Can The New Nokia N8 Save Nokia?

So much buzz about HTC and Apple lately, it’s like we’ve totally forgotten about someone who was once a major force in the smartphone market – Nokia. Earlier this week, I noticed that Nokia had released its latest Symbian flagship into Singapore. Besides being launched in between two of 2010′s best mobile devices (HTC Desire and iPhone 4) the N8 comes at a very crucial time for Nokia, especially when the company is poised to deliver bad news regarding its profit.

Nokia Should Ditch Symbian And Go Android

Although Nokia’s latest smartphone OS, Symbian^3, looks have some nifty features like multi-touch, more home screen customisations and better graphics handling, its popularity has been overshadowed by rapid uptake of Google’s Android OS. The fact that most of the high-end Android phones have the faster 1Ghz Snapdragon processors will be another stumbling block for the Nokia N8. I really believe that Nokia should consider running Android on their devices and just focus on developing superb smartphone hardware, which I know they are capable of. Look at the history of Symbian and you’ll see it’s pretty much a dead horse.

Best Feature Of The Nokia N8 Is the Camera

Speaking of superb smartphone hardware, I like the 12.1 Carl Zeiss lens camera built into the N8. This makes my current iPhone 3GS camera look like a toy. Check out the untouched Nokia N8 sample photo here. The colors, sharpness and sheer size of the image is amazing considering the device is actually a smartphone. With the N8, I can foresee the quality of many photo albums on Facebook will improve

It looks like that Nokia are headed in the right direction, however, until it decides whether to properly focus on the Symbian OS or hardware, it’ll be a while till we see them up with the likes of Apple, HTC, Motorola and Sony Ericsson when it comes to high-end smartphones. We’ll post up news when the Nokia N8 finally becomes available in Australia.

Would I consider buying a Nokia N8? No. I’m waiting for the iPhone 4.

Features of the Nokia N8:

• 12.1 Megapixel Carl Zeiss camera
• Xenon Flash
• HD Video Recording
• 3.5″ AMOLED screen
• Symbian^3 OS
• Anodized aluminium cover
• 680Mhz processor
• 1200mAh battery
• WiFi b/g/n
• Bluetooth 3.0
• GPS
• Front-facing camera
• Resolution: 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) OLED
• 16.7 million colours
• Capacitive touch screen
• Orientation sensor (Accelerometer)
• Compass (Magnetometer)
• Proximity sensor
• Ambient light detector

Video of Nokia N8 Hardware

YouTube – Nokia N8 with Symbian^3 OS Hardware Tour.