This morning's announcement of the Nokia N8 marks, for me, the end point of a five year journey that Nokia has taken us on in the smartphone world. Yes, other manufacturers pop up in this field every now and then, but Nokia's path has been more consistent. Read on for more, including my thoughts on how the N8 finally replaces every previous smartphone camera champion.
Read on in the full article.
Where is the LED for video light? The snap of the camera posted here shows only the xenon flash (atleast that is all I can see)
Finally Nokia providing us with the latest hardware for Symbian. I love the spec sheets of this phone soo much. Nokia doing justice to Symbian fans. The camera, the processor, the HDMI out, Xenon flash Wow . :icon14:
Steve,
Are you able to find out whether the N8 has the N86 style digital zoom in video record?
Where is the LED??
well my friends, the LED is just below the xenon. just take a careful look. its there
the text on the camera unit is woefully photoshopped.
2.8/28? This would indeed be groundbreaking if a mobile phone camera can reach f28 😃
Again great hardware only to be crippled by typical buggy Nokia firmware. Who wants to bet that the moment it is released there will be a host of firmware issues the kill the user experience? I've learned to stop getting excited by Nokia releases. The N97 and subsequent releases have killed all enthusiasm for me. Probably time to move on to either Android or iPhone. At least their firmware is miles ahead of Nokia.
"the text on the camera unit is woefully photoshopped.
2.8/28? This would indeed be groundbreaking if a mobile phone camera can reach f28"
Er, I think that's 28mm
The way Nokia has delayed the device to ensure that the user experience is complete, it seems they won't be releasing a device with a beta firmware this time.
Hardeep1singh wrote:The way Nokia has delayed the device to ensure that the user experience is complete, it seems they won't be releasing a device with a beta firmware this time.
Agreed, plus many of the probs before were due to severe lack of ram. This one should be ok.
From the specification page: "The Nokia N8 has 16GB of in-built storage space, expandable up to 48GB with a Micro SD card. Large files can be easily transferred to a memory stick with the USB On-the-Go."
What does it mean, that you can simply plug in a USB stick and copy stuff from/to it?
Hardeep1singh wrote:The way Nokia has delayed the device to ensure that the user experience is complete, it seems they won't be releasing a device with a beta firmware this time.
You can't be serious. No offense mate but this is what Nokia does. Release and repair. Release and repair. Before you go off on an iPhone and Android screed, I will agree that they too release updates but their updates are not to repair such extensively flawed phones/firmware as Nokia. The difference between an Android/iPhone out of box experience when compared to Nokia is night and day. Android and Apple have the support eco-system already in place while Nokia has to scramble to add support to Ovi, or to add the odd bits to get the phone to properly work with other computer OS's.
Another key point is the hardware/software myth. You see many on this site to the moderators screaming about hardware, hardware, hardware, but at the end of the day it is the software that makes a difference. Apple and Android understand this, but it is continually lost on Nokia. You get better and better hardware that is continually let down by inadequate software. A classic example is the attempt to just throw a touch UI on top of Symbian. It was and still remains a disaster. It looks cheap and shows that Nokia still does not get it.
The only Nokia that fully deserves the champion title during its time was/is the N82 and that's it from Nokia.
The N86 wasn't that great. I'm looking forward to seeing how the N8 fares though something tells me Samsung's flagship with 12mp is not too far away, and then Satio's successor may appear. If we do have those two competitors appear by Q3 then I am certain the N8 will come out last.
It is unfortunate that the phone manufacturers highlight the high megapixel count and hide the sensor size completely from the customers. Even more unfortunate is the fact that customers don't care about the sensor size. People become surprised when they are not able to take a half decent picture in low to medium light condition from an 8 megapixel camera.
I guess the main problem is that even if a company decided to make a phone having a 1/2.3" sensor (most popular size for digital compacts) and 5MP resolution, people would still prefer a phone having 1/4" 12MP crappy sensor.
First N8 12MP shots!!
http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/04/27/first-12-megapixel-sample-photos-shot-on-nokia-n8-untouched/
AMAZING!
Interesting concerns ....
# Exposed camera glass - a mechanical protector will be sorely missed - see my feature
Protection is nice, but so far Nokia haven't tended to get it right - N73 was too awkward, N95 was too easy, N85 was flimsy ....
# 12 megapixel maximum resolution (meaning small sensor pixels inside the device)
Apparently Nokia have got the largest imaging sensor of any out there in a phone, which brings the possibility of it having much better all round capabilities.
# Fixed aperture lens - though, in fairness, the use of Xenon flash will mean that getting more light onto the sensor in dim conditions is unlikely to be a huge problem. The N8 will have to work harder in very bright sunlight, to avoid over-exposure.
Most people in the world really don't care about fixed/variable aperture. If you're into that sort of thing in a *big* was, you'll probably have an SLR.
As long as the camera is good enough for day to day use, it could effectively become my 3rd camera ....
Back from a London trip. Re: Video light: I was wrong on this, the LED shown is a red focussing LED.
On the plus side, there IS stereo video recording (a la N93 only better and software assisted) AND intelligent digital zoom, even in HD video mode.
miki69 wrote:First N8 12MP shots!!
http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/04/27/first-12-megapixel-sample-photos-shot-on-nokia-n8-untouched/AMAZING!
Look at the image gallery of N85:
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n85-review-297p7.php
Do these pictures look bad?
The problem comes when you start taking pictures in a not-so-perfect lighting condition. This is where quality of lens and sensor become important. I am very sure that N8, like other phones, will perform poorly in low light.
Having a camera on a phone is great because you have the option of always capturing the moment even the best mobile phone camera can't match the pics of the cheapest point and shoots (like a $95 Canon A480)
Unregistered wrote:Look at the image gallery of N85:
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n85-review-297p7.php
Do these pictures look bad?The problem comes when you start taking pictures in a not-so-perfect lighting condition. This is where quality of lens and sensor become important. I am very sure that N8, like other phones, will perform poorly in low light.
Having a camera on a phone is great because you have the option of always capturing the moment even the best mobile phone camera can't match the pics of the cheapest point and shoots (like a $95 Canon A480)
The N73, N85 and N95 were all dire for indoors photography.
However, the good old SE W810 with the plugin xenon flash easily equalled any point and shoot I owned at the time. SE K800 was terrible, and apparently the N82 had a fantastic xenon flash.
The N8 has both LED (for video) and xenon (for stills), which could well be the best of both world. Pictures that have been shown by Nokia do indeed seem to be very good, but we'll have to wait and see what they're like in the real world.
One word: software. Can Nokia get over sending out beta software and actually produce a model that has reliable software from the get go? Nokia has a proven track record of producing okay hardware but is let down by shitty software. Will the N8 be another dog out of the box or not? This is the big question.
The wonderful thing about this site is no matter how good or how crappy it is, AAS can be counted on to find good in bad, up in down, left in right. Nokia has a safe harbor here. Nothing bad ever comes out of AAS.
I am very sure that N8, like other phones, will perform poorly in low light.
What other phones? The other Nokia with a Xenon is N82 and it takes amazing pics even in pitch dark conditions. How can you be so sure when the actual facts prove otherwise?
Hardeep1singh wrote:What other phones? The other Nokia with a Xenon is N82 and it takes amazing pics even in pitch dark conditions. How can you be so sure when the actual facts prove otherwise?
I have seen the photographs taken by N82. If the distance of the subject is less than 3 meters then its xenon flash is effective indeed, otherwise, it takes ordinary pictures at low light (if you compare it with point and shoot cameras). If you compare it with other phones then it is better.
What I am trying to say is that a cameraphone cannot compete with even a cheap point and shoot.
I am not saying that cameraphones are bad. Since you always carry a phone, you always have a camera. That�s convenient...great...but if you think that N8 will take snaps similar to what miki69 had posted in normal lighting conditions also then you are dreaming.
680 MHz TI OMAP processor with 256 MB of RAM and accelerated Open gl 2.
Looks promising.
Unregistered wrote:680 MHz TI OMAP processor with 256 MB of RAM and accelerated Open gl 2.Looks promising.
Hardware, hardware, hardware !!!!!
Can you get it through your head? If the hardware is good but the OS is crap (which Nokia has a talent for delivering) then it is all moot. You have to have GREAT software to go with the hardware to get a GREAT user experience.
Wake up and stop listening to the apologists for Nokia. See how the phone works when it is in the wild.
Unregistered wrote:Hardware, hardware, hardware !!!!!Can you get it through your head? If the hardware is good but the OS is crap (which Nokia has a talent for delivering) then it is all moot. You have to have GREAT software to go with the hardware to get a GREAT user experience.
Wake up and stop listening to the apologists for Nokia. See how the phone works when it is in the wild.
You should do the same. At the moment the hardware specs are the only hard facts available to most of us.
Unregistered wrote:the text on the camera unit is woefully photoshopped.2.8/28? This would indeed be groundbreaking if a mobile phone camera can reach f28 😃
This is Carl Zeiss' method of articulating specs on lenses. The first number is the max f.no. in the case of N8, f/2.8 and the 28 relates to the effective 35mm equaivalent focal length as in 28mm.
atb
Unregistered wrote:From the specification page: "The Nokia N8 has 16GB of in-built storage space, expandable up to 48GB with a Micro SD card. Large files can be easily transferred to a memory stick with the USB On-the-Go."
What does it mean, that you can simply plug in a USB stick and copy stuff from/to it?
Yeap.
Unregistered wrote:It is unfortunate that the phone manufacturers highlight the high megapixel count and hide the sensor size completely from the customers. Even more unfortunate is the fact that customers don't care about the sensor size. People become surprised when they are not able to take a half decent picture in low to medium light condition from an 8 megapixel camera.
I guess the main problem is that even if a company decided to make a phone having a 1/2.3" sensor (most popular size for digital compacts) and 5MP resolution, people would still prefer a phone having 1/4" 12MP crappy sensor.
The sensor is the N8 is the largest ever in a mobile. It's 1/2 inch, bigger than many compact digital cameras. Each pixel is nearly 50% larger in surface area than broadly equivalent devices.
atb
D
I do agree that's it's hard to judge this phone based on a spec sheet and a few photos.
Let's just wait and see how great the software is. If the software sucks, the device will be still born, but if it's great, it'll take off.
Nobody wants another N96/N97.