GLOBAL – Yesterday saw the emergence of the Nokia N8, and it’s certainly got many of you and the rest of the web in a spin. Packed to the rafters with smart talents the Nokia N8 is the first smartphone touting Symbian^3, comes with a 12 megapixel camera (see sample photos), can capture HD videos (watch sample HD video) and looks the part to boot. Did it hold the front page? Find out after the jump as we peep over the wall to see what the tech blogs had to say about the Nokia N8.
It’s been previewed, demoed, and now it’s causing a lot of excited chatter. The Symbian stalwarts over at All About Symbian had this to say:
“The N8 marks a number of important firsts for Nokia: it is their first Symbian^3 device (latest version of the Symbian platform), their first 12 megapixel camera, their first HD video recording phone and their first phone using third generation mobile processor architecture.”
Gizmodo commented on the new OS:
“It’s Nokia’s first Symbian^3 phone, and while initial videos and photos made it look pretty special indeed, Mobile-Review’s early look at it warranted a big, fat “do not like.” As I said yesterday, that could be because it was an early prototype—time will tell, in any case.”
The excitement is certainly mounting and as Doug mentioned in his post yesterday the sample that was “reviewed” was a very early one, but the tech blogeratti are certainly itching to get their mitts on it.
Moving on to another first for Nokia, here’s what’s being said about the N8’s camera skills. We’ve seen the first sample photos and the HD video, and I think Recombu have a right to be this excited:
“The biggest fuss is being made over the N8’s camera – a 12-megapixel camera complete with Carl Zeiss optics and a xenon flash. The N8’s camera is capable of recording HD-quality footage which you can then view on an HD Ready TV set via the HDMI port.”
Electricpig picked up on the looks of the N8:
“The Nokia N8 is a looker, there’s no doubt about it. That slinky touchscreen design has touches of the N97 about it, but with a few classier angles, and no kick-out keyboard.”
While TechDigest doffed its cap to the touchscreen:
“Available in a wide range of colours, its a pretty nifty looking phone. Looking a little like the N97, the N8 however is a red-blooded capacitive touchscreen phone, with no QWERTY slider and only a smattering of hardware buttons.”
Another string to the N8’s cellular bow was our announcement of the price at 370 Euros. We couldn’t have said it better than this snippet from a reaction and opinion post over on Unwired View:
“But with a single stroke in a N8 announcement, Nokia managed to turn the tables around. It’s astonishingly low N8 price of 370 EUR. Suddenly Nokia N8 competes not with the high end flagships, but with the likes of HTC Legend, Acer Liquid, Samsung Wave or Sony Ericsson Vivaz. And leaves most of the competitors scrambling to catch up.”
Other blogs flocked to praise the price point with both Engadget and Boy Genuis Report highlighting the bargain buy:
“For what is clearly a high end specification it also breaks new ground on price. At €370 / £320 / $499 it will be significantly under cutting many devices with similar or higher specifications; consider that the Nokia N97 had a launch price of €550.”
“Folks looking to get their hands on the new hotness from Nokia will have to exercise patience as the N8 is not slated to launch until Q3 2010. When it finally hits the retail shelves later this year, the N8 will debut in select global markets with a price tag of €370 ($494 USD).”
It’s not just the blogs that have been reacting to the news of the N8, and we’ll be bringing you the reactions from the newswires and national newspapers soon. But in the meantime do you agree with the tech blogs? Have you read anything else you’d like to share here? Is the price point a clincher for you? Or the camera? Or something else entirely? Let us know in the comments section below.