EugeneOoi

When I received the Nokia N8 during the Maxis 10 meeting, the first thing that came to mind was, how much has Nokia phones changed? Is the interface still the same? It’s been over a year since I last used a Nokia phone. My last Nokia phone was the N85 which was the first Nokia phone with AMOLED screen. Before that I was using the Nokia Navigator 6110 which I loved for it’s GPS functionalities. Nokia phones have been well loved due to it’s simplicity and easy of use. Even my parents are still using a Nokia phone.

The Nokia N8 is one of the latest phones in the market and the first phone to use the new Symbian ^3 which has full HD output which is also the reason Nokia focuses on the HD functions in this phone. Among some of the highlights of the phone are:

• HMDI port which allows you to connect to a HDTV to show off your video, images up to 720p high-definition digital resolution and also comes with Dolby Digital Plus which is capable of delivering surround sound with a compatible home theater system!
• A 12 mega pixels camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash which can rival some of the point and shoot cameras out there.

Below are pictures of the Nokia N8 against the iPhone.

The phone feels solid as there are no covers to open except for two small ones on the side of the phone for sim card and micro-SD memory card. The battery is “built-in” similar with the iPhone and not user-replaceable. The size of the phone is somewhat similar to the iPhone, with the iPhone being slightly slimmer.

When I first switched on the phone, it booted up with the trademark start up tone and the two hands coming together to form a handshake. Nothing has changed, it’s still the same after all these years! When the home screen came on, that’s when I see the changes. The home screen is beautiful and it can be view in portrait and landscape. now even more customizable as compared to my last phone, the Nokia N85.

There are now 3 home screens on the Nokia N8. On the first home screen, there is the familiar clock and date, followed by a short cut to quickly change your profiles which you can also change by pressing the power button. Below that are two rows of shortcuts (4 on each row) which are customizable to your preference. In the Nokia N85, there were only 6 shortcuts.

On the second half of the screen, you can add widgets from the latest news from CNN to weather updates or the latest facebook and/or twitter update to the latest on KL Traffic! On the first home screen, there is only space for 3 widgets but on the second and third home screen, there is space for 6 widgets on each screen. The third screen comes pre-configured with 4 tv widgets - CNN, National Geographic, TV3 and 8TV. Yes, you can now watch TV on-demand on the Nokia N8, all you need is a data plan.

The Nokia N8 also has it’s flaws. The Symbian software still hangs when there are too many apps open. Also so happened the day that I got the phone, Nokia had just released an update which forces me to download and apply the update before I can use the phone apps.

After updating the phone, I faced problems signing in my Twitter account. It showed an error message that my password was incorrect and the password is case-sensitive. Thinking I might have keyed in the password incorrectly, I tried to sign in a few more times and got the same error.

I then logged on to the Twitter website and changed my password to have one upper case and also removed the special character. I tried again and it now works on the phone. It was driving me crazy trying to figure out the problem. I believe one other Maxis 10 reviewer also faced this problem. I hope Nokia will comes up with a fix soon.

The Nokia N8 currently retails at RM1690 but Maxis is offering the phone from as low as RM999 with a 24 months contract. For more information, visit the Maxis website