Home : Mobile : Reviews

Nokia N8 review: First look

By Clare Hopping, 20 Aug 2010

We take a look at the eagerly-anticipated Nokia N8, the Finnish manufacturer’s first smartphone to run on the brand-spanking new Symbian^3 OS.

The Nokia N8 is Nokia’s most exciting handset since the introduction of the Communicator range. Moving away from Nokia’s boring mid-range portfolio, the N8 definitely brings a new lease of life to the Finnish manufacturer.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the S60 operating system has been scrapped in favour of Nokia’s newest platform, Symbian^3. It’s an evolution of S60, but brings in elements of the Maemo UI so it is much more usable. We found it to be pretty stable, especially considering our N8 is a pre-production sample. Symbian^3 is very similar to other touchscreen operating systems. There are three homescreens and each can hold up to 24 widgets, bookmarks and shortcuts.

Apps are downloaded from Nokia’s Ovi Store, but it still needs a lot of work - the selection available is limited in comparison to Android, but this isn’t surprising considering Android has been around for a couple of years and the N8 is the first Symbian^3 device. Apps developed for S60 5th Edition should be compatible with Symbian^3.

Email to a friend

Print this page

1 2 3 4 5

< Previous Mobile : Reviews Next >

3 comments

You need to Login or Register to comment.

Don't think I'll bother

Until they sort out the sync to macs, (promised for years) and the email that is an utter pain to set up and still wont work and also shortly to be charged for I don't think I'll bother. Always stuck with Nokia but my 5800 music express is the last. prefer the HTC or new Samsung both of which are cheaper than the N8.

By dfruk on Friday Sep 10

N8

http://hintaseuranta.fi/tuote.aspx/424577?tabi=arvostelut

By qwerty33 on Sunday Oct 3

Dreamland

Dusting off goods which have reached their sell by date is not good for the brand.Simply put the form factor needs to change,the screens cannot be taken seriously by partially sighted people...wait three years and take another look..meanwhile the new HTC sensational is out and iphone 4.5

By blooskys on Thursday May 19