From Clinton's review:
Symbian’s last stand. And the mobile OS is going down fighting. So in the spirit of one of my, Ye Giant Reviews, here’s what I thought, of the last homegrown Nokia....
...To owners of today’s quad-core Android beasts, it might sound like nothing. Thankfully, at this point the Symbian OS is pretty much as optimised as it can get, being able to run quickly on a single core processor, while keeping battery drainage down. Ofcourse the OS lags behind iOS and Android in terms of UI and ‘pretty’ and even speed of overall operation. But I’d still argue that it’s just as feature-rich, if not more. That being said, 3rd party app support can be a bit disappointing....
...Coming to the front, you have a 4 inch AMOLED Gorilla Glass screen which has it’s pros and cons. On the pro side of things, the clearblack display technology means deep blacks, nicely saturated colors, and great legibility in direct sunlight, with things even better indoors. Outdoor legibility is probably the best I’ve seen on a phone so far, and is super important considering the primary function of this phone – the camera. No use taking pictures outside if you cant see the screen right? Not a problem here....
...The 4 inch screen is nice and large and all, but the 16:9 ratio means the keyboard is already a little cramped. Throw in the strange arrangement of the tiny on-screen keys, and it gets even more tough to type properly spelled out words on the 808. According to the leaked Belle FP2 screenshots, it’s going to be improved soon. So let’s hope that’s coming along. It took me about a week to get used to the 808′s keyboard, after the iPhone and the Lumia 800′s fantastic keyboard. And I still make mistakes, even in landscape mode....
...There’s a 41 megapixel 1/1.2″ image sensor, but maximum resolution is “capped” at 38 megapixels at 4:3 mode and 34 Megapixels at 16:9 mode. If all that wasnt enough, there’s a nice powerful Xenon Flash onboard, which I’ve really missed since no phone since the N8 has had one! This all means your daytime pictures will be fantastic and clear, and your night time pictures with flash will also be fantastic and clear. Yay for fantastic! And Clear!...
...They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, 7800. The fact that the Nokia 808 Pureview is getting so much attention, even from haters of the brand, is proof enough of how capable this little phone is. It really is the most impressive cameraphone you’ve ever seen, and one that wont be beat by other manufacturers any time soon. Heck, other OEMs havent even caught up with the N8 yet, so suffice to say, it’ll take them a while.
Of course, the Symbian experience is what’s weighing it down. The OS has caught up with the competition in-terms of UI and general usability, but anyone who’s not used a Symbian phone before, might feel a little bit alienated with it. The fact that the OS has an expiry date and little developer interest, means it’s a bit of a gamble.
