As part of its promotional activities for the N8, Nokia is releasing a series of overview videos presented by Chris Bennetts, a Senior Product Manager at the company. The first video covers the homescreen, messaging, Internet and mapping functionality; rather than just linking to it or embedding it, we've broken this video down in detail as it offers some great insight as to what you can expect from both the N8 and how, in many places, the UI and applications of Symbian^3 have been reworked. Read on for further details.
Read on in the full article.
What about text entry? Symbian currently has the worst text entry system of all the major smartphone oses(on the touch only devices that is).
Rafe, you mention the second half of August. Is this from your own source, or are you assuming that Engadget's date is correct?
The August date fits in with what I have heard from several sources (all independent of each other) and is also based on prior experience. However these things can slip of course. Indications point towards the last week of August incidentally.
Tenkom wrote:What about text entry? Symbian currently has the worst text entry system of all the major smartphone oses(on the touch only devices that is).
Not possible to say much about text entry from the short video (aside from the fact it looks different), but I have heard several suggestions that there will be improvements. As noted in the article this does not include multi-touch keyboard n the initial release.
I really wanted to be impressed by this, as a long-time Nokia and Symbian user. But I wasn't. I know this was only a video, and only actually using the final production device will show how good it is, but Symbian^3 really doesn't look like being much more than Symbian^1. Ok, so it has widgets and three homescreens, but then that isn't new. And three homescreens is two fewer than Android, and four fewer than HTC's SenseUI for Android.
I also find it hard to get excited about threaded SMS - I had it on my 6110 Navigator (S60 3rd ed, FP1) thanks to a Nokia app, and am amazed that it isn't on Symbian^1 and is deemed a major new feature for Symbian^3?
Now, I'm not an Apple or Android fanboy, as I said, I'm a long-time Nokia and Symbian user (current device a 5800XM), but I'm really worried for the future. Symbian^3 looks like being the OS with the 5800XM should have shipped, and not a challenger for mind share in 2010.
My brother has recently got an HTC Desire and it was hard not to be impressed. I know that when you strip away the wow factor both the Desire and the current crop of Nokia's do pretty similar things, but it is the way that it does them that makes the difference.
Will my next 'phone be Symbian-powered? I really don't know at the moment (loyalty is a funny thing, isn't it?), but if Symbian^3 continues to be nothing special (as seems to be the case) then I'll be jumping into Google's arms - and I'm guessing that once I've gone, I won't be coming back quickly...
As a 5800xm and 5530 owner, this ^3 looks quite a lot different than ^1. I have also used a Desire plenty and there doesn't seem anything particularly spectacular about it.
Left n right Nokia/Symbian have been criticized for having clunky UI/UX.. Yet they keep at it n sell them boat loads the world over.. What gives...??
Currently I'm carrying three devices where ever I go, N97, iPhone 3Gs n the N900.. The N97 debacle forced me into buying the 3Gs coz b4 the FW 2.0/2.1 using the N97 was really like a nightmare day n night.. But alas I found the 3Gs didn't give me the satisfaction I get like with Nokia devices that I've had.. Mind u, I had loads of them from my first 3210 X 2.. 3310 X2.. 5300.. 6600.. 3200.. 6760.. N90.. N93.. N95.. N95 8gb.. N96.. 5800.. N97..... N900.. Sure the 3Gs gives me fluidity n stupid/funny apps. all the time, everytime i poke my finger at it.. without fail.. But i find myself keep coming back to the N97 as my main phone.. and when I take photos, I'd pick the N97 everytime.. even with the leaked flash n all(I'd simply switch it off)..when i go to facebook, N97 most of the time.. lite surfing, N97.. I keep coming back to it even with the 3Gs on my beck n call, always ready to offer its unrelentless service. So what does the 3Gs actually good for u might ask..? Well at this moment, its mostly for media consumption, music, videos n the occasional time passing simple games.. coz those were the few things that the N97 is still terrible at..
Now with the N8..coupled with Coreplayer 2.0(when the hell r they gonna release it anyway??They're like taking forever!!) the UI/UX looks juz like the N97(which I loike) things will get sweeter.. The 3Gs might juz gotta give way..
Ooh.. the N900..? Still learning it n soaking up Maemo.. it will surely stay for a while..
Jaydee @ Sg
Wow! This looks smooth 😊
It sure looks like Nokia have improved on exactly all the things that I find irritating about my N97, and kept all the things (plus more) about the N97 that I really like. This is perfect for me, especially considering the N8 runs all the old apps as well as the new shiny Qt stuff and 3D.
Yay! I'm going for the N8, unless a QWERTY N8 is announched soon 😉
i have to say that the ui tweaks are nice and gives the old symbian os a fresh look. but what concerns me is the lag in the ui. i know that the firmware is still pre-production but the problems are similar with the mature symbian os 9.3 and symbian^1. even with the powerful processor, ram, and a dedicated graphics hardware, the ui is still not fluid especially in landscape mode. another thing is with symbian^4 coming next year, this os will easily be old news. i don't know how they plan the development of the os but i think it will have no time to mature and will look like sh*t against symbian^4 (sorry for the language). some os are good for at least three years but symbian^3 will be phased out in a year, tops. i just hope that the final production firmware will iron things out and be fully supported (at least this one is for sure as nokia provide good software support), or and quite impossible is that they will apply symbian^4 to the N8 via a software update.
I always had a question whether can symbian 3 phones update to symbian 4 or not?it's really stupid to buy a phone for 6 months or a year especially for those who really work for it(not from them sadly)
The UI looks okay, but sort of 'blah'; not bad, just a tad dull. I don't see much of a 'Wow, cool' factor.
More worrisome though is that the device seems a bit stuttery and laggy, almost like a Windows Mobile phone.
By the way, off topic i know but have anybody at Nokia ever ponder the leaked flash might be caused by the timing of the flash being shot, relative to the lens picking up the image as ur finger press the shutter button fully.. Maybe if they advance or retard the timing the flash leak will not occur.. Cause i've had my camera module replaced by Nokia Care due to the leaked flash but it still leaks like that time of the month leak.. Then we can have it by the next FW update.. We do still expect FW updates on the N97 Nokia..!!!! Hopefully b4 the N8's release.. c",)
JD @ SG
My problem with the video is that it's all a bit boring -90% of the excitement in the N8 is in its hardware... Let's hope that the focus of at least one of the remaining two videos changes to look at the USPs in the hardware rather than the detailed changes in the software....
The video is not aimed at the average AAS reader. The idea is that the tricks that the players are doing (CGI surely?) catch people's attention and get forwared to friends to look at, and the the N8 happens to be involved. The people that this catches are, like the majority, no in the least bit interested in spec figures for N8 hardware.
Interesting comments about the UI not being impressive enough. What phone UI is? What really matters is if the UI is effective.
And I love the comedy comment about changing the camera flash sync so the flash doesn't co-incide with the shutter opening, thanks for that, great laugh to start the week!
slitchfield wrote:My problem with the video is that it's all a bit boring -90% of the excitement in the N8 is in its hardware... Let's hope that the focus of at least one of the remaining two videos changes to look at the USPs in the hardware rather than the detailed changes in the software....
my sentiments exactly (different wording 😃 at Nokia Conversations). It did start well with those widgets, but then guy just fly-by over menus...lame! We need more "in-depth" attention to new features, kind of what's really new/better comparing to old OS. Also no rotation during video, I want to know has fast device is with rotation, any lags there. What the free memory after few apps opened....Can't wait for part 2 and 3.
I'm not a huge fan of Apple's awesome, incredible, amazing... (check this video, rather funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx7v815bYUw), but maybe Nokia needs it (at least to some extent).
Cheers,
Miki
I own a Desire and as a media phone it truly is fantastic, but i'm pretty sure its htc sense and not android that i love.
But as a work horse the desire cannot match the simplicity and usability of my e71, the battery life for a start.
i wonder where Nokia are going with this, as a multimedia experience the androids and the iphone will hammer this, with a keyboard i may be tempted but there are better touch screen options around.
Nokia in my opinion should look at the hole in the market between enterprise and consumer which used to be occupied by Windows and make devices to suit.
Unregistered wrote:Interesting comments about the UI not being impressive enough. What phone UI is? What really matters is if the UI is effective.
My feeling exactly. I mean, look at the iPhone/iPod Touch basic UI; what you are presented with is simply a grid of icons. Where's the Today screen, where's the organisation? My E90's home screen is way more useful than my iPod Touch Home screen...
Jimmy1 wrote:The UI looks okay, but sort of 'blah'; not bad, just a tad dull. I don't see much of a 'Wow, cool' factor.More worrisome though is that the device seems a bit stuttery and laggy, almost like a Windows Mobile phone.
Please point out where the "lag" is in the video. Also, are you telling me either Android or iPhone have a 'Wow, cool! factor"?
brendand wrote:Please point out where the "lag" is in the video.
You could argue that a 5 second "Processing" message when adding a background image to a home screen is too long...
Let's hope for all nokia's quest to take on a and defeat apple, they don't forget the vast majority of their customers require a robust device that lasts a full day on a full charge and does communications well...yeah things like talking, mailing , texting seem to be forgotten these days hence Blackberry continues to grow, how many teenagers do you see in london now with blackberrys? see it doesn't always just have to look pretty.
buster wrote:You could argue that a 5 second "Processing" message when adding a background image to a home screen is too long...
So how fast should a mobile phone scale 4000x3000 to 640x360?? Show me an Android phone that can do that.. In fact, the Droid that I had took 5 seconds to save a bloody contact, never mind scale a 12 megapixel image.
I don't see any lag at all. Probably not as polished and smooth as the iphone but fast enough. You'd probably see it if you don't have a life!
brendand wrote:So how fast should a mobile phone scale 4000x3000 to 640x360?? Show me an Android phone that can do that.. In fact, the Droid that I had took 5 seconds to save a bloody contact, never mind scale a 12 megapixel image.
Well said.
Try opening a 12mp image on *any* phone, see how well it copes.
Unregistered wrote:I don't see any lag at all. Probably not as polished and smooth as the iphone but fast enough. You'd probably see it if you don't have a life!
Only the 3GS is really smooth, my iPhone 3G is frequently laggy and slow in the UI. Sometimes painfully so.
It does seem that other phones are allowed to have these faults, but if it happens on a Nokia it's a disaster and the end of the world.
the difference is apple have their flock trained well, there just happy to own it, mms nah, bluetooth nah, video capture nah, 3g nah, name another manufacterer that could have got away with that.
unfortunatley thats now why Nokia not just have to be good they must look good too no free pass for poor ole nokia
clonmult wrote:Well said.Try opening a 12mp image on *any* phone, see how well it copes.
I venture this is one of the reasons why Apple decided to go with relatively low megapixel cameras on their devices. If you wish to interpret processing a large image as 'lag' then maybe you'd like to set your camera to a lower resolution?
brendand wrote:So how fast should a mobile phone scale 4000x3000 to 640x360?? Show me an Android phone that can do that.. In fact, the Droid that I had took 5 seconds to save a bloody contact, never mind scale a 12 megapixel image.
Who said it was a 12MP photo, or did I miss something in the video?
Is there intelligent error correction while texting? Omg i hope so .. my intermediate 5230 sorely lacks it!
All in all it looks very good and after the usual 2-3 major updates it should be a solid performer! though I might opt for the E7-00 instead - any news on when announcement/availability is?
Sidenote: This is not CGI/rendered as suggested by unregistered. Very clearly true phone interaction.
it wasn't 12MP image, more like one of those preloaded images that comes with phone, and they are quite small in size (at least with N86). I'm very curious how fast will be gallery browsing once you have hundreds of 3-4MB images inside.
Any idea what GPS chipset N8 uses? Is it same as with older Nokias from Texas Instruments (GPS5300 NaviLink 4.0) or they changed to Sirf Star II/III?
Cheers,
Miki