One of the most common questions I get asked about each Symbian smartphone I review/try/use is 'Was yours made in Finland/China/Hungary [delete as applicable]?' The implication is that quality controls and build materials are different, depending on where the device was assembled. Some thoughts below, along with a definitive refutation in the Nokia 808's case.

In this case, the question was directed at Nokia here, in regard to where the 808 is assembled, and Damian Dinning (arch Nokia imaging supremo) responded in no uncertain fashion:

ALL Nokia products and the components within are made to exactly the same exacting specifications.

Your claims are false and based on ZERO supporting information or facts.

As I say, fairly definitive, and I'd like to back up Damian's statement by saying that my Nokia 808 PureView has both sumptuous build quality and performance - and is 'Made in China', as shown in the photo below:

So I think it's fair to say that there should be no concern over Nokia phones currently 'made in China'. And, after all, all iPhones and iPads are made in China, both with legendary build quality.

Having said that, I should note that in the past there have been question marks over some components inserted in some Nokia Symbian models, though I couldn't say whether this was factory/region-specific. For example, there's the N95 back in 2007, with early examples, e.g. mine, having excellent materials and the phone still looks 'mint' five years later - yet I saw many 2008 examples of the phone with almost paper thin plastic cases, literally falling apart at the seams. Then there were the swathes of N8s and C7s appearing in 2011 with sub-par AMOLED panels with purple tinted 'blacks' - did we ever get to the bottom of that issue, Nokia?

So, although I'd like to call for data points here, I suspect that they'd all be in the relatively distant past, with no differences whatsoever in hardware in 2012 for units assembled in any particular country. Comments?