COMPUTER TIPS

We were almost starting to suspect mobile phones of giving up and playing soft. They seemed unstoppable you know. They went from 5 to 12 in no time and there was nothing to suggest that digicams will ever get a timeout for a much needed breather.

Surprised or not, the game is back on and Nokia are pulling the big guns out. The N8 is the new wannabe king of cameraphones. Fat numbers on the specs sheet and all that shining armor, the new Nseries flagship is hitting hard and playing tough.

The Nokia N8 has two massive tasks on its hands: beat digicams at their own game and bring Symbian back to its past glory. The hardest thing perhaps is to tell which one is harder. But if anyone should be trusted to perform a seemingly impossible stunt, (still) market leaders Nokia are a safer bet than many.

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
	Announced	2010, April
	Status	Available. Released 2010, October

Size	Dimensions	113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm, 86 cc
	Weight	135 g

Display	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches
		- Multi-touch input method - Proximity sensor for auto turn-off - Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate - Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes, check quality

Memory	Phonebook	Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
	Call records	Detailed, max 30 days
	Internal	16 GB storage, 256MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB, buy memory

Data	GPRS	Class 33
	EDGE	Class 33
	3G	HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2.0 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, UPnP technology
	Bluetooth	Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support

Camera	Primary	12 MP, 4000x3000 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Xenon flash, check quality
	Features	1/1.83 sensor size, ND filter, geo-tagging, face detection
	Video	Yes, 720p@25fps, check quality
	Secondary	VGA videocall camera

Features	OS	Symbian^3 OS
	CPU	680 MHz ARM 11 processor, Broadcom BCM2727 GPU
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS; FM transmitter
	Games	Yes + downloadable
	Colors	Dark Grey, Silver White, Green, Blue, Orange
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support; Ovi Maps 3.0
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.1
		- TV-out (720p video) via HDMI with Dolby Digital Plus sound - Anodized aluminum casing - Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic - Digital compass - MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player - DivX/XviD/MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Voice command/dial - Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) - Video/photo editor - Flash Lite v4.0 - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-4D)
	Stand-by	Up to 390 h (2G) / Up to 400 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 12 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 5 h 30 min (3G)
	Music play	Up to 50 h

Misc	SAR US	1.09 W/kg (head)     0.85 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	1.02 W/kg (head)

 As you see the hardware is all there � there�re not too many devices out there that can match the Nokia N8. Some will understandably frown at what looks like unimpressive CPU clock speed and scarce RAM. Just remember that it�s the performance to be judged here and not the sheer numbers.
Different platforms have different needs so we�ll only know if Symbian^3 can do without a 1GHz Snapdragon after we�ve seen the N8 in proper action.