I've owned my N8 for just over two weeks, and have to say I am really pleased with it in almost every respect (camera, most apps, etc.). I feel the handset has received a lot of unfair "flak" - mostly from US tech sites which don't seem to be able to handle a cutting-edge smartphone from Europe which doesn't run iOS or Android - and I'd be very reluctant to give up my N8 now, even after such a short time.
I say all this, because I am experiencing major problems with one of the most important elements of my N8's software: the actual "phone-calling" app. Put simply, I now dread having to make and receive voice phone calls on the device, because when I do, the phone just seems to go crazy:
- the display scrambles (parts of the screen get flipped upside-down and/or back to front), and seems to turn on and off;
- the call/hangup onscreen buttons disappear and reappear (and don't respond to touches a lot of the time when they do appear);
- the menu is almost impossible to use during a call, owing to the above problems;
- voice-dialling over a Bluetooth headset doesn't appear to work (it doesn't recognise what I say - could this be a "train your phone" issue?);
- at worst, the phone sometimes just reboots in the middle of a call (meaning I have to make excuses about losing the network connection 😡 ).
I wish I could capture screenshots of this occurring, but it's almost impossible to recreate the problems reliably "on demand", and the phone's UI is effectively useless during a call (see above), so a screenshot application might not work in this case.
For a while, I thought I was alone in this problem, but it sounds as if a few others are reporting their N8s rebooting spontaneously. I can't see how my experience could be a hardware problem with my N8, but if it might be, do you think I should return the device for a replacement (as even now, I don't want any other phone)?
If this is purely a software problem, it beggars belief that Nokia could've let a phone like the N8 out into the world with the voice-calling software so seriously compromised. Frankly, I hope this is just a hardware problem on my particular handset, because until I get to the bottom of this, my N8 is practically unusable as an actual phone. It's a crying shame, as the device excels in practically every other area, and it speaks volumes (pun not intended) that if I did have to return my N8, I'd want it repaired or replaced and not go for another phone.
Thoughts welcome - sorry for a bit of a rant, but having such a great handset which barely works as an actual phone, but is great otherwise, is a bit of a frustration 🙄
Many thanks,
Tim.