Luckily for me to spend someone else has thought ... and so today, after playing a bit with the new N8 during the Christmas holidays, I ask you this review. I state that for two years now using a Nokia 5800 , so many of the considerations that will be linked to a comparison between these two devices. What will emerge, in addition to the obvious and the superiority of the Nokia N8 in terms of technical features, will also be a consideration that is not always a high-end model can be a sensible choice for those who need a smartphone or just want some fun. Because in the end-let's face it-these phones are neither more nor less than the expensive toys for the child in all of us!
Pack
The box is very minimal, but this is a general trend, we are in times of "green packaging". The package contains (over the phone) to the cables and adapters for the connections, the headset / stereo headset, charger (and stylish baby) and a booklet with a few basic information. The battery? There is not, because it is integrated into the phone. Some may regret this ... let's say that in this sense, the iPhone has done school. You have probably preferred a built-in battery also to emphasize the aspect of "monolithic" unit. There is not the micro SD card, but in fact may not serve as the phone has 16 GB of memory integrated mass. I have however added an 8 GB SDHC card that works well, the phone supports up to 32GB of expansion.
First impact
Positive. Leaving aside the aesthetics that can like it or not, the phone looks solid and well built. I have the silver version which I personally like more than others, but as mentioned above is a matter of taste. The difference with the 5800 is truly remarkable here: it is seen that the construction details and finishes were treated much more: the plastic appears only in the two upper and lower extremities, the remainder aluminum dominates (when it's cold but pick up the phone in his hand is not the best, those who live in the north will get a better case).
The screen
Being a touch phone without a keyboard, we must necessarily start from the screen. This is a large 3.5-inch AMOLED technology with multi-touch capacitive. Here Nokia should have done better than the competition: the screen is really crisp and bright, the resolution is excellent and the colors are extremely vivid (even here there is no comparison with 5800). The touch is very sensitive and ready, even though here I'm forced to open a small parenthesis. I see now that the capacitive touchscreens are considered by far surpassed the resistive ones (because they cost more) but it might be worth explaining in practice, what is the difference between using the two types.
Sensitivity: the capacitance is much more sensitive to the touch, just touch it with a finger and he reacts. The resistive pressure needs a stronger, a little 'how to press a button.
Touch: the resistive work with anything, finger, stylus, fingernail, etc.. The capacitive only works with the fingertip or with certain special pens. And if your hands are too cold, does not work either.
Visibility: The resistance has a problem in bright outdoor light (outdoors in a sunny day the screen is not seen well because it reflects light). The capacitance does not have this problem.
Accuracy: The resistive touch is located with good accuracy even in small areas. The capacitance is a little coarse, but by virtue of the fact that you can only use your fingers.
Feedback: the capacitance does indeed give a more immediate reaction to touch, that is normally used to make the so-called multi-touch (eg a picture zoom expanding two fingers). The resistive properties has reduced from this point of view that I know of multitouch on this technology is very limited.
I'm used to the resistive touch of 5800 and I have always used the stylus to write on the virtual keyboard and the fingers for other actions. Passing all'N8 I crossed a few days of complete confusion, because he committed several errors of typing with the keyboard (I have big hands) and I was not accustomed to having to tap instead of pressing, so action often inadvertently commands. Now that I've gotten used to the N8-guess what - I can not quickly use the 5800 instead of pressing for relief, and nothing happens: (
What can you conclude? Even if after all the capacitive touch seems to winning in the end depends on how you used to and do you use most often. For example, to look at the photos in some speed games or surfing the Internet is easier a capacitive multitouch, but to write or in some other games where it matters most accuracy I prefer to use a stylus (hence resistance).
What is certain is that it is inconvenient to use both at once: keep in mind if you plan to tile the N8 in touch with another device.
Ergonomics
Everything perfect except for one thing: the keys to the calls have been removed, you do everything with the touch. The phone will probably have won in style, but I feel I share this choice. Losing the two buttons start / end call, you lose some additional functionality with useful applications, such as closing fast. The icing on the cake is that without the call button you can not use the voice search with Google Maps. Too bad! Besides the position of the left button, bottom left, not fits perfectly (it would have been better in the middle).
For the rest nothing to say, the phone is being appealed and is used well, the secondary controls (camera button, slider, volume) are well positioned and easy to use. Excellent scalability of the volume.
Telephony
Little to say in this field means you can be sure that Nokia touch with you always. There was a direct competitor dell'N8 who had a lack of reception, I think, precisely because of its aluminum body ... I have not encountered any problem nell'aggancio networks and phone calls (tested with Vodafone , Wind and 3). Very good voice dialing function: just say the name of the person and the phone calls for you (it works even better than on previous Nokia, do not even need the initial training phase). The messaging was introduced in view of "conversations", that text messages are displayed as many comic repartee. Cute, but is good only for those who use SMS to chat, luckily you can also set the traditional view.
Operating System
The N8 Nokia introduces the "new" Symbian OS ^ 3 .. The most important new features in my opinion are:
the screen with three "desktop" (a la Linux) that can be customized with various widget-finally you can have some more shortcut rispeto before! -
context menus on objects, simply hold your finger and the popup appears
the possibility of connecting a USB mass storage on the phone and direct access to its data (a very useful thing)
For the rest of the system does not upset the life you know that Symbian. Much has been made at the expense of this "old" operating system, which would no longer be able to stand comparison with Android and IOS. This is probably true in the expansion area (see applications section below) but it must be said that Symbian ^ 3 seems a solid, stable, fast, intuitive, and more than adequate to the characteristics of the phone. With regard to stability, in a month of heavy use the phone crashed once when saving a video clip. Fortunately, since we can not resort to the classic ex-battery has been provided a mechanism for forced shutdown for these cases. I've heard rumors going around about N8 cases that went out by themselves during use: to me personally this problem has never happened, but I have found other malfunctions (see "Problems" below) that were all resolved with a reset of the phone operation and a subsequent software update. Advised to make the first thing after buying the phone the seguienti steps:
Restore factory settings (Menu -> Settings -> Phone -> App. Phone -> Settings. Original -> Reset)
Application updates the phone (Menu -> Applications -> Update. SW)
Applications
If such applications starting on N8 is more or less everything you need (including GPS ottmo free), say that the surplus for the Nokia N8 is not well developed. Store sheep is much less equipped competitors such as Apple's App Store and Android Market: For certain categories, such as software to read e-books, is not even provided with any application. It is therefore necessary to look for compatible applications or provided by third parties (with attendant problems of reliability and compatibility).
Another problem is that some of the applications declared as available in the store but can not be installed on the device (the installation concludes with a generic "installation error"). This is clearly not permissible for a high-end handsets, plus it also discourages the purchase of paid applications.
Performances
The Nokia N8 is fast. I thought the 5800 was fast, now I know that it is not. And who wants to spend a certain amount adequate performance. The app will load in a very short time, the Internet browser is very powerful (though not yet to the levels of a laptop). Battery life is more than satisfactory, if not using the phone in an obsessive way you can stay away from the charger to 4-5 days. That battery is another problem solved by the recovery process, prior to that operation, the battery lasted 48 hours and no one.
There is a power saving mode that can extend the life of a few hours if not immediately possible to recharge the device. On a positive note: You can use the USB connection to charge your phone, connecting to a computer.
Multimedia
Spectacular, it is appropriate to say. This is the aspect that I think most distinguishes the N8 from competitors. The video player plays all popular video formats, including DivX and mp4, without rescaling. Plug in a USB stick and you watch the movie, in fact. A godsend. The playback is smooth and bright, the audio is of high quality for a cell phone, either with or without headphones (Dolby Surround is included). Obviously if this is not enough you can also connect to a TV via the 'HDMI included: suppose to connect it to a traditional TV and need an adapter.
The music player is very similar to that of 5800, and excellent sound quality and very simple usability. Mysteriously, however, has been taken to amend the details of the tracks (name, track number, album cover, etc.) directly from the phone. I used this feature a lot on the 5800 and not have you here gives me a lot of discomfort. There is also a radio with RDS and the recorder, as usual.
Photos / Video
And now we come to this famous 12-MP camera. I have already said elsewhere, and I repeat here, that they are not doing megapixel camera, and which I have a little 'too much: If after doing a little' I also want to send pictures on facebook, as I coast in kilobytes? One advantage however is that with 12 MP can make sense to use the digital zoom, since the optical obviously not there.
That said, let's say that objectively the N8 is the best camera phone I've ever tried. The goal of quality and the most powerful flash mean that under standard conditions (ambient light, flash photography in small rooms) the photos are absolutely comparable to those of a standard mid-level camera. There is always some flaw in the most extreme cases, such as photos without flash in low light, where does a little 'noise, but much, much less than in other cameraphone as 5800.
Regarding the video section, if you exclude the usual absence of optical zoom which will penalize, I would say that the N8 is a great alternative to mini camcorder. E 'can produce both high-definition movies in standard definition. The video quality seems quite good, although I could not occur on a high definition TV.
Some nice additions to outline:
the face detection feature, for those interested (I've never used);
Nokia Panorama software (downloadable free from Ovi Store) that allows you to make panoramic pictures and mount them on the fly: it is highly recommended and very nice!
two app for editing photos and video, much better than previous models, useful for example to make the rescaling of the photos or create special effects and / or presentations.
Issues (all resolved)
These problems had been encountered by me after about 40 days of intensive use. Many of the problems seem to have occurred after the first 25-30 days, but have completely disappeared after the device reset and upgrade.
More than once, sometimes I happened to find the clock back for 4-5 minutes, and readjusted the few days after I found out.
The charge indicator on the top right was also absolutely inaccurate. Installing the Battery Monitor Nokia, you could see that when the battery was 15-20% effective, the indicator still gave 70-80%
The battery runs out quickly even if the phone was completely inactive. I clearly disabled the various widgets, mail synchronization, etc., but it was not do much good.
Conclusions
It is worth considering the Nokia N8, especially if you specifically want a phone with excellent high-end multimedia features and photo / video. You need to know that your installed applications will be limited in comparison to Android and iPhone. Also when it is appropriate to install software updates to improve the battery consumption and some other little problem.
If you looking for a good and reliable phone that knows how to do something else other than phone calls, I think there are devices that cost less and can still give good satisfaction.
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