Nokia N8 Megathread

jimmy_t

ok so just a lil review of what i think of the n8 after a weekend of use:
build quality: fantastic, feels beautiful in hand and the bullet shaped ends look a lot better in person than in pictures and they give it an excellent feel, best smartphone to hold on the market right now, imo obviously.

camera: unbelievable, i have a dslr and it could never compare but for a point and shoot it is amazing, shutter speed is actually brilliant, flash is only good, but for a camera phone it is brilliant and perfectly acceptable for the average user. You would need to fork out quite a few heroes to get a point and shoot of the same calibre.

hardware: screen excellent, camera excellent, call quality excellent, loudspeaker excellent, i dont think anybody can beat nokia on hardware, and i thought it wasnt very pretty til i actually bought it, it is very pretty.

software: very enjoyable, app store is actually acceptable, i found a learning curve of about a day (first touchscreen) but after that its plain sailing and very intuitive, its never going to be as pretty as an iphone but dont be mistaken its still pretty. ive been using symbian for a few years so it was actually very simple transition if however youve never used symbian it could have a longer learning curve. threaded sms is nice, email sync seamless, social app that comes with is effective and useful and the widget is pretty but takes a few seconds too long to load, there are of course other social apps. music player and photo viewer are excellent, photo editor is quite good too. Games are very good, Need For Speed shift is free to download and its actually brilliant, Ovi Maps and voice guided navigation is very good i thought, only used on one journey so far though. The nokia web browser needs an update and i believe this is coming in the next month or so but you can set opera as your default so its much of a muchness really as it then uses opera for everything and opera is very good. wifi/3g selection is done via priority instead of asking everytime which is a welcome relief from s60

Cons: am... keyboard can be a lil slow to switch from portrait to landscape, an app crashed it once, battery life gets wiped by the flash (i think, it was getting very heavy gaming use too), I havent got more than 24hrs out of it yet but thats with me burning it up with use so during my work week ill expect several days out of it. Im trying to think of more, im sure there is more but theyre not coming to me, obviously didnt upset me that much.

Overall: I could go on and on about all the things i love about this phone but let me qualify it by saying my last smartphone was symbian and i own an ipod touch. Symbian has vastly improved and is much more user friendly and i mean it is really improved, its not as pretty or a simple as an iphone but it is pretty and fairly simple. Any complexities i found just make it more customisable, the amount of functionality is excellent from syncing with windows media player to transmitting music to your radio to hd video to editing photos to tethering and creating its own wifi spot, its an excellent piece of kit and i think you will honestly never get as much use or functionality out of another phone as you will this, the hardware is second to none and dont let anyone tell you the processor is slow, it isnt at all, its got a second gpu and an os that sips power. The software is very usable, if symbian didnt bother you that much youll love it, Ive only shown this to one iphone owner and they were blown away. If you have a smartphone and only use it for calling and playing with a few apps id recommend an iphone, its pretty and simple and youll enjoy it, if you spend too much time with your phone and want it to do everything this is the one, it will do more things with more peripherals easier and the things that really add value like fm transmitter, voice guided maps, good camera, tethering, (the things people normally buy seperately) are all built in. Id definately recommend it, very happy with it.

Oh ya, and haptic response is class!

If anyone has any q's just ask

KrisW

Pretty much matches my own experience JimmyT, although I've no experience with Symbian (my previous Nokia was good old S40, and I mean *old*), and my wife has an iPod Touch, so I am familiar with iOS.

The N8 is not as simple to use as the iPod/iPhone, but the reasons are mainly that the N8 is not as simple as the iPhone either. Where the Nokia falls behind is in the onscreen keyboard and browser. These are due to be fixed later this month, so I was happy to take a plunge now.

The haptic feedback is very good. You can also adjust the amount of vibration used by this feature: I turned it down to the "minimum" setting, and it's really nice - subtle, but still there.

I managed to find a surefire way to break the radio application, but other than that, it's been very stable.

dr ro

nice review jimmy. It's exactly what I want to hear, as I've ordered one and am currently watching my n95 for the delivery man to call! It does seem almost too good. There must be something you haven't discovered yet that'll bring it down. Are you going to keep it then.

Kenny Powers

Thanks for the good review, what network did you get it on? was it unlocked?

jimmy_t

I attached 2 photos i took at the weekend, the first i took with the n8 and the second is just the first again but modified on the n8, its an excellent camera and editing software is v.good for stuff like that.

my only gripes with the phone are minor ones with the keyboard eg if you make a call the keyboard only comes up in portrait no matter how youre holding the phone so you have to turn it, i know ill be holding it that way anyway when ill be talking but i want to turn it when i decide ya know!!
There also could be a complaint made for the screen being slow to turn but i think this is deliberate for some reason cos its instant in the photoviewer, weird. Another strange one is the lack of portrait qwerty cos the opera mobile app has a portrait qwerty, i know its coming but it obviously wasnt hard for opera to put in. i dont think id use it anyway but id like the choice! On saying all this the keyboard is very easy to use i find. Other than that its very sound i think, im not mad about the slide button for locking the screen but your just nitpicking at that stage tbh, im very happy with the phone but it got so many middling reviews im trying to find things wrong with it but theres very little, im trying to curb my enthusiasm to balance out for the novelty factor and the fact that it got so many middling reviews so ill just say its a very good phone, but honestly right now i think its an absolutely great phone! but you should go with just good until you get a second opinion.

i got it on vodafone for 309 with a cheerup voucher - fantastic deal, i dont know if its unlocked and i wont be able to check for a few days til i get someone thats not vodafone.

Kenny Powers

jimmy_t wrote: »

I attached 2 photos i took at the weekend, the first i took with the n8 and the second is just the first again but modified on the n8, its an excellent camera and editing software is v.good for stuff like that.

my only gripes with the phone are minor ones with the keyboard eg if you make a call the keyboard only comes up in portrait no matter how youre holding the phone so you have to turn it, i know ill be holding it that way anyway when ill be talking but i want to turn it when i decide ya know!!
There also could be a complaint made for the screen being slow to turn but i think this is deliberate for some reason cos its instant in the photoviewer, weird. Another strange one is the lack of portrait qwerty cos the opera mobile app has a portrait qwerty, i know its coming but it obviously wasnt hard for opera to put in. i dont think id use it anyway but id like the choice! On saying all this the keyboard is very easy to use i find. Other than that its very sound i think, im not mad about the slide button for locking the screen but your just nitpicking at that stage tbh, im very happy with the phone but it got so many middling reviews im trying to find things wrong with it but theres very little, im trying to curb my enthusiasm to balance out for the novelty factor and the fact that it got so many middling reviews so ill just say its a very good phone, but honestly right now i think its an absolutely great phone! but you should go with just good until you get a second opinion.

Nice pictures, is your phone a pre pay on Vodafone? and did it come unlocked? thanks

jimmy_t

Kenny Powers wrote: »

Nice pictures, is your phone a pre pay on Vodafone? and did it come unlocked? thanks

ya its prepay, i dont know if its unlocked i wont be able to check til i get my hands on a non vodafone sim which wont be today unfortunately.

Kenny Powers

jimmy_t wrote: »

i dont know if its unlocked i wont be able to check til i get my hands on a non vodafone sim which wont be today unfortunately.

Ah no worries did it come in a nokia box someone on here was saying the ones in Nokia boxes are unlocked thinking of buying one online later myself.

jimmy_t

it sure did, no vodafone markings on the box whatsoever.

Jacky08

What about the apps's - uploading to Facebuke, You Chube etc:)

ohh and the music player

My last experience with Touch phones was with a Tocco but I'm due and upgrade and I just want a smart-phone with

good camera
good battery
good internet/browsing (use it on the train etc)
good music player

long_b

KrisW wrote: »

e-Mobile: €149 Billpay, on a 12-month contract. Minimum bill is 100 min + 100 text + free to landlines + 1Gbyte data = €29/mo. You can get that down to €25/mo if you sign up for 18 months.

Meteor €149 also on Billpay (surprise, surprise - same as e-Mobile)

For me, the e-Mobile offer was the best deal, so I signed up yesterday. Interestingly, the MMS settings still say my server is "Meteor"

3 are officially launching this today.

I can check the SIM-lock on my phone this evening.

So far, I really like it: only downsides are the web browser and some text entry/keyboard niggles. I saw a video of the new browser last week, and that made up my mind (the clip has been pulled since).

Is it unlocked please?

donkey balls

Jimmy could you post back what the ear phones are that came with the N8 and what is the speaker quality like.
Thanks DB

jimmynokia

donkey balls wrote: »

Jimmy could you post back what the ear phones are that came with the N8 and what is the speaker quality like.
Thanks DB

the inbox headphones as per usual with nokia leave alot to be desired
the speaker is loud LOL:D

podgeandrodge

Kenny Powers wrote: »

Ah no worries did it come in a nokia box someone on here was saying the ones in Nokia boxes are unlocked thinking of buying one online later myself.

problem is you could end up getting one from a newer batch which was sim locked? Risky to do online on that basis - at least in a shop you could look at the box first? Even still I would want to try another sim in it before I parted with the cash!

jimmy_t

Jacky08 wrote: »

What about the apps's - uploading to Facebuke, You Chube etc:)

ohh and the music player

My last experience with Touch phones was with a Tocco but I'm due and upgrade and I just want a smart-phone with

good camera
good battery
good internet/browsing (use it on the train etc)
good music player

The camera is fantastic and in another league to any other smartphone, the battery is very good for a smartphone, should get 2 days with normal use, the internet badly needs an upgrade but its coming this month, opera will suffice in the meantime, its cheaper to use opera when on 3g anyway cos it compresses data before it is sent to your phone.
the music player is very good, nice cover flow like itunes, very simple to use.
Thers is no youtube app like there was on s60, i would guess its coming cos it was on s60 but thats only a guess, youtube plays fine through the web browser though but id prefer an app.
There is an array of social networking apps so im sure youll find something to your tastes there for facebook, i havent uploaded anything to it.
The ovi store seems to have plenty of interesting apps and im sure itll only get better as s^3 is very new and meego and s^4 will all share the same apps, but ive found it to be fine so far not great cos its missing youtube and skype and a few other big hitters too im sure but its fine.

On another note i said in a previous post that you could set opera as your default browser, but this hasnt worked out so well so you really are gonna have to wait til the new browser comes out at the end of the month for a browsing experience that can compete with other smartphones. Opera is still good though but has to be launched manually, i found.

Jimmy could you post back what the ear phones are that came with the N8 and what is the speaker quality like.
Thanks DB

the speaker quality is quite good i found, clear and crisp but theres only one speaker and its on the back so it will be muffled if you leave it on something soft, it hasnt bothered me yet though

i tested out the earphones driving home last night and was very surprised by how good they are, now let me just say i have never bought expensive earphones and am no music aficionado so in my humble opinion they were very good, i have used nokia earphones before and they always left a lot to be desired but these are well above your average. they are the type of ones that plug into your ear canal (which i had never used before so ive nothing to compare) and block out all external noise and the sound quality i thought was excellent, a much better experience than listening on my car radio even, i was very pleasently surprised and would find no need to buy more earphones but as i said i am no expert on earphones. The only thing about them is if you get a call the mic is on the button controller part of it which will be halfway down your body and youll have to pull it up to your face if you get a call or else have it attached up near your collar in the first place.

Jacky08

Fair play Jimmy - thanks for that

jimmy_t

Some tips i found on the net for n8 owners that help a lot:
First how to improve your textual experience:
This auto completes your word with a suggestion that you tap on or press the right key on the keyboard to select, very nice feature.

1. Launch Notes/Messaging and create a new one.
2. Rotate your N8 into landscape orientation. This MUST be done to access the proper settings.
3. Tap the '3 line' key between the forward arrow and return key.
4. Tap Input options>Activate prediction.
5. Again tap the '3 line' key.
6. Tap Input options>Settings.
7. In here tap to turn on word auto-completion, text correction level to high, and text correction mode to show suggestion.

I am not positive about the correction level at high, but it sounds good.

Second this changes the swipe from home screen to home screen to an instant flash between screens with no sliding or visual effects, its instant but not as pretty, if the lag annoys you it could be for you.

This will make Home screen swiping instant, removes perceived lag between screens. Go to Menu> Settings > Themes > General > Options > Theme Effects and select Off.

lolie

has any1 sign up with d n8 on emobile yet, if so is the phone unlocked? thinkin of goin for d 18 month 100mins & 100txts & free landline calls for €14, phone costs €149. bit worried bout signing up for 18 months though, not too worried bout phone breakin as i hear it fairly tough, more worried bout losin it on a saturday night;) on 3pay at minute but their prices for n8 are a rip off:)

jimmynokia

meteor have just stuck it up online


a whopping 459 PAYG :eek::eek::eek::eek:
from 39 euro on bill

irlpic

I phoned e-mobile today and i was told that they are expecting their first batch of N8 handsets next week.

At the moment they are taking contact details of those interested and will get back to you next week.

Their lowest monthly plan (select 100) will see the N8 priced similarly to the Galaxy S @ E149 ( he could not confirm this though 100%)

Select 100 plan priced @ E19 for eircom customers, offers - 100 mins any n/w calls, 100 any n/w texts, calls to landlines but no data download. A 1GB data add on is priced @ E9.99.

Dionysus

Looking at this in the Meteor store yesterday and the only colour they have for the Billpay is black: https://phones.meteor.ie/phones/nokia_n8/#what-you-get-tab

Bizzarely, Meteor offers grey as a colour if you're a PAYG customer: https://store.meteor.ie/phones/nokia_n8/#what-you-get-tab

Why would Meteor not give us a choice of colours? The N8 is available in five colours according to the Nokia website: http://events.nokia.com/NokiaN8/

jimmynokia

Dionysus wrote: »

Looking at this in the Meteor store yesterday and the only colour they have for the Billpay is black: https://phones.meteor.ie/phones/nokia_n8/#what-you-get-tab

Bizzarely, Meteor offers grey as a colour if you're a PAYG customer: https://store.meteor.ie/phones/nokia_n8/#what-you-get-tab

Why would Meteor not give us a choice of colours? The N8 is available in five colours according to the Nokia website: http://events.nokia.com/NokiaN8/

as always with nokia they release one or two colours first and the rest follow suits there is many complaints the uk regarding people ordering a certain colour and still have not received it,so given some time more will become available ,but thats another thing its whats available to the networks.....

Dionysus

jimmynokia wrote: »

as always with nokia they release one or two colours first and the rest follow suits there is many complaints the uk regarding people ordering a certain colour and still have not received it,so given some time more will become available ,but thats another thing its whats available to the networks.....

Ah. I never knew that. Thanks. How long usually would one have to wait for, say, the blue N8? Considering Meteor have one colour for billpay and one for PAYG, do you think if I asked for the PAYG colour for my bill phone phone they'd be amenable to the idea?

jimmynokia

Dionysus wrote: »

Ah. I never knew that. Thanks. How long usually would one have to wait for, say, the blue N8? Considering Meteor have one colour for billpay and one for PAYG, do you think if I asked for the PAYG colour for my bill phone phone they'd be amenable to the idea?

it would not be long before the blue is available,but weather meteor get it is another issue,as for the colours available now i dont know what will happen you might be able to if say the colour you wanted was out of stock for example ,again with meteor anything is possible im surprised they did not go for the orange one LOL

jimmynokia

i think that is a mistake by meteor dark grey and black are the same.there is only 5 colours available,blue,silver,green,orange and dark grey ,but the dark grey is more black looking .

podgeandrodge

any confirmation of sim free status from various networks??

irlpic

jimmynokia wrote: »

i think that is a mistake by meteor dark grey and black are the same.there is only 5 colours available,blue,silver,green,orange and dark grey ,but the dark grey is more black looking .

Yeah, forgot to mention that the e-mobile guy today said that they will have the - as he put it "the creamy yellow colour" model in stock next week. Think he means the gold coloured model (may be green, hard to tell looking at the n8 mini-site).

Queerdub

irlpic wrote: »

Yeah, forgot to mention that the e-mobile guy today said that they will have the - as he put it "the creamy yellow colour" model in stock next week. Think he means the gold coloured model (may be green, hard to tell looking at the n8 mini-site).

That's hilarious!! I've been advised by eMobile staff that they are launching in black and silver colours. They can't be getting the green one as that's exclusive to Vodafone...so that leaves blue and orange.

jimmynokia

meteor update they have it online yet its not avaiable to buy online till next week or buy over phone another disaster and false advertisement

Adverts.ie: Eddie

I'm just waiting for jimmynokia to post one of these on adverts.