2

Nokia N8 a street view perspective (part one)

I have had the Nokia N8 on evaluation for the past 5 days, I have the cool lumo green one.  This is the first of three progress reports in which I will be giving my opinion on the device from a “man on the street” point of view.

First up, as with every new device I get, I unpack it and “send” it around my office / friends on a coolness test. Why do I do this, well, simply put a mobile device is an extension of your personality and people will a device because they perceive it to be cool.  Typically only a few people ever by a device based on what it can or cannot do.  The man on the street does not care about the differences between operating systems and processing power. They want something cool that works well. Many defend their purchases very heavily, proving my point that the coolness test is an import one for any device to pass.

The Nokia N8 stacks up fairly well on this test.  The size, screen resolution, and multiple screen options all scored well.  The touch screen response scored very well, especially given that the last test was the N900 which had a very poor score from the team. Many users still baulk at phones that don’t have keyboards but once they start to play this resistance fades. Certainly I am seeing many people loving touch screen devices.

The next step was to get started.  This is when I realised that I needed to get a normal SIM card.  I have an iPhone 4, which uses a micro sim.  So rather frustratingly I couldn’t really get going until Saturday.  I did navigate around the phone while in offline mode for Thursday and Friday.

The user interface is typical Nokia, but refined.  The navigation is very easy and happily you do not have to have a PhD to get to grips with the device.  The home screen can be customised and this feature scores fairly highly in my opinion. Certainly this ability will suite the folks that are heavily active in the social media spaces. Seeing all of your channels on the front screen is quite cool. 

Once I sorted out my additional contract (coolness that I got a Nokia e72 with it).  I devoted Saturday morning to sorting the device out properly.  So after 25 minutes I was set!

Yip it took me just 25 minutes to get the phone up and running. This included registering an OVI account to access my “Comes with Music” subscription.  If you are a music lover then this is probably the only motivation you will need to buy this device. 6 months of free music for you to keep is a great incentive – very nice move Nokia.

I then spent sometime playing with the camera functionality.  The camera is a 12 megapixel, Karl Zeis, gem. The clarity of the shots is great, the ability to auto balance is very good.  This is probably one of the best features on the phone and sets it apart from many other devices, including my iPhone.   It is surprisingly simple to use and the flash range is very good.

Having two phones is giving me a great opportunity to compare my beloved iPhone with the N8 and I keep both of these devices with me almost all of the time – I think I look cool, some people say not. I will say that I won’t do this all of the time so the N8 may have to stay at home sometimes, who knows in time I may be leaving the iPhone at home?

So folks my initial impression is that the N8 is a good device. Nokia have stayed true to their customers and if you are already on a Nokia device, migrating to the N8 will be very simple. Even if you are not, the set-up is simple, the interface is simple to follow and you will have it up and running in no time.

I will spend more time on the actual device experience in my next review, including setting up email (Exhange and GMAIL).