Nokia N8 launching August 24, we hear; Amazon Germany taking €470 pre-orders
By Chris Ziegler 
posted May 21st 2010 3:11PM
posted May 21st 2010 3:11PM
[Thanks, Al]
posted May 21st 2010 3:11PM
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@Mr w00t why couldn't we notice that smoothness in the official Nokia videos about the N8 then? Why did not the official Nokia video show transitions between homescreens? Why did pinch-zoom seem extremely laggy? I wouldn't ask these questions if those videos were some hands-ons made about a prototype... but these videos were made by Nokia and intended to advertise the N8
I'm pretty sure that Amazon.de won't ship electronics to the USA. I've tried in the past with other European Amazon sites. I could be wrong though.
@darex Don't worry. Unlike the d0uchebag HTC, Nokia usually will release their phones in the US too. So far, all their premium phones have US releases (N97, N900, E72, X6, etc)
Just found this HD video sample captured by a Nokia N8. Looks fantastic!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JhKK7ir2wM
Im going to wait till Sept. if Nokia announce something better spec phone than N8 and release date is still in 2010 im going to wait more for that! nokia said that they dropping 3 Symbian^3 device this year..so 2 more to go.
design by community project phone might come true! its a real flagship phone spec!
Please Nokia make that thing happen !!!
Nice mini review Woot!!
@chabba
Lets pause and think for a minute.
If you saw a baby horse for the first time, would you assume that it would always look like that, indefinitely?
If that your logic then I can understand your comment.
Otherwise lemme let you in on something that isn't a secret.
Nokia themselves said that the firmware used in the demo videos was nothing close to the firmware that is out in the wild and being tested, furthermore it is rumored that the only reason they announced the phone was to stem the tide of bad mouthing that a certain Mr. Murtazin decided to start spouting. Based on all that I've seen so far, he can go shove it, he had an agenda and attempted to execute it and failed.
The N97, being what it was, still sold in droves all around the world. No reason why this won't too.
If Nokia ever brings this to the states. I'll choose the Orange Symbian nice colors they have.
It's nice .I heared a voice from nokia with N8 is "I wake up!" I can't help to using it!
@SeeKo Nokia should do more than this to make them compete against other manufacturers. Yep, good luck. Opinions- http://j.mp/nokia-superphone-is-it
You want the best screen out there, you buy Samsung Galaxy S. Reason: 60% more pixels than N8, much better in touch sensitivity (new integrated touch layer) and sun visibility than Desire/N8 (Super AMOLED). The only possible trump: Apple iPhone (even more pixels and a nice IPS/FFS screen).
You want the fastest processor (CPU AND GPU), you buy the Samsung Galaxy S. It has S5PC110 (SGX540 + Cortex-A8) @ 1GHz. Again, both the CPU and GPU are *tested* faster than Snapragon SoCs using older GPUs (including the AMD gpu in Desire). Even upcoming iPHone HD has a lower speed (Mhz) core than Galaxy S, and a lower specced GPU. Nokia N8 doesn't even register, the ARM11 core in it is really low-specced and offers less than 50% of the raw horsepower the Cortex 8/1GHz cores do (clock-for-clock). To add insult to injury, N8 is the lowest frequency in terms of CPU clock speed.
If you want the best built-quality, you buy N8: all metal, Nokia test/durability standards are unparalled compare to Samsung/HTC. Not cheap plastic like Desire/Galaxy S. Only iPHone HD could trump Nokia here, and for that we'll have to see.
You want the most upgradeable OS, you buy the HTC Desire (or alternatively Galaxy S). You'll get: Guaranteed upgrade to Android 2.2 - perhaps even Gingerbread. Rooting, hackable kernels (including greatly expanded battery life). If you want to be a dead duck in the water in terms of OS upgrades, you buy a Nokia Symbian device, which *never* get any upgrades, except for minor bug updates (Nokia will *not* upgrade Symbian ^3 devices to Symbian^4, even though Sym^4 is less than a year a way once the Sym^3 devices actually ship).
You want the best camera, you buy N8. No qualms about it: huge 1/1.83 sensor, superb non-distorting glass optics, no over-sharpening, best white balance algorithms, least amount of noise, best shooting in the dark, best flash. This is where N8 is really head and shoulders above others.
You want the best battery life, you buy N8. Really. It has the lowest speed cpu, smallest screen and still a fairly hefty battery, including superb power savings by Symbian^3. It will last up to twice as long as the competitors in terms of battery stand-by time or heavy-usage time.
If you want the best all-in-one package, requiring least amount of tinkering and least amount of hacking with most everything "just working Out of the box, you wait for Apple iphone HD. Android is still very much in the early stages, a hacker's dream. Symbian^3 is unproven and the UI interaction language still has quite a bit of catching up to do. Apple phones, closed and limited, you may hate them, but they do work. Including the biggest and baddest app store. Ovi and Android are still fairly far behind.
If you want the most open and hackable platform: Android. Say what you will about Symbian^3 being open source, there is *zero* kernel hacks, signing hacks or rooting hacks for it. If you want to do something that the OS supplier didn't intend, then you are screwed. Android is already hacked on all these fronts, so you can pretty much do most things with it that weren't even intended by the designer. iphone OS? Don't get me started :)
So there, that's the rough game plan.
It all depends on what you want.
There is no single best solution, and arguing about "my phone is universally better in all regards compared to your phone" is like little children fighting over their toys inside the sand box.
Me? I'll skip all these and hum along with my 1 year old phone, and wait for the:
- Super amoled beyond WVGA screens
- Cortex A9 (twice the speed of A8)
- Next gen Tegra and other GPU units
- More RAM
- more stable OS versions (and let the dust settle over Android3/iphone OS 4/Symbian^4)
- more players shipping with good cams (N8 will blow everybody out of the water for autumn 2010, trust me)
- Better build quality being standard (plastic creaky stuff, no thanks)
While the step up in components in the past year in smart phones has been awesome, the next year is going to be even better.
@vasra2 i think the definition of UPGRADE can be misleading. For N8, the S^3 cant be upgraded to S^4 because it cant be done, firmware upgrade will improve the S^3.
Android? The OS itself is lacking of phone features which are supposed to be there in the 1st place. Every upgrade is trying to upgrade the OS to become more phone-like.
Gotta give credit where it's due. Kudos to Nokia for this being a 5-band UMTS phone. That's mind boggling and game changer, especially with d0uchebag companies like HTC and Palm sticking with dual-band UMTS. Awesome. I hope this paves the road for everybody to do the same.
@pika2000
Chances are its something that they developed themselves... and if thats the case it's gonna be patented and other companies are gonna have to pay to use it.
@Mr w00t thanks for the detailed review mate :) can't wait to get my hands on it in Spetember... (i know..it releases in August, but i will ask for it as a gift on my b'day in Sep :p )
@vasra2
Good points, but what people want is a compelling experience. People need a hole in the wall, and which drill is used for that is irrelevant. So the points about CPU, GPU etc should be lumped with the OS used, as OS performance on similar hardware is dramatically different between the things you specified. Also, the CPU is weaker, agreed, and the GPU is weaker than in Galaxy S as well, but the UI is hardware accelerated in Symbian^3. As for hacks, there are S60 hacks, new kernels, custom firmware. Not for S^3 though...
@futurerheza That must be an unsubsidized price, otherwise it is dead in the water.
@MarkAnderson
Yep, it feels very light. Better than N97, N900(which I love but it looks like I carry a fridge in my pocket). Maybe as slim as a E72. And the unibody gives the same feel as an iPhone/Nexus One.
@partandre217 Yep, this explains the clock of the being lower. The GPU indeed does the heavy lifting, the new cover flow is the best example. It looks gorgeous.
@chabba Well, dunno about the video... I was not the one making them. :) I think they didnt show the homescreen transition because its not the main selling point. What would sell more? The best cover flow in market, HD recording or homescreen transition? :P At least this is my opinion. About pinch-zoom I dunno, if its browser related I would say it is dependent on how "heavy" the site really is. About Nokia videos, boy, they either create a lot of expectation with it, ala n97, or underwhelm, in case N8. I think the problem is not with the device but with the marketing team :P
@vasra2 Have you seen somewhere stated that N8 wont be able to be upgrade to S4? I am asking this because once S4 comes out might have some "way" to upgrade it.
@boxieblue well not a review :) actually i didnt reveal anything that could not be seen at the videos. I think Nokia understood that showing flashy videos of the devices jumping up and down with no real shot of how the OS is behaving is very misleading and damaging. They saw the negative reaction with the N97 and the overhyped commercials.
@leikapesh I didnt understand your link :P Somehow you said something very skeptical but sent a link of a positive opinion. :P
@Mr w00t
Look at his comment history. He just tries to spread that website.
@vasra2
About the symbian openess as OS, I dont know about S^3, but on my old n95 I can install anything, I can even sign my own apps without too much problem.
And by far the old symbian (s60 3rd editon) has the best apps. I expect the same on S^3.