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Nokia N8 Smartphone: Review
There’s another departure – the battery is permanently installed. To be fair, it is possible to get out, but it takes a special screwdriver to remove two screws near the bottom end of the device. Clearly, Nokia wants to say – like Apple – that battery replacement isn’t an issue.
With no back cover to pop off, the only place to put the SIM card and the micro-SD card is on the side, under two rather awkward flaps (left). It takes standard SIM cards – of course – unlike Apple’s micro-SIMs. And the micro-SD slot takes cards with up to 48Gbyte capacity – which is going to be useful when the pictures you take on it will be a couple of Mbytes each (see below).
There’s a micro-USB connector which Nokia cleverly allows to act as a host (so it can read Flash drives).
Elsewhere round the side of the phone there’s a sliding button to lock the screen, a camera button, volume / zoom controls, an HDMI-video output under a flap at the end of the phone, and a button under the screen to handle menu operations. And there’s also a socket for the power adapter. About which I will now grumble.
Nokia’s non-standard charger
[Update: Apparently this section is controversial. What I originally wrote follows, with additions in italics. l'm reporting my results here, and interested in any other information people have - Peter Judge]
When it comes to charging the phone I’m very surprised to see Nokia making a decision I can only describe as arrogant. The United Nations ITU-T has designed a “universal charger” using a micro-USB connector. Nokia has even signed up to the idea. Henceforth all phones should charge using micro-USB, and that should see the end of the tonnes of power-adapters produced and thrown away every year.
Apple’s iPhone doesn’t use the universal charger, of course, because Apple has invested way too much in its proprietary iPod/iPad/iPhone connector, and in any case at the other end of the iPhone cable, there’s usually a USB connector, so it’s universal at the other end.
But look what Nokia’s done on the N8. Just like every other phone maker (except Apple), it’s put in a standard micro-USB adapter for data. It’s on the side of the phone. But while other phones, including Blackberries and HTC Desires, use the micro-USB for power as well as data, Nokia doesn’t.
The N8 has the tired old 2mm Nokia adapter socket on the bottom. On the plus side, this does mean you can use previous Nokia adapters to charge it. On the minus side, the Nokia jack is fiddly and vulnerable to getting bent, and generally it’s not even as good as micro-USB!
I feel petty going on at this length, but Nokia’s refusal to adopt the universal charger – after it signed up to it – could just be symbolic of the way it tends to ignore the rest of the world.
[[As you can see from the comments below, other people doubt my results here. I have been made aware that I'm reporting something that appears to vary from the published Nokia specification, but I assure you, when I plugged a working micro-USB charger into the N8, there was no indication it wsa charging. It is possible that the production N8 models will charge that way. I can only say that the phone I had definitely did not indicate it was charging over USB.
The Nokia E81 which has been my main phone for the last year certainly doesn't charge over USB, and as you can tell, I've not been enjoying the 2mm jack it does charge with. At first sight it looks as if the N8 is following the same pattern, but some of the helpful comments have pointed out, the N8 also includes the ability to act as a USB host, which could explain why it still needs a separate charging socket (to charge the phone while loading data from a USB device). I think there is more to find out here, but whatever we do find out, I'm still disappointed to see a non-standard charger hanging on here, even if there's a reasonable product decision behind it instead of "arrogance" - Peter Judge]]
This
If Nokia does support USB charging, I initially did don’t understand why it has built in a separate power connector and supplied a non-standard power adapter as well – Peter Judge ]
Symbian is still clunky
My first reaction to the phone OS is disappointment. I don’t know how much of a change I expected in the Symbian operating system, but there’s not much altered. To be honest, it’s unreasonable to expect anything major, as it would be very hard to utterly change the user interface at the same time as solidifying the OS enough to turn it loose as open source.
What greets you on the N8′s home screen is very very like what I saw on the N97′s home screen – an interface that a colleague described as “a set of fridge magnets”.
Symbian^3 is supposed to be more of a social networking creature, with multitasking widgets busy in the background. Maybe, but we found it fiddly to add apps and change widgets around, and the OS’ insistence on pushing Ovi at us made us feel Nokia was trying to push us into a walled garden with fewer flowers than Apple’s App Store.
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29 replies to Nokia N8 Smartphone: Review
Retard—You CAN charge over usb or mini plug. If you don’t know what your talking about you should keep your “opinions” to yourself. Dumbass.
Your article has at least 1 glaring error, which is a HUGE error.
The microUSB port on the Nokia N8 not only handles data connection from a computer, it also handles CHARGING (your claim that is doesn’t is wrong), and it also handles OTG USB – meaning with a supplied cable you can connect the N8 direct to USB flash drives.
So, this means Nokia gives you 2 different charging options for your device…Nokia’s pin chargers, and microUSB charging.
Wow, a whole paragraph on how the phone wont charge via USB when it actually does in addition to having a separate charger. For someone who obviously had the phone in their hand you really did your research. Another incorrect and seemingly baseless review to ignore.
Did you really use the N8? Did you just said it can’t charge thru USB? All reviews I read said that IT CAN. 4 pages of waste of a review then. My 10-year old nephew would have done a better review.
Thank you for your comments.
I can only say that the phone I had definitely did not charge over USB. I checked it, and I am quite able to tell, and I don’t think we need to be rude about this.
It’s possible that the phone I had was an earlier pre-production model than the ones you have apparently all seen. Or maybe there was some fault in it. I made it clear that anything in my review might be down to having a pre-production model, and will be interested to know if this was the case.
I will update my review to say that others apparently have different results – and strong feelings on the matter! I’d also be grateful for links to these reviews you mention.
Also… if Nokia DOES let the phone charge over USB…. why does it provide its own proprietary charger as well?
Peter Judge
My information on the USB charging is from the Nokia (Australia) site under Specifications > Connectivity. As the phone seems to be made to not require a computer connection, I think the two options is a great idea. Next time you are at work ask how many people have a Nokia charger on them, than ask how many have a mini USB cable!
“I don’t understand why it has built in a separate power connector and supplied a non-standard power adapter as well” – Peter Judge
Just shut the #%^^ up, ok? Having a really bad review is enough and you just updated it worse. Stupid, stupid moron.
Isn’t having 2 ways(USB and power adaper) to charge a phone a really, really, great idea??
Do yourself a favor by removing this terrible review, get a new job and STFU. PLEASE.
“I don’t understand why it has built in a separate power connector and supplied a non-standard power adapter as well” – Peter Judge
Just shut the #%^& up, ok? Having a really bad review is enough and you just updated it worse. Stupid, stupid moron.
Isn’t having 2 ways(USB and power adaper) to charge a phone a really, really, great idea??
Do yourself a favor by removing this terrible review, get a new job and STFU. PLEASE.
Hey judge..u said something about why will nokia supply us with a charger if u can charge it via usb!! Well the same reason blackberry and samsung are doing it!!I bet u don’t even own a mobile!
Thanks again for your further comments.
Jason – I checked and I’m the only one in my office with a Nokia charger. There were a total of five micro-USBs when I asked, from HTC and Blackberry phones.
I don’t buy the idea that Nokia is any sort of standard, and don’t get how they sign up to the universal charger and then don’t deliver it.
Yes – I see the website that it will charge over micro-USB – but I begin to suspect they dropped thisbecause the USB connector can also act as a host.
I still don’t see any confirmation that it does charge over USB in reviews – my N81 certainly didn’t.
Thanks @duncan, for the point about USB hosts, my CMS keeps refusing to publish your thought though…
@Jason
What the hell?
It says quite clearly on Nokia’s official specification page:
“Micro USB connector and charging”
You failed to do even basic research, jumped on a bandwagon and now look like a fool as a result.
Do the decent thing and remove or at least amend your article.
OK – I’m wading through these comments.
I believe there may be some signal amongst the noise, and I thank you for that.
The Nokia site does indeed say it has “micro USB connector and charging”. That’s a specification. It’s our job to check it.
I took a micro-USB charger, which was charging my Android, and plugged it into the N8 – no charging regiestered.
So do we have a faulty unit? A false claim on the site? Or are we misreading what is a very brief reference in the specification?
Maybe someone will show up with some direct knowledge of the phone, or can point me to other reviews that look into this.
Why would nokia give you the ability to charge over both usb and 2mm jack? Nokia is pushing the usb on the go really hard. So if I am watching a couple of HD movies I can simply plug in my flash drive and charge the phone with the 2mm at the same time.
No, Peter, you had a pre production unit that hasn’t been finalised, quality assured and released to production.
You then jumped on the bandwagon and penned a ‘review’ on a product that isn’t finished, missed a number of key points and look silly as a result. It’s pretty straightforward.
As for those asking why Nokia use 2mm and USB for charging it’s pretty simple. Not everyone has a computer. Oh yeah, that’s right – you don’t need a computer to actually activate and load your device unlike other handsets I could mention.
Weak review is weak. Amend or pull please.
Wow, lotta Nokia fanboys coming out of the woodworks. Don’t get butt-hurt over this usb issue.
Bottom line is that Nokia is a sinking ship. Their stock possibly being downgraded to S&P status for poor phone sales.
Heads need to role, but Nokia has become to complacent and playing musical chairs with company positions doesn’t help the cause.
Any idiots willing to buy the N8 with symbian 3? An OS that even Nokia is moving away from on their high end phones. i.e. no longer interested in investing our time and capital into this anchor and moving onto another OS.
Their poor quality, poor sales performance N97, N900 powerhouse maemo OS “now abandoned,” for a barely compatible Meego OS.
No wonder developers are jumping ship. Nokia couldn’t make up their complacent minds this past year. Meego? symbian?, maemo?
“What I reviewed is a pre-production model.”
This sentence is wrong, you can not review a product which is not in the state as the consumer will buy it in, especially true with software intensive products as a smart phone.
You may however preview the product aslong as preview is underlined.
Buy the N8? Hell, yeah. I’d even get 2, Lime Green and Black. Greatest phone ever made. Oh, you don’t know it yet? What a pity.
The N8 is not the last Symbian N-series device. Just a few days ago Nokia’s CEO said a Symbian^4 device is a strong possibility.
http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/07/02/the-fightback-starts-now/
It does take micro-sims like Nokia phones have for over a year now! MIcro-sim is not an Apple invention. It’s been around since 2003!
http://www.fonearena.com/blog/11825/what-is-a-microsim-or-3ff-sim-card.html
The phone does charge over usb. Nokia phones also have the smartest charging technology. There’s a reason Nokia is the Greenest tech company according to Greenpeace!
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/electronics/Guide-to-Greener-Electronics/
Nokias have had flash in their browsers for years. You start criticizing the Symbian^3 OS before it’s even final. That’s a bit cheap. So much focus on polish but no mention of what the OS actually does compared to iPhone and Android.
Holding the menu button is not the equivalent of Ctrl-Alt-Del. It’s closer to pressing F3 on a mac so you can see all open windows.
The sensor size in the N8 is the biggest ever seen in a mobile phone and beats most 12MP point and shoot cameras.
http://blog.gsmarena.com/how-large-is-the-nokia-n8-12-megapixel-large-image-sensor/
Your article sounds more like a hit piece than a review.
Thank you for this link Derek.
http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/07/02/the-fightback-starts-now/
I do hope you come back. Your statement, “The N8 is not the last Symbian N-series device.” isn’t exactly true with the use of the word “not,” implying a definite.
To articulate what your link to the article said was, “a possibility or strong possibility.” Here in lies the problem. There is a difference between speculation and confirmation. The word, “possibility” is but speculation and not confirmation. It isn’t concrete or set in stone. It isn’t a definitely in plain black and white or clear as day yes. It is but a possibility or up in the air grey area. Where we either haven’t made up our mind yet or we don’t want to scare you away by letting you know what our real intentions are so we will use the word, “Possibility.”
I would liken this to a business contract or in court standing in front of a judge. On a contract, it is more reassuring to have an estimated timeline or a definite verses a possibility for let’s say the completion of a manufactured good.
In court, it doesn’t play in your favor to answer a judge with possibly instead of a definite yes or no.
But you seem to be a knowledgeable individual. My issue is not with Symbian itself but Symbian upgradeability. If you have information I don’t, can you tell me if the N8 which will be released with Symbian 3, be upgradeable to Symbian 4 down the road. Or will it be a $500 paperweight stuck with Symbian 3, a one shot deal, while the whole world moves on to Symbian 4 and so on with Nokia’s future phones.
I would love for people to buy 2 nokia N8′s in lime green and black. That would help me out a lot in breaking even with my of shares of Nokia stock, I just hope it isn’t the case where, “A fool and his gold are soon departed.”
Thank you for this link Derek on that Nokia conversation.
I do hope you come back. Your statement, “The N8 is not the last Symbian N-series device.” isn’t exactly true with the use of the word “not,” implying a definite.
To articulate what your link to the article said was, “a possibility or strong possibility.” Here in lies the problem. There is a difference between speculation and confirmation. The word, “possibility” is but speculation and not confirmation. It isn’t concrete or set in stone. It isn’t a definitely in plain black and white or clear as day yes. It is but a possibility or up in the air grey area. Where we either haven’t made up our mind yet or we don’t want to scare you away by letting you know what our real intentions are so we will use the word, “Possibility.”
I would liken this to a business contract or in court standing in front of a judge. On a contract, it is more reassuring to have an estimated timeline or a definite verses a possibility for let’s say the completion of a manufactured good.
In court, it doesn’t play in your favor to answer a judge with possibly instead of a definite yes or no.
But you seem to be a knowledgeable individual. My issue is not with Symbian itself but Symbian upgradeability. If you have information I don’t, can you tell me if the N8 which will be released with Symbian 3, be upgradeable to Symbian 4 down the road. Or will it be a $500 paperweight stuck with Symbian 3, a one shot deal, while the whole world moves on to Symbian 4 and so on with Nokia’s future phones.
I would love for people to buy 2 nokia N8′s in lime green and black. That would help me out a lot in breaking even with my of shares of Nokia stock, I just hope it isn’t the case where, “A fool and his gold are soon departed.”
My apologies for the use of the word estimated and the double submission. I digress.
Will there be a White Nokia N8? Then I’d buy 3. Lime Green and Black N8s, too. Best phone ever.
Could it be that it needs more power than your other phone with the micro USB?
The iPad i borrowed off a mate needed more charge than the USB hub I normally charge my phone from could give, it was very fussy. And apple’s connector is a fancy USB lead…
iphone 3GS is a bit fussy too, won’t charge from a cheap car charger for instance
Hi Guys,
I came across a website (http://www.smartphoneloans.co.uk) claiming that they fund the UK residents to buy smartphone /mobile phones. What do you think?
@passing through, July 5, 2010 : 8:24 pm:
According to the nonsense you come up with,
your b u t t must be seariously aching indeed.
VICTOR, won’t you just go screw yourself with your f*ckin’ useless comments please ? the moron here is you…
Thank you for a good and useful review.
The days of using any available charger to power, or charge any physical, plug and socket, compatible device are long gone.
Elecrical current and voltage requirements of devices such as smart phones are very different from the relatively modest needs of devices from only a few years ago.
It would be helpful if you could say if the USB charger you were using to charge this device was certified compatible with the Nokia N8?
It appears from your answers to commentators that you choose a charger that happened to be available from a different manufacturer than Nokia (Android phone)?
Both the physical and electrical specifications of the device and the charger should be checked for compatibility before use on any “smart device”, these days to avoid such disappointment. A simple physical check that the plug and socket sizes “fit”, is no longer sufficient to guarantee success.
While the European USB standard may be a worthy initiative, it will take many years to replace the millions of non-standard chargers currently in use. To say nothing of alternative “standards”, that may appear from other world trading groups.
Alota angry nokia fan boys, fact`s are even “zte blade” a $120 phone is better than that crappy company`s N8, stick to hardware nokia!
I think the Nokia N8 is a great phone, I love the quality of materials and of course his wonderful camera. a feature that I like is that it can read USB memory and has FM transmitter.
But I’m not too sure about the good performance of the new Symbian OS, this phone I think it would be better with android, I think I will wall a for the E7