Android 
The Nokia N8 is all over the news everywhere and rightly so. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have a hands on with the new N8, and boy was I impressed.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, the Nokia N8 is Nokia’s latest imaging flagship model. The unibody device packs some serious specs underneath. It features an AMOLED touchscreen, a 12 Megapixel wideangle camera and dedicated HDMI-out among other features.
The device feels rock solid. You know you are holding an expensive phone the moment you pick it up. The AMOLED screen is pretty good, and probably does a decent job in backing up the battery. The single button on the front gives excellent tactile feedback and its positioning is functional as well as pretty cool.
It is really hard to go wrong with hardware like this. But now we come to the software, and that’s where things usually get edgy for Nokia. Symbian^3 has the whole world waiting on the edge of their seats. The operating system on a handheld device can make or break a experience. Previous iterations of Symbian have been a bit of a disappointment for many faithful users, but Symbian^3 definitely promises to be different. Boot up time was really quick and there is no lag anywhere while browsing through the menus and folders. Multitasking still works as expected, and a fairly nice visual aid to that has been provided as well. Users accustomed to Symbian will have no trouble navigating through the interface, it should feel like home to them.
The home screens didn’t impress as much, but probably with the inclusion of more widgets that would change. A lot of talk has been going around about how Symbian^3 fails to bring out any innovation. Frankly I don’t see the need for that. Symbian has always been an extremely powerful operating system. All it ever needed was the right delivery. And Symbian^3 might just be that. As far as I could tell the OS does everything right, smoothing out all existing bumps. The presence of a “Mark Many” option and Predictive Text in the QWERTY keyboard will be welcomed by many loyal fans.
The operating system feels clean and neat and users will probably not have any issues with the device, although my limited experience with the phone does not allow me to say for certain. And in case any of you are wondering, no you cannot remove the battery if the phone happens to hang on you. But however Nokia have had the foresight to allow you to press and hold the power button for eight seconds to perform a forced shut down.
Photos from the camera are impressive as well and why wouldn’t it be. The camera has a wide range of customization options and the software is quick to autofocus and capture photos. Check out a couple of sample pictures taken with the N8 here.
(Click to view full res)
We also played a video clip stored on another device when the two devices were connected via cable with no hassles.
Overall I was thoroughly impressed with the device. Nokia seem to have a new step in their stride, and by the looks of it they are heading in the right direction. There may not be as many applications on Ovi stores as of right now, but that will change very quickly. Would I buy it though? Ah. If only it was running Android (Cj might not agree with me on that though).
The people at Nokia Priority were very well informed and extremely courteous, small things like this do make for a better purchase. I would like to thank them for allowing me to trouble them this much. Pre-orders of the Nokia N8 are possible and you may even get the special early bird discount if you decide now to go for this device.
Note: For those you are interested please contact Kamal, Official Nokia Priority Partner in Chennai at +9198403262333.
Do let us know if you have any questions, we will be glad to answer them all. Also look out for our detailed review of the N8, coming soon!
i really liked this n8 phone, but i wish its running on android
Hi i find a problem with my N8. I press menu and then exit it using the "Exit" present in the right bottom of the screen .. and so u return to the home screen and again u press menu the menu screen pops up quickly.. Instead try this!! press menu and then press option in the left bottom and then exit it. now u wll be returned to home screen. Now press menu u will see it takes time in menu getting popped up!!! this makes anyone to feel that the OS is slow!!!
Is it possible to connect USB keyboard or mouse to N8 with that USB cable?
Not sure but why not use BlueTooth mouse and keyboard at the same time?
Bluetooth keyboards and mice aren't very common, and they are more expensive. It would be nice to use my computer's wireless keyboard and mouse without having to buy different ones for the N8.
yes, you can... search nokia n8 mouse on youtube. enjoy!
yes it is.
i have had a wireless keyboard and mouse connected to mine via the USB adapter and it worked just fine
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