Nokia N8
- W
- W. Al Hakeem
- mTV
- 11 Oct 2010
Wheez, 11 Oct 2010Some people once again seem to forget that even if you arn'... moreWell said my friend. I loved your description as "well balanced smartphone" I think it's the best way to put it. Thanks for sharing.
- M
- MAK
- nTp
- 11 Oct 2010
mr.w. al hakeem,
could you please comment on the sound quality of n8 vs i-phone over head phone and speaker.
thanks for your review.
- ?
- Anonymous
- mT%
- 11 Oct 2010
[deleted post]Thank you my friend and I really honor your friendship. :-)
Not be mistakenly posted by me, I myself can not tell which one is better device, the iPhone 4 which I really love even though there are elements that I hate about it, but still can't let it go, or the new toy N8 that I just got and immediately fell in love with it. I guess only time will tell. But for now, let me just confirm that none of the 2 made me feel that it replaces the other by any means. Both are beautiful in their own way. :-) The final word would be, in my opinion, to the user not the apecs sheet. Only the user can tell which of the powers of this device or that one is making it the ONE device for him/her.
- W
- Wheez
- nS%
- 11 Oct 2010
W. Al Hakeem, 11 Oct 2010As much as I agree with you about increasing the battery li... moreFair enough, never really used BT devices myself, but beign able to use it on 2 different phones at the same time is pretty cool, indeed :D
- W
- W. Al Hakeem
- mTV
- 11 Oct 2010
Wheez, 11 Oct 2010That's a real good write up. As a hint, you might someth... moreAs much as I agree with you about increasing the battery life, I can't say that (personally) it works for me. I noticed the big difference that happens with wireless handsets, but being on the move and on the way all day long makes the wireless one more easy to use. I am using the Nokia 608 since I can connect the same bluetooth headset to 2 different mobile phones at the same time. For me, That's REALLY practical. :-)
- W
- W. Al Hakeem
- mTV
- 11 Oct 2010
[deleted post]Totally agree with you in the part that "...Nokia N8 is not having same respond like iphone..." but I as ask you honestly, is the N8 actually slow? I can't call it slow at all, but again I completely agree with you that is not as fast as iPhone (3GS or 4), so we can not use this as a negative point against N8 or other devices. Like you also said, the Samsung Omnia and Omnia II (I have it by the way too, I didn't sell it because of the really low resale value I got for it... It seems Samsung is only as good as American cars in UAE, they cost like others by sell like the lowest things in the market :-)). Sorry, got distracted, if we use the response time as a factor, try the Omnia II which has a blazing 800 clock speed processor and compare it to the iPhone 3GS (600 clock speed processor), you'll fand that the iPhone still beats the Omnia II, but I don't think that you will agree that this is a negative thing in the Omnia II, it's a positive to the iPhone that no one should deny it, but not against other devices.
Frankly speaking, comparing the iPhone 3GS to many other devices (WinMO, Andriod, Symbian...) is always going to end in favour of the iPhone, they master this feature even when the comparison is made with devices that have 1 Ghz processors (!! indeed impressive), and they also master the screen clarity like no other can do. But again, this is a (+) to the iPhone, not a (-) to the others, think of it this way :-).
Also, with all respect, don't compare the 3GS to N8, not because of the camera, but there is a long list of disadvantages in the 3GS that takes it out of the compitition. I have posted few minutes ago my peronal thoughts on both the N8 and iPhone as I'm using both now (both at the same time, each one with a different Etisalat sim card). Iphone 4 is indeed worthy to compete with the N8 (and many other devices), but 3GS, honestly, it's not worth the money at all. So many basic things are missing in addition to much lower camera quality that mobiles produced 2 years ago.
I'm not trying to convince anyone which is better or worth buying, just trying to put my personal experience open in case it came useful to anyone here.
Always, regards and respect.
- W
- Wheez
- nS%
- 11 Oct 2010
W. Al Hakeem, 11 Oct 2010Friends, drop the useless arguments about who is the best p... moreThat's a real good write up.
As a hint, you might something like double to battery life if you were using a wired hands free. Bluetooth takes quite a chunk. Sure, it's one wire less, but also the bluetooth devices battery is almost as big of a concern than that one wire :D
- Z
- Zephyr
- 9xm
- 11 Oct 2010
I have used almost all the well-known brands. Iphone's screen & responsiveness're world champions, sony-ericsson's equalized sound quality's unbeatable, etc. All of these are found acceptable or even more in nokia. And I also find that most of the nokia models are reasonably priced, durable, stable, and long-battery-life lasted. For sure, you cannot make a model with all the features matching demands of millions of users. So, be sure that you buy what you need, that's it!
- A
- Abhiraj
- PE9
- 11 Oct 2010
Engineer Man, 10 Oct 2010Hi Wheez. Thanks, I'm glad to be back! :) I would like to w... moreDude the swype was originally nokia's brainchild !!!
- W
- W. Al Hakeem
- mT%
- 11 Oct 2010
Friends, drop the useless arguments about who is the best phone in the world because there isn't one. This is simply like saying Mercedes is the best car in the world and that's not a fact eaither. each and every manufacturer has good models as well as bad ones too.
This is not the reason why I wrote this though. The reason is that now that I got my N8 (FINALLY !) I am able to post a real life experience comparing the N8 to the iPhone 4 since I HAVE both of them with me and didn't just depend on a commercial or a unit that I played with at a store.
To begin with, I'll save you the trouble in case you didn't want to go through the whole thing, NONE of them is perfect. Both have strength and weakness points. All the below is reflecting MY opinion and is according to my actual use. It is based on my daily use that is as follows:
- e-mail: 2 accounts with direct push always on (personal gmail and company e-mail)
- 2-3 hours talk time (incoming + outgoing calls)
- about 25-30 sms
- 30-45 minutes web browsing over 3G
- Bluetooth always on as I use the headset even when I'm not driving
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First, iPhone 4 (16GB version costs locally AED 2,449 / $661 in United Arab Emirates), an IMPRESSIVE device, good things list:
- Build quality
- Search options
- Software market (good but not as impressive as some people make it, you will find some nice third party software there, but the truth is, they give options that are already available in many other phones by default)
- The BEST screen I have ever seen in a mobile phone (resolution, color depth, contrast, sun-light clear view)
- Call quality is good in fairly good signal coverage areas.
- Video recording is quality WOW!
- Still images are REALLY impressive. Good light balance, lots of details.
Bad things in iPhone (4 and 3Gs):
- Battery life. My daily usuage does not allow me to use the phone for more than 1 day. I have to charge it every night to make sure it will be available the next morning.
- Though the screen is simply the BEST, it is also the main reason why the battery life is very low. It consumes most of the power from the battery very fast.
- Call quality in low ceverage areas is bad. With the use of the iPhone casing, there is no more call drops, but it used to happen to me before getting the case, specially while driving on highways at high speeds (90 - 100 miles).
- Can't send any files (images, moviews, sound clips, music ... etc) over bluetooth. This is a major let down to me as I really use this feature a lot.
- Cant't transfer files to another device since there is no memory card support.
- Anything I want to do must be done through the iTunes (and I really hate it, wish it was made with a good design for the iPhone rather than integrating the same seftware I used for the iPod, it's good enough for a media interface, but not a mobile phone)
- iPhone DOES NOT allow to save contacts and messages to the SIM card.
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N8 (16GB version costs locally AED 2,099 / $567 in United Arab Emirates), has the know good things from Nokia in addition to these novelties:
- HDMI support, it works like a charm. Anyhting in the device memory (built-in or memory card) can be viewed in your HD screen, GREAT output.
- USB-on-the-Go (!) That is one GREAT option, just connect the cable to the phone, and from the other end connect your reqular USB Flash memory and you transfer files between both of them.
- FM transmitter, I know it was there in othe Nokia models, but now it's available in a WORTHY to buy Nokia model :-) I was not impressed at all with the N97 and honestly preferred to stay with my old 5800 XpressMusic than to shift to it.
- Screen resolution is fair enough. Nothing WOW! about it, but also, aside from sun light clear vision, I don't think our human eyes can tell the difference between it and the iPhone's one. Sun light clear vision in the N8 is very good by the way, however, the iPhone is Excellent :-) What makes the N8 screen also good is that it does not require much power. My phone is used since yesterday morning and still it is almost half-way through. That's impressive.
- Nokia made it right this time and cancelled that 2 click / touch approach in older touch handsets. Now it's a striaght forward natural thing, click and that's it.
- Syncronising with other Nokia's (and non-Nokia handsets) is as good as it has always been. I Syncronize my Nokia with any device (except iPhone as it does not allow any synchronization at all) and make sure that all my contacts, messages and other material from one device is transferred to the other device. No iTunes that messes up my contacts, no computer need at all actually. This worked very good with other Nokia devices (symbian and non-symbian too) as well as from my Blackberry (Curve 8900) to the Nokia, and from Samsung (Omnia II) to the Nokia. This can not be done with the iPhone. I tried to find it but couldn't.
Bad things in N8:
- Still images details are not as I expected from a 12 MP camera. Don't get me wrong, it's very impressive, but couldn't find something much more than what the iPhone's 5 MP camera gave me (in terms of amount of details in the picture and light balance). Just for the record, those who compare N8's 12 MP with the Pixon12 are wrong. YES, Pixon12 is producing better images, but it is almost WORST mobile phone in terms of battery life. It never lasted with me for more than 1/2 a day till it switched off (!!!) That is an important factor since we are talking about a MOBILE phone with a good camera. For me, the Pixon12 bad battery is bad enough to ignore the impressive images it makes. The other rival is the Satio... Honestly I used it and found nothing bad about it at all, but the reason I didn't get is that is didn't have anything else other than the camera to convince me to change from Nokia 5800 to it. So sompared to the N8, it is equal in terms of overall quality, but below my expectation from a +$500 device. It costs today a little less than the N8 in the United Arab Emirates and that's another factor why it fails the compitition.
- video recording is impressive but not as good as the iPhone 4. The sound recording in the videos is another thing. N8 is easily the best camera phone to record digital audio in the videos, and it shows clearly when you play the recorded videos on you HD screen with the home theatre on.
- FREE NAVIGATION FOR LIFE! and it actually works even better than the GPS in my Infiniti G35 car (believe me for that, I have sent Infiniti an e-mail with attached recordings for the same route guided by the N8 and the built in navigation to show how supirior the N8 was in UAE roads at least !!!) Let's be honest, for this option alone, I think it wins by miles agains other rivals. Some might say "well, free navigation is available in many other Nokia's for quite some time ago, what's so special about this one" I agree with you but here it is, you never had reasonably sized Nokia with 3.5" screen (the only rivals from Nokia are N97 and N900, both fail in terms on size and weight of a practical every-day use mobile device).
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Well, I'm not done yet and haven't mentioned here everything, but this is what comes to my mind at the moment. I'll keep posting my feelings about the N8 as I get deeper into using it.
I hope this was usefull in any way to you.
Regards & respect to all of you.
- W
- Wheez
- nS%
- 11 Oct 2010
Some people once again seem to forget that even if you arn't the best in something, doesn't mean you are crap at it. iPhone 4 still easily holds the spot as the fastest and smoothest phone/OS, which is halfly thanks to the illusions it creates, the transitions and other sleight of hand effects.
The N8 isn't slow, though. I'm extremely satisfied with it's speed and I have no problem accepting the fact that it isn't the fastest, cos it has 10 times the capabilities of the fastest phone, the iPhone.
Don't hug specs and go like "aww this is no high end phone, doesnt have same specs that others". The N8 is exactly on par with benchmarks with other phones that have 512mb RAM and 1ghz CPU. This is cos of it's very good GPU it can actually use (Android still can't use it's GPU to render UI).
The N8 does ALOT of things very well, without really mastering anything, apart from the camera. The camera was the least of my reasons to get this phone, yet I'm still VERY VERY satisfied with it. I guess Symbian^3 may feel hard to use if you have been using iOS for the last year or something, but it's not. I havnt had to open the manual once yet (and I have no previous experience of Symbian touch screen OS) and so far everything I wanted to do, I managed to. Not to mention it's not really an end of the world if you would have to look something up from the manual.
I rather have a more complex OS that forces me to open the manual sometimes, but at least has the capability to do stuff. Some of the reviews give a very weird picture of the complexity. Like I believe techradar wrote something like the following "it takes several menus, swipes and scrolling down just to find the email client". Really? For me, all I have to do is unlock the phone and I see my email widget. One tap to the widget and I have the full client open. Hard, eh? Sure, setting up requires abit more, like one press and hold, 2-3 taps, which is already aloooot harder for those American journalists, but I don't think setting up the phone counts as normal usage. You do that once and after that you don't have to do it anymore.
My new standard for any of my future phones is now USB OTG or equivalent. Also, stuff like FM Transmitter is personally a thing for me that no fast UI can compensate for. I've also heard that iPhone 4s dont recently really have the huge antenna issue anymore, so maybe that was fixed, but it's still no secret that it was there and Jobs knew it. No fast UI compensates for dropped calls on my mobile PHONE.
This is a mobile phone first and foremost for me, and that is what it really succeeds in. It has a very powerful antenna that seems to be placed in both upper cap and bottom cap to avoid blanketing the antenna completely with your hand. The battery life is amongst the best on the market, even for a small battery like that. This is why I think Nokia is simply the best. Just look at the balance. Lesser, cheaper parts that are exactly on par with the others on benchmarks while having better battery life. What is there not to like? With the powersaving mode and moderate use, 3 days is faceroll for the N8
I often suggest other phones than the N8 to people here, it's cos they are obviously better off with the iPhone. Something like "Hey, I only browse web and play games, what should I buy". I'm not gonna lie, as it is, the iPhone 4 is better in those things, but thats about it. The N8s stock browser isn't exactly the best, but as said, they've been working on the new Qt based browser before the N8 was even released, supposedly something quite similar to the N900 browser. However even the stock browser gets the job done nicely. I keep flash off myself cos i dont wanna see the ads, but at least I have the option to turn it on (cos Jobs didnt say I have to have it off) cos some pages really need it. I can also have multiple windows and tabs open with a little workaround that work brilliantly.
Overall I suggest this phone to anyone who likes the looks, design, materials (that IMO go unrivaled currently) and doesn't need the fastest and smoothest phone out there, but still a fast and smooth phone with unrivaled features. It's is easily and by far the best balanced smartphone out there and even if I avoid saying opinions as truths, that's pretty close to a fact already.
- ?
- Anonymous
- Ke1
- 11 Oct 2010
THiS phone can compete wi th nokia next f la gship 2011, or ot he r brand phone 2011, worth evry cent
- ?
- Anonymous
- Ke1
- 11 Oct 2010
[deleted post]In Singapore funan it mall, you c an preorder now for just 799, delivered before 22octo be r
- S
- SunnyP
- PTS
- 11 Oct 2010
Waiting for the review here. At least give an ETA
- W
- W. Al Hakeem
- mTV
- 11 Oct 2010
[deleted post]I'm not sure what exactly you have seen, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with the X6. You might need to pay another visit and make sure that you are actually trying the N8. X6 uses the old Symbian navigation style (1 click for select and another click for confirm), the N8 is confirmed to have normal style click (1 click for select and confirm) except in some areas where it does require a double click to avoid mistakes.
Also, there is no comparison when it comes to the home screen, the only similaritiy is the "look" of the icons.
I have both units (the N8 received yesterday and iPhone 4 for more than a month), not getting into the useless comparison between both of them because as an ACTUAL user for both units, each one of them has it's own unique good things as well as bad things (and that includes the so called super iPhone too, the negative things for me are facts that can not be changed at all). Not to be understood in a wrong way, I emphasize here that there is no comparison between the 2 units according to my real usuage for both. I love each one of them on it's own way, and getting the N8 will NOT make me give up the iPhone, and it goes both ways, the iPhone does have weak points that made me go and try other brands, otherwise there was no need at all to look for another device.
Last be not least, the price difference between both of them is not that negligable, iPhone 4-16 GB is AED 2,449 ($662) and N8 is AED 2,099 ($567), so there is about $100 more to pay for the iPhone.
- C
- Chris
- UG4
- 11 Oct 2010
[deleted post]Hi, 'anonymous'. Heard its around the 15th Oct for general sales, earlier for preorders. Apparently the Infocomm Development Authority has to inspect the N8 as Symbian^3 is a new platform or something. Cheers!
- I
- Invictus
- UG4
- 11 Oct 2010
S.K., 11 Oct 2010I beta tested this phone out for a week(In Canada), the pho... moreNice, thanks for the info..
- a
- ar
- 3EV
- 11 Oct 2010
[deleted post]you must dreaming , where i live the Iphone 4 cost twice the price of N8 , both Unlocked phones
IPhone 4 = $1000 and i prebook the N8 for $490, so the N8 is half the price. i think there is no comparison in the price.
- K
- Kostas
- m{J
- 11 Oct 2010
[deleted post]Dear ice are you serious?Maybe Nokia n8 is not so fast and responsive like iphone but it costs about 450€ while iphone costs 450€ with 2year contract which means about 850-900€ for two years,or if you buy it without contract 750-800€.You buy 2 n8 instead of an iphone.
- h
- hayato
- t7X
- 11 Oct 2010
Where's the review?! It's monday already. Well here on south east asia that is.
Bbl.