The Nokia N8 is a phone of many firsts for the company. It's the first phone to run Symbian^3, feature a 12-megapixel camera, offer HDMI out, be a USB On-The-Go device, and feature a multi-touch touchscreen.
It's also the first Nokia used to create a short film, The Commuter, shot entirely in HD (in October 2010).
Impressed? The Nokia N8 is a very worthy all-rounder multimedia smartphone. It even looks good. It is sleek, lightweight, and has an aluminium unibody shell, with the camera jutting out slightly on the back. One of my biggest disappointments with the unibody enclosure is the built-in battery.
The phone is Nokia's second capacitive touchscreen handset (X6 being the first) and features the following physical keys: power, menu, volume, camera and slide lock. The 3.5-inch AMOLED display (16:9 ratio) is more than adequate for browsing the Web, playing games, viewing pictures and watching videos. Multi-touch capabilities work well, most notably when browsing the image library and applying the 'pinch to zoom' function. It is also embedded into the Web browser and e-mail client.
One of my favourite features of the N8 is USB On-The-Go. I'm not just talking about copying files between a USB stick and the phone (which, by the way, is really handy, and could very well be a deciding factor for some); I'm talking about watching videos directly off a flash stick - there is no lag.
Another favourite is the HDMI out cable, included in the box. You can record HD videos (720p) and play them on your TV quite easily. The 12-megapixel camera takes good pictures and effectively doubles up as a point and shoot.
I did experience lag when I downloaded a few applications onto the N8 for the first time, which then froze. I couldn't do much and removing the SIM card didn't help. Eventually, after a few tries of holding down the power button really hard, it switched off. I don't understand why Nokia decided to go with a built-in battery.
The N8 lets you customise up to three homescreens, with widgets, shortcuts to social networks, contacts or music - whatever you wants. Much like every other Nokia smartphone, it comes preloaded with Ovi Maps with voice navigation and integrated social networking. A single application pulls Twitter and Facebook feeds for easy access. Facebook events can also be added into the calendar quite easily.
The built-in FM transmitter lets you listen to music in your car, cable-free. It's very simple to set up, and with 16GB built-in memory, it's more than enough space to keep you going for a few days.
I loaded 4GB of music onto the handset to see how well the default music player handled it. When scrolling through tracks with cover flow, it was lag-free. The speaker on the phone is situated at the back, by the camera, so you can't listen to music with the phone face-up, unless you enjoy a muffled sound.
The Nokia N8 does a lot - more than your regular smartphone. It takes away the need to buy an MP3 player, a GPS and a digital camera.
If you're looking for a smartphone with a whole bunch of extras, then the Nokia N8 is for you.
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