Nokia N8 review - best camera phone ever

Score

4.0 stars
"Good"

(How we score)

Best camera ever, gorgeous hardware design, good battery life, great data speeds

Mediocre browser, touchscreen issues, UI feels slow at times, weak text input options

Summary

If you are a Symbian or Nokia S60 fan, your day has come. The Nokia N8 is the best Symbian device to have ever been sold. It has a great hardware design, good software capabilities, and the most usable touch interface ever offered on Symbian, thanks to the phone's new Symbian^3 smartphone operating system.

Highlights of the phone include a stellar 12 megapixel camera with xenon flash and 720p HD video recording capability, a good music player with both FM receiver and transmitter capabilities, an improved home screen, and messaging support that finally offers threaded text messaging.

The phone has its downsides, though, like a weak browser that Nokia has promised it will replace in a future firmware update. While the camera on the N8 feels very, very fast, other aspects of the phone sometimes seem to drag a bit, and I found the touchscreen to be less accurate than what the competition offers.

Overall, it's a great device for Symbian fans, and the beautiful hardware and color options will appeal to many, but I don't think current users of competing smartphone platforms will find it very welcoming. The phone is currently available in the U.S. through the NokiaUSA.com website, though that might change in the future.

You'll find some videos of the Nokia N8 in action after the Table Of Contents, below.