Nokia N8 preview: First look

Introduction

We were almost starting to suspect mobile phones of giving up and playing soft. They seemed unstoppable you know. They went from 5 to 12 in no time and there was nothing to suggest that digicams will ever get a timeout for a much needed breather.

Nokia N8 official photos

Surprised or not, the game is back on and Nokia are pulling the big guns out. The N8 is the new wannabe king of cameraphones. Fat numbers on the specs sheet and all that shining armor, the new Nseries flagship is hitting hard and playing tough.

The Nokia N8 has two massive tasks on its hands: beat digicams at their own game and bring Symbian back to its past glory. The hardest thing perhaps is to tell which one is harder. But if anyone should be trusted to perform a seemingly impossible stunt, (still) market leaders Nokia are a safer bet than many.

Nokia N8 at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm, 86 cc; 135 g
• Display: 3.5-inch 16M-color nHD (360 x 640 pixels) AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• Memory: 16GB storage memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
• OS: Symbian^3
• CPU: ARM 11 680 MHz processor, 3D Graphics HW accelerator; 256 MB RAM
• Camera: 12 megapixel large-sensor (1/1.83”) autofocus camera with xenon flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection and built-in ND filter; 720p video recording@25fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, microUSB port with USB host support, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS, HDMI port
• Misc: Accelerometer, DivX/XviD video support, Stereo FM radio with RDS, FM transmitter, 720p TV-out, Flash support in the web browser, anodized aluminum unibody, proximity sensor, scratch-resistant display
• Battery: 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery

As you see the hardware is all there – there’re not too many devices out there that can match the Nokia N8. Some will understandably frown at what looks like unimpressive CPU clock speed and scarce RAM. Just remember that it’s the performance to be judged here and not the sheer numbers.

Different platforms have different needs so we’ll only know if Symbian^3 can do without a 1GHz Snapdragon after we’ve seen the N8 in proper action.

Nokia N8 at ours

A full physical is due starting right after the break.