The first Symbian^3 device has finally been unveiled - the Nokia N8. A flagship with a monster camera.

 

Update:
Got an N8 for review. Here are the posts:

• Unboxing the Nokia N8
• Part 1 - The Hardware
• Part 2 - The OS
• Part 3 - Native Apps
• Part 4 - 3rd Party Apps
• Part 5 - Gaming
• Part 6 - The Camera
• Part 7 - Final Thoughts

 

Let me get straight to the point - the main reason why you'd want to buy the N8 is because of its 12MP camera.
"Ah, 12 megapixels on a cameraphone? Picture quality should suck!"
Wrong. Because the N8 doesn't only have more megapixels, but also a much larger camera sensor - 1/1.83”. This is 35% bigger than most compact cameras. My own Nikon L20 has a 1/2.33” sensor. 
The N8 has a proper Xenon flash with a red LED for autofocus assist. No more bluish night photos limited to a range of 1m!

The N8 has a focal length of 5.4mm (a 28mm equivalent wide-angle lens) & a mechanical shutter (compact cameras have electronic shutters). 
However, just like about everything else, the N8 isn't perfect. The camera lacks the variable aperture of the N86 8MP. :(
In intense lighting conditions, this fixed aperture can cause problems – although Nokia have partly solved this by adding a neutral density filter that slides in bright conditions.
Here are some sample photos:

Photos in bright light exceed expectations, better than a compact camera. But the best one is the night shot – EPIC!  

 

If you're going to put a 12MP camera on a phone, it should better have enough power to quickly process the data. Fortunately, Nokia didn't do the same mistake as with the N97.
The N8 comes with a 680Mhz CPU, 256MB of RAM, 512MB of internal memory & a graphics chip. It is this powerful graphics chip that allows it to record 720p video & playback 720p video over the HDMI port (above).
Compared with HTC & Apple with their 1Ghz smartphones, the 680Mhz ARM11 looks quite tame. However, raw CPU performance isn’t the only factor in overall device performance - it also depends on the efficiency & resource usage of the OS. That’s one area where Symbian^3 is well ahead of other OSes.

Internal flash memory is surprisingly not 32GB, but 16GB with a microSD slot.

It was a space constraint coupled with a unibody design that caused the removal of such features, including that of a camera cover. With the large camera sensor, Nokia were also forced to make the battery non-removable to fit in the design. But rest assured, the battery can be removed by unscrewing the 2 side torx screws.

Battery life should last more than a day with the energy efficient OLED screen & most of the graphics rendering being handled by a graphics chip instead of the CPU.

The N8 comes with one awesome feature that was already available on the N810 – USB On-The-Go. It allows USB devices to be connected directly to the N8 - flash drives, card readers, cameras & even hard disks (if >200mA requires external power).

There are some drawbacks – the video camera has two mikes, but the phone itself has 1 mono speaker. & the design is not exactly appealing – it looks more like the phone has been fitted with an outer anodised aluminium casing. While the other buttons are ok, the menu button seems to be a bit smallish to my taste.

 

S60v5 vs Symbian^3

Symbian^3 features a revamped UI & thanks to its open-sourcing, the Symbian core features better multi-tasking with improved memory management (writeable demand paging). More processing power, more memory & a graphics chip should mean a faster OS & more iPhone-like bling-bling. (Above true pop-up menus.)

Let's compare the recently-reviewed N97 Symbian^1 with the N8. I really liked it that Nokia showed hands-on demo videos of the N8. It shows the actual performance & look of the OS.

The Home screen

I wanted multiple home screens & I got it - the N8 has 3 home screens, all to be filled up with widgets.
Live wallpapers - thanks Android!

 

The Menu

You can't believe how glad I am that they've finally scrapped those ugly space-wasting buttons for the more consistent buttons found at the bottom.

 

Multitasking

N900-styled multitasking. :)

 

Threaded Messaging

Support for animated emoticons & threaded messaging according to finestfones.com

 

Browser

The right-sided menu hasn’t totally disappeared…

 

Camera

New editing features & a much much better looking interface.

 

Video Playback

The N8 has native support for mkv! Still no xvid support, but I don't really care - 75% of my movies are in x264 mkv. Now, I hope they didn't make the same mess as in the N97 - no mp3/ac3 audio support in videos. Above photos show the new Video Editor & a new feature called Web TV.

 

Music Player

With Cover Flow Media Wall… ;)

 

Gaming

Thanks to the graphics chip, all i8910 Omnia HD games can be played on the N8.

 

The Keyboard

I was getting warmed up to the N8 until I saw this... Nokia still has some work to do with Symbian^3. :|

 

Full Specs
- Size: 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm
- Weight (with battery): 135 g
- Casing: anodized aluminium in silver white, dark grey, orange, blue, green
- Screen: 3.5" capacitive touch screen
- Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) 24 bit AMOLED

- CPU: 680Mhz ARM 11
- GPU: Broadcom BCM2727 (IVE3) with OpenGL-ES 2.0 (32M polygons/s)
- RAM: 256MB
- Internal memory: 512MB - 135MB available to user.
- Mass storage: 16GB
- MicroSD slot up to 32GB

- GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
- HSDPA (3.5G): 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
- Wifi: WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n
- USB: microUSB 2.0 with USB On-The-Go
- Bluetooth: 3.0
- HDMI Tv-out with Dolby Digital Plus audio
- 3.5mm AV out
- A-GPS, FM transmitter, accelerometer, magnetometer, proximity sensor

- Battery: BL-4D 1200 mAh Li-Ion internal battery
- Talk time: GSM 12 h / WCDMA 5.8 h
- Standby time: GSM 17 days / WCDMA 16 days
- Video playback: 7 h (H.264 720p, 30fps, HDMI to TV)
- Video recording: 3.3 h (H.264 720p, 25fps)
- Music playback: 50 h (16GB, offline mode)
- WLAN browsing: 9h

Camera
- Resolution: 4000 x 3000
- CMOS Sensor: 12.0 Megapixel
- Sensor size: 1/1.83”
- ISO range: 100 - 1200
- Digital Zoom: 2 x
- Focal length: 5.4mm (28mm equivalent)
- F-Stop/Aperture: f/2.8
- Focus range: 10 cm to infinity
- Image Formats: JPEG/Exif
- Features: Auto Exposure, Auto Focus, Carl Zeiss Optics, Face Recognition, Exposure Compensation, Full Screen Viewfinder, Geotagging, Red-Eye Reduction, Self Timer, Xenon Flash

- Video camera: HD 720p capture at 25 fps with codecs H.264, MPEG-4 & stereo audio recording
- Video playback: HD 720p on HD TV through HDMI cable
- Secondary camera: VGA  (640 x 480)

 

Conclusion

The N8 is a massive improvement over the N97 & with Symbian^3, the UI seems to be almost near completion. Combined with a competitive price of €370/$500 (before taxes), I expect the N8 to establish itself as the best cameraphone on the market. More importantly, the legendary N82 can finally rest in peace, it now has a worthy successor...
Can’t wait to get my hands on the N8… (Hint! Hint! @WOMWorldNokia) :D

Related links:
- AAS - Nokia N8 - content creation and consumption on Symbian^3
- AAS - The making of the Nokia N8's camera
- AAS - The Nokia N8: Imaging champion with a five year legacy
- AAS - Nokia N8 image and video samples
- AAS - What does the internet think of the Nokia N8?
- Nokia Conversations Blog - First 12-megapixel sample photos shot on Nokia N8 – untouched!
- Nokia Conversations Blog - Nokia N8 and its HD video smarts
- Nokia Conversations Blog - Nokia N8 revolutionises cameraphones
- Wikipedia - Nokia N8
- Exclusive first-hand experience of Nokia N8, Symbian^3 improvements – link
- Hands-on with multimedia monster Nokia N8 – link

Update 1:

The N8 has support for both Bluetooth keyboards & mouse! :)

Update 2:
Review:

• Unboxing the Nokia N8
• Part 1 - The Hardware
• Part 2 - The OS
• Part 3 - Native Apps
• Part 4 - 3rd Party Apps
• Part 5 - Gaming
• Part 6 - The Camera
• Part 7 - Final Thoughts