back to article Nokia's lost weekend ends with N8?

Nokia can start restoring its diminishing profit margins later this year with the release of the N8, announced today. It's the first Symbian^3 phone, and so the first to be based on new code written since Nokia acquired Symbian and then spun it out to become an anarcho-syndicalist commune in 2008. Nokia watched its profit …

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  1. Steve Evans

    Xenon flash!

    About bloody time... They had one of these on one of the E series phones, but never put it on the N series.

    Forget the megapixels though, the sensor is far too small to see anything except noise. Nokia, keep the Xenon flash, but just put in the 5megapixel camera and lens from the N95/N97, it's perfectly good.

    If I want 12mp I'll pick up my Nikon, it has sensor photosites big enough for photnos to get in!

    1. Bill Fresher

      N82

      The N82 has a xenon flash.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      N82

      The N82 is the N95 through and through except with a xenon flash. Still happily using mine, horrible S60 UI aside.

    3. Adam Williamson 1

      Sensor

      They claim it has a rather larger sensor than other phones, which would make it make a little more sense. Looking at the sample pics linked to, they _do_ look rather like what you'd get out of a cheapo 12mp P&S, which isn't bad for a phone. It probably can't really take advantage of the whole 12mp, but only in the same way most P&S cameras can't either, and it does genuinely seem capable of resolving somewhat more than 5.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        CCD

        The reason they don't look as good as a "propper" camera is the use of cheep CMOS in place of a proper CCD. It cuts the actual area of each pixel by about 1/2 to 3/4,

  2. SynnerCal
    Unhappy

    Close, but no cigar

    Like the looks, but a non-removable battery makes it a non-starter as far as I'm concerned - leave that kind of stupidity to the People's Democratic Republic of Apple.

    Plus I really would have preferred Android 2.1 over Symbian (despite having an old S60r3 phone at the moment) - but I realise that this is an impossibility given Nokia's current OS line-up.

    Not sure about the camera too - 12MP sounds too much like marketing-led fluff. Less megapix's and more quality (although my current n95 can turn out a reasonable snap).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      Absobloodiltutely

      I have been killing batteries on N95, E65 at rate of one every 18 months. The E71 is still less then a year old so no idea how long it will last, but I would not expect it to exceed 18 months as well. My wife is even better - her time to kill one is sub-15 months. So a phone with a non-user-replaceable battery is a definitive non starter.

      If I am to suffer Symbian abuse I will stick with the N95 and the E71 thank ya.

      1. Nick Kew

        Battery life

        My E71 is about 15 months, and shows no signs of flagging. Still a good week between charges when it's just on standby/light use.

        Trouble with the E71 is, the hardware is so good you feel spoiled for anything else - including some of the much more expensive devices like N90 or you-know-what. If only they could combine that with maemo and a decent range of apps.

    2. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Close, but no cigar

      A Nokia PR has confirmed the battery is sealed, and not removable.

  3. Lutin

    Sample shots

    The detail in those sample shots does actually look pretty impressive.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Looks

    It looks like Nokia crammed an iPhone inside an aluminium hot-pocket.

    Ans this thing is supposed to revive their fortunes? What a joke! Rather than coming up with something truly great, they're trying to compete with cheap android knock-offs from the East. It's like netbooks all over again (that was a good one, wasn't it, Mr. Dell/HP/Sony?)

    The only thing Nokia is displaying here is their utter disregard for the intelligence of their customers. Sure, a lot of the mindless drones will continue buying cheap, but nearly everyone who's ever owned an iPhone is in no mind to swap it for something like this.

    1. ScioScio

      I think this will fly.

      I see this starting at 350 euros or whatever and then eventually moving down to 250 or thereabouts.

      It or something very like it will be the replacement for the X6 that succeeded the 5800. I think in this space it will do very well just as the 5800 did very well.

      Despite the Russian's poor review of the UI, we won't really know how ^3 turns out until it is proper release code but it will definitely be an improvement over the current S60 with one click actions, higher refresh rate, graphics accelerated. A lot of people like S60 because they are familiar with it.

      Also, if a camera phone is your thing, is there really much competition from the iPhone or Android? (the Xperia X10 looks promising).

      I agree with the tone of the article. I this kind of product will at least help Nokia maintain it's position if nothing else.

      The thing I want to know is, where is the 500 euro flagship phone? And what will it be like if 350 gets you all this? Maybe something like that will steal some iPhone users.

      Personally, I'll be waiting for the successor to the N900.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Not if first previews are anything to go by...

    I won't link to the site, but this remark stood out in a preview:

    '- “Disappointment” is too weak of a word to describe the N8'

    Looking forward to a proper Reg (p)review though, and it things are as they appear now, a reg-style solid trashing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Sadly

      Reg reviews failed to trash other notoriously buggered S60 phones, so pinch of salt time. The last good S60 was the wonderful E72.

      Nokia can haway an' shite, to be honest. I've had too many of their recent products fail that they've pissed me off. Been buying their phobiles for years, but I think my next one will be a 'droid.

  6. PhonicUK
    Stop

    Maemo...

    Should have an option to install Maemo!

    Otherwise, the hardware doesn't seem much different from the 8500, X6 or N97...

    Why do they keep remaking the same phone?

    1. Daniel B.

      Yeah

      Maemo seems to be a better option. Though they ditched that, and turned it into MeeGo (who the hell gave it that name? Sounds like a kid's toy!). Though it seems that MeeGo is more Maemo than Moblin, so that would be nice to try.

      Non-removable battery sounds like a deal-braker, though.

  7. SlabMan

    More from that Russian review

    'Brushed, washed, but not polished.'

    Love it. This is my new catchphrase.

  8. James 51

    Sick and tired of people always bringing up the iphone when talking about any phone

    Can we talk about a phone on its own merits without having to compare it to the iphone, particularly when the details surrounding it are so sketchy? I am going to wait to hold one before I begin to make up my mind.

    1. chr0m4t1c
      Joke

      Those are the forum rules.

      Every phone has to be compared to the iPhone, I think it's a legal requirement.

      I'm pretty sure that all tablet/slate machines will need to be compared to the iPad before the end of the year and possibly also some netbooks.

      Also, whatever piece of equipment you are talking about someone has to post that they /need/ some feature that it doesn't have in a kind of virtual willy-waving exercise.

      You wait, someone will be along before too long who needs 14 megapixels or 64Gb of storage or a bigger screen or something. For some reason they can't just go and buy whatever device suits their requirements.

  9. Chris 2

    oooh

    For a phone, the sample shots are fantastic. Can someone put this camera/lens/flash in the Samsung Galaxy S please?

  10. Andus McCoatover

    Don't knock it...

    ..till El Reg's bloodied claws get a beak-full of it.

    Price is sodding reasonable, if it does all it says. Grief, I might spend a month's dole/beer money on one if it performs as Nokia claims.

    (Wish I'd realised the wherewithal to realise the linked article was Russian. Had to reboot Ubuntu, 'cos I thought Firefox's cheese had finally slid off its cracker, and fired up translate.google.wherever...Should've just hovered the mouse. )

  11. Andus McCoatover

    N8? Enate?

    OK, Nokia are playing wordgames:

    ENA'TE, a. [L. enatus.] ref.http://enate.org/

    (1) [growing outward].

    (2) [also enatic, related on the mother's side].

    They have high hopes (from 1.) that this is the kiddie. Nice, Nokia, nice marketing...Like it.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Waste of time

    What the hell is wrong with Nokia? Symbian needs to be put 6ft under and forgotten about. It's crap. They have Meego as well, which seems to be a step in the right direction, but still not using it which is bonkers.

    Personally though they need to give in, and just stick Android on it. Sony and LG, and even Samsung (to some degree) have all realised this and it's about time that Nokia got its act together and followed suit.

    1. MacroRodent
      Boffin

      Re: Waste of time

      "They have Meego as well,"

      The problem is that Meego is currenly in the "integrate code from two different organizations" purgatory, and it is anyone's guess whether what finally comes out is better or worse than Maemo or Moblin was, and In any case the integration takes up valuable time.

  13. Skymonrie
    Linux

    there's nothing wrong with android...

    If you disable bluetooth/wireless by default and then just have a single button to turn each on/off :)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Ghost of N97?

    I'm sure I read exactly the same kind of pre-reviews before the N97, yet even a £50 LG was better than that festering £500 pile of poo. How the hell are Nokia going to sell this thing when they've p*ssed off so many of their loyal customers... they'd be better off just re-releasing the N95 and pretending the last 4 years were a bad dream. I hear Android's a good OS, why not look at that as you don't have the skills in-house.

    Anyway Nokia, I've got an iPhone now so please go away until you've got something better than that to offer. Trust me, there are loads of iPhone users that will jump as soon as you do.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    Cheap Finnish Rubbish

    Not an aluminium hot pocket.

    Its like they took and iPhone and put cheap tacky Japanese Car Buff air dams all around it with super-glue. The case will intrigue you because its triggering all those iPhone shape memory cells in your head that are linked to quality memes in the brain....

    bah! show some real innovation or die!

  16. Andy Watt
    Stop

    Symbian / S60 - don't confuse these

    For those who froth about "Symbian" -

    Don't call Symbian a pile of crap - it isn't. It's an extremely battery efficient OS with one hell of a solid kernel, case-hardened from years of dev and tweaking since the Psion organiser days.

    S60, on the other hand, is a Nokia UI layer which bites butt, and always has, even before touchscreens came along properly. I used to use UIQ symbian phones from SE, which were always one hell of a lot easier to use that the S60 keypress nightmare machines.

    I'll be interested to see if the Qt APIs Nokia are pushing make application creation any easier. One of the things which did get on my nerves working in Symbian was the programming conventions required (esp if you change environments a lot like I was).

  17. jon 77

    there is no real innovation!!!

    ALL the fancy new phones just want to look like the Iphone!! and just count how many types of nokia phones exist....

    First!! WHY are you already moaning about a phone (N8) That is just a prototype ( the total number existing countable on one hand!!) - note the 5800 is now very different from its prototype..

    Next, you iphone maniacs... WHEN will apple provide...

    360 x 640 screen (iphone only 320 x 480..)

    removable battery - dont play your guessing games with nokia, name one other that does not have a removable one!!

    removable Memory card.. Well???

    Can be used on ANY provider, just change the sim card....

    Can run Java with midp2.. also - WMV/RV/MP4/3GP/ MP3/WMA/WAV/RA/AAC/M4A player

    Many phones have bluetooth file transfer for long time , why not apple???

    sure, Nokia may have issues, BUT all others do!! Android has only just (maybe) got something going, but as it is rather warped by the geek sector, I have yet to see a proper 'idiot usable' phone... The last version did not have bluetooth, due to the need for a geek being able to hack it so that it would work... I wonder what OTHER stuff is missing, due to a missing OS switch...

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