"Nokia N8": characteristics, design, disadvantages and advantages. Nokia N8 mobile phone
I will build my own amusement park! Robot Bender, m / f "Futurama"
The Nokia N8 is perhaps one (if not the most) of the most controversial and talked about phones of 2010. He was destined to become such a scandal - even his announcement was accompanied by a scandal, which the company was forced to take after it appeared on Mobile Review preview. For Nokia, this is a landmark device in which a lot of effort has been put into. So let's try to understand all its advantages and disadvantages.
Specifications Nokia N8
Apart from the morally old processor with a frequency of 680 MHz, the Nokia N8 hardware can be called very interesting. The device has a unique set of characteristics for today: 12-megapixel camera with autofocus, xenon flash and video recording at a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, HDMI-out, the ability to connect USB-drives to the device and support for the DivX codec. All this, together with the built-in 16-gigabyte drive, makes the model interesting. The weaknesses of the smartphone include the resolution and diagonal of the display, which seriously lose to the same Android devices, where 4-inch displays with a resolution of 800x480 pixels were already in the summer of 2010, while Nokia N8 sales began only in the fall. Well, the truth is that the screen is capacitive, created using AMOLED technology (which is also not the most advanced technology today), it supports multi-touch. The capabilities of the hardware platform are supported by the "transitional" version of Symbian 3 version. In general, the situation with operating systems now in Nokia, to put it mildly, is not the best. Constant delays and course changes have led to the fact that the company today is chronically lagging behind and, along with Windows phone 7 has been in a hung state of a catching up player for many months now. Symbian was originally designed for use in regular phones, at a time when touch screens had not yet captured the minds and hearts of consumers. In this status, Symbian has not been and still has no equal. But those glorious times have passed and after the release and triumphant march of the iPhone, the market has changed. Nokia has long been preparing a new operating system, originally designed for use in touchscreen phones. The Nokia N900 running the Maemo 5 operating system showed good potential, but suddenly Nokia changed course and joined forces with Intel to work on the MeeGo operating system. Soon it will be a year since these works are being carried out, but things are still there. Which is very close to the situation with Windows Phone 7, the first devices on which, although they are already being sold in a number of countries, are not happy, as in that joke about balloons.
Nokia N8 bundle
Nokia's bundle is quite consistent with the idea of a flagship phone. This is a set of cables and adapters (for connecting USB flash drives and HDMI), good headphones with three sets of silicone seals and a remote control that controls the volume and switches music tracks. Taking into account the possibility of charging the built-in battery from USB, the buyer receives two sets of chargers - for work and at home.
- Box
- User manual in Russian and Ukrainian
- Quick User Guide in Ukrainian
- HDMI cable adapter
- Portable charger with 2mm jack
- Adapter for connecting USB drives
- USB cable
- Stereo headset with remote control
- Two additional sets of earmuffs
- Nokia N8
Appearance Nokia N8
The Nokia N8 features a recognizable new body design made from cast aluminum with beveled and rounded four corners.
The module with the camera and speaker is mounted on a separate ledge. On the one hand, this increases the size of the device, on the other hand, the phone lying on the table does not muffle calls due to the fact that it always lies at a slight angle, without blocking the speaker.
At the top there is a power button (you need to hold it for 8 seconds to turn off the phone, if it freezes, it will be much more difficult to remove the battery), a headphone jack and an HDMI adapter connector hidden behind a polished plastic cover. A rubber plug would have looked better, but you won't need to use HDMI often - it's more marketing than a real need. At the bottom there is a standard connector for charger Nokia and microphone. On the left panel there is a microUSB port and slots for a SIM card (hot-swappable, after which the device will reboot) and microSD memory cards hidden behind tight-fitting matte plastic plugs. On the right panel there is a camera power button, a paired volume control button and a convenient corrugated lever that blocks the touch screen.
On the front panel is the only hardware key. With its help, you can unlock your smartphone (confirmation is required by pressing a special button on the touch screen), pressing it sequentially switches the device between the main menu and the main desktop. A long press and hold brings up the manager of running applications.
Under the camera window there is a speaker slot used to play music, above the camera is the pride of the Nokia N8, a xenon flash that provides bright white light when taking pictures. Interestingly, the camera itself, hidden behind glass, is closed by a curtain that opens at the time of shooting.
The package includes two adapters. One connects to the microUSB connector and allows you to use a USB flash drive with your phone. The other is connected to the HDMI jack at the top of the case and then via a standard HDMI cable to a TV or monitor for viewing photos and HD video (including those shot by the built-in camera).
The headset wire is flat, made of soft, pleasant to the touch plastic. The remote is equipped with a clothespin and a call answer button, a volume control key and player control buttons. It is worth saying that when attaching the remote control to my clothes with a clothespin, I almost never managed not to hook the music switch keys, which regularly caused irritation.
Chrome-plated headphones are equipped with silicone seals. The package includes three such pairs of seals. different size in order to ensure optimum sound insulation during operation. In my opinion today is the best option headphones - they sit well in the ears, do not fall out if you choose the right seals, do not irritate the ears and at the same time cut off external noise.
The question that worries a certain part of the people - what to do with a non-removable battery, in fact, is not such a big problem. True, you need a special screwdriver. However, I easily found it in the nearest market in a set with a good two dozen other attachments. The Chinese set cost me 25 hryvnias or something.
Two screws off and now the lower part of the case is unscrewed, and you can pull out the battery. This is much more difficult than just removing the cover, but in practice, how often do you have to remove the battery? Even with intensive use of the phone, it will have to be replaced in the worst case after a year. Once a year, unscrewing two screws and screwing them back in is not such a serious problem. Especially against the backdrop of elegant appearance apparatus, which he will keep permanently.
Size comparison with what was at hand: Nokia N97 and Sony Ericsson X10:
Nokia N8 desktop and widgets
In general, upgrading Symbian to version 3 (or should I write ^3? is a completely stupid idea with writing, to be honest) looks cosmetic and ill-timed. In general, the operating system is the main (or even the only) problem of this smartphone. Nokia N8 has three desktops, which at the end of 2010 already looked like a mockery - even budget phones have three desktops touch phones Samsung and LG 1000 hryvnia each. Widgets with a size of one line (4 icons) are very inconvenient to use (especially if there is something to compare with). For example, for the mail widget, only two lines with letters are placed, which is very small. And all three desktops, in the end, there is simply nothing to do. Only widgets with a player can be called convenient (when the radio is on, it shows radio stations) and with favorite contacts- this is the same contact panel that has been available in smartphones on the S60 5th edition for more than a year. Desktops can have both vertical and horizontal orientation. You can switch between them with a simple flick of your finger, or you can scroll through them one by one by pressing the middle touch key with three dots at the bottom of the screen. In this case, the white dot shows which of the three desktops in front of the user.
To customize your desktop, just press and hold your finger on one of the widgets. The Nokia N8 categorizes this gesture as a wish to make changes and puts the desktop into edit mode. In it, you can remove any of the six bars or, by clicking on the free plus sign, add it to your desktop.
The good thing is that now blocks with application icons or browser bookmarks can be set as many as you like (in Nokia N97, you could set no more than 2). They are all called links. Each bar can contain 4 such links, so you can place up to 24 shortcuts to the user's favorite applications and sites on the desktop at the same time. In practice, it will be difficult to type these 24 applications, but theoretically it is possible.
In addition to the list of widgets already installed or used in Nokia N8, you can download additional widgets from the OVI store, but in practice, out of the two dozen widgets available there, there is simply nothing for our user to choose - there are simply no local services there. You can also use any user-added RSS feed as a widget. Although it will be possible to see, again, only two headings.
Some widgets are able to expand on the desktop (for example, the widget with user-missing events) to provide quick access to necessary information. Another update in Symbian^3 is a new running application manager. When you press and hold the hardware button below the display, a ribbon with running applications appears in a pop-up window. You can quickly switch to any of them by scrolling the feed with your finger. And you can close the unnecessary by clicking on the cross in the upper right corner. Running applications are now displayed not as their icons, but as screenshots of the screen with the current state of the program. But the main menu has remained virtually unchanged.
Despite the apparent complications, everything has become noticeably faster than in previous versions of Symbian. It is interesting to organize the operation of the display in standby mode. The screen is off but shows the time and date. If you touch the hardware key, then there is also a touch key for unlocking and information about the battery level and cellular network signal.
The main menu, as I said, is no different from the usual. Of the pre-installed applications, photo and video editors (more on them later) and games (we will also return to them) are of some interest.
Reading messages in Nokia N8
The application "Reading messages" finally began to be able to read in Russian. This can be convenient in some cases (by the way, which ones?) For privacy, you should wear headphones. The program tries to automatically recognize the language of the message. Both letters and SMS are read - everything is in order of receipt.
Music player in Nokia N8
The main innovation in the player is a very fast scrolling of disc covers. Although the question is more about the ruffles than the functionality. Another pleasant moment - after pulling out the headphones, the playback of the player stops. Before, the music continued to play. Now you can "turn off" the player and in this way. By the way, this method works great with the radio. And if the application with the radio is not closed, then when you reconnect the headphones, the radio automatically starts broadcasting to the headphones.
Multitouch in Nokia N8
The whole year of 2010 (and even a piece of 2009) was held by manufacturers under the slogan of users “We need a capacitive screen and multi-touch!” It was especially difficult for Nokia and Sony Ericsson to understand the importance of this feature by stubbornly and for too long denying the importance of this feature for users. As a result, at the beginning of 2011, we have a situation where the need to use such displays and such functions is already visible to everyone. As a result, Nokia N8 supports multi-touch in the browser, viewing photos, for some reason mail and OVI maps starting from version 3.06. Nokia itself does not use this concept due to Apple patents, so the phrase pinch to zoom is used in official documents, which can be translated as "zoom with your fingers."
Taking pictures with the Nokia N8
While a 12-megapixel camera or xenon flash is no longer new to the market, the Nokia N8 in 2010 was the only phone with such capabilities. Which automatically made it the best camera phone of the year (and Symbian does not affect this in any way, however, Android still demonstrates an insufficient level of cameras in devices). In general, despite the serious history of the issue (at some point in time, Nokia became the world's largest manufacturer of devices equipped with cameras), the company had only a few models with good cameras. Offhand, Nokia N73 and Nokia N95 come to mind. But otherwise, the manufacturer rarely pampered its customers with first-class cameras. Nokia N8 is clearly not the case, and its photography capabilities are simply excellent. This is easy to verify if you look at more examples of images and upload them in their original resolution in a separate photo gallery on Torba. The camera interface has not undergone any significant changes compared to its predecessors. Everything is very familiar, only the 12MP item appeared in the “image quality” parameters, which means the shooting mode for all 12 megapixels.
The camera feels equally confident both when shooting outdoors and indoors.
Fragment of a snapshot in real resolution. Notice the lack of digital noise, which is common with the cameras built into the phone.
Shooting the sky, which is traditionally problematic for phone cameras, gives good rather than mediocre results in the case of the Nokia N8. In the bright sun, she no longer loses to ordinary soap dishes.
Another tricky option is night shooting. The light from the windows of the Kyiv Central Department Store is enough to get a sharp picture. Try to repeat it with another built-in camera in your phone.
Another example is shooting at night on the street in low light conditions.
Indoors, you can combine shooting with or without flash for best results. This picture was taken without a flash, and the next one with it.
When shooting without a flash, the colors are richer, but there is always a risk of getting a blurry photo due to slow shutter speeds.
In this shot, note the depth of field that is difficult to achieve during macro photography.
Another example of shooting indoors at close range and with flash. Good detail and no glare from the flash, which provides uniform illumination.
And another example of shooting indoors with a flash. You can see every hair of the cat.
And this is a fragment of the previous photo in real resolution. Feel the difference.
Also a difficult option for automation, with which the camera in Nokia N8 copes perfectly: indoors, numerous splashes of water and a flash. The picture turned out sharp and at the same time without glare from the flash itself.
Photo editor in Nokia N8
In addition to an excellent camera, the Nokia N8 also has one of best photo editors which I met in phones. True, the question of the appropriateness of such an application should be left out of the scope. But, at a minimum, you can entertain your friends (and yourself) if you are at school or student age. And you should use red-eye reduction (the xenon flash is guaranteed to provide them).
In addition to the frame (by the way, there are a couple of dozen of them to choose from), you can use various filters (there are also a lot of them). Some of them simply color the image using one tone, others allow you to use artistic effects. A huge field for all kinds of experiments.
An interesting tool is a stamp with a good dozen templates and the ability to choose the color of the marking. Please note that along with the brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color settings that are due to the image editor (you can adjust separately in highlights and shadows or add one color channel), you can use the selection of image fragments. For this, rectangular or oval blocks are used, but you can use the very “adult” tool “magic wand”, which automatically selects a fragment of the same color. In fact, these are the features of professional raster image editors that are used in the vast majority of cases when editing photographs.
Another fun feature is the addition of a phrase bubble. There are several cloud templates to choose from. The text is entered in a standard field, and then the vector (!) block with text can be moved, rotated and resized. Pay attention to the arrows on the right side of the screen, with which you can step by step undo previous actions and return it back.
The addition of vector animation (that is, an animated picture can be enlarged, and it does not cease to be animated) is more likely to appeal to teenagers, but for a phone, this feature looks simply impressive.
One of the more commonly used functions is also working flawlessly - cleaning "red eyes" after shooting with a flash. It is worth saying that she perfectly fulfills her role as in a completely automatic mode when the search and correction of the eyes is performed by automation. So, and in manual - in this case, the user himself selects a fragment of the image that requires correction.
Shooting video with Nokia N8
Everyone probably knows that the Nokia N8 camera is capable of shooting video in HD resolution (1280x720), but few people know about the video editing capabilities that are available to the owner of this device. Today we will talk about it along with examples of video shooting, which the Nokia N8 camera is capable of. The interface of the video camera can be called ascetic. This can be explained by the fact that we shoot video with the phone in cases where the shooting is not planned, but something interesting happens suddenly, as they say, here and now. And at hand there is only a phone in which there is simply no time to set something up, you need to get it and immediately start shooting. However, in addition to the HD shooting mode, Nokia N8 has the ability to record geotags using the built-in GPS module. And there is a built-in video stabilizer.
The ability to evaluate a video by a video on YouTube is a thankless task, the main thing is that a resolution of 1280x720 is available. And this means that you will be able to comfortably watch videos shot by Nokia N8 in the future, when all TVs and televisions will work in this high-definition standard.
Video editor in Nokia N8
The built-in video editor in Nokia N8 works in two modes, similar in their capabilities, but different in purpose. In the first case, we are talking about video editing. In the second - creating a beautiful slideshow with music from own photos, located in the memory of Nokia N8 and made by hand. The first thing the user sees after selecting a mode is the storyboard. It remains to add a video and / or photo from the gallery, overlay an audio track from the music library, add captions with text if necessary, and choose a beautiful option for animating transitions between video blocks. Although for the most part this is a beautiful toy that has very little practical use. However, you can consider the following scenario: you are returning from a business trip (vacation) and on an airplane (train, bus, waiting room) you can whip up a slide show of the captured images. Any realistic scenario with video editing does not come to my mind at all.
Creating a slideshow is fundamentally no different, except that there is no need to cut the necessary pieces of video during editing (this option is available in the video editing mode). The process of adding photos and sound materials is fast. And at the end, the user gets a slide show with beautiful animation, when the next picture effectively appears on a beautiful background. There is more than enough room for creativity. This means that you can do such operations on the plane on the way home from vacation and come back with an impressive show “how I spent my vacation” ready to be shown to friends (of course, on a big TV).
Using email in Nokia N8
E-mail is definitely one of the strengths of the Nokia N8, inherited from previous versions of Symbian. mail program has a user-friendly interface adapted for use with a touch screen, supports a dozen popular mail services: Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, Rambler, Yandex, mail.ru, i.ua, can work with mail for MS Exchange and, of course, mail OVI service. This means that to access the mail of these services, you just need to enter the address and password, the program will determine all other settings by itself. At all mail client in Symbian^3 one of the best I've ever seen.
If the service is not in the list, you can set up mail manually. The client allows you to work with several mailboxes at once (I calmly used three, two of which receive a lot of mail), easily switching between them, and has a rich selection of settings, which is an example of an excellent implementation of a familiar service in a mobile phone. And thanks to the branded (and so far free) Nokia Messaging service, push e-mail becomes available. This is an opportunity to receive mail in the phone just a few seconds after it arrives. Here it would be appropriate to say that Symbian in general and Nokia N8 in particular are much smarter than the system of optimal power consumption is arranged in the same Android. If for an Android smartphone to survive until the evening after intensive use during the day is equal to a feat, then the Nokia N8 is easily able to hold out for a couple of days. At the same time, push e-mail works, in which mail is updated regularly. The three tabs at the top of the interface are buttons. The first one with an envelope icon is for creating a new letter. The second is used to select a folder with letters (IMAP is supported) and switch between different mailboxes. To access user folders, just select the "Folders" item in the drop-down list. All messages in the current folder can be sorted by date, sender, subject, priority, and attachments. Separately, you can select unread letters or letters marked by the user.
Letters allow you to set priorities, use copy lists, and hidden copies addressees. The Check box allows you to immediately mark the letter so that it can then be quickly found. The mail program supports attachments. at the same time, files do not need to be searched for a long time in the phone's memory - file system Symbian allows one click to get to the music, photo, video or note that the user is going to attach to the letter. By selecting the "Other" item, you can select any file on the disk.
For each mailbox You can set your own mail settings. To do this, simply select Options from the Functions menu. And it has the right mailbox.
Experienced users will love the flexible mail delivery options. Power management in Symbian ^ 3 when working with mail, as I said, is worthy of all praise - even when maximum settings(deliver as quickly as possible) and throughout the week without interruption, the phone is able to last a couple of days. This time can be increased, for example, by choosing a sparing mail download frequency mode.
You can add battery life by turning off mail delivery at night. For example, by selecting the item "9.00 - 21.00" in the loading schedule. When roaming, the function of downloading some headers will be useful. Also in the workbox, you can, for example, turn off the delivery of letters on weekends, and enjoy a well-deserved rest. The phone will do everything by itself. And back to work on Monday.
You can edit the signature automatically added at the end of each letter and limit the number of letters stored in the machine's memory. This allows you to use the available memory more economically.
Browser and OVI maps in Nokia N8
The browser in Nokia N8 now supports multi-touch, can work with Flash Lite, has a standard set of settings for phone browsers, the main purpose of which is to optimize traffic consumption and ensure user privacy. The browser has an integrated RSS client for web feed subscriptions, making it easy to read new content from your favorite or frequently visited sites. It supports multi-window mode, can block pop-up windows and store user site passwords. Although, for example, functions such as selecting and copying text are not implemented in it in the best way. In the sense that there are more interesting options.
The browser can work in both vertical and horizontal screen orientations, automatically switching between them. The main menu is called up by pressing a button with three dashes and offers icons of the main sections that are convenient for pressing with your fingers.
The browser settings have such useful functions as choosing a permanent Internet access point, specifying start page at startup, automatic addition to Internet addresses.com, .net, .org as well as the choice of a search service provider - Yandex or Google.
The browser can work with Cookies and store user passwords. Change the font size on a web page, block pop-up ads that are especially annoying when browsing web pages on your phone screen, and disable image downloads to save bandwidth. Context menu makes it possible to find the word you are looking for on the page or subscribe to the RSS feed of the site's web news with one click.
It also allows you to work with bookmarks and stores the history of pages viewed. The RSS client as a whole has not changed from previous version Symbian. It's comfortable and fast way reading site updates. Spending to the same traffic to a minimum.
An alternative is the excellent proven Opera browser Mini, which provides optimization of web pages and, as a result, their fast loading. Its touch screen version is adapted for finger control and has a nice and simple interface.
Opera Mini also supports multiple windows and works in both portrait and landscape orientations.
Simple and clear settings allow you to optimize the loading of web pages depending on the speed of your mobile connection. You can change font sizes, affect the degree of compression (and quality) of images, or even disable their download.
As in all new Nokia smartphones, The N8 comes with Nokia maps with free navigation. The device is equipped with version 3.04 cards, which today it makes sense to upgrade to 3.06. You can read more about the new features in a separate article. The main disadvantage of cards can be called the constant need for activated mode A-GPS (and, accordingly, traffic consumption). On one GPS you will not go far and you will not leave. The advantages include storing maps in the phone itself, which makes zooming very fast and allows you to search for points of interest offline.
Supports 3D mode convenient for car navigation. Detailing is constantly increasing, and courtyard passages begin to appear on the maps.
Settings include Internet, Navigation, Route, Map and Synchronization sections. Using an Internet connection allows you to increase the speed of location, which begins to work even inside buildings. By default, the resources of the built-in 16 GB drive are used. This improves the stability of the work.
The most interesting and detailed settings, of course, contains a "Navigation" section. You can select the language for voice guidance for driving and walking. Set home location coordinates (they allow you to calculate the route from the starting point to the house with the click of a button). Select the type of route - faster or shorter. In navigation, the possibility of warning about exceeding the allowed speed limit has appeared.
A distinctive feature of OVI maps are points of interest, sorted by a dozen topics (almost all of them also have their own subsections). Currently, there are several tens of thousands of such points in Ukraine. And search results from the current location are sorted by distance.
A new section in maps is the map Reporter application, allowing the user to participate in the map improvement program. He can indicate an inconsistency or map error by selecting one of the specified reasons and send a message to the map developers with the click of a button.
Social media client in Nokia N8
In short, the built-in clients for working with social networks have the same childhood diseases as other manufacturers. It's not for nothing that LG abandoned its own app in Optimus One. Since this is a completely thankless job for smartphones - after all third party applications for Twitter and Facebook work much better and have an order of magnitude better opportunities. In the case of Nokia N8, the situation is aggravated by the fact that authorization on the OVI service is required to work with social networks. Apparently, in this way Nokia is trying to increase the use of the service and thus look better in the eyes of shareholders.
Nokia N8 provides access to popular social networks - Facebook and Twitter right out of the box thanks to the preinstalled Social Center program, which works through the OVI service. You can update your status, read friends' messages, post photos taken with the built-in camera, and exchange messages. It is worth saying that the social center has its own widget that allows you to follow the feed of updates right on the desktop of Nokia N8. But everything works slowly and the same Twitter client does not know a lot of things that everyone is already used to. For example, expand lists, show discussions, make retweets. The application has three modes of operation and allows you to read Twitter and Facebook updates individually or simultaneously in the "all operations" mode. The Social Center can support multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts at the same time. The search function allows you to select one friend's feed to read.
In Twitter mode, you can see your entire friends feed or read messages addressed to you separately. It is possible to view selected (previously marked) messages.
The fourth button in the top menu is responsible for private messages. To refresh the feed, simply select Refresh from the Options menu. The interface is extremely simple, all the main functions are always at hand. Which is convenient for the mobile scenario of using the service. You can literally read the feed on the go by refreshing, reading and scrolling the feed with one finger.
The application can use Twitter's signature feature - the use of a long link shortening service. The bit.ly service is used. To shorten the link, you need to enter it full address and click the "Shorten links" button.
The social center allows you to publish up to 6 photos at once by selecting them from the gallery. And you can send a picture to Twitter, making it right there with the built-in camera. Posting pictures takes seconds. But at the same time, no text can be added - only short links to photographs go to Twitter, which is no longer so convenient.
The Facebook client is adapted to work with this social network and provides ample opportunities. You can read a shared feed, select specific friends' feeds, and select only photos or links posted by friends. Although it is better to forget about all this, install Gravity for Twitter (although it is paid) and the official Facebook client for Symbian.
You can view and exchange internal messages and respond to friend requests and invitations to events sent by your friends.
A nice feature is that if you accept an invitation to an event, the application prompts you to immediately add it to your phone's calendar. A trifle, but nice.
Facebook updates allow you to add videos in addition to photos, as well as include data about your current location in the message using the built-in GPS.
As in the "real" Facebook, you can mark your favorite posts and comments.
And, of course, in the OVI store you can always download other clients to work with social services. For example, Gravity, which has been the best Twitter client for the Symbian operating system for several years.
Preinstalled 3D games in Nokia N8
What's exactly done right in the Nokia N8 is that it comes with two 3D games: Galaxy on Fire, a 3D space arcade game with economic strategy elements, and Need for Speed Shift, a racing sim. Thanks to the touch screen and accelerometer, you can get a completely new gaming experience with unusual controls. And the built-in 3D accelerator provides a vivid experience for modern 3D games. Especially if the user has not had a similar experience on other platforms.
It should be said that in addition to pre-installed games, Nokia N8 has the ability to download games, applications and themes through the OVI store. This is a service that is accessed special program. In Symbian^3, it got a new look and structure, to be more user-friendly and to keep up with the increased number of apps in the store. As you remember, in January of this year, paid applications in OVI became available for Ukrainian users.
The store has a recommendation system that offers the user exactly those applications that, according to the system, can interest him. The more programs you download, the more accurate the recommendations will be. All materials are divided into 4 categories: applications, games, audio and video, personal settings. IN personal settings you can see a list of already downloaded and installed applications through the OVI store and settings account.
When you navigate to a category, you can select popular (most often downloaded) applications or new ones added recently by developers. Above the top menu is special application category recommended by the service at the current time.
For example, one of these recommended games is the most popular game Angry Birds, which has become a real hit this year. It is already available on Symbian^3. By going to the application page, you can see screenshots from it (they allow you to evaluate the graphics and usefulness of the program), as well as read the comments of users who have already used this program.
Another useful innovation - now in the account settings you can choose where to install applications: in system memory device or built-in storage.
Galaxy on Fire
Frankly, this game is really beyond praise. It has an excellent game balance - it does not get bored thanks to a large number various tasks and elements of the economy. And also does not require long missions. In a word, everything is done so that you can get the maximum gaming pleasure in your free time. Galaxy on Fire has two types of game - the so-called survival mode, in which, like in Tetris, the number of enemies and their speed gradually increase. And a full-fledged campaign with its own storyline. In real-time mode, there are few game actions - you need to fly to a specific goal (do not forget that we are talking about a three-dimensional space of space - this is not a two-dimensional arcade). Along the way, shoot opponents, dodge large asteroids and destroy small ones. In appearance, everything is simple, there are two types of weapons and an acceleration mode in order to quickly overcome the distance or flee from superior enemy forces.
Like a good simulator, Galaxy on Fire has an economic model. For completing missions, the player receives credits that can be spent on planets to buy more modern weapons. You can also engage in trade, thus earning money, if the player has a talent for negotiation.
The player is assisted by in-game dialogues that provide the logic of the plot and give advice, especially useful on entry level games.
Of course, as the game progresses, the user moves to new levels, collects trophies left over from destroyed opponents, and receives credits for successfully completing missions. After each of them works auto save games. To which you can immediately return if your ship is destroyed.
Need for Speed Shift
To say that the racing simulator Need for Speed is the de facto standard in the gaming industry is to say nothing. This game is available to all Nokia N8 customers. Before starting the game, the user can adjust the volume of sound, music and sound effects (the engine roars so that no one will see it) and select the type of race.
As in the "large" version of the game, as the player develops skills and wins races, the player becomes available to new cars and new tracks and cities. There is only one car at the start - Volkswagen Golf GTI.
The control of the game is extremely simple and natural - you just need to tilt the phone to the right and left, simulating the movements of the steering column. First person view and big screen perfectly convey the atmosphere of the race! Graphics and sound provide full immersion in Game. During the movement, the game captures the masterful entry into the turn and arrows show the ideal trajectory of movement. If the player follows it, the blue text "Perfect Trajectory" appears on the display. By adhering to it, the player will ensure victory for himself.
Each race ends with a variety of statistics, which take into account overtaking, driving style, speed and accuracy of movements.
I must say that the screenshots poorly convey the level of graphics, so it's worth seeing how it looks live on the video.
Watching videos on Nokia N8
One of key features Nokia N8 is able to work with external drives(USB On the Go function) and connecting to a TV via an HDMI connection. In this case, you can play files on the TV directly from the connected USB storage device. It is worth noting that no other smartphone on the market has such a combination today. As you know, it is better to see with your own eyes once than to read a hundred times. Therefore, let's move on to a visual demonstration of these interesting features.
When you connect a USB drive to your phone using the special adapter included in the package, a new item "Remove USB device" appears in the system menu. It is necessary to safely remove the flash drive. In the USB settings menu, the system message "accessing the phone's memory card through another device" pops up, and the file manager recognizes new drive(in this case G) and allows you to work with it like with any other memory, including video playback.
The built-in media player supports DivX and can work with big files(I played 1.5 GB video files in HD with ease). Declared support for H.263 and H.264, MPEG4 and WM9.
In the dry matter
Without a doubt, Nokia has managed to create an outstanding product with a whole range of unique features. Its weakest point is the Symbian operating system, which initially had no idea about touch screens. All of these subsequent add-ons (like UIQ in early versions) have always been half measures. Therefore, today Symbian obviously loses in convenience and flexibility to operating systems originally created for use with touch screens (iOS, Android and bada with Windows Phone 7). But for a huge army of fans of the brand (who are still many, despite the fact that their number may drastically decrease in the very near future), the possibilities of Nokia N8 are a real discovery. The main annoying factor is the damn inconvenient switching of the layout (in 4 clicks, while the mechanism for doing it in 1 has long been invented) is partially solved by the released under New Year Swype for Symbian with Russian language support. Although there is no Ukrainian yet (for example, Swype for Android already has it). TO strengths The Nokia N8 certainly has a camera, and those for whom this is a key factor will not be able to ignore it. All this time that the Nokia N8 was in my hands, I could not decide if the device was worthy of an editorial award. gg. On the one hand, the phone has a rather high price, for which the user has the right to count on maximum opportunities. On the other hand, Symbian in this case is simply the root of evil, despite cosmetic improvements. As a result, a solution was found - we give the Nokia N8 a "we recommend" award, but with a caveat - for Nokia fans. Anyone who looks towards other more advanced operating systems (provided that they do not need the ability to shoot indoors - as you can see, solid reservations), this phone is unlikely to please. Nokia managed to create an outstanding device. But it is outstanding only within the framework of a parallel universe where there is nothing but Symbian. This is your own Lunapark.
6 reasons to buy Nokia N8
- DivX and HDMI support out of the box
- Camera with xenon flash and HD video recording
- Nice screen with multi-touch support protective glass Gorilla glass
- Ability to connect USB drives
- Familiar familiar Symbian
- Pleasant in all respects aluminum body
4 reasons not to buy Nokia N8
- Obsolete Symbian
- Low screen resolution
- Conditionally undisassembled case
- Tiringly annoying keyboard layout switching
26.01.2012
A photo edited with a photo editor. Made a little mockery of my dog ☺ :
Maps app for navigation
Unfortunately, this application is hardly suitable for navigation in Astrakhan. The maps are too uninformative, there are not many streets, the detail is almost zero, there are no 3D objects, etc. Although, judging by the reviews, in some regions the situation is much better. I have not yet traveled outside the Astrakhan region with the Nokia N8, so there is no way to check it yet. But on the other hand, one of the advantages is the absolute free navigation throughout the life of the phone. You pay only for traffic when A-GPS is connected (you can also disable it). The program interface is clear and beautiful, there is everything you need. For example, information about nearby shops, restaurants, attractions, and more. Well, information about traffic jams, etc. and so on. You can use both pedestrian and car navigation. The latest versions of the Maps app have multi-touch support.
But again, I repeat, in some cities there is no point in using Ovi (Nokia) cards. For Astrakhan, I would advise you to install the 2gis program, it definitely has almost everything you need there. All houses are numbered, there is information about any organizations. You can view the map in 2D and 3D. In addition to Astrakhan, you can download databases of about 50 more cities.
Maps application:
Standard browser (version 7.3)
The browser has become more convenient compared to earlier versions and more pleasant to look at. But the loading speed of heavy pages is still far from ideal. Added the function of opening 2 or more pages. There is FlashLite 4.0, video support for Flash 10.0, if you wish, you can watch streaming and online video. Symbian Belle promised to improve the browser even more. But "Opera" still, in most cases, seems to be a better option for Internet surfing.
Internet TV
There are 5 applications installed at once - these are CNN Video, National Geographic, E !, Vesti and Movie Teasers. When starting the program, they warn that a large amount of traffic will be required to work. Therefore, I have not yet had the opportunity to enjoy Internet TV.
Other
Ovi Social Hub app with access to Facebook and Twitter communities. You can add other social networks.
Labels "Here and Now" and "Youtube". We can say that these are ordinary links to sites that open through a standard browser. "Here and Now" is information about the weather, temperature and wind speed in your city. Well, the nearest restaurants and the distance to them are also shown. Perhaps in some cities there is information about other institutions. The "Youtube" tab just directs you to mobile version site.
Shazam - Identification of a song by a recorded passage.
"Facilities" - various applications to set up your phone. Main functions: allows you to define connection settings for free; transfer contacts, calendar entries, etc. between compatible Nokia phones; setting Email; saving important information on Ovi.com and more.
Available Widgets
There are not so many of them. Here is their list:
You can install other widgets, for example "Vkontakte". It is impossible to remove unnecessary standard widgets, even through the application manager. But on the forums they write that if you put widgets on top of existing ones, then in the future they can be deleted.
It is clear that the standard set of programs is not enough for everyone, so I offer a list of the most interesting third-party applications.
By the way, the Nokia store has applications that can be downloaded completely free of charge, both from a phone and from a computer, in order to save traffic.
Jbak Taskman - the program is a task manager combined with quick start programs. An excellent replacement for the standard task manager. Allows not only to close, but also to "kill" the processes hanging in the system and compress the RAM, in case of its shortage.
Spb Weather - a program for receiving and displaying the weather on your desktop for 5 days.
As a navigator, you can use, for example, Navitel, 2gis, Citiguide, Garmin, Yandex Maps, Mail Agent with maps and another program that you like.
Magic Brush is a functional drawing tool. I think it will be useful too.
Joikuspot - distribution of Internet traffic received from the operator via Wi-Fi. Your phone turns into a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Zxreader is a functional reader.
Skype, Mobile Agent, Qip Pda 3000, "Bayanicq", "Vkontakte" and other optional.
Swype is a convenient input method and replacement for the standard keyboard.
SPB TV - a large selection of TV channels to watch over the Internet.
"Screenshot" - well, here it is clear. A program for taking screenshots from the display by pressing the camera button.
It is not recommended to install Kaspersky Anti-Virus, the smartphone may not work stable. And there are practically no viruses on Symbian^3. As a safety net, you can use the already mentioned SafeManager. You should also not install Fontrouter (for OS9.x) on Nokia N8. This will cause the phone to not turn on. It is relatively easy to revive the phone, but I think no one needs extra problems.
The phone also comes with Java applications and games. But playing games that require a keyboard is not very convenient; it would all look much better on a mechanical keyboard. Using the mod "All rights for java in Symbian ^ 3" it will be possible to set any rights for Java through the application manager (such as connecting to the network, disabling and enabling the on-screen keyboard, security warning, accessing the network, sending messages, autorun, etc. ).
If you install a lot of applications in one folder, and especially HD games, then the phone will start to slow down when you enter this folder. Therefore, it is better to distribute everything in several folders and preferably no more than 10 weighty games in one folder.
What phone features do you use frequently?
Internet via "Opera mini", SMS, calls, camera, player, various applications and games, video viewing, navigation via 2GIS, Bluetooth, alarm clock.
What phone features do you use occasionally?
Wi-Fi, video calls, calendar, standard navigation app, here and now, standard browser, calculator.
What features do you not use at all?
Standard Internet TV applications, Intranet, Communicator, Dictionary, Notes, Message reading by voice engine, Lingvo - voice, Ovi Store (Nokia).
What glitches were noticed?
Glitches mainly occur when some applications are running. Whether the software is to blame or the phone, I can’t say for sure. Some applications may slow down or freeze. Once the screen started flashing due to accidentally running several games, I had to restart the phone. And they started because the phone starts to slow down when entering folders with a lot of HD games. Because of this, you start clicking on the screen to check if the download is in progress, and accidentally launch the wrong thing. If during the passage of the game an SMS message arrives, then terrible brakes also begin. First, the light indicator of missed events lights up (it is located on the menu button), and only then, after about five seconds, does an incoming SMS sound signal appear. Maybe it was the game's fault, I don't know.
Another glitch was seen in the MP3 player. Album covers at first did not want to be displayed, then, after 30 seconds, they still appeared, but somehow blurry, in poor quality. And only another 30 seconds later they began to display normally. But that was only when viewed in landscape orientation. In vertical - covers were displayed normally. Although out of all the albums, I only have covers for three. So far this is an isolated case. In the MP3 player itself, sometimes, for a fraction of a second, the sound is interrupted when you press the menu button when the phone is in the locked state. But this glitch is also rare.
Conclusion
You can scold Nokia as much as you like, but the fact remains. Despite the fact that the device was released in 2010 and was not very reliable at first, its production continues to this day. Firmware updates are rare, but they do come out. And although now it is not a super-powerful phone with good processor(he was not such at the start of sales), but he will always have his own buyer. No wonder the people recognized him as the best according to the results of past years. Yes, various votings on websites are not always objective, but still. Many have already forgotten that in addition to a powerful processor, a large display and a functional operating system, there are other parameters that look no worse than competitors. And in some ways he is still the best. We can assume that it is now not an adequate price, but you always have to pay extra for good case materials and I understand those who are ready to pay extra.
I like devices on Android, but, as I already wrote, most of them do not have such build quality, good sound from headphones and an excellent camera. But the operating system is still very interesting, Symbian is not so good, although it suits me completely. Many phone problems are already being solved, and after the release of the official "Bella" the situation will improve even more.
As a result, we can say that the phone is very good, and if the operating system was finished in it, then sales would be even higher. After all, as I understand it, it is the word "Symbian" that disgusts many people. And, of course, marriage in the first games did not inspire confidence. Otherwise, the device is close to ideal and to this day remains one of the best. I'm not going to recommend to anyone. Start with what you need from your phone. I think that Nokia fans will be happy with this device. I consider it the best of its kind (if we take Symbian devices), but N8-01 should be out soon, we'll see what it offers. I rate the phone 9 out of 10, minor flaws for me do not spoil the overall picture as a whole.
If you support in your hands, you will not be able to part with him for a long time. It seems to captivate with its elegance and beauty of design with the clarity of the display (16,777,216 colors), which does not fade even in the sun. Smartphone performance on high level ARM processor 11 with a frequency of 680Mhz is enough to ensure the speed of work with applications. Concerning Camera Nokia N8-00 then he has one of the best among all phone models. 12 MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and powerful xenon flash allow the smartphone to shoot quite professional pictures, both day and night. Video shooting Nokia N8-00 High Quality HD format with a resolution of 1200 by 720 pixels can be easily viewed on the TV screen. The smartphone is powered by a BL-4D battery with a capacity of 1200 mAh, which will allow the phone to work 12 hours of talk time and 390 hours of standby time. The smartphone is available in five colors red, black, green, silver and blue. The large memory of the smartphone 16 GB and microSD 32 GB will allow you to transfer full-fledged films for viewing without additional recoding. Nokia N8-00 is equipped with a receiver GPS and free cards
from Nokia. Mobile lovers games It will be a pleasure to play on a large and bright display with a diagonal of 3.5 inches. Here, it is probably impossible to describe how pleasant it is to use the N8-00 phone, you have to hold it in your hands to appreciate its magnificence!
Full specifications of Nokia N8-00.
- operating system: Symbian^3
- Processor: ARM type 11 / CPU frequency 680 MHz
- Battery capacity: 1200mAh/ BL-4D 3.7
- Standby 390 hours (2G)/400 hours (3G)
- Talk time 12 hours (2G)/ 5.8 hours (3G)
- Primary camera: 12 MP
- Video recording main: MPEG-4/ 1280 x 720/ 30 fps/zoom 4 X
- Camera 2: VGA video/15 fps
- Memory RAM 256 MB. / Built-in memory 16 GB. / Possibility to expand microSD max. up to 32 GB.
- Browser: XML/ HTML/ CSS/ AJAX/ JavaScript/ XHTML MP
- Instant messaging services: Yahoo! Messenger/ Nokia Chat/ MySpace/ Google Talk/ AIM/ Windows Live Messenger
- Local Connections: Micro USB/ HDMI/ 3.5 mm audio jack/ 2.0 mm charger port
- Data transmission: 2G EGPRS/ 2G GPRS/ 3G HSUPA/ 3G HSDPA
- Wireless: WLAN IEEE 802.11/ Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
- Operation Range: Four Band 2G/ Five Band 3G/ Ability automatic switching WCDMA and GSM
- Audio features: Player yes / Stereo FM radio with RDS function / FM transmitter
- Display: Diagonal 3.5 inches / Resolution 640 x 360 / 16,777,216 colors / Touch capacitive
- Navigation: Built-in GPS receiver (A-GPS) / Nokia maps with free navigation
- Dimensions h.113.5 mm/ W.59.0 mm/ D.12.9 mm
- Weight 135 g.
- More features of Nokia N8-00: Touch control/ Music playback max. 50 hours/ Video playback max. 7 hours/ Video recording max. dialing/ Voice commands/ Conference calling/ Video calling/ HTTP 1.1, WAP 2.0 protocols/ Video editing/ Power saving mode/ Video streaming/ HD video playback on TV
Quick transition to other Microsoft / Nokia models.
Lumia 430 Dual Sim Lumia 650 Dual Sim Lumia 650 Nokia 230 Nokia 230 Dual Sim Lumia 950 XL Dual Sim Nokia 222 Dual Sim Lumia 950 Dual Sim Lumia 550 Lumia 540 Dual Sim Lumia 640 XL Dual Sim Lumia 640 Dual Sim Lumia 532 Dual Sim Lumia 435 Dual Sim Lumia 535 Dual Sim Lumia 830 Lumia 730 Dual Sim Lumia 735 Lumia 930 Nokia X2 Dual SIM Lumia 630 Dual SIM Nokia X Dual SIM Nokia XL Dual SIM Lumia 530 Dual SIM Lumia 1520 Lumia 625 Lumia 1020 Lumia 1320General characteristics
Smartphone type operating system Symbian OS version at launch Nokia Belle Case type classic Housing material Aluminum Control Mechanical Buttons Number of SIM cards 1 SIM card type regular Weight 135 g Dimensions (WxHxD) 59x114x13 mmScreen
Screen type color AMOLED, 16.78 million colors, touch Touch screen type multitouch, capacitive Diagonal 3.5 inches. Image size 640x360 Number of pixels per inch (PPI) 210 Aspect Ratio 16:9 Automatic screen rotation There is scratch resistant glass There isMultimedia features
Number of main (rear) cameras 1 Resolution of the main (rear) camera 12 MP Flash rear, xenon Functions of the main (rear) camera autofocus, digital Zoom 3x Face detection Video recording There is Max. video resolution 1280x720 Max. video frame rate 25 fps Geo Tagging yes Front-camera yes, 0.3 MP Audio MP3, AAC, WMA, FM radio, FM transmitter Headphone jack 3.5mm HDMI video outputConnection
Standard GSM 900/1800/1900, 3G Interfaces Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, USB Geopositioning A-GPS, GPSMemory and processor
Processor ARM11, 680 MHz Number of processor cores 1 Built-in memory 16 GB Volume random access memory 256 MB Memory card slot Yes, up to 32 GBNutrition
Battery type Li-Ion Battery capacity 1200 mAh Talk Time 12 h Standby time 400 h Music listening time 50 h Charging connector type micro USBOther features
Speakerphone(built-in speaker) have Office voice dialing, voice control Flight mode yes Light sensors, proximity, compass Flashlight yes USB-host yes Use as a USB storage device There isAdditional Information
Phone, BL-4D battery, CA-179 connection cable, WH-701 stereo headset, AC-15 travel charger, CA-156 HDMI cable, CA-157 USB OTG cable, Nokia SU-36 stylus pen (available in some regions), manual Features 2mm for charger; HD 720p video resolution Announcement date 2010-04-27Before buying, check the characteristics and equipment with the seller.
