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We're currently evaluating a Nokia N8 for a contract. I know that the article is about the next step for Nokia, but the fact that they are releasing this phone

We're currently evaluating a Nokia N8 for a contract. I know that the article is about the next step for Nokia, but the fact that they are releasing this phone tells me that Nokia is not winning. The phone is barely usable.

blub 16y ago
You are exaggerating. The N8 is Nokia's best touch screen phone and a good all around phone. Its only problem is that the UI is not as polished as on iPhone or Android, but it's good enough.
- yesbabyyes 16y ago
  The fact that it's Nokia's best touch screen phone is what makes me reluctant to believe they are on the verge of winning anything when it comes to smart phones. From http://events.nokia.com/NokiaN8/ http://events.nokia.com/NokiaN8/: Take amazing photos and videos, connect to your favourite social networks and be entertained with the latest Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps. They market this as a phone with a good camera (HD video recording) and integrated with social networks. Yet, the only way to send an image or a video is "via messaging" or "via Bluetooth". "Messaging" in this case, is MMS. Googling for a way to get the HD videos off the phone some other way than mounting it over USB, I find PixelPipe: http://pixelpipe.com/ http://pixelpipe.com/ The only thing that's outstanding with PixelPipe is that it's UI is even worse than the one on Nokia N8. If I want to connect my new N8 with my Facebook profile, I have to register for the Ovi Store first. This is a process which takes me through three dialogs: I have to enter my e-mail address, my phone number, pick a username and a password, and enter a CAPTCHA. Below the CAPTCHA is a text input field. When I click the input field, the text input widget and the keyboard appears, covering the CAPTCHA I'm supposed to read. This is one of a long list of similar experiences from using the phone for one hour. Nobody used this phone before it went to market.
  - samstokes 16y ago
    I haven't used an N8, but with my much older (and less consumer-focused) E71 it's pretty easy to send photos by email as well, which covers 90% of my use cases. You can upload photos to Facebook and Tumblr (and others) via email, so that pretty much covers social media integration as well. Are you sure this isn't merely a confusing UI (something Nokia definitely suffers from), rather than missing functionality?
    - yesbabyyes 16y ago
      Well, I'm trying to send HD video. The bitrate is around 1 MB/s. I'd rather not do that via e-mail.
  - blub 16y ago
    Social networking is almost irrelevant for me, but I've heard good things about an app called Gravity.
    - samstokes 16y ago
      Gravity is superb - better than most desktop Twitter clients I've used. And it does a decent Twitpic upload. Not to mention also supporting Facebook, Google Reader and Foursquare (if that's your thing).
- alex_c 16y ago
  >Its only problem is that the UI is not as polished as on iPhone or Android Agreed. The phone itself is solid, but the UI made me think of early versions of Android, and not in a good way (as in, "this is even worse than early versions of Android"). It often seems like a layer of shiny paint on top of a ton of older cruft - inconsistent or nonsensical menu structures, "back"/"exit" are all over the place and hard to predict, etc. It feels like a feature phone trying to be a smartphone. This might not be an issue for people used to Nokia phones, but coming from iPhone/Android it's quite jarring. >but it's good enough. That remains to be seen. It IS a solid phone, and Nokia keeps crowing about how they'll sell 50 million of this phone over the next year. I can see it doing well in markets where Nokia is traditionally strong (maybe? I don't know much about smartphone usage trends in those markets). But in North America, where Nokia is already behind iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry on the smartphone front, they are not going to catch up by releasing something LESS polished.

blub 16y ago

You are exaggerating. The N8 is Nokia's best touch screen phone and a good all around phone. Its only problem is that the UI is not as polished as on iPhone or Android, but it's good enough.

yesbabyyes 16y ago
The fact that it's Nokia's best touch screen phone is what makes me reluctant to believe they are on the verge of winning anything when it comes to smart phones. From http://events.nokia.com/NokiaN8/ http://events.nokia.com/NokiaN8/: Take amazing photos and videos, connect to your favourite social networks and be entertained with the latest Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps. They market this as a phone with a good camera (HD video recording) and integrated with social networks. Yet, the only way to send an image or a video is "via messaging" or "via Bluetooth". "Messaging" in this case, is MMS. Googling for a way to get the HD videos off the phone some other way than mounting it over USB, I find PixelPipe: http://pixelpipe.com/ http://pixelpipe.com/ The only thing that's outstanding with PixelPipe is that it's UI is even worse than the one on Nokia N8. If I want to connect my new N8 with my Facebook profile, I have to register for the Ovi Store first. This is a process which takes me through three dialogs: I have to enter my e-mail address, my phone number, pick a username and a password, and enter a CAPTCHA. Below the CAPTCHA is a text input field. When I click the input field, the text input widget and the keyboard appears, covering the CAPTCHA I'm supposed to read. This is one of a long list of similar experiences from using the phone for one hour. Nobody used this phone before it went to market.
- samstokes 16y ago
  I haven't used an N8, but with my much older (and less consumer-focused) E71 it's pretty easy to send photos by email as well, which covers 90% of my use cases. You can upload photos to Facebook and Tumblr (and others) via email, so that pretty much covers social media integration as well. Are you sure this isn't merely a confusing UI (something Nokia definitely suffers from), rather than missing functionality?
  - yesbabyyes 16y ago
    Well, I'm trying to send HD video. The bitrate is around 1 MB/s. I'd rather not do that via e-mail.
- blub 16y ago
  Social networking is almost irrelevant for me, but I've heard good things about an app called Gravity.
  - samstokes 16y ago
    Gravity is superb - better than most desktop Twitter clients I've used. And it does a decent Twitpic upload. Not to mention also supporting Facebook, Google Reader and Foursquare (if that's your thing).
alex_c 16y ago
>Its only problem is that the UI is not as polished as on iPhone or Android Agreed. The phone itself is solid, but the UI made me think of early versions of Android, and not in a good way (as in, "this is even worse than early versions of Android"). It often seems like a layer of shiny paint on top of a ton of older cruft - inconsistent or nonsensical menu structures, "back"/"exit" are all over the place and hard to predict, etc. It feels like a feature phone trying to be a smartphone. This might not be an issue for people used to Nokia phones, but coming from iPhone/Android it's quite jarring. >but it's good enough. That remains to be seen. It IS a solid phone, and Nokia keeps crowing about how they'll sell 50 million of this phone over the next year. I can see it doing well in markets where Nokia is traditionally strong (maybe? I don't know much about smartphone usage trends in those markets). But in North America, where Nokia is already behind iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry on the smartphone front, they are not going to catch up by releasing something LESS polished.