Nokia N8 preview

My Digital Life was invited to briefly play with a Nokia N8 prototype, and was given a demonstration of the device, earlier today in Melrose. The handset runs on Nokia’s new open source operating system, Symbian^3 and offers a more responsive user interface than Symbian^1 (S60, 5th edition).

Apart from the fast and more responsive UI, you can view all your music with cover flow, zoom into pictures with a two-finger gesture, “pinch-to-zoom”, and record and play videos in HD (720p).

Key features include a 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, HDMI connection to your home theatre system (cable included) with Dolby digital surround sound and personalisation on three home screens.

The handset has a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen (640x360), comes with 16GB of built-in memory, expandable up to 32GB by micro SD and an FM transmitter and radio.

Connectivity and outputs on the N8 are pretty impressive. The handset offers USB-on-the-go (readability of USB drives and allows copying content between USB and phone), WLAN, Bluetooth 3.0, micro USB, 3.5mm audio out/in and HDMI. Cables included in the box are data, HDMI and USB.

Just like the N97, you have one-touch access to your social networks like Facebook and Twitter, pushed to the home screen. You can also view an integrated feed of your e-mail, text messages, calendar and social networks.

Just like all Nokia smartphones, Ovi Maps is preloaded, with free walk and drive navigation, with tips for travel, restaurants, weather and hotels.

Nokia N8 on pre-order:
Nokia will put up 1 500 N8 handsets online for pre-order, via Ringaz and an additional 2 500 in selected stores. Online orders come with butler delivery service and a one-hour consultation on setting up the device. Pre-orders open on 20 September.

Consumer review programme:
Nokia will give 60 consumers an opportunity to review the N8, based on motivations tweeted to @NokiaRSA. Reviews will be posted on Ringaz and eight winners will be selected by votes, and winners get to keep the handset.