The Nokia N8 is a touchscreen-based smartphone developed by Nokia. Announced on 27 April 2010, the Nokia N8 was the first device to run on the Symbian^3 mobile operating system and it was the company's flagship device for the year. It was released on 30 September 2010 at the Nokia Online Store before being released in markets around the world on 1 October 2010. There were two version made, the N8 and the N8-00. The N8 was made for Vodafone and locked to its networks, and the N8-00 was made by Microsoft and open network.
The N8 has a 3.5-inch AMOLED display with 16 gigabytes of mass memory, and features a 12-megapixel camera, the second time a camera of such megapixel count was used (the first one being the Sony Ericsson Satio in 2009) with a Xenon flash (like the Nokia N82) and with a very large 1/1.83" sensor size (larger than most point-and-shoot cameras of the time). It also has 720p HD video recording, a pentaband 3.5G radio, and an FM transmitter. Among the connectivity features are an HDMI output, USB On-The-Go, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n.
The N8 was an important device for Nokia in its bid against increasing competition in the smartphone industry, and its revamped Symbian^3 software was also important. The device was delayed several times pushing its release date by several months, which had a negative impact on the company. Despite mixed views on the Symbian software, the N8's hardware build and camera quality were very well received, with many calling it the "best camera phone". The N8 would also become Nokia's last flagship device running Symbian, due to Nokia Lumia 800 in 2011 which ran on Windows Phone software. The N8's Symbian successor, Nokia 808 PureView, appeared in 2012.
History
The previous flagship phone in the Nseries was the N97, which was criticised for its initial firmware issues. Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's Executive Vice President for Markets, said in an interview that software quality control would be better than for the N97. The N97's reception was highly negative and tarnished the company's image in the market. The N8 was the first device to feature the Symbian^3 operating system. Initially scheduled for the second quarter of 2010, the N8 was pushed back to the third quarter, being finally released on 30 September 2010 due to 'final amendments'. The N8 became the product with the most customer pre-orders in Nokia's history up to the point of its release and sales in Q4 2010 were estimated to be almost 4 million.
The previous Nokia phone with a focus on photography had been the N86 8MP, which has an 8-megapixel sensor and had become available in June 2009.
The N8 was the second Nokia to have a capacitive touchscreen, following the X6, and the first with multi-touch.
Design
Body
Anodised aluminium monocoque case
Available in silver white, dark grey, orange, blue, green, pink and brown
Size: Weight (including battery): Camera with Carl Zeiss optics and 12.1-megapixel resolution
Display
3.5" AMOLED screen with capacitive touch
640 × 360 pixels nHD (16:9 aspect ratio) Gorilla glass protective layer 16M Colors
Hardware
680 MHz ARM11 processor (ARM v6 architecture) 256 MB RAM Broadcom BCM2727 GPU VideoCore III Multimedia Engine with dedicated 3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenGL-ES 1.1/2.0 support. 32 Mtriangles/sec 16 GB internal memory MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB
Power and related information
The Nokia N8 has dual charging options, allowing it to be charged both from a standard-pin Nokia charger, and through the micro-USB port.
The Nokia N8's battery compartment is internally contained and thus the battery is not entirely straightforwardly removable or replaceable by users. Nonetheless, although the procedure is not endorsed by Nokia, it is possible with the correct tool and careful handling to change the battery.
BL-4D 1200 mAh Lithium-ion battery.
Standard Nokia 2 mm charger connector
Talk-time (maximum): GSM 720 min. WCDMA 350 min. Standby time (maximum): GSM 390 h WCDMA 400 h Video playback time (H.264 720p, 30 fps, maximum): 6.5 h Video recording time (H.264 720p, 30 fps, maximum): 3.5 h Music playback time (maximum): 54 h