Here is a closer look at the N8, Nokia’s latest touch-screen smartphone and the first device with the Symbian 3 OS, the device is loaded with cool features and amazing apps, and most importantly great photography capabilities. Below is a video review I made for the device, you can also read more below about, and enjoy some fo the photos I captured with the device.
Photography
One of the things I really admire about the N8 is the 12 megapixel camera that can shoot in HD, in my humble opinion it’s the perfect alternative for cameras, at least the non professional ones.
The N8 camera comes with Carl Zeiss lens along with Xenon Flash to improve the quality, in addition, it uses a 28mm wide-angle lens. I love my 10-megapixel Canon, but after using the N8 I started to have a second thought, I mean it’s really amazing to have all these capabilities in my pocket rather than carrying a heavy camera everywhere I go, the N8 gave me more reasons, and enabled me, to take awesome shots on the go.
The fun starts after you hear the shutter, with the photo editor you can edit and improve your photos directly on the phone without the need for any computer software, you can tune the colors, brighteners, contrast and some other attributes, as well as adding some cool effects like color styling, filters and speech bubbles.
This photo below is for amazing desert dunes in Dubai, the left half of it has been modified with the photo editor, I added the Antique effect, it’s a really cool feature with the phone to play with, just like Nokia says, it’s not technology, it’s what you do with it.
Multi-tasking
One of the aspects that adds to the usability of the N8 is the ability to run multiple tasks at the sames time, you can be listening to music while editing your photos and playing around with your social media. You can easily jump from one app to the other, choosing the first option on the options menu enables you to browse through the opened applications and to close whatever you are done with.
Music
One of the cool features in the N8 is the built-in FM transmitter, you can synchronize your mobile phone with the radio in your car to listen to the music directly form the mobile, no need to for any cable or any extra device to enjoy your music, you can check the video review attached to this post to see how it works.
Apps
Let’s say that it’s the weekend and you are heading to the beach, you have your music, your photos and videos, and a great camera in your pocket to capture the fun moments you’ll experience there, what else you might need? Probably it’s the connectivity.
The N8 comes with a range of apps that help you stay connected, you can stay in touch with your social network via an app that can be added to your homescreen, this app brings you a live feed from facebook and twitter with updates from your contacts, and of course enables you to access your accounts and update them, and speaking of updates, you can download the Foursquare app from the Ovi store, not a big fan of these location-based networks, but it’s another feature for everyone who likes to announce the name of the restaurant they are dining in at the moment.
Email is another aspect to stay connected, the N8 supports Microsoft exchange, which helps you to stay close to your business while on the move, you can also setup your personal email on the phone like Gmail, Ovi mail, Yahoo!, or Hotmail. It can be all accessible through a homescreen-widget as well.
The Ovi store hosts a long list of apps both free and paid, but which is the best and which you should use? An interesting widget that can be added to your homescreen shows the top apps on the store so that you can stay updated with what’s happening in the apps world. Now the apps are many, but of the ones I found really amazing is the video editor, where you can create videos and slideshows using photos and videos from your mobile.
Media has a big share in the apps world of the N8, the device comes with apps for YouTube, Al-Jazeera, CNN, BBC, National Geographic and Paramount, these apps feed you with news and updates through widgets on any of the three homescreens you can customize according to your needs.
Customization
With three different homescreens that can be fully customized, you will definitely feel that the N8 is built around you, you can change the background image of each screen and add the widgets you want, so you can have a personal front for your music and social network, another one for business, and a third one for news and cool stuff from around the web.
There are so many things that make the N8 such a great mobile phone, add to all the above is the navigation capabilities that the phone enjoys, you will enjoy driving around while listening to directions coming from your N8, even if you were just walking!
Random photos I took for some buildings in Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) using the N8, no editing was done.
Here are some more photos using the N8, sunset over Dubai Greek as spotted from Dubai Festival City, again no editing.
