Nokia N8 - user opinions and reviews
- Wheez
- nSS
Anonymous, 13 Sep 2010nokia knows that symbian can not compete with other operating systems because the problems tha... moreI already copy pasted this earlier from my-symbian forums, but I don't want you to spread false information about Symbian^3 (not sure if you were only referring to early symbians, but you do generalize the whole Symbian).
Well, what I can say for now is that overall quality, look&feel, build precision, materials, etc. are simply OUTSTANDING and in this regard the N8 is surely the best Nokia smartphone ever made. The all plastic N900 does not even come close in terms of build quality. It was cold outside when the courier delivered the package and when I was taking the N8 from the box when I touched it for the first time that cold metal casing was really a nice feeling. The screen is also just.... lovely and works just like what you'd expect from a capacitive multitouch display.
I must say I am also extremely (positively) surprised when it comes to performance. The device boots in less than 30 seconds (including the Nokia Hands animation) and everything works exceptionally fast. I am not exaggerating here, it is really a ROCKET.
For several days I've been also testing the Vivaz and Vivaz pro, which both have the fastest processor ever used in a Symbian phone (Cortex-A8 720 MHz), i.e. faster and more advanced than N8's ARM1176 @ 680 MHz, but compared to the N8 they feel like snails.
I've also ran some benchmarks (e.g. GLBenchmark 1.1) and while Vivaz's get results considerably better (often even twice) than e.g. the Samsung Omnia i8910 HD, the N8 in turn outperforms the Vivaz/Vivaz Pro twins in graphic performance almost TWICE. It looks that even though its processor is slower, the GPU (hardware accelerator) of the N8 is considerably faster. Vivaz has PowerVR SGX530 GPU while the N8 has Broadcom VideoCore III.
http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=1106424
If it's that much faster than SGX530, then I wouldn't be surprised if it was offering performance similar to the SGX535 like in the iPhone 4.
As much as I am not a huge fan of S60, I must say that N8's Symbian^3 is a really huge step forward in terms of user experience. Even though everything looks almost the same, it's all the small tweaks and improvements that make it a wholly different story. Even just getting rid of that annoying and inconsistent double-tap on some items makes it much more pleasant to use, and along with the overall great performance it really works as it should have been from the beginning.
Oh, and they FINALLY changed the landscape mode to ALWAYS show the virtual buttons at the BOTTOM of the screen and not on the right side (on S60 5th Edition phones it works this way only on the home screen while on all other screens the buttons are on the right, eating some 20% of screen area) so now the landscape mode offers considerably more usable screen area, i.e. full width, with only a small button bar at the bottom. Again, just as it should have been from the beginning.
The camera (both video and stills) are indeed of exceptional quality and there are also some really nice small things about it like e.g. tiny internal "cover" over the lens that opens and closes automatically as you launch or close the camera app.
Would I switch from the N900 to the N8? Most probably no. I still prefer Maemo's UI, its higher resolution screen and its openness. So as much as I am really excited about the N8, my upgrade path from the N900 will be the N9.
I'd say eye candy is very well balanced against performance and usability. Transitions and effects are very subtle, yet still noticeable. And they're REALLY fast, well, at least on a "fresh" device that's not stuffed too much. I got the device three days later than promised and had to send it back today, so I only had three days to play with it, way too little to draw any final conclusions on how it will behave with lots of software installed, or how battery will perform in normal daily use, etc. I didn't have enough time to even just test how the Power Saving Mode improves battery life. But such a 'fresh' device performed EXCEPTIONALLY well. I'm still wondering how the N8 with a 680 MHz ARM11 can be that much faster than e.g. Vivaz with 720 MHz OMAP3...
I was promised that I will get another, almost final unit in a week or so, and for longer testing, so based on it I will be able to talk about all the details.
Back to eye candy, the UI looks much more elegant. All the changes are actually quite small and subtle, but maybe that's why I like them. Users don't have to learn the UI from the scratch, it's just that certain annoying things have been fixed and the UI got a face lifting. Transitions, fades etc. were 100% smooth and - as I wrote - very subtle, which means short/quick. This way, while making the UI look nicer, they do not slow it down unnecessarily.
Kinetic scrolling is supported everywhere, in all applications, system screens, image viewer, web browser, etc. And it is 100% smooth, too. Scrolling between pictures in the gallery is simply superb, just what you'd expect. Definitely not worse than on the iPhone.
Kinetic scrolling in the web browser is also nice, however some 'heavy' pages with large flash content tend to lag a bit, i.e. they start scrolling with some slight delay, but the actual scrolling is smooth, too. Lightweight pages scroll instantly. So I guess it's flash that affects the performance.
Pinch-to-zoom also works really nicely, both for images and web pages. There's really nothing to complain about in this regard.
Quote:
Does the audio player contain the 'cover flow' type display of album covers that was demonstrated in the s^3 preview video?
Yes. Please see the screenshot below. It looks and works really great and smooth, too.
http://download.my-symbian.com/Forum_pics/n8media.jpg
The impression I got regarding the eyecandy is that Nokia finally hired someone with GOOD TASTE to tune it. Subtle and quick transitions, really nice scrolling, and even the vibrator tuned for very nice and gentle feeback when you touch the screen. It is still the S60 platform and it couldn't magically turn into something completely different, so e.g. the built-in applications like Calendar or email client are still the same and may be too simple for more demanding users, but the overall user experience has really improved A LOT.
If Maemo/Meego didn't exist and I had to choose a new smartphone, I'd happily get the N8. I just wish it had a WVGA screen. nHD on 3.5" looks a little bit too pixelized, and the icons could be a bit smaller, too.
- Wheez
- nSS
Anonymous, 13 Sep 2010nokia knows that symbian can not compete with other operating systems because the problems tha... moreJudging Symbian^3 to earlier Symbians is like saying Windows 7 is a pure failure just cos Vista was.
- MarveL
- PSL
adam, 12 Sep 2010only 680MHz CPU (brain of the phone) most phones these days have 1GHz You dont need 1Ghz as the screen resolution is lower (640x320) compared to 1GHz phones (800*480). Lower resolution means less cpu-memory consumption under normal conditions.
- Anonymous
- iLH
nokia knows that symbian can not compete with other operating systems because the problems that symbian has, like the laggy interface and performance,the low reslolustion screen that nokia calling it nHD trying to fo#l some people,the unablity to get use of the more advanced processors and bigger rams,all these things make symbian looks like a joke when compared to andriod ,or iOS.
and as we know symbian is present before iOS ,andriod but when any human who has brain can easily notice the big difference between the applications quality of symbian and the and the other systems ,symbian applications looks ugly ,laggy,and not an eye candy even the quality of the samsung bada apps is better than the symbian.
nokia n8 is the last chance for nokia to stay in the smart phones market competition after the big failure of the n97 and the n900 at least untill meego become mature enough to replace symbian.
nokia n8 will get a lot of users specially people those never used andriod phone or an iphone before .
- Wheez
- nSS
Matt, 13 Sep 2010Could be. All I know is that when I changed my 3GS's firmware to 4.0 as soon as it was jailbro... moreAight, could be I remember wrong, or maybe it was the 3 or something, or then it just didnt effect everyone.
Well, case closed, back to N8 guys! :D
- Anonymous
- iLH
nokia knows that symbian can not compete with other operating systems because the problems that symbian has, like the laggy interface and performance,the low reslolustion screen that nokia calling it nHD trying to fo#l some people,the unablity to get use of the more advanced processors and bigger rams,all these things make symbian looks like a joke when compared to andriod ,or iOS.
and as we know symbian is present before iOS ,andriod but when any human who has brain can easily notice the big difference between the applications quality of symbian and the and the other systems ,symbian applications looks ugly ,laggy,and not an eye candy even the quality of the samsung bada apps is better than the symbian.
nokia n8 is the last chance for nokia to stay in the smart phones market competition after the big failure of the n97 and the n900 at least untill meego become mature enough to replace symbian.
nokia n8 will get a lot of users specially people those never used andriod phone or an iphone before .
- Matt
- MAV
Wheez, 13 Sep 2010I believe most of the problems that came got fixed anyways recently? Either way, wasn't some s... moreCould be. All I know is that when I changed my 3GS's firmware to 4.0 as soon as it was jailbroken, I was really really happy with it because finally it didn't have any bugs, errors or shutdowns anymore
- Hi.
- mh}
Duel, 13 Sep 2010"Well iPhone 4 has not. You still have to download apps for basicfeatures that othersmart... moreIt doesnt have java support and 3G videocalls. Only microsimcard. No card slot and so on you can have a loong list
- Matt
- MAV
Duel, 13 Sep 2010"Well iPhone 4 has not. You still have to download apps for basicfeatures that othersmart... morewell let's see where to begin:
-sending a file thru bluetooth. any file to any other bleutooth enabled device
-having a file explorer
-storing files on the memory of the phone to extract them later for using on other devices
-setting up mp3 ringtones and message tones
-flash in web browser
-sms delivery report
-having control over your image files and folders. It just converts the choses folders/iPhoto events to an unknown, unusable format on the phone itself
-put music (or anything for that matter) on it by copying, pasting
-offline navigation
-should I go on?
...
off course, if you do not want all of these things, why not buy an iPhone...
But I DO NEED them, so I'm selling my iPhone ;-)
- Anonymous
- niD
Wheez, 13 Sep 2010I believe most of the problems that came got fixed anyways recently? Either way, wasn't some s... moreNo, 3gs havent slow dowm
- Wheez
- nSS
Matt, 13 Sep 2010Wheez, about the iPhone there you are wrong. My 3GS only benefitted from the change to iOS4. I... moreI believe most of the problems that came got fixed anyways recently? Either way, wasn't some software patch (that was for iPhone 4, but was updated to 3GS too) really slowing it down? Not really an iPhone guy so havnt followed it closely, but that's what I remember reading somewhere.
- Matt
- LgQ
Wheez, 13 Sep 2010I disagree, actually. I way rather have a 12mp camera phone with real optics like the N8 has, ... moreI agree, I only take my dslr with me on the job and my compact camera sometimes gets forgotten. Having an N8 could really be helpfull since my iPhone takes rather poor shots...
- kodn
- sxt
adam, 12 Sep 2010only 680MHz CPU (brain of the phone) most phones these days have 1GHz faster cpu means faster depletion of battery. It would suck if your cameraphone suddenly runs out of juice,
- Matt
- LgQ
Wheez, 13 Sep 2010You are asking from the N8 page, you will obviously be told to buy the N8 :P
It depends wha... moreWheez, about the iPhone there you are wrong. My 3GS only benefitted from the change to iOS4. It's faster and a lot of things I had problems with when I had the 3.1.2 jailbreak were solved with the 4.0 jaibreak. I'm not bothering to jailbreak ios4.1, I will do that the day my iphone is sold... Hoping for a break even though I think it's gonna be a close one
- New waver
- vIb
shahid, 13 Sep 2010Hi all !
In my opinion better its better to buy 12mp cannon camera instead of having big mp... moreShahid, even for your point with the camera, not that the Mega pixel count really makes a difference. :)
Though, the camera alone is not the only selling point of this phone. It also has the Usb otg that is really useful along with the HDMI out you know.
- Wheez
- nSS
shahid, 13 Sep 2010Hi all !
In my opinion better its better to buy 12mp cannon camera instead of having big mp... moreI disagree, actually. I way rather have a 12mp camera phone with real optics like the N8 has, rather than buying a 12mp digital camera.
Cos it's a certain fact that I will never have the digital camera with me, but I'll always have the phone with me. Especially when the quality is just about the same if we're talking about the same price digital cameras. Only real difference is that the N8 naturally lacks optical zoom
It's not only the lightness of Symbian (and definitely not about Symbian being so featureless thus being light), it's also about the dedicated GPU that does a huge job in running the OS. In the end the N8 is at least as fast as an Android phone with 1ghz snapdragon or even faster in some aspects. Also, Symbian is by far the most mature OS, it has been coded especially with as little resource usage in mind. It's C++ but it uses it's own libraries so maximise the resource efficiency.
- shahid
- mTZ
Hi all !
In my opinion better its better to buy 12mp cannon camera instead of having big mp camera mobile.These set built quality is good but nothing fancy in it really my friend is using it. Lot of discussion 6XX mhz processor compared to the 1 ghz actual fact is that nokia does not lag much because it software does not have much load as compared to iphone or galaxy s it just like simple old symbian fone with little look change otherwise nothing amazing if u want something in terms of look than u can go for iphone 4 if performance wise than galaxy and camera wise than nokia after n95 it is the nokia best device in terms of camera but it is too expensive of 2600 dirhams in uae as it should not be more than 1600 dirhams
If u r crazy for nokia than u can go for n900 better than this functionality wise
It is just like comparing Suzuki swift (n8) with hummer (galaxy)
Hahah enjoy guys who have and who don’t
Positive opinion because I neither have galaxy s or n8 my friend have the both set set and I have used all of these set but I enjoyed on galaxy as compared to n8 or Iphone
Thumbs up
- Anonymous
- niD
Wheez, 13 Sep 2010You are asking from the N8 page, you will obviously be told to buy the N8 :P It depends wha... moreiOS4 only slowed down iphone 3G not 3GS, and now with updated iOS4.1 3G is much speedier and smoother too like it used to be before iOS4.0.
- Wheez
- nSS
[deleted post]Convert 450-500 euros to your own currency and you got the price approximately.
- Wheez
- nSS
Andrew, 13 Sep 2010Dude, that makes me so stressed for what I should buy.
What do u think NOKIA N8 or iPhone ... moreYou are asking from the N8 page, you will obviously be told to buy the N8 :P
It depends what you want and need. Featurewise, N8 obliterates the 3GS. The iPhone is still very trendy phone and it works (at least the older firmware, I understood iOS4 fucked that up) awesomely in what it can do, like being the menu browsing, internet browsing. It's a very, very smooth and slick device. However, it's hardly a smartphone compared to the N8.
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