Nokia N8 Review

These days, if you’re looking for a good new mobile handset, the truth of the matter is that you have to look at a smart phone; anything less will leave you without any kind of edge.

Nokia have long been known - particularly in South Africa - as a top mobile handset brand. But when the “iPhone vs Blackberry” battle started up, some of the other brands - including Nokia - were left reeling just a little. No matter, though, because the brand has caught up quickly, with a range of superior handsets forming part of the N series.

Being a smart phone, the Nokia N8 is about far more than making calls. A host of features - most of which are pretty standard, or even expected - are available from the device, including an extremely punchy 12 megapixel camera, built with Carl Zeiss optics. A very decent internal flash also supplements the camera (decent for a phone camera, that is.)

As a fully integrated device, the Nokia N8 is a brilliant option. It offers everything one would expect, from web surfing and application downloads (via the Ovi service) through to HD video recording and other multimedia functionality; audio playback, video playback, image viewing and the like. The home screen feels a little cluttered, but the responsiveness of the touch screen makes up for that.

Aside from the screen, the Nokia N8 offers very few other buttons. Aside from power, camera, volume and locking controls, only one other button is to be found - a button that switches between the home screen and an application list.

Aside from internal memory, which weighs in at 16GB, the N8 can also handle high-capacity Micro SD cards (up to 32GB). That’s fairly chunky for a phone, but it does require an additional purchase.

Debates about OS aside, the Nokia N8 makes for a versatile, fairly handy device (let’s be honest, there’s no such thing as a practically sized smart phone). It’s quite capable, and finds itself in the middle ground of being both a decent business and entertainment device, without leaning too much one way or the other. Its web access is decent enough, depending on your service provider of course, and its applications allow the user to take full advantage of not only internet browsing, but also email and social networking.

Quite importantly, the Nokia N8 is a solidly constructed phone. When using the menus, a small vibration initially led me to believe that something might be loose in the device – it just feels odd, to be honest - but the feature was purely there to indicate that the phone was reacting to my inputs.

With a good brand name behind it, this is a decent option, if you’re not looking for one of the trendier operating systems.

Verdict:

A well-built, versatile and fun mobile handset from a trusted manufacturer.

PROS:

• User friendly

• Large screen

• Versatile

CONS:

• Symbian isn’t the most trendy OS these days

TECH SPECS:

• 3.5” screen

• Symbian OS

• 16mp camera

• HD Video recording

• OVI suite

• Scratch-proof

Manufacturer: Nokia

Distributor: Nokia