Or if you have it and you live in Geneva i can buy you a beer if you lend it to me for 10 minutes
Anybody has this phone? Im trying to find somewhere to try it out before i spend the money on it and no shop seems to have it. The latest i heard that i can buy it from Swisscom and if i dont like it i can return it and get my money back. Anybody knows about this?
Well, I tried it out a bit the day it launched.
Overall its fine.
I do have some qualms with it though.
The battery now non-replaceable by the user. What happens when the phone hangs, like the previous symbian-based phones do a lot ?
Take it to a service center everytime the phone hangs ?
And the UI is good, an improvement over the previous symbian-based ones, but still not really as good as some other Touch-UI phones out there.
Then there is the restriction about the home-screens and widgets.
IMHO, the N800 would be a better choice.
I suggest you seriously consider why you want this phone over, say, an iPhone, an Android phone, or dare I suggest it, a Windows Phone 7 phone.
The reason I say this is that while the mobile phone world is now alight with apps, these are almost entirely for the iPhone or Android, with WP7 now entering the arena.
The N8, on the other hand (and as you're probably aware) is running Symbian. Even though this has been revamped as Symbian^3 for the N8 the 3 or 4 reviews I've read have placed this somewhere between "dated" or "3 years too late and having missed the boat".
Furthermore, there are major changes going on at Symbian: the head honcho has left suddenly and the CFO has been put in charge which leads many to suspect that the organisation will either be wound up, sold to another handset manufacturer, or at the very best brought back completely under Nokia.
Either way, what you've got on the N8 appears to be a mobile OS that's dead in the water. Why are app developers now going to start developing for a handset that's 3 or 4 years behind more popular handsets (your iPhones, your HTCs, your Samsung Galaxies, Motorola Droids, et al).
So ask yourself this: if you're going to shell out for a top-end mobile phone, do you really want to be saddled with this potential-death-knell of a phone?
And if I'm honest, I used to swear by Nokia phones, but I think about 4 years ago they got left behind. I'm sure they'll bounce back with a great range of handsets (Motorola recently did, and Palm briefly did before them) but when this will be and whether these will be running a Symbian OS... who knows? I'll also add that I detest Apple, so please don't think I'm pushing you towards something that I use myself.
Thanks for the reply I know that iphone is the most popular and has all the cool ups but its an iphone and that is the reason i dont want it. Although after i discovered fruit ninja i almost changed my mind! Im watching reviews of the nokia n8 now. Will see
I have an N97. I can't say I've noticed a lack of apps for it. All the apps I need and use regularly are available - Mobi Pocket Reader, Language Dictionary, search.ch, nimbuzz, Swype, facebook, numerous games and almost as many useless, silly apps as on the iStore.
Symbian can also run mobile Java apps. I've a guitar tuner on my phone. I first got it for my Sony Ericsson P910i over five years ago. Works fine on my N97. ( Actually, it works better ).
Having said that... if I bought a smartphone now, I'd go for one running Android. I'd avoid anything appley, due to the proprietry nature of the software.
I got N8, and it's a spectacular phone!
I have to tell you that I am extremely happy about it; though it is still early to give a final verdict (I am having it for 3 days now).
Battery life is great, phone is fast and responsive. Camera and video recording is awesome, haven't seen anything like it in any other phone.
Navigation works, perfectly. Email and browsing works perfectly! Integration of the phonebook with e.g. Facebook is done extremely well.
I would fully recommend it.
How is the memory allocated on the N8? With my N97, there were terrible problems with the memory allocation between the C and E drives. Firmware updates have made improvements to this, but I still receive prompts about not enough memory on C drive, though I have moved everything to E. It really pisses me off as the phone has close to 40 GIGS of built in memory. No reason for the firmware BS.
Have been loyal to Nokia, but losing patience. Right now, I am waiting on the E7, as it seems to be close to the N8 but with a keyboard. I do like the N97s keyboard as I send a lot of texts/email.
fduvall
I reset my N97 and then re-installed the apps I really use (and recovered my data from backup). Since then it's been working great, without any memory issues. ( All reminiscent of windows 95... ). You do have to switch messaging to use the E drive. By default, it uses the C drive which is really dumb.
There is a free app - Memory Status - which is worth installing to keep an eye on the consumption. Currently, I've got used 22.4/73 MB on the c drive, and 6.5/29.8GB on the e drive, if you want to compare.
I think the problems arose with earlier firmware putting stuff on the c drive. Even with update, the space remains consumed, it seems.
I haven't faced any memory problems yet; though it's too early. Also I haven't installed all the apps that I want yet.
But it seems that there are no problems even when multiple apps are running on the phone, you can switch easily.
Fully agree on the keyboard - I'd love to have it. But I am pleasantly surprised with a touchscreen. Thought I'd hate it, but it is rather usable. There are no difficulties to type, I guess small vibration when pressing the button helps. Would be happier with a physical keyboard (C7), but didn't have patience to wait for it.
Just went for the reset on the N97...it is a PITA to reinstall all the apps, but seems to be faster now. What a clusterF*@k of a phone. 30+ GB of built in memory (!)... why can't they let the user decide how to partition it? Not sure if I will go for the N8 or wait for C7... or just switch to iPhone.
fduvall