'Nokia N8 day' continues here on AAS with a camera shootout. Released in 2010, the Nokia N8 wasn't the first 12 megapixel/Xenon-flash camera-toting smartphone (the Sony Ericsson Satio would contend that honour), but it was the best and by far the biggest selling. And the N8 is still loved and used by millions, even today, getting on for 3 years later. The competition are claiming to have caught up with Nokia though - Sony's latest smartphone flagship is the Xperia Z, seen here, with 13 megapixel next-gen Exmor RS sensor. How does it compare to the camera in Nokia's 2010 masterpiece?
Obviously I'm 'preaching to the choir here', but I noticed a label in a Windows dialog yesterday and it brought back some happy memories of ways in which the super-versatile, super-flexible Symbian OS has helped friends out in ways that I'm sure other mobile OS would baulk at... Your comments and testimony welcomed too!
For the first time in living memory - well, ok, since the dawn of smartphones, a decade or so ago, there will be no new Symbian-powered devices launched this year at Mobile World Congress (née 3GSM). 2012's show saw the launch of the last ever Symbian smartphone, the all-conquering Nokia 808 PureView. And, as I've mused before, what a way to go out. Looking at the smartphone world of 2013 though, Symbian-free for the first time in terms of announcements, I wonder how the products being launched now compare with the classic devices already in our pockets.
The trendy thing to talk about in the smartphone world is 'market share', of course. Thinking about the industry as 'business', its' all about current sales, how many units were shipped in the last few months, how much profit was made, and so on. Flip this on its head, looking at smartphone platforms from the user's point of view though, and a slightly different picture emerges. What I consider below is the 'active installed base' of each platform, i.e. the numbers of compatible handsets being used on a daily basis around the world.
The E7 was the first of the Symbian^3 generation to get 'pimped' by me, but it's the device in most need of Tender Love and Care, in my opinion. Especially so as, updating this article in early 2013, the E7 represents an almost completely unique form factor, one that's been abandoned by the rest of the industry. And this update is driven by the arrival of several software updates and enhancements, plus my own hardware experimentation. The E7 is still highly rated for design and build quality and the tips and pointers here should help any owner to get just a little more from their device.
We're well into 2013 now and I'm hearing anecdotes from round the world about how few Symbian-powered phones people are seeing on the streets. Regardless of where the estimated 100 million+ current users actually are, I still find my main SIM in the Nokia 808 and I know there are many other happy(ish) Symbian users still reading this site. Which brings me to how practical it is to use a Symbian device (let's go with Belle Feature Pack 2 phones like the Nokia 701 and 808, since they're the newest and fastest) in 2013, surrounded by 5"-screened, quad core Android monsters. Here, at least, is a slice of how I get by. Your comments welcome!
Forgive me for going all generic and chatty and, for once, abandoning technical details and platform specifics. For this topic is applicable to all phone of all prices and OS persuasions. Well, maybe not all prices, as you'll see. I'm, quite simply, intrigued by the eternal battle between style and protection. Let me explain...
You may remember, a year and a half ago, that I waxed lyrical about a bunch of subtle design points in the Nokia N8 that were usually unappreciated? What do you know, I've found ten such points in the Nokia 808 design too - find them illustrated and annotated below. Turns out that, like the N8, the 808 PureView 'is even better than you think'. For those that agreed with my recent 'No compromise' piece about the 808, this won't come as a major surprise, of course....!
It's often said how slow web browsing is on the Symbian platform, thanks mainly to under-investment from Nokia in keeping up with optimisations in javascript handling. But with new versions of Opera Mini and UC Browser in particular, and all tested on the speedy Nokia 808, I thought it appropriate to pitch the various browsing solutions on Symbian head to head - is there a clear winner in terms of speed? How's the health of web browsing on our platform?
Having received what we knew to be the last new Symbian-powered device in summer 2012, it was somewhat amusing to see the rest of the tech world making a big thing of Nokia actually saying this in its recent results announcement. Not only that, but expressing every opinion from 'Symbian finally dead and good riddance' to 'Symbian declared dead but here are all the devices we fell in love with over the last decade'. Symbian nostalgia in the tech press? All very well and good, but I contend that all of these sites and their writers are missing the bigger picture here. As it turns out, Symbian is emphatically not dead after all, and here's why.
