Orientation sensor (Accelerometer)
  
• Compass (Magnetometer)
  
• Proximity sensor
  
• Ambient light detector
  
• Internal memory: 16 GB
  
• MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB
  

Power Management

• BL-4D 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Talk-time (maximum):
• GSM 720 mins
• WCDMA 350 mins
• Standby time (maximum):
• GSM 390 h
• WCDMA 400 h
• Video playback time (H.264 720p, 30 fps, maximum): 6 h (via HDMI to TV)
• Video recording time (H.264 720p, 25 fps, maximum): 3 h 20 mins
• Video call time (maximum): 160 mins
• Internal memory: 16 GB music playback time (offline mode, maximum): 50 h

Connectivity

• Bluetooth 3.0
• HDMI
• 2mm Charging connector
• Micro USB connector and charging
• High-Speed USB 2.0 (micro USB connector)
• USB On-the-Go
• 3.5 mm AV connector
• FM Radio
• FM Transmitter

Software & applications  

• Symbian^3
  
• Java MIDP 2.1
  
• Flash Lite 4.0
  
• Ovi Store
  
• WebTV
  
• Office document Viewers
  
• Video & photo editor
  

Communication

• IBM Lotus Traveler
  
• Mail for Exchange
  
• OVI Chat
  
• YAHOO, AIM, Windows Live, Gtal, Myspace
  
• Push Email

Internet

• RSS Feed reader
  
• Streaming video
  
• Nokia Mobile search
  
• Sociale networks

Navigatie

• Integrated GPS, A-GPS receivers
  
• Ovi Maps with free car & pedestrian navigation
  
• Wi-Fi Positioning
  
• Compass and accelerometer for correct orientation of display

Camera 

• Foto  
• 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• Large 1/1.83” optical format image sensor
• Fullscreen 16:9 viewfinder with easy-to-use touchscreen parameters
• Xenon flash with automatic red-eye removal
• Face tracking/detection software
• Autofocus
• Zoom up to 2x (digital) for still images
• Automatic location tagging (Geotagging) of images and videos
• Pinch zoom in Photos image viewer
  

• Video  
  
• HD 720p video recording
  
• 16:9 video
  
• 25fps
  
• Video light
  
• Secondary camera for video calls (QVGA, 640 x 480 pixels), still image and video capture
  
• Dolby Digital Plus surround HDMI
  
• On demand WebTV
  
• Youtube

Entertainment

• Muziek
  
• MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, E-AC-3, AC-3
  
• Bit rate up tp 320 kbps
  
• DRM support WM DRM, OMA DRM 2.0
  
• FM transmitter

• Games
• Use the touch UI to play games
• Dedicated processor for 2D/3D graphics acceleration. Support for OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenVG 1.1
• Java games
• Use the accelerometer to play games