Nokia N8 – First impressions

After a long wait my new Nokia N8 has arrived.  I will, over the next week or two give a bit of a review of it, but lets start here with some initial thoughts.

Looks – This phone looks great!  unfortunately the camera lens sticks out of the back, but I am willing to live with that for 12mp camera with auto focus and real flash.  On the back of the unit there is a logo that sticks out too, which is rather irritating.  I would have preferred it if the back was covered in a non-slip coating like many of the Android phones out there.

Keyboard – There isn’t one. That is one thing I really will miss from my N97, except the hinge was starting to go so I wonder how much longer it would have been before it completely failed.  The onscreen keyboard is actually quite usable, when you turn the phone sideways so you get the qwerty keyboard.

What am I expecting?  Well, what I would like is the N97 that works! 

So far that seems to be what I have.  Alas it does not have the podcasting app installed as standard (why not!!????!!!)  but I am working on that (as the ones I have found on the Nokia site do not work).  Also the Audible player will not play! but it does install?  Very strange, but again I am working on that.  My laptop has decided that it does not want to see the phone in Ovi or  PC Suite; strangely it does allow me to access the disk on the phone, so I am not too upset.  I really need internet access on the move, but I have some alternative tethering tricks that I will be trying over the next few days, so all is not lost.  I must say that I think that my laptop could probably do with a reinstall so I don’t blame the phone for the last 2 failures.  Windows 7 also does not seem to have all the required Bluetooth drivers, this is probably due to the fact that the phone has not actually been released yet, so I am willing to  give Nokia the benefit of the doubt for a week or 2.

I like the 3 home screens, and the onscreen widgets are great.  I especially like the way it integrates with Gmail and gives me Blackberry like functionality buy checking mail on a schedule and buzzing when it finds some.  Made doubly useful by allowing me to select a “Blackout” period (11pm-8am) when it will not bother me.

So far so good.  I have not had that many calls since I got the phone so I have not yet had a chance to experience the worse failings of the N97 (i.e. missing calls because the pesky thing would not let me answer them and not giving me access to a dial pad so I can choose 1, 2 or 3 to control my auto attendant).

One feature that does seem missing (possibly because I have not looked hard enough) is the ability to lock the phone remotely by sending a text.

Anyway, enough for now and I will post some more in a few days when I have had more time to use the phone.