Despite Nokia’s recent switch to Windows Phone as their main smartphone OS, there’s still a lot to like about current Symbian based devices, with the N8 being my personal favorite. Not only is it available NOW, but it can be had for a relatively low price ($399 or in some cases as low as $350), upcoming software updates should give it fresh new look and it has all the features you’d expected from a modern smartphone. But what makes it so special for me? Here are the 13 reasons why I love my N8.
1.Audiophile Music Quality: If you’re serious about music you probably have your audio files in high resolution 320Kbps MP3 or even lossless formats like Wav and chances are you have one of those high-end In-Ear-Monitors. The output of the device producing the audio should also match the other elements in the chain as the overall quality is as good as the weakest link. This is one of the reasons why I love the N8. I’ve listened to Black Berry’s, Android-based devices and even the iPhone and nothing comes close to some of these Nseries devices, especially the N8. I’ve dedicated a separate article on this topic, proclaiming the N8 “Audiophile approved.” If you’re serious about music, you’ll like the N8!
2.Long battery life: The general trend in the smartphone industry has been an ongoing march towards faster and faster devices with larger and larger screens, but battery life just doesn’t seem to be able to keep up. With this ever growing need for faster devices, the obvious solution has been making bigger and thicker devices to put in bigger and thicker batteries. But who wants that? It’s really been an almost daily ritual to charge my external batteries and always have them with me while on the go. The N8 completed changed my usage pattern and shows how important and liberating a device with a long battery life can be. With heavy usage, a single charge usually lasts me an entire day. In some cases it does come close to two days. It really is a treat be able to leave all those power accessories at home and have just that single device with you without having to worry about running out of juice.
Another interesting feature is the power saving mode. When the battery reaches a certain critical level, it asks you if you’d like to activate this mode, basically adjusting allowing the devices to last even longer. You know how some devices warn you about low battery, only to completely die on you just minutes later? My experience with the N8 has been that this mode actually seems to make a dramatic difference in the sense that a low battery means that I can make a few quick calls or check those last tweets and emails before it turns off completely.
All of this is done with what I normally would consider a small battery at just 1200 mAh. I can clearly remember all those comments about the N8 having a small battery and that it wasn’t user-replaceable. Somehow, Nokia did manage to squeeze such a long battery life out a relatively small battery.
3.No screen protectors: Getting a new phone usually meant getting a screen protector. If you’ve ever tried applying of these things, you’d know what a pain these can be. It’s an extremely difficult procedure and even when all goes well, you could still end up with some small bubbles. Some can even be really expensive, costing in the range of $15. Despite protecting the device, it takes away a certain smoothness that can only be had without the screen protector. With the gorilla glass on the N8 I didn’t need to worry about screen protectors, putting the device face down or anything like that.
4.The Clock: The N8 has this cool screen saver clock that stays on, even when the device is in sleep mode. I always tend to check the time and this is really handy as I can just look at the N8 and know the time. The minimalistic design of the clock is very classy. From what I understand it uses almost no powers and thus won’t affect battery life. A small but cool feature I haven’t seen on other devices.
5.Offline Navigation: It’s no secret that Nokia’s Map is the best in the industry and it’s not bad either that its completely free, but where they really push ahead of any other competitor is the ability to download all content for a specific country or even the entire world and than use the phone for navigation without using any data. I’ll be heading to Peru in less than a week and I can simply download the data using my PC or via Wi-Fi on the N8 and use it completely in offline mode while there. No other mobile navigation service has this completely offline mode.
6.Dual Charging: The N8 can charge via either the 2mm Nokia connector or microUSB. Most of Nokia’s accessories don’t use microUSB, but instead Nokia’s own tried and true 2mm Charging connector. My Nokia BH-905, the BH-214 and even the BH-505 use the 2.0mm charger and not microUSB, probably due to size and space constraints. But the result of all of this is that you’ll probably end up with a microUSB charger for your device and a Nokia 2mm charger for your accessories. Why not have just one charger? With the N8 I can just keep this one charger for both my accessories and my device. Besides, having 2 connectors increases my chances of finding the right charger. You’ll be surprised at the remote places were people just happen to have a 2mm Nokia connector. microUSB makes sure the N8 is future, basically the best of both worlds.
Read the rest of this entry »
