Interviewing Damian Dinning on the N8 and its media capture superiority
Published by Steve Litchfield at 12:56 BST, June 17th 2010
As part of the invitation to spend a morning with the Nokia N8 (ok, quite a lot of N8s - in various colours and states of readiness) on Monday, I grabbed Damian Dinning, Nokia's imaging supremo, to chat about the device and specifically its media capture capabilities. See below for the video interview and accompanying notes - there are several interesting points which I hadn't appreciated before.
The video's pretty short (and we apologise for the weird lighting and clinking noises - hey, it was at an 'event', not a carefully staged studio!), but there are a few questions and answers well worth writing out in (abridged) textual form...
Why did Nokia choose AMOLED for the N8's screen?
The entertainment aspect of the N8 is as important as the camera side, and the richer colours and viewing angles of OLED were the clinching factor.
What about performance in sunlight?
The N8 has a 'new' AMOLED screen, that's 'definitely' better than previous AMOLED efforts from Nokia (e.g. on the N86). It's not known how it compares to Samsung's 'Super AMOLED'.
Why did Nokia go for a 3.5" screen rather than 3.7", the sweet spot for many other devices in 2010?
Not due to price constraints, but due to balancing of capabilities and design, with curved sides, overall phone width, the feel in the hand and the optimisation for one-handed usage (my emphasis).
Is the glass front made of 'Gorilla Glass'?
'Yes', it's highly scratch resistant. (I got the feel that Damian wasn't 100% sure that Gorilla Glass - explicitly - was used, though)
Why is the N8 taking so long to market?
Nokia is just making sure the product is 'right', there is still optimising and fixing going on. I did ask about doing some test photos with the Xenon flash but was asked not to as the camera algorithms were still being tweaked and Damian knew that results would improve significantly before official availability.
How does the pixel size compare to that in the camera in the Apple iPhone 4?
Pixel size is roughly the same, but the much larger sensor means that this is maintained over the full 12 megapixel resolution. Even at 1:1 crops, you won't be able to see digital noise in most circumstances.
How does the digital microphone system work?
There are two fully digital microphones, one optimized for recording in front, by the camera, the other for ambient audio. It's 'Pretty incredible to deal with subtleties of birdsong but also pick up clear speech from the main subject'. Audio from your video is encoded at 128k 48kbs AAC in stereo.
Presumably the fact that digital microphones are used means that the N8 can cope with a wider range of sounds without distorting (e.g. at a rock concert')?
Yes, when you have a very high continuous audio level, the digital microphone system will adapt so that (e.g.) the music remains clear and similar to how your ears hear the source in real life.
Thanks to Damian and Ray Haddow for their help in making the brief interview possible and for allowing us significant access to the N8 - look out for more on this device from the AAS team over the next month or so.
Steve Litchfield
Categories: Hardware, Miscellaneous, Events
Platforms: Symbian^3
News Discussion
The widgeting will also be very good, but the phone seems to be steered toward that media function.
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Originally Posted by Rafe
Comments now fixed on this story, apologies for the original problems.
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Can anyone tell me difference between Gorilla glass and reinforced one? What does mean "new AMOLED", anyone care to explain, in particular comparing to N86. How far pinch-to-zoom goes on image, 100% zoom, more? How much can you zoom-in that way?
Cheers,
Miki
My main question is about the capacitive screen...
Comments please, from those who wish to use this in environments where you are wearing gloves!!!!
Getting a call while you are 'washing up' , skiing, in medicine, etc....
Also accuracy of the touchscreen, for us guys who have 'thumbs for fingers!!!' :frown:
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Originally Posted by comnut
miki69: know how to google???No seriously you should not need to ask...:icon14::rolleyes:
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Let me break it down for you: my question was what was the difference between AMOLED in N8 and AMOLED in N86, what's "new", is it some coating, different production technology....
Not what is AMOLED. I don't see how your post helps in any way, as typing AMOLED in Google search isn't what I've asked....
Cheers,
Miki
The only way is to ask nokia, or wait until it is out..
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
The cameras on Nokia phones have been o.k ,an the N82 one of there best with the xenon flash,but Nokia let down the N86 camera mobile phone with the Small Screen an Weak Speakers on it,an also the buggy software on it,i had Three Nokia N86s in a week an all went faulty with the Keypad freezing an buggy software,Nokia as got to gets its Software more advanced before they can really get themselves back on Track,an seems so odd that a Top Mobile producer as lost it touch in the Top Smartphone market an did not take the Pressure from Apple more serious an now struggling itself
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
The cameras on Nokia phones have been o.k ,an the N82 one of there best with the xenon flash,but Nokia let down the N86 camera mobile phone with the Small Screen an Weak Speakers on it,an also the buggy software on it,i had Three Nokia N86s in a week an all went faulty with the Keypad freezing an buggy software,Nokia as got to gets its Software more advanced before they can really get themselves back on Track,an seems so odd that a Top Mobile producer as lost it touch in the Top Smartphone market an did not take the Pressure from Apple more serious an now struggling itself
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Speakers are quite weak, I have compared it to my old 6500 slide and it's definitely "thinner" sound.
As for software, since OCT 2009 I've had only 2 freezes, so pretty good to me...of course there are some serious issues with auto-rotation (like phone being unresponsive for few secs), but overall performance is quite satisfying, at least my unit.
@comnut: my question was directed to those who actually have device and know about it (like Damian, Rafe maybe..). Didn't get that "peeps" part though....
Cheers,
Miki
Display, it's much brighter than the display in N86, what else do you want/need to know? You'll need to try it for yourself to better understand this, no degree of explanation on my part can articulate the actual performance.
Re 2.8" display in N86, would have made it larger, wider and longer. We wanted to keep the compact size of the N86.
Same challenges with speakers. They're the sam as used in many Nseries handsets, but the cavity (air space) that the speaker driver sits in has the biggest effect. The more air space you provide the bigger the device, simple as that. As said we wanted to maintain the compact dimensions and therefore this was a trade-off. In the N8 we use a larger more powerful speaker but a single unit. It's also driven by a mini power amplifier to get the most we can from it in the space available.
Re inch to zoom. To clarify, in the camera the pinch gesture is used to switch between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios in stills and in video it's used to switch between 16:9 720p HD video and 4:3 VGA video.
There is a double tap gesture to allow you to rapidly zoom from one end of the zoom range to the other. Pinch to zoom is used when viewing photos in the photos application.
atb
D
Also about front cover (glass) is it same as in N86, reinforced/scratch resistant one? Don't know the difference to Gorilla glass.
Re pinch zoom, thanks for clarifying this
EDIT:
Outdoor use is definitely better with N8, but (at least in this particular image) Samsung screen looks better.
Cheers,
Miki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuWVK...layer_embedded
at 4:10 phone becomes unresponsive for few secs :frown:
One can say not final SW yet, but looks kinda "already seen" before.
Cheers,
Miki
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Originally Posted by miki69
N8 hands-on new (french):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuWVK...layer_embedded at 4:10 phone becomes unresponsive for few secs :frown: One can say not final SW yet, but looks kinda "already seen" before. Cheers, Miki |
'gorilla glass' is meant to be unscratchable, totally shatter proof - believe it when I see it...
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Originally Posted by miki69
N8 hands-on new (french):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuWVK...layer_embedded at 4:10 phone becomes unresponsive for few secs :frown: One can say not final SW yet, but looks kinda "already seen" before. Cheers, Miki |
Or I may be totally wrong about this, and it really is a bug :D
atb D.
Cheers,
Miki
Still proto FW
Link:
http://www.blog-n8.fr/actualites/des...de-nuit-01132/
Cheers,
Miki
But 12 megapixels from that looks odd to me. I've heard it mentioned that 8 megapixels is about the limit, and above that the image deteriorates.
This web page even argues that the limit is 6, but it seems to be from 2008, so have sensors got better since then?
The Canon PowerShot G11 is perhaps the best compact cameras, and Canon decreased the megapixels from the G10 from 14.7 to 10. (Both have a sensor size of 1/1.7, so a little bigger than the N8.)