Nokia N8 goes official: 12 megapixels, Symbian^3, shipping in Q3
By Darren Murph 
posted April 27th 2010 6:33AM
posted April 27th 2010 6:33AM
Update: Here's a look at a few sample images from that 12 megapixel camera. Thanks, Matija!
Nokia N8. Connect. Create. Entertain.
April 27, 2010
Espoo, Finland - The Nokia N8, Nokia's latest smartphone, intuitively connects to the people, places and services that matter most. With the Nokia N8, people can create compelling content, connect to their favorite social networks and enjoy on-demand Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps. Available in select markets during the third quarter of 2010, the estimated retail price of the Nokia N8 is EUR 370, before applicable taxes or subsidies.
The Nokia N8 introduces a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a large sensor that rivals those found in compact digital cameras. Additionally, the Nokia N8 offers the ability to make HD-quality videos and edit them with an intuitive built-in editing suite. Doubling as a portable entertainment center, people can enjoy HD-quality video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound by plugging into their home theatre system. The Nokia N8 enables access to Web TV services that deliver programs, news and entertainment from channels like CNN, E! Entertainment, Paramount and National Geographic. Additional local Web TV content is also available from the Ovi Store.
Social networking is second nature to the Nokia N8. People can update their status, share location and photos, and view live feeds from Facebook and Twitter in a single app directly on the home screen. Calendar events from social networks can also be transferred to the device calendar.
The Nokia N8 comes with free global Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation, guiding people to places and points of interest in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Symbian^3 in action
Powering the Nokia N8 is Symbian ^3, the latest edition of the world's most used smartphone software, which introduces several major advances, including support for gestures such as multi touch, flick scrolling and pinch-zoom. The Nokia N8 also offers multiple, personalizable homescreens which can be loaded with apps and widgets. The new 2D and 3D graphics architecture in the platform takes full advantage of the Nokia N8's hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. Symbian^3 also raises the bar in performance by delivering greater memory management allowing more applications to run in parallel for a faster multi-tasking experience.
Getting Qt for Developers
The Nokia N8 is Nokia's first device to be integrated with Qt, a software development environment that simplifies the development and makes it possible to build applications once and deploy across Symbian and other software platforms. Nokia has also made the powerful and simple to use Nokia Qt SDK available, in its initial beta, to enable developers to start realizing the potential of Qt.
@gigarath, to carry them both, or you mean a *clean* pair of pants? ;)
Win.
damn, the girl in the N8 sample pictures is cute. :P
It seems there will be "Comes with Music" version also. Regarding the price, N8 seems to be nowhere near Nokia's top of the range smart phones so if you pay double what will you be getting then?!?!
@meku
N9 (meego) might be its actual flagship. this could just be its multimedia producer beast
Looks nice, but is this yet ANOTHER development platform started from scratch?
So it won't be able to run Symbian^2 apps or Maemo apps?
@Johnny Rockets
Would you read a lil?
It supports all prior s60 apps and supports apps coded in qt.
All future applications that will be compatible with any future os (S^4,S^5,Meego) versions will need to be written in qt.
So to answer your question simply. It runs legacy apps
I LIKE THE AD MUSIC!!!
N8 captures quite decent video for a mobile phone: http://vimeo.com/11266224
could do with a keyboard
Well I just ordered the HTC Desire to replace my N97, if this is any good when it comes out (an to be honest you should wait a few months till after its release) then there is no harm in changing again. However my roadmap includes the Dell Lighting, because I much prefer a physical keyboard.
I wait with better anticipation for a full review with full video as someone shows the phone software off. Hardware wise, Nokia are great. I need to see how far Symbian^3 has come and if it will justify a change.
Damn what a nice phone. It's really a flagship product of Nokia. If you are interested in a dutch preview of the nokia N8, you can go to www.gsmpedia.nl/nokia-n8
I am especially impressed by the 12 megapixel camera. Does any other phone right now have a comparable camera?
Can't wait for this phone to hit the Netherlands
@jhhzwartkruis
It is http://www.gsmpedia.nl/nokia-n8
@jhhzwartkruis actually...this is part of the N8xx lineup. N9xx phones make up the flagship lineup. if this is so good, imagine what the N9 will be like...and what's even better, there are rumors that the N9 has MeeGo on it! (although i'm cool with symbian^3) :D
Wow, i'm actually excited about this phone :)
But it better not be another N97. Although the N97 isn't that bad, it's completely obsolete compared to the competition, including Symbian phones from other manufacturers.
form factor kind of reminds me of a sony cybershot DSC. :P
albeit much more functional and much more awesome.
I saw the stills and video this thing took.. I still can't believe it.
I mean the stills look like the software is compressing it a bit too much (can be easily fixed) and there are some artifacting, but I am deeply impressed by the clarity and deepness of the color reproduction. At first, I suspected the camera could only do cool colors well, but I saw one picture where there was red and it was a deep red. Impressive. Very impressive.
It looks like it's only a couple more phone-cam generations b4 Nokia's predictions come true. It's certainly better than 90% of the point and shoot available out now based on the unedited sample photos taken. And even if not so great, the high quality video would make it a better buy than a dedicated point and shoot.
So if this crashes just half the time of a N97mini it is a giant leap forward. Even with out the 12mp, HD recording and Xenon flash. It would finally be a telephone that one could use to succesfully place and receive telephone calls.
Wow Symbian S^3 is even more FUG than I could've ever possibly imagined. Hey Nokia? Can you just swallow your pride, admit Symbian is a glittering gem of colossal FAIL, quit trying to re-invent the wheel (poorly I'd add) and just adopt Android already? Google's already WAY WAY WAY ahead of you guys and only picking up steam so you might as well quit trying to iceskate uphill with Symbian and join in.
Announcing N8 with months before the launch will cost Nokia as much as a fail. We will see if Symbian 3.0 OS can save this when it will be released. We made a preview of N8 model on our site, http://www.itsagadget.com/2010/05/could-nokia-n8-mean-something-this-year.html
.. urgh!.. i just got the long waiting X6 and now nokia is coming out with this N8..!?! of course i want it.. and i'm not even being paid to comment.. *sobs*
btw, my X6 16gb is not a disappointment, unlike my former 5800 xpress music (traded in with X6), with a 5mp camera, the pictures are better than the latter.. but i haven't try indoors, though..
I work in a restaurant in Surrey, BC Canada. One of my customers came in with an n8 (a blue one). He said he worked for nokia ( I didn't know they had offices here)and told me it was a pre-production unit. It looked absolutely amazing. His (5 year old) daughter was watching a movie on it, and the image quality was as good as, if not better than my iTouch. Would gave loved to see the photo quality.