So, I recently bought an N8. Why, do you ask? After purchasing the Lumia 900 on day one, and then the 920 on day one, I was left with this feeling that Nokia is the most interesting company I was never exposed to before. To me now, Nokia means great user innovations, deep sense of individuality, and style. I've heard of Nokia before my stints with Apple and Motorola phones, but they didn't have much of a presence here in the US despite being the #1 phone maker for a long time.
Ok, about the 920 to N8 transition. I'll cover the first 3 days. Thanks to Amazon I received my new in box N8 the next day. The particulars of the unboxing I'm sure are well documented. Nokia gives you all the cables you need (hdmi out, usb on the go cable, headphones, a charger, and usb cable). Judging just by what comes in the box, I can't help but feel stiffed by the last two AT&T Lumias. The only thing useful included there are SIM door keys.
For the first 6 or so hours, the N8 is charging since the battery appeared to be thoroughly depleted as it was sitting on a shelf somewhere for years unopened. After about half a day I come back to check the progress and the battery is less than 25% charged. Pretty disappointed at this point as I was using the wall charger and not USB. Eventually I get it charged and all is good.
My first impression of Symbian as I fired it up was that, wow I'm in the stone age! This was mostly because everything was so pokey and slow. But I didn't let that deter me, I knew what I was getting into. With ease I was able to connect up to my Gmail migrated Outlook calendar, email, contacts, and todo's without a hitch. Not too shabby for an old phone with Microsoft cloud sync capabilities. To be honest, I really wanted to experience why Symbian lovers gnashed their teeth at Nokia's Windows Phone direction. On the outside, Symbian appeared to me as a tired soul.
Using Symbian on the N8 didn't help its case. The browser, way too slow, and scrolling pages were a lag fest. Browsing on the Lumia 920 is one thing I enjoy. I never feel the need to get a desktop/tablet grade browser to view what I want. So what were the things I liked about the Nokia N8? It turns out I don't like anything physically about the phone. I thought I would, but no. About Symbian? It's seemingly unending customization of user preferences and flexibility. Among my first looks, FM Radio, FM Radio broadcast, built-in tethering, built-in mass storage mode, useful widgets, etc. I love all this about Symbian! I can REALLY see now how those who love legacy Nokia phones scoff at anything that smells of Elop. In my opinion, Symbian could have still been built upon and greatly improved. Maybe not so much for us US folk, but for the rest of the world, and really for anyone else who has an open mind and hasn't lost objectivity by buying only Apple products.
To conclude on this post, how does my few days of Symbian and N8 experience fair?
I returned the N8. It's just too slow at performing tasks. Symbian however sparked more curiosity as I don't think the N8 presents it well, or itself. I took some pictures and compared them with my 920. I liked the 920 more. Perhaps I didn't thoroughly give the N8 camera a run through, but I couldn't get anything good out of it. I've posted some beautiful pics from my 920 in the pictures thread. I couldn't get it done with the N8. So, yeah, back it goes.
What do I do now. I still want to play around with Symbian. I was always intrigued with physical keyboards. Maybe the Nokia E7? Nope. After reading the specs on the E7, it's the same as the N8. In other words, SLOW.
Enter the 808 PureView. I've had it for two days. Maybe I'll post on my experience with it coming from a 920 if you guys care.
Ok, about the 920 to N8 transition. I'll cover the first 3 days. Thanks to Amazon I received my new in box N8 the next day. The particulars of the unboxing I'm sure are well documented. Nokia gives you all the cables you need (hdmi out, usb on the go cable, headphones, a charger, and usb cable). Judging just by what comes in the box, I can't help but feel stiffed by the last two AT&T Lumias. The only thing useful included there are SIM door keys.
For the first 6 or so hours, the N8 is charging since the battery appeared to be thoroughly depleted as it was sitting on a shelf somewhere for years unopened. After about half a day I come back to check the progress and the battery is less than 25% charged. Pretty disappointed at this point as I was using the wall charger and not USB. Eventually I get it charged and all is good.
My first impression of Symbian as I fired it up was that, wow I'm in the stone age! This was mostly because everything was so pokey and slow. But I didn't let that deter me, I knew what I was getting into. With ease I was able to connect up to my Gmail migrated Outlook calendar, email, contacts, and todo's without a hitch. Not too shabby for an old phone with Microsoft cloud sync capabilities. To be honest, I really wanted to experience why Symbian lovers gnashed their teeth at Nokia's Windows Phone direction. On the outside, Symbian appeared to me as a tired soul.
Using Symbian on the N8 didn't help its case. The browser, way too slow, and scrolling pages were a lag fest. Browsing on the Lumia 920 is one thing I enjoy. I never feel the need to get a desktop/tablet grade browser to view what I want. So what were the things I liked about the Nokia N8? It turns out I don't like anything physically about the phone. I thought I would, but no. About Symbian? It's seemingly unending customization of user preferences and flexibility. Among my first looks, FM Radio, FM Radio broadcast, built-in tethering, built-in mass storage mode, useful widgets, etc. I love all this about Symbian! I can REALLY see now how those who love legacy Nokia phones scoff at anything that smells of Elop. In my opinion, Symbian could have still been built upon and greatly improved. Maybe not so much for us US folk, but for the rest of the world, and really for anyone else who has an open mind and hasn't lost objectivity by buying only Apple products.
To conclude on this post, how does my few days of Symbian and N8 experience fair?
I returned the N8. It's just too slow at performing tasks. Symbian however sparked more curiosity as I don't think the N8 presents it well, or itself. I took some pictures and compared them with my 920. I liked the 920 more. Perhaps I didn't thoroughly give the N8 camera a run through, but I couldn't get anything good out of it. I've posted some beautiful pics from my 920 in the pictures thread. I couldn't get it done with the N8. So, yeah, back it goes.
What do I do now. I still want to play around with Symbian. I was always intrigued with physical keyboards. Maybe the Nokia E7? Nope. After reading the specs on the E7, it's the same as the N8. In other words, SLOW.
Enter the 808 PureView. I've had it for two days. Maybe I'll post on my experience with it coming from a 920 if you guys care.
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