Video: Nokia N8 hands-on and first thoughts

How about a look at the keyboard?

Rafe, was that an accurate statement that there are six weeks left to go on the software? Any indication on when it will be shipping? September? November? December?

Well, it all looks good, but I am still incredibly cautious after the N97 debacle. Almost everything I've seen on the N8 was stuff we were "promised" on the N97 and then Nokia not only dropped the ball, but the entire game on that.

I so want the N8 to be the redeemer for Nokia, but sadly, now that I'm tied into a long contract with the most frustrating and disappointing Nokia device ever built, I will be giving it a miss and hoping that it's successor is just as promising.

I never, ever thought I'd be cautious of a Nokia device 😞

I am really pleased to see that my future phone have pinch-to-zoom in the photo- and web-browser. This is something I have missed in Symbian ever since the IPhone came out and demonstrated it the first time. However I wonder if maps will get it too? It would be too bad not to do it consistently through all the applications...

Good video, looks like a candiddate to replace my N85. Can you tell me if you can put a calender widget on the home page and make it double or treble size?

Pinch to zoom is OK for me but ONLY if they also provide a one handed alternative means of doing the same thing. Trying to look at maps one handed on the iPhone is a terrible pain in the butt, it will zoom in with a tap but can't zoom out. Web pages zoom in and out with a tap but only to a single preset level that the Safari browser decides for you. Terrible piece of UI.

The N900 spiral idea works MUCH better one handed, fully controllable zoom with just your thumb. Shame the N900 is such a brick and so wierd.

Excellent review Rafe, but why is Nokia's PR team not emphasizing the WIDE ANGLE Carl Zeiss optics nor the Xenon lens. Not to be too negative...at least Nokia's UK PR Team is doing a better job than their counterparts in the USA...complete ball drop going on over there. It looks to me like the head of Nokia USA is busy writing a thesis on how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

PS: who spit all over the back of that phone?

Unregistered wrote:How about a look at the keyboard?

Sorry I managed to forget to do this in the video (it happens when you do things on the fly - had limited time with device). I did try it later - and have some images showing it. They've improved it, but there's room to do more. More on this in a later post.

Unregistered wrote:Rafe, was that an accurate statement that there are six weeks left to go on the software? Any indication on when it will be shipping? September? November? December?

6 weeks estimate based on a best guess. 6 weeks is end of July - then gives 3-4 weeks to get into shipping devices (that roughly how long it needs). Might actually be a bit shorter than that. Assuming end of August / start of September release.

lovesign wrote:Well, it all looks good, but I am still incredibly cautious after the N97 debacle. Almost everything I've seen on the N8 was stuff we were "promised" on the N97 and then Nokia not only dropped the ball, but the entire game on that.

I so want the N8 to be the redeemer for Nokia, but sadly, now that I'm tied into a long contract with the most frustrating and disappointing Nokia device ever built, I will be giving it a miss and hoping that it's successor is just as promising.

I never, ever thought I'd be cautious of a Nokia device 😞

The one thing that has been emphasised over and over again about the N8 is that it will not be shipped until it is ready. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out (especially as it is the first Symbian^3 device).

Jowls wrote:I am really pleased to see that my future phone have pinch-to-zoom in the photo- and web-browser. This is something I have missed in Symbian ever since the IPhone came out and demonstrated it the first time. However I wonder if maps will get it too? It would be too bad not to do it consistently through all the applications...

Not sure about maps - certainly possible, but there's a question of whether you want it (see below). At this point I would guess it is unlikely before launch. Personally I find pinch to zoom to be very fiddly to do one handed.

unregistered wrote:Good video, looks like a candiddate to replace my N85. Can you tell me if you can put a calender widget on the home page and make it double or treble size?

No. The widgets are of a fixed size (as far as I'm aware).

Unregistered wrote:Pinch to zoom is OK for me but ONLY if they also provide a one handed alternative means of doing the same thing. Trying to look at maps one handed on the iPhone is a terrible pain in the butt, it will zoom in with a tap but can't zoom out. Web pages zoom in and out with a tap but only to a single preset level that the Safari browser decides for you. Terrible piece of UI.

The N900 spiral idea works MUCH better one handed, fully controllable zoom with just your thumb. Shame the N900 is such a brick and so wierd.

Maps is going to have a zoom bar - and I find this much easier to use when driving a long in the car. However a lot of people seem to love pinch to zoom. Interesting idea to have spiral zoom too, but I can't see that happening.

You should be able to zoom via menu / zoom bar in browser and I know Photos has a zoom bar in addition to gesture (you see it briefly in the video).

jb8967 wrote:Excellent review Rafe, but why is Nokia's PR team not emphasizing the WIDE ANGLE Carl Zeiss optics nor the Xenon lens. Not to be too negative...at least Nokia's UK PR Team is doing a better job than their counterparts in the USA...complete ball drop going on over there. It looks to me like the head of Nokia USA is busy writing a thesis on how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

One of the problems of the N8 is to work out how to market it / what message to promote. It is very very strong in imaging and video, but because it the first Symbian^3 phone, first on a new hardware platform it has a lot of other things going for it too. Plus of course not everyone know the camera language so...

Ultimately most N8's will be sold on the basis on three bullet point in a phone ship display / magazine. Reckon these will focus around camera numbers, HDMI out and capacitive touch screen . unibody style build.

Rafe, Nice preview. Maybe you should replace that geezer who Nokia have spruiking the phone, he really is the ultimate in boring. A few questions, does it play video in the entire screen resolution now? and is the video player still realplayer? If so, how does that sit with symbian3 being open source? and on that, what are the chances that this will be upgradeable to symbian4 when that is released?

@jb8967, that's not spit.. that's drool 😉

@unregistered, regarding Calendar: there's an app for that 😉 Google for 'Coming Next s60 Calendar'

I see there is a leaked video indicating that the N9 is going to be a Meego device with a Qwerty keyboard.

What are the chances of a "N8 pro" with a Hardware QWERTY?

Looks like my i8910 shall be having a one way ticket to the drawer pretty soon! This video sealed the deal. It has everything I need & want in a phone. loving the ovi files app on there, hopefully it'll be as useful as dropbox, and speaking of which,maybe dropbox should have full support for the device too.

Is that a new colour? I dont recall seeing N8 in a mint green colour, its not even in the press shots either.

RollerSMB wrote:Rafe, Nice preview. Maybe you should replace that geezer who Nokia have spruiking the phone, he really is the ultimate in boring. A few questions, does it play video in the entire screen resolution now? and is the video player still realplayer? If so, how does that sit with symbian3 being open source? and on that, what are the chances that this will be upgradeable to symbian4 when that is released?

@jb8967, that's not spit.. that's drool 😉

@unregistered, regarding Calendar: there's an app for that 😉 Google for 'Coming Next s60 Calendar'

Thanks - the video is not as good as I would like - I had to do it one take after not very long with the device. Left out keyboard and web browser for example - got a text preview coming that will address other bits. Lots of other goodies too.

ashg77 wrote:I see there is a leaked video indicating that the N9 is going to be a Meego device with a Qwerty keyboard.

What are the chances of a "N8 pro" with a Hardware QWERTY?

I think there's an excellent chance of seeing a Symbian^3 devices with a QWERTY keyboard from Nokia. Whether it will be an N8 sister is open to debate!

mCrem wrote:Looks like my i8910 shall be having a one way ticket to the drawer pretty soon! This video sealed the deal. It has everything I need & want in a phone. loving the ovi files app on there, hopefully it'll be as useful as dropbox, and speaking of which,maybe dropbox should have full support for the device too.

Is that a new colour? I dont recall seeing N8 in a mint green colour, its not even in the press shots either.

This is the blue or azure colour. The lighting was a bit ropey - step up on some venues though - yes Sony Ericsson (aka hold there launch and preview events in dark basements) I'm looking at you.

Would love to see Dropbox on Symbian too. It could be implemented relatively easily too - and have full integration into the filing system.

So glad to see the N8 working an the New Symbian^3 software,just wished Nokia wouldn"t have announced the N8 to early an the phone was not even ready,thats one thing thats got to be changed at Nokia,still want to hear the speakers playing music on the N8,September will be the release date i hope an with the iPhone 4 out,we will see if the N8 gets Nokia back on track or not,as the N97 failure puts pressure on Nokia an hope the N8 does not let me down

N8 availability in denmark is quoted as week 36 by trusted seller.
https://www.telmore.dk/shop/mobiltelefoner-paa-vej

They are usually _very_ honest in their marketing approach and are very believable

HeY Rafe was there any mention of how the 12mah battery would handle this phone? as there are a few people i know who are concerned about the battery

Sorry I managed to forget to do this in the video (it happens when you do things on the fly - had limited time with device). I did try it later - and have some images showing it. They've improved it, but there's room to do more. More on this in a later post.

how could you forget this? The intelligent keyboard is soarly missed on symbian devices - there room for more meaning this feature is missing?

Thank god though they moved the green v (ok key) to a more comfortable position than s60v5.. (you can see the keyboard in one of the 3 demo vids)

How is the screen resolution compare to other top end devices? I find myself disappointed in Nokia releasing great displays, but the specs show it's lacking the resolution of it's competitors.

Rafe,

While the N8 is generally excellent I think, I have to say Ovi Maps looks like it's had no improvement whatsoever. I'm not sure how you can say the performance has improved when the zooming and panning genuinely appears exactly the same speed as it does on my 5800 or N82, and is not actually that impressive in the first place. Furthermore lack of a pinch zoom in Maps is just lame considering it's the new zoom method in other places on the N8, and it is still highly irritating that you can't easily pan and zoom on a planned route, or even better drag a route to where one wants it exactly (e.g. to improve on a calculated route with personal knowledge).

The N8 browser is also below par. Performance does not look that good - it looks like the same old thing that's just not up to the standard of say Opera Mobile 10 (and I'm not talking UI, I'm talking performance). The N8 needs a decent browser desperately, and it looks like they just added pinch zoom to the old code base rather than fundamentally improving things under the hood.

The rest of the device is excellent though, thanks for the review.

Very, very impressive!

I assume, it was the first time you have had your hands on a N8 - impressive what you could do with it for the first time usage.

This could become the first phone, I buy just for fun. For serious usage it is unfortunately useless because of its much too small display (my E90 - 3 years old[!] - has an higher resolution). Android, Maemo, Windows Mobile all have at least >= 800x480, the new iPhone will have 960x640.

It is frustrating. Symbian was for years the Smartphone with the highest resolution thanks to the Nokia Communicators. And now where they finally have the nice touchscreen (as the wonderfully Psion 5) and have a GUI as fast as that of a Psion 5 mx, they are loosing because of the weak display resolution (if you could not remember: A Psion has 640x240 - that was 1997 or so) :-|

Peter

at 4:50, it is very sluggish to get into email, sigh

Hi Rafe, would it be possible to ask about region codes (eg if region codes determine languages available on the device)? If you are able to test another Nokia N8, could you check the languages available too? That would be very much appreciated. 😊

Can't view the video now,unfortunately. No flash on my WM Opera Browser 😞

it was nice to watch a video where the person handling the device actually knew what they were talking about and didnt have to read the specs from a piece of paper. well done again, rafe.

what bothers me is that so many bloggers are posting videos and every single one of them is about the exact same things, the hardware and media capabilities. all of the videos are showing the camera, the hdmi connector, the music player, gallery, etc, but none of them show the new phone book, or the calendar, or the dialer. i am sure that the hardware will be awesome. i am pretty sure that the media functions will be very good (wouldnt be surprised if it took a couple of firmware updates to get it 100% though) but thats what i expect from nokia when the phone doesnt have a slider. the reason i left s60 for android is because i wanted a touchscreen phone that was easy to use. i would love to see a video that shows how easy it is to find a contact by typing in their name. is it the same ridiculous system that s60 5th uses or have them implemented a smart-dialer? how easy is it to enter a calendar entry? how easy is it to start and send a sms and email when the person is not one of your favorites? is there a universal search that is easy and quick to use? i guess what i am looking for is for someone to talk about how easy it is to use this device to communicate with others and manage pim info? i use my devices all day long, with an hours worth or calls where most calls only last two minutes, so there is lots of calling back and lots of calls to people that i need to look up their number. i send 20-40 sms and emails per day, plus i use the calendar to keep me on schedule for meetings and things that need to get done.

if you could forget about the camera, music player, and browser for a minute (all of which are features i use everyday also) i would love to hear your opinion on the changes to the ui that will enhance using this device to communicate and stay connected.

does the n8 have a portrait keyboard?

Nokia has not changed, modified their PIM since years (maybe 6 years or more). This device is to compete with Android and iphone to show that Nokia has media capabilities. I have no expectation for any other improvements.

Last weeks there is rumor that Nokia will manufacture phones with WM7, and I do understand it, as the Symbian is far behind all three leaders WM7, Android and iPhone and I don't think it will improve in the next year.

Isaac

The point about Apple and 'half baked' software is interesting considering the speed Mobile OS X 2.1 came out with. In addition some people might think it's a good thing to demo the pre-production software, get public opinion on the niggles and fix them before shipping.

Just a thought.

Anyway, this looks OK so far. It clearly needs a bit of polish and I'm sure that it'll get that. I don't see this being an iPhone killer but it should give Nokia a bit more credibility at the high end even if we know the US tech journals are going to savage it (mainly because they don't like the icons. No, seriously) no matter what happens.

Will I buy one? Don't know yet.

Unregistered wrote:This phone is already dead on the water.
Can you imagine Apple showing off a device with half-baked software?
To choose this over a Nexus or Desire you have to be a Fanboy or insane, probably both.

Now, I hate using this sort of language, but are you some sort of idiot? Or maybe that should be "what sort of android fanboy are you?"

What in the software was half baked? It looks incredibly impressive overall, menu speed is equal to anything else out there, arguably better. The hardware specs (overall performance) better anything else out there (due to the graphics hardware thats leagues ahead of the competition). The OS functionality as per most symbian devices is class leading.

If you could just explain which parts were half baked, fine. But just being an idiotic keyboard warrior gets you absolutely nowhere.

clonmult wrote:Now, I hate using this sort of language, but are you some sort of idiot? Or maybe that should be "what sort of android fanboy are you?"

What in the software was half baked? It looks incredibly impressive overall, menu speed is equal to anything else out there, arguably better. The hardware specs (overall performance) better anything else out there (due to the graphics hardware thats leagues ahead of the competition). The OS functionality as per most symbian devices is class leading.

If you could just explain which parts were half baked, fine. But just being an idiotic keyboard warrior gets you absolutely nowhere.

I think that some people have some very basic insecurities even about things so insignificant to life as smartphones. Somebody posting like that about a phone that they've never seen is obviously not worth worrying about.

Hear Hear, forget about videos, music, pictures for while, what are the pims like, is the calender app fit for purpose, can i easily find a contact and fire off an email, how easy is it to dial from the address book etc. Or in other words is the phone usable as an all day communication device or is it really just a gadget for fun. No criticism on your preview just asking.

Excellent preview Rafe, can you tell me more about camera button itself? Is it easy/soft to press, not as stiff as one in N86. Also when changing orientation in Gallery do thumbnails run smooth or they get pixelated as in N86? Any idea what was free memory left with those 7 apps on?

Cheers,
Miki