As much as I liked the Nokia N8, I needed to get back to using a more modern smartphone for my day to day work.  I decided that waiting some more time for motorola (or Google) to release new flagship products would take a long time, and the few merits of the N8 wouldn't warrant waiting that long for the next android device.

Symbian Belle Refresh OS

So,  what did I like about the N8 and Symbian Belle?  Well, one of the awesome things was really its camera, with 12 megapixels and the ability to shoot 720p video it was a formidable device for its day (back in 2010).  The camera and the recording are pretty nice today too!.  I short a short video which I posted on YouTube, and used the device to shoot some really nice close-up photos of leaves (some of which have shown up in my instagram now that I have a more modern phone).

The N8 hardware unlock key was pretty nice since you could unlock the screen without touching the screen.  Its ability to transmit audio over FM without any external bluetooth receivers/transmitters is also a nice function (something I haven't seen in other phones) and you can listen to FM radio as well if you so please.  Even though a lot of things didn't work (due to its age), the web browser worked well, and I was able to look up stuff on the go (something I couldn't do with my Razr ;-) ). Nokia Maps even works! I got lost a few times while biking in Boston and I was able to find my way using Nokia maps!

That said, there are things that just don't work for a variety of reasons, and those became frustrating.  One of the reasons why things didn't work was that they were tied to specific Nokia servers and services.  For example the Weather application needed something on the nokia back end to work, so the app and the widget were useless.  The Social app was a great idea - a hub for all social activity, but that too needed a server on the back end  to work, and it needed twitter, Facebook, and other social networks to support it with plug ins.  While Twitter and Facebook were pre-installed on the phone - since the social backend service was turned off, Facebook and twitter were not accessible. Even some apps, like foursquare, that still have installable sis files you can put on your phone don't work because those APIs have been deprecated.

Another reason why things didn't work was due to expired certificates on apps.  Even though Nokia had some apps for podcasting, and other functions (like the Sports Tracker app!), if you could find those apps through *ahem* "sites", those apps wouldn't install on the phone because their security certificates expired.   Apparently there is a way to hack/jailbreak Belle to allow non-signed apps to run, but seeing that it was my only smartish phone it seemed like a good idea to mess with it.

Finally - no Greek.  Even though this was released in 2010, Nokia still used the regional firmware for devices, and my device was set with arabic, farsi, and urdu as additional languages. And, of course, the nokia servers where you could update your firmware from are no longer up and running.  Oh well!

The Nokia N8 was a fine device, and I am still holding onto it, but mostly as a camera and a back-up phone.  The thing that I realized is that a nano-SIM in an adapter is not a great idea (got the SIM out with some needle nose pliers - just by pure luck...or mad skills....or just luck...), so if I do use it as a backup phone, maybe I need to figure out a better SIM adapter solution.

My next phone is the Moto X Pure - more on this in a future post.