Gallery: Nokia N8 Preview

The N8 gets a smart dialler - this means that as you press the number / alphanumeric keys, the phone searches against your contact list and provides matches based on what you've typed in so far. It is the same system that you'll find in Nokia Eseries devices and is a very welcome addition. It also available on multiple other smartphones.

Symbian^3 adds support for multiple calendars in the Calendar application (also support for CalDav). Each calendar can be assigned a colour so that the user can differentiate between them on screen (red and blue in this case).

The Calendar application now supports multiple calendars (new in Symbian^3). As shown in this image they can be colour coded to differentiate between them.

All the standard application are present, including calculator - essentially unchanged in 7 years.

The N8's graphics co-processor will allow for games with much higher quality graphics. This golf game is a good example. Technically it similar to what you can achieve in iPhone, but of course it is dependent on publishers / developers making games for the phone / platform.

The Contacts application has been updated with a redesigned contacts card view. It makes better use of screen space and now includes a link to Social Networks. The link opens up Nokia's Social application, which gives you access to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

Nokia Messaging (Email) provides a much improved email experience on the N8.

The Contacts application has been updated with a redesigned contacts card view. It makes better use of screen space and now includes a link to Social Networks. The link opens up Nokia's Social application, which gives you access to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

The N8's browser is the same as on the N97 mini (most recent firmware) - version 7.2. This will be updated later this year / early next year, but benefits from both additional processing power and extra RAM. The capacitive screen also makes a difference. This is ideal for browsing when compared to resistive screen technology (the opposite is true in some applications - generally those requiring accurate screen presses or those less dependent on multi-direction scroller).

Note the inclusion of Podcasting and a shortcut to the Nokia Music store application.

In the N8's music player there are fewer hierarchical layers to work through. When you open up the application you go straight to an artists an album list. Other views (including podcasting) are also available.

Every screen an application on the N8 can be used in portrait or landscape mode.

The way multi-tasking is presented by Symbian^3 has been changed. Previously multi-tasking was via a smaller set of icons aligned along the bottom of the screen. It is more touch-friendly, but also gives a better idea of the application you are switching too.

The top of the N8 houses the HDMI connector. This is used for HD out and can be used to connect the phone to any HDMI compatible equipment. Images and video are output are 720p resolution. The rest of the phone's UI is upscaled from nHD (640x360).

The N8 runs Symbian^3. At first glance it looks very similar to S60 5th Edition, but this under appreciates the changes that have been made. The most notable is the switch to a single tap interaction model (rather than double tap). Both methods are valid, but single tap seems to be what people expect to have on a modern smartphone.

Impressive performance when browsing around collections of images.

Photos is one of the application that supports multi-touch. In this case it's the 'pinch-to-zoom' gesture. However Symbian^3 retains the zoom bar (left hand side) because not all devices will have a capacitive screen. Furthermore the zoom bar is easier to use one handed that a multi-touch gesture.

Symbian^3 enables USB On The Go (OTG). This allows you to plug in a USB mass storage device (pen drive, hard drives, other phones, MP3 players) and see it in the file manager (like any other drive).

There are many more built in homescreen widgets in the N8. This partly reflects that, thanks to multi-page homescreen support, there's room for up to 18 different widgets. The contact widgets now acts as a carousel, allowing more people to be added to it that the contact widget used on the N97 (it's more like the contact bar seen on other Nokia phones).

Although the N8 has a slider lock on the right hand side of the device there is another way of unlocking the device. If you hit the home key (bottom left of device) when the phone is locked this screen will appear. To unlock the device you press the unlock button displayed at the bottom of the screen.

The landscape keyboard. In this image you can see a correction 'built' being suggested. To accept the correct you just tap on it. They keyboard itself is an improvement over the one found in S60 5th Edition, but it did feel like there was still room for improvement (compared to iPhone in particular). Until we get to use ones of these for a few days it's difficult to say what they keyboard is like in use. However the capacitive screen technology does help (as with the i8910) compared to Nokia's other devices.

12 key text entry - either multi tap or single tap using predictive (T9).

Note the ability to activate predictive mode, you can also activate correction mode. As on previous version of Symbian you can also change the language you are writing in.

The same options for landscape mode can be found in portrait mode. Especially relevant here is the ability to switch predictive mode on and off (T9).

Extra characters, including numbers, are only a single tap away.

The dialler is accessed by pressing the call softkey on the homescreen (so its never more than two taps away - home button + call softkey).

Web does have a few cosmetic update. Here we can see the addition of a Google Search box below the box for entering web addresses.

The N8 I used had 600 odd songs loaded on it. Respectable - and the performance was not showing any lag. We'll have to wait for final testing to test this with a larger amount of content.

Browsing albums in portrait mode. The album art at the top is flickable.

The N8 will ship with Ovi Maps, which includes worldwide pedestrian and car satellite navigation.

From left to right: camera capture key, key lock, volume controls.

3.5 mm audio jack (can also be used for TV out), HDMI connector and power button.

The casing of the N8 is made from anodised aluminium. This is fairly scratch resistant and allows a number of colours to be used.

In this photo you can see how the N8's camera sticks out. The 'hump' is that big and is a necessary trade off for the N8's superior optics.

The back of the device is dominated by the 12 megapixel camera unit. However it also hides the N8's mono speaker and on of its two microphones.

Microphone (top right) and a gap for attaching a lanyard. The bottom and top pieces are made out of plastic.

From left to right: microSD card slot (up to 32GB), SIM card slot, microUSB port (PC connectivity, USB OTG, charging).

Nokia's first Symbian^3 handset. The overall design is much closer to the sleek touchscreen devices we've seen from other manufacturers than Nokia's early, rather chunky, touch screen devices (e.g. 5800).

In landscape mode the N8's music player displays its album list with a cover-flow like visualisation. Flick left or right to see other albums, or click on an album to see a track list.

In portrait mode the layout is re-arranged. The 'fat' toolbar of S60 5th Edition is gone. Icons are larger (spread over two rows, not three), which makes for a bigger target area. Note also the inclusion of a larger and more centralised notification area. Pressing this area bring up the connection and status box, which makes it easy to changes connections (find WiFi) and get at a glance status.

The N8 has rounded edges, which means it fits comfortable into the hand. They also make the device feel smaller than it actually is (an increasingly used 'trick' from handset manufacturers)

The N8's default screensaver show a big clock and the date. Because this is an AMOLED screen displaying this take very little power indeed (it only needs to 'light up' the white pixels). It a nice improvement over the standard 'small strip' screen saver on earlier devices. The E71 and E72 also had a similar big clock screensaver.