At least now people'll stop bitching about the Epic's price. Well, maybe they won't cause this is unlocked (I think, not 100 percent sure, can someone confirm?)
Either way, I wish people would stop complaining about a 50 dollar price difference. It makes sense, to me at least.
Yeah, that is a pretty decent price, especially now that the Nexus One can't be bought directly from Google (unless you hunk over $25 USD as a 'developer',) and Apple's cheapest offering for the 4 is $659 CAD or £499 UK.
@SarnGate Another enticing feature I saw about this phone was USB OTG support. Basically it says that USB drives or devices will be able to connect with the phone through a cord they provide. It's possible that you could hook up a flash drive to the N8, and copy, or read media to/from the drive. You can manage your data on the go without the use of a computer.
@Juggernaut408 This is the death nail for Nokia. They need to just slap Android on the N900 and give it a capacitive touch screen. Otherwise, this company better just give up on smart phones and focus on developing markets.
@SarnGate Don't forget TRUE free GPS navigation. This means that you don't need to be connected via data to fetch maps since Ovi Maps downloads them from your PC. Trust me, this is an amazing feature for my Nokia N95. I've used the GPS when driving from Canada to the United States and when navigating around Europe with no charges at all. I plan to use it later this month when I go on vacation to Florida. I think the fact that you get a fully-featured GPS with a Nokia phone is a big plus for them.
@nicholas1987ucsb Nokia has nothing to worry about. They have Symbian for their low-mid end smartphones, and MeeGo (which is a VERY capable OS) for their high-end devices. Why must every device have Android or iOS to be good? And the N8 is capacitive, and so will every Nokia device following.
@allenrotstein Nokia has acknowledged this, I believe. In fact, the Nokia's sensor size is 1/1.83" and a 28mm lens. Should be pretty reasonable with the 12MP and Xenon flash for low-light.
you really shouldn't comment without doing a little research. it has the biggest sensor on a phone ever. About the same as most point and shoots if not greater.
and I wouldn't bee too worried about the zeiss lens
maybe your should know what your talking about next time, its not a thiny lens at all. The cameras 12mp lens is a proper wide angle lens like you would find in many decent 200 dollar or more digital cameras.
That is a bit over price, price of iphone 4 would drop that range by end of next month, vibrant is far cheaper going to be like mid 300 or less by that time.
@techlord The Vibrant is 500 flat with no contract and absolutely no chance of being unlocked. The cheapest iphone is 600 with NO chance of carrier unlock.
@N900 Dang that IS a killer feature! Never seen any mention of that before now... Nokia makes solid products but I never could get the hang of Symbian (my wife has a 6650 and hates using it; most of the time I hate supporting it too but there's no denying the hardware is superb). Interested to see what Symbian 3 brings to the table here. Hard to justify buying unsubsidized though... Do you guys think any carriers will be picking this up?
@Juggernaut408 The most overhyped phone in history. I bet its gonna suck! Buggy, underpowered and an overrrated camera. N97 all over again. Mark my words! $549? Only an Nokia fanboy would choose this over a Nexus One.
You moron, its the biggest sensor ever, has as much surface per pixel as the iPhone 4 camera, but 2.4 times as many. It literally destroys any camera phone out there. Go troll somewhere else.
- 12 megapixels doesnt mean a better picture. Means more pixels could result in more noise in the snapshot
- Full HD (1080p, i presume) doesnt mean its the greatest - how about the FPS?! And how about the processor to handle all of that?
- And 16GB of internal is nothing other phones that have come out in the last 3 months dont have; well, some of them.... but the above two, learned that lesson w/ my EVO - SPECS ARENT EVERYTHING (-_-) But Thanks to XDA, ALL problems are solved!
@nefnet13 Well if you're on T-mobile this would be a smart buy IMO. You'd save easily $480 on phone bills for a similar plan by using this over a 2 year period.. Offsetting the difference in price for buying unsubsidized vs subsidized. You'd save over 250 dollars I would think, not much but savings nonetheless
You are right and you are wrong. Specs dont say a thing, but this thing is GOOD when it comes to multimedia. The processor(s) that handles it is a broadcom 2727, the optics in the device are unrivalled, and the sensor is the largest ever in a mobile phone, by a wide margin. It does 720p, at 25 fps, which is a standard. Audio recording is truly stellar. This is a very impressive piece of kit.
@nicholas1987ucsb This doesn't use maemo. Furthermore Maemo has easily more apps than WebOS. There's this thing called linux, the n900 runs it, in full, complete with x-term.
...You do know the Galaxy S costs $500 off contract through AT&T and T-Mobile right? And you know that it absolutely kicks the shit out of the N8 in every area but the camera right?
Ie: This price is fucking ridiculous, and if Nokia thought they had trouble selling smartphones in the US to begin with, this isn't helping. At all.
@kenny goo 1. Preorder pricing is ALWAYS higher with Nokia products. 2. Specs are not the be all end all, Sammies skin is atrocious and the A-GPS is still shit. 3. The unsubsidized phones are locked to a single carrier. Even if you could unlock them, the 3G wouldn't work on any other carrier 4. Does it output the UI in 720p? Does it output 720p at all? 5. Can it Usb host? 6. Can it tether out of the box?
I'm waiting for the price to drop to 450-500 or seeing it reviewed before splashing on it.
@kenny goo This is pre-order price. Christ, we must have been through this a million times. The final price for this is 370 euro/450 dollars for it's respective markets.
And plus, those Galaxy S variants are OFF-CONTRACT. Neither phone has a pentaband radio to use on both T-Mobile and AT&T's networks. You don't even wanna know how much the official Galaxy S is unlocked.
You say that as if people *need* to have a pentaband phone. If you have a carrier you like and you're staying with them, it shouldn't matter if it has the competitor's 3G bands. When you put prices and specs side by side I don't think the N8 stands up in anything but the camera and a couple of niche features most people don't care about.
@kenny goo The thing is, where some of us are from, we choose the phone then decide on the carrier and not the other way around. In the backwards mobile environment found in the US, you have to use whatever phones your carrier decides you should have. Now I don't know about you, but I don't like that option much. And for that alone, I'd buy the N8. Jus' saying
Let's settle a few things: - It's 720p recording not 1080 etc yada yada - its still the best camera phone on the market.. wait.. not yet on the market - "true" release date early october - the browser is crippled to death, they plan an update in november (read december?) - it's symbian, the UI is not slow, but when you click a button u get a bar "processing", in the end apps still take long to open / etc, kills the whole UI experience - it just like if it was slow - it has FM transmitter so you can listen to your music on the car's radio - it has USB OTG and you can plug your usb stick into it - it has HDMI out - 720p max - it plays 720p videos max - it has a double xenon flash - horrible software support - slow CPU, fast GPU - little ram (256M) - horrible software store (OVI is crap)
So what's this phone in the end? It's a phone with an excellent camera, poor software (except the camera software and audio/video player, and the phoning software).
I would take one if *at least* the browser was good. But it's not. And seeing the previews of the "upcoming browser" it's not really going to be fixed. Opera mini is no solution. So as long as you just want a phone an awesome camera, it's good. Otherwise, you're out of luck.
@kenny goo If that's the case, why would you buy a phone off-contract in the first place? I mean, if you have a carrier you like and you want to stay with them, preferably for the 3G, you're not gonna buy a phone off-contract for $500, period. You're gonna get the thing for $199. Seems more economical; you wouldn't even consider the N8.
You see, we're talking about unlocked phones here. The premise of this is to use these phones on any carrier. In this case, you can use the N8 on either carrier without being stuck with EDGE, so it does matter.
@zob Ovi Store has been updated for the N8. I've never seen the processing bars you speak of in any of the videos I've watched.
The "little RAM" argument is kinda weak because unlike every other OS out there bar Maemo, this can and does use virtual RAM. Furthermore, do you know the reason why Android devices need so much RAM? Java memory management. Give it a look.
@metalgrx the updates on time? i hope you know the N8 has been delayed 3 month cause the software wasnt ready and.. it will be shipped without the new browser.. right? lol
@SarnGate Full HD is a typo in the ad. The phone handles 720p@25fps. However the camera has a real xenon flash, which will actually make it usable indoors unlike phones with LED's which will only turn dark pictures into oddly-coloured-out-of-focus pictures.
Stereo input on the video camera is a nice feature too.
@spartandre217 nokia PR instructs exactly what you're allowed to show on these videos in case you haven't noticed theres ONE single video showing the browser, and its utter crap (i bet this guy isn't getting the next prototype)
The crappy beta browser that will be released in 2 month:
Here you can see the processing bars in the interface (its the latest firmware) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTwXZ7kDnso you'll see more of it soon enough, when you see them its "errors" from the guys doing the demo, they're not supposed to start the apps that are slow
If you're in the US it's not that hard to pick between AT&T and T-Mobile based on quality and pricing. If you're buying unlocked GSM phones those are your only two options. There are a number of phones that are on both carriers, so there really is no need to choose a carrier based on the phone in many cases.
Yes. It's nice having a 850/1900 + 1700/2100 radio for AT&T and T-Mobile's 3G networks, respectively. I wish every unlocked GSM phone had that, but at the end of the day a $100-$150 premium doesn't justify a pentaband radio for me.
@N900
I'm buying my next phone off contract to avoid just that: the contract. If something should change, I don't want to be forced to stay for 2 years. More importantly, on GSM carriers that means I don't have to pay a data plan, which I neither need nor want. I know, I'm in the minority on that one, but that's how I do things. I have Wi-Fi at home on my entire campus. It's pointless for me.
Side note: You still cant use the N8 on any carriers. It's GSM, not CDMA. So unlike the Galaxy S, which will be on all four major carriers in some form, you only have two options with the N8 in the US.
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WOW only $549 seems like a great deal. This one will sell like hot cakes.
Now I want to see a review of this thing.
@Juggernaut408
At least now people'll stop bitching about the Epic's price. Well, maybe they won't cause this is unlocked (I think, not 100 percent sure, can someone confirm?)
Either way, I wish people would stop complaining about a 50 dollar price difference. It makes sense, to me at least.
@Juggernaut408
Yeah, that is a pretty decent price, especially now that the Nexus One can't be bought directly from Google (unless you hunk over $25 USD as a 'developer',) and Apple's cheapest offering for the 4 is $659 CAD or £499 UK.
@techee44 This is 100% unlocked device, the updates will arrive on time and can can be used all around the world on any carrier since is pentaband.
@Juggernaut408
This phone is actually pretty good value for what you get.
- 12MP Camera
- Full HD Video recorder (unheard of in smartphones)
- 16GB of internal storage.
Those 3 alone are rare/never seen in smartphones.
@Juggernaut408 Damn! When is it coming to Canada?
If it's not coming soon, I'll go to U and buy this beauty!
@SarnGate Another enticing feature I saw about this phone was USB OTG support. Basically it says that USB drives or devices will be able to connect with the phone through a cord they provide. It's possible that you could hook up a flash drive to the N8, and copy, or read media to/from the drive. You can manage your data on the go without the use of a computer.
@Juggernaut408 This is the death nail for Nokia. They need to just slap Android on the N900 and give it a capacitive touch screen. Otherwise, this company better just give up on smart phones and focus on developing markets.
@SarnGate Actually not very good. 12mpx with a tiny sensor and lens is just rubbish!
@SarnGate
Don't forget TRUE free GPS navigation. This means that you don't need to be connected via data to fetch maps since Ovi Maps downloads them from your PC. Trust me, this is an amazing feature for my Nokia N95. I've used the GPS when driving from Canada to the United States and when navigating around Europe with no charges at all. I plan to use it later this month when I go on vacation to Florida. I think the fact that you get a fully-featured GPS with a Nokia phone is a big plus for them.
@nicholas1987ucsb
ummm...why exactly is this a death nail?
@nicholas1987ucsb
you can actually already dual boot it. But really, after using maemo, android would def be a downgrade in my opinion.
@nicholas1987ucsb
Nokia has nothing to worry about. They have Symbian for their low-mid end smartphones, and MeeGo (which is a VERY capable OS) for their high-end devices. Why must every device have Android or iOS to be good? And the N8 is capacitive, and so will every Nokia device following.
@allenrotstein Nokia has acknowledged this, I believe. In fact, the Nokia's sensor size is 1/1.83" and a 28mm lens. Should be pretty reasonable with the 12MP and Xenon flash for low-light.
There's an interview that GSMArena did with one of the engineers concerning the camera's performance. I have the link here: http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n8_camera-review-476.php
@allenrotstein
That's why it's got the biggest sensor you've seen in mobile phones so far.
@allenrotstein
you really shouldn't comment without doing a little research. it has the biggest sensor on a phone ever. About the same as most point and shoots if not greater.
and I wouldn't bee too worried about the zeiss lens
@allenrotstein
maybe your should know what your talking about next time, its not a thiny lens at all. The cameras 12mp lens is a proper wide angle lens like you would find in many decent 200 dollar or more digital cameras.
@Juggernaut408
That is a bit over price, price of iphone 4 would drop that range by end of next month, vibrant is far cheaper going to be like mid 300 or less by that time.
@techlord
The Vibrant is 500 flat with no contract and absolutely no chance of being unlocked. The cheapest iphone is 600 with NO chance of carrier unlock.
@N900 Dang that IS a killer feature! Never seen any mention of that before now... Nokia makes solid products but I never could get the hang of Symbian (my wife has a 6650 and hates using it; most of the time I hate supporting it too but there's no denying the hardware is superb). Interested to see what Symbian 3 brings to the table here. Hard to justify buying unsubsidized though... Do you guys think any carriers will be picking this up?
@Juggernaut408 The most overhyped phone in history.
I bet its gonna suck! Buggy, underpowered and an overrrated camera.
N97 all over again. Mark my words!
$549? Only an Nokia fanboy would choose this over a Nexus One.
@allenrotstein
You moron, its the biggest sensor ever, has as much surface per pixel as the iPhone 4 camera, but 2.4 times as many. It literally destroys any camera phone out there. Go troll somewhere else.
@SarnGate
- 12 megapixels doesnt mean a better picture. Means more pixels could result in more noise in the snapshot
- Full HD (1080p, i presume) doesnt mean its the greatest - how about the FPS?! And how about the processor to handle all of that?
- And 16GB of internal is nothing other phones that have come out in the last 3 months dont have; well, some of them.... but the above two, learned that lesson w/ my EVO - SPECS ARENT EVERYTHING (-_-) But Thanks to XDA, ALL problems are solved!
@madwh iphone4 killer?
@nefnet13
Well if you're on T-mobile this would be a smart buy IMO.
You'd save easily $480 on phone bills for a similar plan by using this over a 2 year period..
Offsetting the difference in price for buying unsubsidized vs subsidized. You'd save over 250 dollars I would think, not much but savings nonetheless
@Dellibedaboss
It does 720p at a higher bit-rate than any other phone in existence. Yes that includes the iphone 4.
Here's a link to some sample images if you doubt it can take "decent"
pictures
http://mynokiablog.com/2010/08/15/photos-new-nokia-n8-sample-pics/
Specs aren't everything but it looks like a damn solid device regardless.
@Dellibedaboss
You are right and you are wrong. Specs dont say a thing, but this thing is GOOD when it comes to multimedia. The processor(s) that handles it is a broadcom 2727, the optics in the device are unrivalled, and the sensor is the largest ever in a mobile phone, by a wide margin. It does 720p, at 25 fps, which is a standard. Audio recording is truly stellar. This is a very impressive piece of kit.
@boxieblue Because the phone is ugly as sin and there are probably less apps for Maemo than there are WebOS. And duh, price.
@nicholas1987ucsb
This doesn't use maemo.
Furthermore Maemo has easily more apps than WebOS.
There's this thing called linux, the n900 runs it, in full, complete with x-term.
@Juggernaut408
...You do know the Galaxy S costs $500 off contract through AT&T and T-Mobile right? And you know that it absolutely kicks the shit out of the N8 in every area but the camera right?
Ie: This price is fucking ridiculous, and if Nokia thought they had trouble selling smartphones in the US to begin with, this isn't helping. At all.
@bustafone Underpowered? It's beat every other "powerful" 1ghz processor in graphics benchmarks.
@kenny goo
1. Preorder pricing is ALWAYS higher with Nokia products.
2. Specs are not the be all end all, Sammies skin is atrocious and the A-GPS is still shit.
3. The unsubsidized phones are locked to a single carrier. Even if you could unlock them, the 3G wouldn't work on any other carrier
4. Does it output the UI in 720p? Does it output 720p at all?
5. Can it Usb host?
6. Can it tether out of the box?
I'm waiting for the price to drop to 450-500 or seeing it reviewed before splashing on it.
@kenny goo This is pre-order price. Christ, we must have been through this a million times. The final price for this is 370 euro/450 dollars for it's respective markets.
And plus, those Galaxy S variants are OFF-CONTRACT. Neither phone has a pentaband radio to use on both T-Mobile and AT&T's networks. You don't even wanna know how much the official Galaxy S is unlocked.
@N900
$639 on Amazon.
@N900
You say that as if people *need* to have a pentaband phone. If you have a carrier you like and you're staying with them, it shouldn't matter if it has the competitor's 3G bands. When you put prices and specs side by side I don't think the N8 stands up in anything but the camera and a couple of niche features most people don't care about.
@SarnGate not full hd, its 720p
@kenny goo
The thing is, where some of us are from, we choose the phone then decide on the carrier and not the other way around.
In the backwards mobile environment found in the US, you have to use whatever phones your carrier decides you should have. Now I don't know about you, but I don't like that option much. And for that alone, I'd buy the N8. Jus' saying
Let's settle a few things:
- It's 720p recording not 1080 etc yada yada
- its still the best camera phone on the market.. wait.. not yet on the market
- "true" release date early october
- the browser is crippled to death, they plan an update in november (read december?)
- it's symbian, the UI is not slow, but when you click a button u get a bar "processing", in the end apps still take long to open / etc, kills the whole UI experience - it just like if it was slow
- it has FM transmitter so you can listen to your music on the car's radio
- it has USB OTG and you can plug your usb stick into it
- it has HDMI out - 720p max
- it plays 720p videos max
- it has a double xenon flash
- horrible software support
- slow CPU, fast GPU
- little ram (256M)
- horrible software store (OVI is crap)
So what's this phone in the end? It's a phone with an excellent camera, poor software (except the camera software and audio/video player, and the phoning software).
I would take one if *at least* the browser was good. But it's not. And seeing the previews of the "upcoming browser" it's not really going to be fixed. Opera mini is no solution. So as long as you just want a phone an awesome camera, it's good. Otherwise, you're out of luck.
@kenny goo If that's the case, why would you buy a phone off-contract in the first place? I mean, if you have a carrier you like and you want to stay with them, preferably for the 3G, you're not gonna buy a phone off-contract for $500, period. You're gonna get the thing for $199. Seems more economical; you wouldn't even consider the N8.
You see, we're talking about unlocked phones here. The premise of this is to use these phones on any carrier. In this case, you can use the N8 on either carrier without being stuck with EDGE, so it does matter.
@zob
Ovi Store has been updated for the N8.
I've never seen the processing bars you speak of in any of the videos I've watched.
The "little RAM" argument is kinda weak because unlike every other OS out there bar Maemo, this can and does use virtual RAM.
Furthermore, do you know the reason why Android devices need so much RAM?
Java memory management. Give it a look.
@metalgrx the updates on time? i hope you know the N8 has been delayed 3 month cause the software wasnt ready and.. it will be shipped without the new browser.. right? lol
@SarnGate Full HD is a typo in the ad. The phone handles 720p@25fps. However the camera has a real xenon flash, which will actually make it usable indoors unlike phones with LED's which will only turn dark pictures into oddly-coloured-out-of-focus pictures.
Stereo input on the video camera is a nice feature too.
http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-n8/specifications
@JFH Why don't you come clean and reveal that you're really Nokia's VP of propaganda for Engadget and stop trying to BS everyone.
@boxieblue think he was thinking of death 'knell'... or he was also thinking "nail in the coffin" and got so excited while typing he combined the two
@SarnGate Full HD recording? I don't get it?
@spartandre217
nokia PR instructs exactly what you're allowed to show on these videos in case you haven't noticed theres ONE single video showing the browser, and its utter crap (i bet this guy isn't getting the next prototype)
The crappy beta browser that will be released in 2 month:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWYd5UjE-zo
Here you can see the processing bars in the interface (its the latest firmware)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTwXZ7kDnso
you'll see more of it soon enough, when you see them its "errors" from the guys doing the demo, they're not supposed to start the apps that are slow
you might like that tho:
nearly unedited n8 720p capture (its awesome) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV8Oj8Qrhpo&feature=player_embedded#!
@spartandre217
If you're in the US it's not that hard to pick between AT&T and T-Mobile based on quality and pricing. If you're buying unlocked GSM phones those are your only two options. There are a number of phones that are on both carriers, so there really is no need to choose a carrier based on the phone in many cases.
Yes. It's nice having a 850/1900 + 1700/2100 radio for AT&T and T-Mobile's 3G networks, respectively. I wish every unlocked GSM phone had that, but at the end of the day a $100-$150 premium doesn't justify a pentaband radio for me.
@N900
I'm buying my next phone off contract to avoid just that: the contract. If something should change, I don't want to be forced to stay for 2 years. More importantly, on GSM carriers that means I don't have to pay a data plan, which I neither need nor want. I know, I'm in the minority on that one, but that's how I do things. I have Wi-Fi at home on my entire campus. It's pointless for me.
Side note: You still cant use the N8 on any carriers. It's GSM, not CDMA. So unlike the Galaxy S, which will be on all four major carriers in some form, you only have two options with the N8 in the US.
@zob
That new browser looks good actually, but certainly needsa lot more tuning. Shame if they miss the launch though.
@bustafone
What the hell are you crying about? I have tons of Apple gear. Does that mean I am a fanboy for Apple? STFU.