Nokia N8 - hardware hands-on first look

Hi Rafe,

Please answer !!

a) I am interested in buying this phone, but one concern is the big camera glass, in the photos it seems to be a big magnet to scratches, and scrates do have effect on photo quality, masy be not much but they do have a negative effect, is the camera glass scratch resistant ???

b) The screen is beautiful, any idea if the screen is scratch resistant ?

c) The rest of the phone appart from the battery issue is just perfect, these little points do make a big difference for customers while deciding to purchase a product or no !!

I wonder why Nokia just can' get a phone as perfect as the 6600, N82 or the N95 any more, these phones were legends, they had no loopholes for any complaints or critics as u call it.
while the N8 is good but has weakness as mentioned above,

I hope Nokia's Nxt release of S^3 phones takes care of some of the above mentioned points.

I didn't bother reading past "non-removable battery". They have COMPLETELY lost the plot.

Unregistered wrote:

So far what they have show past the home screen seems to be pretty much standard S60, I do hope there will be even more visual eye candy deeper into the OS.

The last thing I want is visual eye candy for the sake of it. If there is visual effect then it must have a fundamental function and purpose. Just doing it to be clever is counter-productive.

A torx screwdriver is really not a big deal. They are available every good tool supplier and not expensive. I have them in regular use these days, on home appliances and kids toys.

The problem will be, if the joints to the battery are soldered, and if Nokia impose some nasty warranty conditions and witness marks against opening up the casing.

Unregistered wrote:The problem will be, if the joints to the battery are soldered, and if Nokia impose some nasty warranty conditions and witness marks against opening up the casing.

Hey guys, did u notice over here in this picture http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/images/devices/N8/N8-homebutton.jpg
That there are faint diagonal lines across the screen. Similar to the N97 but the n97 had diagonal line running in the same direction.
Thats strange how come Nokia designed it like that? You can't see those lines on the other capacitive touch fones?

Is it just me; or does the N8 look like an iPhone that's been clad in a (green) aluminium body?! As a piece of industrial design, it's shocking. Purely IMO.

Unregistered wrote:Is it just me; or does the N8 look like an iPhone that's been clad in a (green) aluminium body?! As a piece of industrial design, it's shocking. Purely IMO.

That was me, didn't sign in properly. D'oh!

Like the Look of the N8 ,but one thing everybody keeps asking,were are the Speakers on the N8,as with the 5800 an X6 you could see them on the same side,but on this Prototype you one see one slot below the camera lens,the say Dobly sound speakers on the N8 but hard to see the Speakers,hope Nokia change the battery lens cover as i always like to buy a Spare Battery an desk top charger just incase the battery in any mobile runs out,an i do not want to damage the N8 looks removing the screws an breaking the battery cover,hope Nokia change this as soon as possible,still will be my next mobile no doubt

beardyweirdy wrote:This isn't meant to sound facetious, but the main concern I'd have with the non removable battery is the opportunity to pull the battery when the phone freezes.

As mentioned by others a long press on the power key will have the same effect. Will have to wait and see how well it works.

shreyu wrote:Hi Rafe,

The camera doesn't have any cover? How is the camera situated in its slot then? Is it recessed enough??

Difficult to tell, but I would say. It also has a hardened covering which is scratch resistant. I'm sure a few people will have an issue with this (no camera is completely immune).

Unregistered wrote:If the battery can't be accessed, how do you reboot when the software seizes up?Is there a reset button/slot?

See above.

Unregistered wrote:This is a bad thing. I used to carry 2 spare batteries in my pocket when going out for a whole day on the street. When I went travelling, more batteries are needed and they need to be replacable easily while travelling on the road.
David

I suggest getting one of the external power packs. I've no doubt these will become more popular with the N8. Nokia makes a few of these themselves as do numerous third parties.

RollerSMB wrote:No replaceable battery, at first i wanted to whinge, but then i realised i've NEVER replaced any of my phones batteries.

Still, promising overall, if not a bit ugly imo, looking forward to what they can do with this hardware in a more stylish shell. Maybe they can do an n9 in a dual slider format.. mmm.. touchscreen with dedicated buttons for games/media..

I have switched batteries on a few occasions when doing some very heavy usage, but the main reason I've done it is because I've forgotten to charge the phone.

Ugly - only thing I can say about that is that there's a difference seeing it in person. Of course this is very much to personal taste. I'm not sure the green is the best colour to show off!

There's definitely more Symbian^3 devices on the way - so who knows what comes next.

Unregistered wrote:Hi Rafe,

Please answer !!

a) I am interested in buying this phone, but one concern is the big camera glass, in the photos it seems to be a big magnet to scratches, and scrates do have effect on photo quality, masy be not much but they do have a negative effect, is the camera glass scratch resistant ???

b) The screen is beautiful, any idea if the screen is scratch resistant ?

c) The rest of the phone appart from the battery issue is just perfect, these little points do make a big difference for customers while deciding to purchase a product or no !!

I wonder why Nokia just can' get a phone as perfect as the 6600, N82 or the N95 any more, these phones were legends, they had no loopholes for any complaints or critics as u call it.
while the N8 is good but has weakness as mentioned above,

I hope Nokia's Nxt release of S^3 phones takes care of some of the above mentioned points.

a) Yes it is resistant. It's also slightly recessed. But hard to give you a complete answer here until I've actually used one for a significant period of time. That said its a well known issue so I'm sure Nokia will have done as much to avoid it as possible.

b) Yes it is. It is made of glass, with what I think is a scratch resistant layer.

c) Perfect is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone will find something they don't like about any phone. The trick is to keep as many of your target audience as possible happy at the same time. This is why the best devices tend to be compromises.

Unregistered wrote:Like the Look of the N8 ,but one thing everybody keeps asking,were are the Speakers on the N8,as with the 5800 an X6 you could see them on the same side,but on this Prototype you one see one slot below the camera lens,the say Dobly sound speakers on the N8 but hard to see the Speakers

The Dolby sounds applies to the HDMI out, not the speaker on the N8 itself. The N8 has a mono speaker, but from reports (i.e. not heard it myself) it is meant to be a good one - I understand it has some dedicated amp hardware. As mentioned on this site before stereo speakers are of dubious benefit on a phone (power issues and speakers close together).

In this picture (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/images/devices/N8/N8-bottom.jpg), what is the hole at the bottom for? I know the 3.5mm audio jack is at the top. Is this by chance for a 2mm charger? If yes, I hope we can also charge the phone via the micro USB port using a data cable.

Unregistered wrote:Is it just me; or does the N8 look like an iPhone that's been clad in a (green) aluminium body?! As a piece of industrial design, it's shocking. Purely IMO.

Now, for me the design is quite pure. Simply tapered down at the ends, and the camera protusion is the simplest/most elegant way of putting in the bigger sensor.

Its actually very apple-like (or should that be Ive-like?) in design.

Doesn't even slightly look like an iPhone.

Although the leaked pics of the iPhone 4G do have a lot of Nokia styling cues.

neilhoskins wrote:I didn't bother reading past "non-removable battery". They have COMPLETELY lost the plot.

You haven't looked at many pics, have you? Apparently the battery is removable. Although it requires a torx driver, and there's the possibility of that also invalidating your warranty.

I would like to agree with a previous commenter that it looks like an iphone in a green casing.

@ Rafe, I know you said you didnt get the chance to go hands on with the software, but do you know by any chance what video formats this device can play?

Strange . I seem to remember the EU taking Apple to task about non-removable batteries as this is against some EU ruling, because of environmental concerns about dumping. Hope that it really is only a question of unscrewing the back.

Oh no.... The traditional "exploding Nokia" phenomenon is, I am sure, what has protected many of my phones when being dropped.

The back cover and battery flying out help dissipate the energy of the impact. Also, Aluminium is very stiff, leaving only the screen as the "compressible" item. Non metal phones have a certain amount of "give" to them that again I am sure helps dissipate stress, such as sitting on your phone in your pocket etc.

Still looks great in my own opinion with pretty exciting hardware in there......would love a slide out keyboard version (not the coming soon "C" class of phone without HDMI etc....)

I've got a HTC desire here and it has a plastic back, top and botton, with a metal front. The two seperate materials are both sort of brown but two different shades, very contrasting light and dark. I think it's better to go for a contrast rather than a near miss.

malerocks wrote:In this picture (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/images/devices/N8/N8-bottom.jpg), what is the hole at the bottom for? I know the 3.5mm audio jack is at the top. Is this by chance for a 2mm charger? If yes, I hope we can also charge the phone via the micro USB port using a data cable.

Yeah, it's for the 2mm charger. just had a look at the specs on Nokia Europe & it will support both the 2mm charger & microusb.

As for the removable battery, The battery inside is the BL-4D. That's the same battery as the n97mini so i think it's safe to assume it won't be soldered in. We'll just have to wait and see what the warranty implications are to opening the handset to replace it.

You can check out the specs for yourself HERE

can nokia do an apple job my n97 hangs 2-3 times a day, every time i have to remove battery

nokia always want to copy , follow in apple way if anything goes wrong with n8 i would say customers may bury nokia forever

With reference to the new symbian OS in the N8 - does anyone know if current S60 V5 apps will work on new OS or will we have to wait until developers port to the new system ?

Thanks

Boothy

Was it not already said in the past the battery is replaceable? might not be quick swappable but can be replaced fairly easily nonetheless.

I have owned three phones now over the last 5 years with no camera lens cover and never got a scratch. Key is when you place it down at night on your bedside locker or wherever place it on something like the screen cleaning cloth that comes with the phone.

The camera lens is slightly recessed on the Vivaz and it would take quite a big bit of grit to scratch it.

@boothy from what I understand yes they should in theory as symbian^3 supports Symbian^1 sis files, but you can never be certain until you try the apps for yourself.

boothy wrote:With reference to the new symbian OS in the N8 - does anyone know if current S60 V5 apps will work on new OS or will we have to wait until developers port to the new system ?

Thanks

Boothy

Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) apps will absolutely install and run on the N8, unless the developer has done something unorthodox. I know for example that Gravity, the Symbian Twitter clients is working on the N8, but with some slight layout issues.

The intent is that every app will work perfectly, but the reality is that a lot of changes have been made in Symbian^3 - so it's perfectly possible there may be glitches here and there.

If the phone freezes, you can reset it by pressing the power button for 8 seconds (or a period of time like it), so no need to take out the battery. They said that in an official Nokia Q&A. I am guessing the reset is wired into the power circuitry, so it isn't tied to the hardware.

mrojas wrote:If the phone freezes, you can reset it by pressing the power button for 8 seconds (or a period of time like it), so no need to take out the battery. They said that in an official Nokia Q&A. I am guessing the reset is wired into the power circuitry, so it isn't tied to the hardware.

it's very similir in form factor to the e71. just short of saying it is like and e71 without the qwerty keyboard and all touchscreen.

Unregistered wrote:can nokia do an apple job my n97 hangs 2-3 times a day, every time i have to remove battery

nokia always want to copy , follow in apple way if anything goes wrong with n8 i would say customers may bury nokia forever

What are you talking about? In what way are Nokia copying Apple? Or did I miss something and did Apple actually invent the touch-screen in the same way they "invented" mobile email?

The ability to hard reset akin to taking out the battery is a must, unless we can believe Symbian^3 is going to be so reliable it doesn't require it (don't laugh 😃 ).

Carrying spare batteries around is not really much of an issue with Nokia. I've never had the need, even when traveling. Okay if you're on a long trek and not near a power supply of any sort (not even a car charger), then maybe but you'd probably want a good rugged sort of phone for traveling anyway, and not this.

The main issue with the iPhone is that the battery is just crap (or the phone just sucks way too much juice. I'm still amazed the GPS drains the battery so fast on the thing!). This means having to carry a spare battery and the need to replace the battery (which you can't do without breaking the warranty, and Steve Jobs coming over personally to give you a kicking for daring to take the cover off).

Nokia's strongest point is power efficiency, and love or loath Symbian, it's great for low power requirements.

If battery replacement is just an inconvenience with the N8 and not a warranty killer, and they have a hard reset option equivalent to removing the battery, then it's not really much of an issue. Alternative is to do a cover like on the E72 which falls off 😉

Rafe, the HDMI is not via a micro/mini HDMI port as I understand it but via an adaptor cable? Any idea what spec of HDMI it is (standard speed, high speed)? Is it bidirectional in anyway apart from the communication and HDCP protocols - e.g. Can content be transferred onto the device via the HDMI connection?

buster wrote:What are you talking about? In what way are Nokia copying Apple? Or did I miss something and did Apple actually invent the touch-screen in the same way they "invented" mobile email?

Hmm. How about a large capacitive touchscreen with multitouch? As in the kind of screen that Nokia insisted no one wanted because you couldn't use it with gloves and it doesn't work well with a stylus? How about the fixed battery? How about the appearance of the device?

Unregistered wrote:Hmm. How about a large capacitive touchscreen with multitouch? As in the kind of screen that Nokia insisted no one wanted because you couldn't use it with gloves and it doesn't work well with a stylus? How about the fixed battery? How about the appearance of the device?

Fair points, but most companies 'take' good ideas from one another. Jeez, Microsoft built their monopoly and entire company on 'borrowing' concepts and ideas from other companies.