What’s the most interesting phone out there? The iPhone 4? The Droid X? Maybe, but there’s another phone hovering in the wings that could have a pivotal role in the future of mobile makers and mobile operating systems.
I’m talking about the Nokia N8, of course. Whether the phone rocks or sucks, it’s going to be significant for the world’s largest phone manufacturer and crucial for the most widely used smartphone operating system – Symbian.
And I’ve had a good play with it.
It had a massive head start, and is – still – the largest maker of smartphones. But, in recent years, Apple and Blackberry have been eating the market-share pie, and Google’s Android is expanding very fast.
In the last couple of years, Nokia has come up with exciting devices like the N900 Linux tablet, but has failed to come up with a mainstream phone that anyone would use instead of an iPhone or an Android.
So Nokia has reduced its sales forecasts, and cut back on the number of phones it makes. The N8 is its biggest launch this year, and it’s supposed to turn things around. But it’s coming out of murky waters.
For the last year, Nokia has been going in two directions at once. It’s been pushing Linux and come up with credible and exciting devices like the N900 tablet. Since then, it has merged its Linux project with Intel’s to produce MeeGo – and begun to promote it heavily.
At the same time, it’s been spearheading Symbian, shoring it up financially and helping turn Symbian loose as open source, while backing the production of Symbian^3, the next version of the operating system which is supposed to make this into a proper iPhone-competitor.
Last year, Symbian was the central plank of its bid to make an iPhone competitor, but the N97 flopped. This year, Nokia is trying to fix all that with the production of a new flagship, the N8 – also based on Symbian.
But it turns out that the N8, while the first to have the new Symbian OS, is the last N-series phone to use Symbian. In future, Symbian will be for low-end phones, and the N-series will use MeeGo. The N8 is the end of an era.
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Retard---You CAN charge over usb or mini plug. If you don't know what your talking about you should keep your "opinions" to yourself. Dumbass.
Your article has at least 1 glaring error, which is a HUGE error.
The microUSB port on the Nokia N8 not only handles data connection from a computer, it also handles CHARGING (your claim that is doesn't is wrong), and it also handles OTG USB - meaning with a supplied cable you can connect the N8 direct to USB flash drives.
So, this means Nokia gives you 2 different charging options for your device...Nokia's pin chargers, and microUSB charging.
Wow, a whole paragraph on how the phone wont charge via USB when it actually does in addition to having a separate charger. For someone who obviously had the phone in their hand you really did your research. Another incorrect and seemingly baseless review to ignore.
Did you really use the N8? Did you just said it can't charge thru USB? All reviews I read said that IT CAN. 4 pages of waste of a review then. My 10-year old nephew would have done a better review.
Thank you for your comments.
I can only say that the phone I had definitely did not charge over USB. I checked it, and I am quite able to tell, and I don't think we need to be rude about this.
It's possible that the phone I had was an earlier pre-production model than the ones you have apparently all seen. Or maybe there was some fault in it. I made it clear that anything in my review might be down to having a pre-production model, and will be interested to know if this was the case.
I will update my review to say that others apparently have different results - and strong feelings on the matter! I'd also be grateful for links to these reviews you mention.
Also... if Nokia DOES let the phone charge over USB.... why does it provide its own proprietary charger as well?
Peter Judge
My information on the USB charging is from the Nokia (Australia) site under Specifications > Connectivity. As the phone seems to be made to not require a computer connection, I think the two options is a great idea. Next time you are at work ask how many people have a Nokia charger on them, than ask how many have a mini USB cable!
"I don't understand why it has built in a separate power connector and supplied a non-standard power adapter as well" - Peter Judge
Just shut the #%^^ up, ok? Having a really bad review is enough and you just updated it worse. Stupid, stupid moron.
Isn't having 2 ways(USB and power adaper) to charge a phone a really, really, great idea??
Do yourself a favor by removing this terrible review, get a new job and STFU. PLEASE.
"I don't understand why it has built in a separate power connector and supplied a non-standard power adapter as well" - Peter Judge
Just shut the #%^& up, ok? Having a really bad review is enough and you just updated it worse. Stupid, stupid moron.
Isn't having 2 ways(USB and power adaper) to charge a phone a really, really, great idea??
Do yourself a favor by removing this terrible review, get a new job and STFU. PLEASE.
Hey judge..u said something about why will nokia supply us with a charger if u can charge it via usb!! Well the same reason blackberry and samsung are doing it!!I bet u don't even own a mobile!
Thanks again for your further comments.
Jason - I checked and I'm the only one in my office with a Nokia charger. There were a total of five micro-USBs when I asked, from HTC and Blackberry phones.
I don't buy the idea that Nokia is any sort of standard, and don't get how they sign up to the universal charger and then don't deliver it.
Yes - I see the website that it will charge over micro-USB - but I begin to suspect they dropped thisbecause the USB connector can also act as a host.
I still don't see any confirmation that it does charge over USB in reviews - my N81 certainly didn't.
Thanks @duncan, for the point about USB hosts, my CMS keeps refusing to publish your thought though...