Nokia aims high with its forthcoming N8 multimedia smartphone

We’ve had a bit of a treat today and enjoyed some hands-on time with pre-production samples of Nokia’s forthcoming N8 smartphone. It’s of particular interest to photographers because the N8 has an impressive camera specification for a smartphone. It has an autofocus 28mm (equivalent) wide angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, a ‘proper’ Xenon flash, and a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor. Attention focuses on the sensor because it’s a 1/1.83 inch device, which is in the same ball park for sensorsize as those used in conventional compact digital cameras, and that’s big compared to most camera phones, but more on that later.

The N8 can also record 720p HD video at 25 frames per second, it has stereo microphones too, and you can download and watch HD movies on its 3.5 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen or watch on your HD TV via HDMI cable. You can even link up a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and treat your N8 like a ‘real’ computer connected to a conventional monitor. It has 16GB of onboard flash memory and a MicroSDHC slot for up tp 32GB extra flash memory storage. Not only can you edit photos on the N8, but you can also edit video footage. And the responsiveness of the display is helped by a dedicated graphics processor, or GPU, that supplements its 680MHz ARM-derived processor.

The Nokia N8 promises to be a great draw to photographers looking for cutting edge camera phone features.

Nokia makes and sells more smartphones than anyone else thanks to its wide range of affordable models, as well as heavy-hitting high-end and business offerings. However, its S60 Symbian OS platform is a little long in the tooth and has been left behind by the likes of Google’s Android platform, and the iPhone. But the N8 employs Symbian^3, and this has a much improved user interface, with a screen refresh of 60Hz, coupled with a finger-friendly capacitive touch screen. And that screen is an active matrix OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), which is light on battery power, has excellent viewing angles, and very good dynamic range thanks to very dark black rendering. The screen itself is 3.5 inches and 640x360 resolution, which is widescreen format. That’s not the finest resolution smartphone screen my any means, but in use I wasn’t missing extra pixels that much.

Construction and design features

Note the camera section of the N8, with 'proper' Xenon flash.

The N8 has a strong anodised aluminium shell that is particularly resistant to scratches and other marks. The quality is very evident compared to a plastic casing, but I did find it difficult to grip at times and I felt a bit insecure holding on to it. The screen is finished in Corning Gorilla glass, which is about the toughest LCD screen glass on the market. There is also an ant-reflection coating on the inside of the screen glass that helps with visibility in bright conditions, a known weakness of OLED screens.

Next to the now ubiquitous MicroUSB port, which serves as a data connection and the power point, you can see a specialist headed screw. This is only mean to be removed to provide access to the innards of the N8, and the battery, by an approved service technician.

There is no conventional battery access via a removable back or flap. Instead, the N8 has an end cap that is meant only for a service centre engineer to open and access. I’m sure N8 users probably will open up their phones using specialist screwdrivers, but Nokia doesn’t recommend it.

There is no convention back cover to remove and access the SIm card slot or battery. Instead the N8 uses slots on the side of the phone for the SIM card (left) and optional MicroSDHC card (right).

Your SIM card fits into a slot via a small flap on the side of the phone, next to a similar flap that provides access to a MicroSDHC slot that will accommodate cards of up to 32GB. The N8 already has 16GB of internal storage. There is also a Mini HDMI port, as well as the now ubiquitous MicroUSB data and power port. A standard 3.5mm headphone socket is provided too.

You can’t say that thet N8 is a particular slim phone, certainly not as slim as the iPhone 4, but it’s not a monster like the Nokia N800 and it will slip easily into most pockets. It would slip even more easily if the camera section didn’t inhabit an area that is 2-3mm proud of the main body of the phone. There is no retractable cover to protect the window in front of the Carl Zeiss lens.

Camera

A CMOS sensor sporting 12 megapixels is still a relatively rare beast and to find one squeezed into a smartphone is a bit of a revelation. In front of it is a Carl Zeiss branded lens with a field of view equivalent to a 28mm wide angle lens.

Because the CMOS sensor is relatively large, we’re told that the designers could be a lot less aggressive on the artificial image enhancements that often dog camera phones, like edge sharpening and noise smoothing. The idea is to deliver much more natural looking images and certainly, the samples we were show supported this claim.

Without a built in lens cover, the danger of fingerprints over the lens is ever present.

You can shoot stills in 4:3 aspect ratio, typical of most compact cameras, and there is a cropped format option for 16:9 widescreen format. There is no 3:2 aspect ratio option. Autofocus is provided and this can be supplemented by face detection. The camera constantly analyses the live view of the scene and will attempt to compensate for back-lit situations by deploying fill in flash. With a xenon type flash instead of LED ‘flash’illumination popular on most camera phones, I would expect better colour and subject freezing , as well as range. However, you won’t be able to use your N8 as a make-shift LED torch light! The camera incorporates automatic red-eye removal and there is a similar option in the built-in photo editor.

Here you can see the Mini HDMI port and its protective flap at the 'top' end of the N8, flanked on the left by a 3.5mm headphone socket and the main power button on the right.

We were shown some very impressive video clips shot in 720HD 25P format. Nokia has opted for h.264 compression and while the bit rate is variable according to the scene being recorded, the typical storage requirement is around 100MB per minute. I wonder if 25P is ideal for uploading videos to the 30P environment of YouTube, for example. My experience is that 25P video on YouTube flickers frustratingly, but we’ll see how things pan out with production samples later. The stereo sound recording capability of the N8 was also impressive, and automatic wind noise suppression is featured. There seems to be a lot of audio optimisation according to the sound stage characteristics and the N8 does incorporate Dolby Digital 5.1 compatibility. Another most impressive feature demonstrated to us was on-board video editing. It may not be as comprehensive as a PC-based editor, but it appeared to be very responsive and easy to use, and included essential features like trimming, transition style options, slide shows, and audio sound track options.

Battery life

Nokia phones are always stellar when it comes to battery life and the N8 looks to be continuing that tradition. Apparently the N8 can play music continuously for around 50 hours, which is significantly more than some of its earlier stablemates, despite packing a relatively small capacity 1200mAH lithium ion battery.

Conclusion

I have to admit to being very impressed with the N8. I have some extended experience of the Nokia N97 Mini, and the N8 is leaps ahead in terms of user interface and responsiveness, as well as features. And the N8 will go on sale without a subsidised contract for around 375 Euros, which is very aggressive for such a high-specification smartphone. Expect to be able to buy one within the next couple of months (by end of Q3 this year).

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