I was very excited to buy this phone as this is the latest smart phone offering from Nokia. I felt very proud after buying N8 as It was a topic of discussion in my meetings or wherever I went. However all the happiness and joys started disappearing as the days passed by. More I started using it more problems I started facing with this phone. Now after using only for one and half month I am planning to sell it out. I will now highlight pros and cons of N8 in detailed with each feature.
Design: Design of the N8 is good and attractive. However, the phone is quite thick and bulky.
Battery: One will expect excellent battery life in a phone which costs a world and supposed to be a smart phone. But here in N8 the battery life is poor. The battery does not last for full 24 hrs with a moderate use of phone like 2 hrs of talking and around 2 to 3 hrs of surfing or watching videos.
Touch: The capacitive touch interface of N8 is good. However initially it was excellent but later I found it slightly less sensitive. But overall its ok.
Keyboard / input method: The phone has full QWERTY touch keyboard and conventional keyboard. With qwerty touch its easy to type message and mails. The biggest problem here is that keyboard keeps moving between QWERTY and regular which is quite irritating. This happens even on a slightest movement of phone. Also the response time from regular to qwerty is too much when you tilt the phone to type long message and mails. Sometime you need to even shake the phone to get QWERTY key paid. There is no handwriting recognition feature in this phone which is surprising and disappointing.
Phonebook: The very first thing which disappointed me after buying this phone was the phone book function. A very basic feature of copying contacts from phone to SIM is not there in this phone, which is available in a Rs. 1000 phone. This means you can copy all the contacts from SIM to phone but if you want to copy from phone to SIM the option is just not there. What the hell. Also you can not export / import contacts from OVI suite to excel sheet. Again what the f… is this?
Web browsing: The browsing experience is decent bcos of big screen. However its not very different from my E63. Clicking on small links with fingers is difficult and generally you end up clicking wrong link. A stylus would be very useful in this case. But stylus does not come with the phone. Also you cant see two different windows by switching each other.
Applications: The biggest disappointment I had when I could not use any of the pre loaded applications bcos of my GPRS connection. I use basic Vodafone live connection for internet but through this connection none of the application works. I was very excited about nokia applications but could not use them. Meaning if you want to use them then again one will have to spend more money on advanced gprs. Even nokia ovi store site does not open with my GPRS connection. The same used to open on my E63. Even IM provided with the phone did not work with Vodafone live.
Office and mailing:
Although N8 is not a business phone but when you spend so much money on a smart phone the expectations will always be high. there is a quick office app but its just for viewing documents. You cant create and edit docs. Again buy the full version for rs. 4000 if want these features. mailing experience is good I could configure my office mail easily through mail for exchange.
Camera:
12 mp camera of N8 is really good. Results are amazing. Video recording in HD is also excellent. The camera comes with all the features which you get in a digital camera. After clicking photos you can edit them write captions etc. Its truly superb.
Entertainment / Multimedia:
Music quality of N8 is good but when compare with Sony Ericcson W series its not at par. The biggest advantage is that you can watch films on this phone with ease. The video player is simple yet very good. This phone is like your personal entertainer and with 16 GB internal memory you can really store a lot.
Positives:
Camera, Entertainment / multimedia features, Touch interface and Messaging
Negatives:
Battery, Keyboard / input method, Web browsing, Limitation of apps on type of GPRS, OVI suite, Unstable screen, Phonebook capabilities and so many more you realize.
Overall I am disappointed with Nokia N8. Now I am thinking to change my phone just after 2 months of buying this one but don’t know which one to choose.
My rating would be ** and half.