The first time Nokia’s N8-00 popped up on our radar was way back in early February of this year. On that chilly, misty morning, we learned of a mythical being capable of shooting 12 megapixel stills, recording 720p video, outputting via HDMI, and — most importantly — ushering in the promised Symbian^3 touch revolution. It’s been a long road of leaks, teasers, hands-ons, and previews since then, but at long last, the legend of the N8 has become a purchasable commodity. All the early specs have survived, including the 3.5-inch AMOLED display, but the key question today, as it was at the beginning, relates to that all-new software within: does Symbian^3 succeed in elevating Nokia’s touchscreen experience or does it drag down an otherwise stellar combination of high-end parts? For that verdict and much, much more, join us after the break.
Mere days behind the mighty N8, the secondSymbian^3 device to hit the market is now… well, hitting the market: the svelte C7. Though it lacks the N8′s powerhouse 12-megapixel cam with mechanical shutter and xenon flash, the C7′s still got 8 megapixels’ worth of photon catchers paired up with dual LED illumination — likely more than good enough for most users — along with that sweet 3.5-inch nHD “ClearBlack” AMOLED display featuring insane, mind-bending contrast ratios. Nokia’s official PR (which you’ll find after the break) doesn’t mention which markets will be first to take delivery of the shipments, but regardless of where you may be, expect to pay somewhere around Nokia’s suggested list price of €335 ($468) before subsidy — €35 less than the N8′s €370 ($517).
Update: Turns out the C7 doesn’t have a ClearBlack display, though we were told otherwise at Nokia World. Bummer!
Been waiting for the N8 but weren’t sure enough about buying it to get into the pre-order queue? Well, Nokia must have found your lack of faith disturbing as it’s now stiffing those who didn’t pre-order its all-new handset with another couple of weeks of waiting. Those without Nokia logos tattooed on their lower backs will finally be able to purchase the N8 on October 15 — but only via Nokia’s own web store — before a general release hits the UK and presumably most of the rest of Europe on October 22 (slightly later than the promised October 1 landing date). The distribution is indeed wide, however, with all the major UK carriers, plus Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile, joining the Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U in offering the phone that has “a black belt in entertainment.” Yeah, Nokia, we’re finding this wait really entertaining.
Nokia’s N8 is now shipping to those of you who pre-ordered. It may not be the device that’ll make you leave your beloved BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android phone but Nokia’s N8 with its significantly enhanced Symbian^3 OS is without a doubt the best you can do if you’re one of the millions of Symbian users looking for a smartphone upgrade. Having said that, fans of cameraphones on any platform might be swayed by the N8′s 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, xenon flash, extra large image sensor, and HDMI out. Nokia says that availability will vary by country and operator and should be everywhere within the coming weeks.
Update: Pictures of the N8 assembly and shipping operations added in the gallery below.
I’ve had it. I can’t take all this Nokia operating system speculation anymore. The final straw came with a VentureBeat piece citing a “trusted source” that claims “Nokia is now likely to use Windows Phone 7 as an additional platform for its phones.” Enough already. Nokia has a strategy and hiring Stephen Elop away from Microsoft’s Office team isn’t going to change that no matter how much the US media (where Nokia has near zero presence) wishes it were true — if anything, it’s going to accelerate it.
Nokia has made no secret of the fact that improving its long-tepid relationship with the North American market is a priority — but we’ll admit, we didn’t expect AT&T to throw its weight behind a rather massive Symbian developer contest this quickly. The concept is simple: develop and submit an app targeting the N8 by January 28 of next year; the best one (in Nokia’s eyes) gets a cool quarter million, while 17 (yes, seventeen) runners-up get $150,000, which is still a pretty gigantic number. What makes this fascinating is that although AT&T had dipped its toes in the Symbian waters a few times over the years, it currently offers nothing but the Vivaz and refurbished E71x units — and it hasn’t announced any plans to carry the N8. Considering the size and scope of this contest, Nokia’s definitely putting its money where its mouth is — it seems to understand the importance of building a healthy third-party app catalog to drive a platform’s success — and we imagine AT&T’s got some announcements of its own in the coming months. Just a hunch.
By and large, Nokia’s positioning the C7 as a lower-cost alternative to the N8 — but with a relatively small pricing gap between the two in some regions, it seems like a lot of folks are going to want to just take the plunge and go for the 12 megapixel beast. In Finland, the C7 is now up for pre-order on Nokia’s official web store for €439 ($582) unlocked, which isn’t terribly much less than the N8 that can be had for €499 ($661). Well, with the delay, it actually can’t be had just yet; wouldn’t be interesting if the just-announced C7 ended up shipping first? The store is quoting late October for delivery, so it’s at least a possibility.
Sounds like it’s not much of a delay — but be that as it may, if you were hoping to pick up your colorful N8 in the tail end of this month… well, we don’t quite know how to say this, but you’re going to want to make other plans. Backing up rumors that have been going around the past couple days, locales that had expected to get the N8 in September have now been pushed back to October while Nokia makes “some final amends.” On the upside, some rumors had the delay pegged for November, so this doesn’t seem to be as bad as it could’ve been. For what it’s worth, Nokia mentioned during Nokia World last week (and again today) that the N8 is seeing strong pre-order demand — the strongest ever for a Nokia device, allegedly — so this is likely to bum out a lot of folks, and for a few, it might even be just the impetus they needed to hold out for the upcoming E7. Here’s the full statement:
“The amount of preorders has exceeded our expectations and we are working hard to deliver the Nokia N8 to the market. In some markets, we had planned to start delivering the Nokia N8s to our pre-order customers by the end of September. To ensure a great user experience, we have decided to hold the shipments for a few weeks to do some final amends. We’re thrilled with the response that we’ve had to the Nokia N8 and assure everyone who’ve pre-ordered it already that it’ll be worth the wait! We expect consumers to get their Nokia N8s during October.”
So the C7 might be the sexiest Symbian^3 device… but the C6-01, well, it just may be the cutest. Just all depends on what you’re looking for (and how much you’re willing to spend), you know? Like the C7, we had a little difficulty getting screen swipes to register while trying to change home screens, but considering that the top of the bezel had the very prototypish “C0″ mystery name badge, we’re more than happy to cut it a little slack. Having come directly from the C7, it’s a little tricky to be comfortable with the smaller display — not to mention the thicker body — and the back definitely tends toward the cheap side with matte hard plastic, but again, this is clearly designed to be a budget device. And hey, how many budget smartphones can you think of with AMOLED displays that have extreme black levels? Check out the gallery for a few shots.
We’ve just played with both black and silver versions of Nokia’s just-announced C7 — a phone that you might call an N8 for the masses — and we think it’s probably going to come away with the “sexiest Symbian device” crown by the time it’s on shelves. We’re a little concerned with screen sensitivity; on both the C7 and C6-01, we had a little difficulty getting home screen swipes to actuate — but you never know what the deal is with these well-handled protos, so we’re going to hold off on passing judgment until we’ve got retail units in our hands. The black’s a little unnotable, but the silver really pops in person — maybe it’s just the lighting — and the screen seems to perform nearly as well as the C6′s so-called ClearBlack AMOLED, so unless you need a monster cam, the C7 might be your Symbian^3 device of choice when it launches later this year. Hit the gallery for shots of both colors!
Update: The display seemed to look as good as the C6-01′s because we’ve confirmed that it is ClearBlack! Rock on.
