The first time Nokia's N8-00 popped up on our radar was way back in
early February of this year. On that chilly, misty morning, we learned of a mythical being capable of shooting 12 megapixel stills, recording 720p video, outputting via HDMI, and -- most importantly -- ushering in the promised Symbian^3 touch revolution. It's been a long road of
leaks,
teasers,
hands-ons, and
previews since then, but at long last, the legend of the N8 has become a purchasable commodity. All the early specs have survived, including the 3.5-inch AMOLED display, but the key question today, as it was at the beginning, relates to that all-new software within: does Symbian^3 succeed in elevating Nokia's touchscreen experience or does it drag down an otherwise stellar combination of high-end parts? For that verdict and much, much more, join us after the break.
Let's not waste any time equivocating here, it'll be quite obvious to anyone with a set of eyeballs that Nokia has fashioned one of the most ruggedly handsome devices of recent memory with the N8. In a sea of identikit touchscreen-dominated phones, the N8 manages to stand out, thanks to its (mostly) aluminum construction, wide palette of color options, and atypical mixture of curvy sides and sternly straight lines at the top and bottom. The biggest distinguishing feature will of course be the protruding camera compartment
on the back, which houses the world's largest image sensor yet seen in a smartphone, a Carl Zeiss lens, a Xenon flash, and a loudspeaker.
We've got no complaints to proffer about the apparent durability of the handset itself and that extends to this extra bump on the back, but there are a couple of notes worth making. Firstly, the N8 will spend most of its horizontal time resting on the camera section's bottom edge. In our time with the phone we noticed it generated an unpleasant screeching sound anytime we slid it across a flat surface and we imagine over the long run that portion of the body will suffer plenty of wear and tear. Additionally, we found ourselves inevitably fingering the lens every time we held the handset up to make a call. That was just the most natural place for our forefinger to go, which is hardly a deal breaker in itself, but something to bear in mind if you care to keep your imaging equipment immaculately clean (and if you read our camera section below, you probably
will care).
We'd be remiss not to also note that the menu key at the N8's bottom left corner feels rather improperly placed. Nokia loves to tout its phones as being designed for single-handed operation, but reaching down to hit the menu key and access its multivariate functions was something of a treacherous activity. We nearly dropped this precious drop of aluminum a couple of times while trying to maneuver our digits over that button, and eventually settled on using a second hand when we needed it.
We've got no complaints to proffer about the apparent durability of the handset itself and that extends to this extra bump on the back, but there are a couple of notes worth making. Firstly, the N8 will spend most of its horizontal time resting on the camera section's bottom edge. In our time with the phone we noticed it generated an unpleasant screeching sound anytime we slid it across a flat surface and we imagine over the long run that portion of the body will suffer plenty of wear and tear. Additionally, we found ourselves inevitably fingering the lens every time we held the handset up to make a call. That was just the most natural place for our forefinger to go, which is hardly a deal breaker in itself, but something to bear in mind if you care to keep your imaging equipment immaculately clean (and if you read our camera section below, you probably
will care).
We'd be remiss not to also note that the menu key at the N8's bottom left corner feels rather improperly placed. Nokia loves to tout its phones as being designed for single-handed operation, but reaching down to hit the menu key and access its multivariate functions was something of a treacherous activity. We nearly dropped this precious drop of aluminum a couple of times while trying to maneuver our digits over that button, and eventually settled on using a second hand when we needed it.
Aside from those somewhat minor points, the N8 really looks to be continuing Nokia's fine tradition of making phones built to last decades rather than mere months or years. The volume buttons are crowned with handy little nubs for blind operation, the traditional screen-locking slider is also present and accounted for -- coming with a nicely ridged surface and a finely tuned spring mechanism -- and is joined by something of a rarity in smartphones: a two-stage shutter button for the camera, which is also easy to find and operate.
Internals
Much has been made of the N8's use of a 680MHz processor in a
1GHz world, but those numbers are predictably beguiling. The N8 has a separate Broadcom GPU alongside its ARM 11 processing core, which takes over when things get graphically intense and delivers performance that rarely left us feeling underpowered. Couple that with Symbian^3 being able to exploit the graphics processor to perform hardware-accelerated OS animations and graphics, and grunt should altogether be quite adequate for the tasks the N8 is intended to perform. 720p movies were certainly no challenge for this phone. A lot more worthy of critique might be the 256MB memory allowance, which halves what other new phones are coming out with, but again, the argument can be made that Symbian^3 is an inherently more efficient platform and the lower number on the spec sheet doesn't seem to have had a correspondingly negative impact on real world use. In our experience, spanning multiple N8 devices, we only saw a "memory full" error message once -- while viewing a video file on the phone with the calendar open in the background.
The array of additional features is pretty comprehensive too, with 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0 plus A2DP, GPS (both the real and assisted kind), USB On-The-Go support, a 1200mAh battery, 16GB of built-in storage, and of course a MicroSD slot for adding up to 32GB more. Light and proximity sensors are joined by an accelerometer and magnetometer in ensuring that there's no unfilled nook or cranny within the N8's aluminum body. Suffice it to say, you won't be lacking for options with this handset.
It's also worth pointing out that a
recent teardown of the N8 showed it to be quite friendly to user repairs, thanks to the use of Torx screws throughout, with the battery compartment in particular being only two of those fasteners away from being pried open. It's reassuring to know that even when Nokia moves away from the traditional user-replaceable battery design, it still offers a cell that is accessible to the somewhat more motivated owner. We didn't have the chance to test the battery out in full, but our time with the N8 made a good impression -- we were typically able to get more than a full day's use out of it, though do beware overusing that Xenon flash. The camera was the biggest power drain for us, with its oversized lighting unit predictably being the chief culprit.
The FM transmitter included on the N8 made us smile with nostalgia, as it hearkens back to a time when we actually cared about FM radio waves. In itself, it's a pretty hit-and-miss affair. The hit is that the setup is an utter cinch, asking you only to select the same frequencies on your Nokia and the nearest boombox you've got lying around, while the miss is the fact that we got an awful lot of noise and distortion while trying to listen to our music. Eventually we did position our phone just right for almost flawless playback, but it's a temperamental affair and would require a bit of patience and commitment from the user determined to squeeze every last cent's worth out of his 1985 Technics hi-fi. On a less flippant note, we reckon drivers will really appreciate the transmitter's inclusion, particularly those who have to rent regularly, as it gives them a connectivity mode with unmatched backwards compatibility.
Even happier news were found on the video transmission front, where we were able to drop a downloaded .mkv file off from our MacBook Pro and onto our N8 just through OS X, without recourse to any additional software, before exploiting the phone's HDMI connection to pump the video out to our home cinema projector. It was easy and straightforward, and having Matroska format compatibility right out of the box is very nice indeed.
Display We've got two words for you: Gorilla Glass. We had to confirm this with Nokia since nobody seems to have bothered to make an official announcement on the matter, but yes, the N8 comes with the
bulletproof scratch-resistant glass that's garnered so much admiration since making its mainstream debut on the Motorola Droid. We scratched, clawed, poked and prodded the N8's front, but nothing we did caused it any discomfort. That's just what we've come to expect from these Gorilla Glass screens, which offer a real sense of assurance when plopping your expensive gadget into a pocket or in a bag that includes more than just fluffy toys.
What lies beneath it is a 3.5-inch AMOLED display stretching to 640 x 360 resolution. That's obviously not the densest panel you can own anymore, but neither is it a slouch. The N8's vibrancy and color saturation look highly accurate while the auto-brightness guesses correctly most of the time and gives you enough power -- unless you've got the sun shining directly down on the phone, of course -- to get on with your Symbian^3 business. That resolution is really the only thing holding this display back, but it's not like Nokia can do too much about it now.
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