Nokia N8 - user opinions and reviews
- r 3 b 3 l
- QHL
This is the last time i would post as regards hardware specs so i'll try to break the logic down so even the dumbest of hateful retards can understand.
When infrared technology was mastered and began appearing on portable devices, it was groundbreaking. A technological milestone. Today, infrared has found its way to virtually every electronic device. From tvs to laptops. Infrared was also used on mobile phones. Them bluetooth came along. Today, bluetooth has almost totally taken over as far as mobile phones are concerned but still, why don't we see bluetooth remote controls? There is one simple answer. Its not necessary. Are you then going to say that remote controls use outdated hardware?
When you go to a shop to buy say an alarm clock do you ask for hardware specifications? 'em, what type of processor does this one use? Whats the screen resolution?' what you're concerned with is 'how well does it perform? Whats the battery life. What options does it offer?'
When specsheets for mobile phones are published they are meant to give you an idea of how the device would perform. HOWEVER, IT IS COMPLETELY ILLOGICAL AND IRRATIONAL TO ESTIMATE PERFORMANCE OF A DEVICE USING A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT GADGET AS CONTROL. The nokia 5730 has a 600mhz cpu while the nokia n73 has 368mhz. They both run the same os, have the same screen size and resolution. If and only if i were to assume that the 600mhz processor in the 5730 processes data faster than the n73 processor(which is not always the case. Higher frequency does not mean higher processing speed) would it then be rational for me to assume that the 5730 would perform better. However, since it is always true that higher processor frequencies mean higher power consumption, the 5730 would most definitely have a shorter battery life so long they use the same battery and no other counter measures have been undertaken. This is how to think. This is logic. This is common sense.
On the argument that a faster processor would make symbian faster or even more stable. I own a pc with a 3.2ghz processor and a laptop with a 2ghz processor. I installer pro evolution soccer 10 on both. The game doesn't play any faster on my pc than on my pc than on the laptop. Lionel messi cannot kick the ball any faster on my pc than on my laptop. Where then is the extra 1.2ghz? In the trash can! Burning away. Wasting power. Why do you thing laptop manufacturers don't put 3.2ghz processors in mainstream products? Because they don't need them! That symbian lags is not a problem of underpowering but rather one of the os itself. SYMBIAN AS I KNOW IT WASN'T ORIGINALLY BUILT FOR SPEED BUT FOR FUNCTIONALITY. Its like your pc. How many seconds does it take the average windows pc to start up microsoft word? 10? 20? How about the gallery? Yahoo messenger? In symbian, os components like gallery, phonebook and messages are simply applications. When needed, they have to be started up hence the 1-2 second delay and the less hardware requirements.
My nokia n95 8gb has 128mb ram. At bootup, i have about 85mb free. After surfing for about an hour with 6 windows open, one of which is on the tariff unfriendly full featured youtube, and 4 other less ram hungry apps in the background, i have 66mb of ram left. I go on the open 27 more apps including nokia maps, ngage and lifeblog before the phone hangs and restarts itself. I'm still unsuccessful till date in my quest to encounter a memory full error. Thats 128mb of ram without ram cacheing, application suspend or hibernate. What more 256 with ram cacheing?
That nokia won't be using symbian on anymore nseries devices doesn't mean symbian is incapable or bad. The reason is simple. The times have changed! Gone are the days when only business men and rational individuals with real needs buy expensive phones. Nowadays, even the dumbest of people spend huge amounts of money to buy worthless pieces of crap. The iphone, ipad and other ishit are living testimony. Nseries devices are meant to be the devices from which nokia earns its highest returns. Built for the stupidly rich a majority of whom are unconcerned about functionality hence the need for meego. I, for one can't imagine myself buying a meego device. Ask why? Because it majors on looks rather than functionality. Symbian would be bearing the flag for nokia on their eseries devices. The series for right minded rational thinkers.
If i were to switch from symbian today (which is completely impossible) guess what platform it would be to? Not android. Not meego. Not bada and definitely not ios. Windows mobile. Why? Because its the only other platform that has its priorities straight(blackberry os doesn't qualify. Its too narrow). Functionality over form.
- Rick
- LxG
James, 07 Aug 2010It's not just about pure MHz/GHz numbers. The newer processors are more energy efficient, and ... moreAgreed
- Anonymous
- 4TH
I found this interesting statement on
http://www.theexpressusa.com/2010/08/06/nokia-latest-news-nokia-n8-coming-on-august/
"Nokia has officially made a statement that their new product, the Nokia N8, will be officially launched on the market on August 24 this year. According to Nokia N8 few details and improvements, which causes the release of this phone instead of the previous list."
Can anyone clarify this?
- James
- TIG
Naveed, 06 Aug 2010Those who are complaining about the low processor in *N8*. they should think that Nokia N8 has... moreIt's not just about pure MHz/GHz numbers. The newer processors are more energy efficient, and that means a lot for prolonging battery life.
Anyway, besides the untested (i.e tested in daily usage by actual buyers) Symbian^3, I'm more worried about the amount of RAM on the phone. The N8 has only 256Mb RAM. With features such as HDMI output, 12MP camera, support for multitasking etc, I expect no less than 512Mb to be satisfactory. Nokia should be more generous with RAM in future flagship phones.
- Anonymous
- t7U
You've been asked this a bunch over the last few days, but I don't think we can ignore the Android question. What's your opinion on using the OS?
"Android is run by Google... we're not prepared to hand over our destiny to a third-party on that one."
The short answer is no, we're not going to do it. But the why to that one is interesting. We fundamentally believe in our capability to add value on top of just producing great hardware. And so, you have to build something different. And so, in a way, then it's just the question of, do we believe that we can be better or more efficient in differentiating by picking up Android versus something like MeeGo. So, it becomes almost a technical question.
Now, of course, the other thing that we factor in is that Android is run by Google, and that just means that potentially it's much more in their hands. We're not prepared to hand over our destiny to a third-party on that one. So, it is, of course, hard to justify whether that's relevant or not, but having 40 percent market share of the smartphones, we think that we need to have a bit of a say in the platform.
This will be our last question and it's a good follow up to the Android answer. Looking at what Apple and Google have taken of the US smartphone market, what do you see Nokia's future – let's say a year from now – looking like? Given all we've discussed – the N8, MeeGo, etc – what's going to make Nokia grab its share?
I would say that a year from now, I'm sure that we will have both MeeGo and Symbian devices in this market. How many, with what carriers, is, of course, up to us to make happen. But, the foundation that we have built gives us the tools and the settings in place so that we can be successful in this market. It's a function of us making great products, it's a function of us convincing the US carriers that we do have great products, and they fit into their overall portfolio and that the economics behind that are the right ones. But I feel confident that we have built the platform for that to happen.
- Anonymous
- t7U
Shifting back to the handset part of the business, do you plan to bring the N8 out here in the US and what's the strategy in the US looking like right now?
Yes, we will launch the N8 in the US, but we haven't announced any carriers yet. As for the second part of the question, there's two parts to the answer. First of all, I do think that the US smartphone market in the last two years has come from a very small one to the world's largest. You could argue that, one way or the other, any vendor with the long term ambition of being a leader in the smartphone segment also needs to be successful in the US. You could argue therefore, is there so much difference long term between the US version and the rest of the world version? Or is it even going to flip? Is the US version the global version as well? That being said, the US market shares some characteristics with other markets in terms of channel structure with operators. Korea and Japan are two others where the market is managed and driven through the carrier selections. This means that not only do we need to make products that we feel are right for the US consumer, but we need to make sure that we make products that feed the overall product portfolios of the US carriers.
"More and more, because of the dynamics of the global market, I see product managers saying, 'hey, we gotta reverse this thing. We gotta make sure we're competitive in the US and that will be a recipe for success elsewhere.'"
You also have to take a step back to look at what we've been doing with the US strategy. Specifically, we've settled with Quallcomm, partnered with Intel on MeeGo, Microsoft on Office, and Yahoo on Messaging -- we have four very big and important American tech companies who share a business interest with us. All of that doesn't have a direct day-to-day impact on operations necessarily, but that does contribute to building a position.
More and more, because of the dynamics of the global market, I see product managers saying "hey, we gotta reverse this thing. We gotta make sure we're competitive in the US and that will be a recipe for success elsewhere." Finally, nothing big ever started big. One step at a time. Some small, but important, wins already there – Neuron with T-Mobile is an example. And the Ovi Store billing integrated with AT&T. These aren't huge things, but they are proof points that we have the offering that the consumer would like, and it gives us confidence to plow ahead.
While we are talking about US carriers, what are your plans for WiMAX and LTE here?
Well, you have Verizon, who is very aggressively going to LTE. That is an incredible opportunity for us, both when it comes to the network infrastructure, but also how Verizon will then transition to a period of dual mode CDMA / LTE and eventually be pushing very hard for LTE products. That then brings Verizon into the addressable mainstream technology when it comes to capability.
Would you play in that dual-mode space until LTE is ready?
I think that the dual-mode handset market is going to be very difficult to serve for someone who is not in the CDMA business. I think personally it's going to be a shorter transition than people think. It's a new technology, and it's going to be hard to make it a really smooth product offering. Of course, there's a transitional phase here and depending on who you talk to you, you hear different time predictions. It also depends on the dynamics in the market.
Also on the WiMAX front, you had the N810 Internet Tablet which was WiMAX compatible. Do you see potential there now, both in WiMAX and tablets? We know that's a loaded question...
First of all, on WiMAX, we have no plans. No changes there. Our conclusion has been that we need to focus on a few things and that isn't one of them.
And well, now to tablets. First of all, I think it's going to be a very crowded market. Based on what I hear, everybody is going to put them out. There's going to be Android tablets, MeeGo tablets, Windows tablets... you name it. It's going to be very crowded. The question for any vendor is going to become, "What is the uniqueness that you can provide in that space?"
"It's a square thing, so it's hard to differentiate on design, so brand is, of course, number one...At this point in time, we have made no decisions on tablets."
It's a square thing so it's hard to differentiate on design, so brand is, of course, number one. You have to think really hard on whether you have the capability to make a difference in that market. I personally also think you have to look at the use case, and when you look at the users of tablets it seems to be primarily a home media device which would suggest that the TV players are going to get into it as well, which will very quickly make it a TV-like market. As you know, we used to be in TVs and we have no plans to return. At this point in time, we have made no decisions on tablets. It is a market like any other adjunct market -- we monitor to see if we think entry into that specific area will create enough incremental value for us.
Beyond tablets, we've seen the evolution of smartphones becoming much more powerful and almost tablet like, sort of like the N900 was positioned when you first launched it. Some are calling them superphones, but do you have products that you're coming out with later in the year, maybe this MeeGo product, competing in that space?
I've actually been introduced to this 'super phone' term just this week. I think that as the smartphone market becomes more mainstream, we're going to see a lot of companies trying out' things when it comes to product concepts. The larger phones are interesting because physical things come into play, like how big our hand is. At some point in time, the thing is going to be too wide to be comfortably held in our hand. You know, our pockets are not getting any bigger! With a larger screen, your battery consumption goes exponentially up, and we have been taught as consumers that, "I'm not going to accept thicker phones anymore." This super phone category, I absolutely think it will exist, and it will be kind of a gray area between smartphones and tablets.
We're definitely going to play in that space, but, I think we come from the kind of usage paradigm of on-the-go. I think that once the screen gets above a certain size, it's not all that pocketable anymore, and if we don't have the on-the-go aspect, we lose part of our advantage. So that's why, I think, when you look at our product concepts we can, of course, decide that we want to take the 3G Booklet and expand that one, but from a mobility standpoint I think the size is an area where we will stay limited and make very careful decisions about.
We wanted to ask about the Booklet 3G since you guys really went into a different space in mobility last year. Do you expect to update it and stay in PCs?
That Booklet was, for us, an entry into a new product category that we wanted to kind of get our feet wet in, so to speak. We wanted to understand the dynamics of that. How much is that product category different from ours, etc. Not only in terms of how you make them, but how you sell them, where you sell them and all of that. It's clear the PC industry and the phone industry are really different beasts. We learned a lot about how to sell the Booklet versus the selling and marketing of handsets.
Sure, the pricing in the US was surely very high, especially given the data plan. So, is there plans to update that and the product?
Yeah, absolutely. In hindsight I think that we, from a pricing standpoint, probably went too high with it. But yes, that's a product category that we are now in. You know, once we have more to say about that, we'll tell you.
Back to MeeGo, we've seen some leaked pictures of the UI for smartphones and the different implementations from the Intel side. How important is it to keep a consistent Nokia UI or software look and feel between MeeGo and Symbian?
We're going to put our best foot forward when it comes to the user interaction with MeeGo products, and, of course, it's an evolution. Version two is always going to be better than version one, no question about that one. Then, on the similarities between Symbian and MeeGo, of course, from an iconography and the way it looks standpoint, we can do a lot to make sure that it's visible that it is the same family. I think we have to be very careful in not pulling the legacy with us to MeeGo on certain things. We will make some conscious decisions of things that will not be the same logic. For example, Symbian originally was built as a menu-driven operating system, which is not that practical when you are in a touch environment because the tree hierarchies back and forth. For MeeGo, we have taken a totally different kind of paradigm. So, you will not see this kind of menu-driven [UI]. We are making conscious decisions where we just say, "Okay, that's legacy, that's not going to come with us."
- Anonymous
- t7U
Cellphones
Nokia's VP talks N8, MeeGo 'milestone product,' tablets, Android and more!
By Joanna Stern posted Aug 6th 2010 6:27PM
Feature
Interview
Nokia's prepping for a fourth quarter launch of its MeeGo smartphone. The N8 will hit before the end of Q3. The company's absolutely not planning to use Android and a tablet isn't happening anytime soon. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the stuff we learned this morning during our captivating chat with Niklas Savander, Espoo's executive vice president and general manager of the Markets unit. With its quarterly profits dropping and losing daily (in mindshare, at least) to the Apples, HTCs and Motorolas of the world, we were certainly not lacking questions when we headed into the meeting, and Savander took on our questions about Nokia's short and long term plans with stride. We've got the key points of the interview bulleted out after the break -- and the full transcript after that.
On the N8: The N8 is more of a high to mid-range smartphone. It will be launched before the end of Q3. It will be available in the US, and carrier partnerships will be announced at a later date.
On MeeGo: The first MeeGo phone will be announced before the end of the year and will be a "milestone product" for the company. Nokia's done a lot of work on the interface and done away with a lot of the "legacy" of Symbian.
On Android: Nokia has no plans to use Android on its smartphones. End of story.
On tablets / larger phones: The company's made "no decisions" on entering the market. Savander seems to think larger screened smartphones are awkward.
On netbooks: The Booklet 3G was priced a bit high, but they are still in the market.
On 4G: Nokia has no plans to produce WiMax devices, but LTE will be a big focus.
We promise there's more where that came from, so sit back and read the full transcript.
Engadget: With the N8 becoming Nokia's new flagship phone – and presumably launching in Q3 -- how do you give it credibility with MeeGo around the corner? Do you see room for both Symbian and MeeGo in the high end?
Niklas Savander: In Q3 what we have coming out is the N8, it's the first in a family of products. It will definitely be a very attractive, high volume, successful product – no doubt about that one. We are pricing and positioning the N8 not at the very high end, but at the high mid-range. I don't think you should view the N8 as an answer to the high end, you should view it as the answer to an extremely well-functioning high-to-mid-range smartphone, which is a very large consumer segment. We have said that conservatively estimating, we're going to ship in excess of 50 million Symbian devices based on this platform. On scale, that's going to be a very meaningful product family for us going forward.
Yes, we are also working on MeeGo products at the same time. MeeGo for us is where we need to address the very high end of the portfolio. As for our first MeeGo product -- we have said that during this year we will have a major product milestone, and so now we are gearing up to have a major MeeGo offering in the high end. Even there, it's not a product, but a portfolio product. We feel very comfortable in saying that in order to address the pushing down smartphones to as broad of a mass as possible -- which is a function of price -- we need to have one team making sure that they are totally focused on that one, and that we plan to do with our Symbian portfolio. On the other hand, experience has told us that in order for us to drive speed and innovation, having MeeGo there as that is a good combination.
Now, the downside that we need to deal with as a consequence of targeting such a broad range of consumer is the developer. There, our acquisition of Trolltech has already given us the tools of Qt. The tools of Qt will be used as the tools of developers -- both our own, and external -- to diminish the difference from a programming standpoint between the two platforms.
That's a question we've had -- with the push for Qt, that cross-platform development is obviously a priority for the company, but are you hoping that the average developer spread his or her efforts effectively across all the platforms, or do you see many (if not most) specializing on one?
This, of course, is something we've put a lot of thought into to make sure we are comfortable with the scope of each of the teams. I think one important step there is that we ourselves use Qt, and somebody said "oh, you eat your own dog food." I say, "no, we drink our own champagne." The tools are not so bad that you should qualify them as dog food. But, on the other hand, one has to be a realist about when you have different form factors and different products, there's work that needs to be done between Product A and a Product B -- even in the same operating system. Take a HTC Android and a Droid from Motorola, you have to do some modifications even though you're working with the same OS.
The question is more, let's build the tools in such a way that it is predictable and known how you can manage your application in such a way that there is a piece that you don't have to change and then there is the rim around it -- the plugins that you need to modify -- and we give you the tools to do so.
- TP
- f4E
QT doesnt guarantee lots of apps, theres hardly any developer interest in Symbian, NOKIA simply cant figure it out it seems.
SPB is awful,clunky and is a resource hog, Android looks and functions far better than SPB. What you dont understand loney cent is that Android is built around the freedom to customize, NOT JUST themes and fonts but also default apps. In Android you can set any browser to be the default e.g. Opera Mini or Skyfire,if i tap a link in an Email my Android will open that link with Opera Mini without me having to copy and paste,i can do this with any app.
You can quote all the specs over and over again,but what counts is consistency and user experience,and at this point Android rules.
The CPU/GPU of N8 arent that great and YES theres a lag in all previews,when comparing with my Android to those new N8 previews,the N8 lags,its running on an old ARM11 CPU and even though the GPU is great,it can only do so much,and so the phone isnt as fast as an Android using a Snapdragon CPU. NOKIA should have installed a TI OMAP3630 ARM A8-Cortex with PowerVR SGX535 GPU in N8,it would have been A LOT snappier, more power effecient and more powerful,but this is Nokia,so N8 got old hardware. shame.
- lonely cent
- w7i
not at all. you can use SPB shell that is much more beautiful than android and iphone . for your information nokia will use meego harmattan which more beautiful than meego on other handsets. N8 is symbian 3 therefore QT written applications can support and millions of high end apps and games will be available in a near future . who the hell did say N8 is laggy, no it is not. experiance from hands on preview we see there is no laggy running 15 apps at the same time. that makes not comparable to other OS. thanks to N8 GPU and 680 mhz processor.
Definitely N8 .For sure i will buy it ,cause it is cheap,it has bluetooth 3,first n-standard Wi-Fi(it's the fastest in a smartphone), nHD screen size which is perfect for HDMI support, 12mp Xenon flesh wide angle and largest image sensor in a smartphone,first Dolby Digital plus sound in a smart phone, first multi touch in Nokia, first AMOLED capacitive touch screen in Nokia, first wireless mouse support in a smartphone, QT written applications supported.full flash 4.0 supported in the web browser,first USB on the go Wow now i can connect it to my 250GB hard disk and copy and paste the files easily with out a pc and ofcourse it will save time.. That's smartphone. Nokia N8- lifes make easy. And coming FX studio,Asphalt 5 , sims3 and need for speed etc.. yay... So it has high end hardware specs too.
- lonely cent
- w7i
aero, 06 Aug 2010Depend on what u need mate. N8 is a media centric phone. There are a lotta ppl who want a came... morenot at all. you can use SPB shell that is much more beautiful than android and iphone shits. for your information nokia will use meego harmattan which more beautiful than meego on other handsets. N8 is symbian 3 therefore QT written applications can support thus millions of high end apps and games. who the hell did say N8 is laggy, no it is not. experiance from hands on preview we see there is no laggy running 15 apps at the same time. that makes shit to other OS. thanks to N8 GPU and 680 mhz processor.
- Engineer Man
- n5Q
I'm looking forward Threaded Messaging on the N8. Since my ever increasing inpatience using my 5800. But what feature benefits they are. This is nice.
It would be nice if Nokia wre allowed to enter into patent agreement for Samsung/Android Swipe text, that would be super in S^3. Since webkit & Qt should be accessible across platform. Let's see if we can get swype to text.
Nokia's Slogon "What will you do with it" My answer, things that are neither seen or heard of on the Iphone. HA HA HA.
What say you?
- Crunk
- fu$
To that dude who said n97, n97 mini, c6, x6, 5800, 5230 are the same. Dude everyones doing the same thing:
Sony ericsson : vivaz, vivaz pro, x10 mini, x10 mini pro
Samsung: i9000 galaxy s, vibrant, captivate, wave pro, wave pro 2
They are all doing the same thing, not only nokia! Putting in a couple of keyboards on similar devices is giving the customer choices, not everyones uses every facility in a phone and those who do pay extra for the features that they want.
- Anonymous
- 39D
please when is this phone n8 going to be in market,i have try several stores in Nigeria and even in UK i could not get it,all they keep saying is they have not heard about it.all what is the price now i need to buy one.thanks.
- r 3 b 3 l
- QHL
Anonymous, 06 Aug 2010I was checking some of the older nokias and I was wondering why nokia was always using the sam... moreMost definitely because those are the optimum hardware requirements for symbian^1.
- Anonymous
- w4A
I was checking some of the older nokias and I was wondering why nokia was always using the same processor with the same ram and basically the same hardware but just kept rebadging it into a different package and then sell it.
Is this a strategy or did all those phones really had something different between them? Why are they doing this?
N97
N97mini
C6
X6
5800
5230
They are basically all the same phones. Changing dimensions or adding a qwerty keyboard isn't groundbreaking or innovate. Its just a variation of the same phone. I just wanted to know why they are doing that.
- r 3 b 3 l
- QHL
Anonymous, 06 Aug 2010nokia 5230 & 5233 has 1320 mah battery.they have less ram n less processor power.then y th... moreHave you considered that this phone user an amoled display?
- Anonymous
- s8h
nokia 5230 & 5233 has 1320 mah battery.they have less ram n less processor power.then y this phone has only 1200 mah?i wanna buy a good mobile.bt confused between n8 n galaxy s.if this phone had 1500 mah battery..better os n processor then i think this would b a great phone..n galaxy has everything exept usb otg,flash support,n camera quality is also not good as n8.so what should i do?
- SidewindeR
- PB7
Symbian is really for the smarter users. The development possibilities of symbian are practically endless. You have to be a symbian user to truly appreciate it's power. No other OS has so much flexibility and customisability than symbian. Those who don't see this ignore it and start bashing it as dated and laggy OS. But in smater hands, symbian can be every bit as powerful as any other OS today.
And to all samsung users here, Bada is a joke. Just think for yourself. What good is a smartphone if you cant even download a zip or rar file or any other files that is not recognised by the OS. Wave is only as good as it's display...
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