My personal gripes with the N8

Question

Hi guys. I've owned my N8 for around 2 months now, and having used it extensively, I just wanted to share my own gripes with this device.
The N8 is Nokia's flagship device. The device that was supposed to rejuvenate Nokia's ever declining stance in the smartphone arena. Delayed multiple times until released just a few short months ago. Like most of you guys here, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this smartphone and the constant delays were killing me. I've always been really fond of Nokia and Symbian, ever since owning an N-Gage many years ago. Nokia have always been ahead of the times, and knew that phones were far more capable than just making calls. I've owned many smartphones from most all manufacturers but always seem to find my way back to Symbian.
So with the ongoing delay of the N8, I was thinking to myself because they're taking so long to iron out all of the problems, it's going to be amazing! And so I thought when I first opened the box. But as time has gone by, like all of the Symbian devices I've owned, I've just found more and more about this device to complain about than to actually enjoy.
First let me start with the marketing campaign for this device. It was nice to see the N8 being heavily marketed. It was on almost every billboard I could see, every bus stop I could see, and in most every magazine and newspaper. But then I saw the TV adverts once the device was released..... they sucked. They had barely any emphasis on what the phone could actually do in everyday use, or even how to do it. It had a general emphasis on what people could do with their smartphones. It was a mediocre attempt and they sure didn't draw my attention to the N8. It was as if Nokia was saying "Hey, we've released this new smartphone called the N8.... now look what you can do with phones these days". Anyway, on to the phone itself....
The Hardware
I have hardly any complaints about the hardware. The phone looks fantastic and feels great in the hand. The screen is crisp, vivid and looks outstanding (one of the best I've seen on a mobile device). The gorilla glass really does live up to its name. The device is solidly built, as usual Nokia style. Buttons are well placed (with the exception of the menu button, which I would have preferred to be in the centre. It's not so great pressing the menu button left-handed with your thumb). The addition of HDMI and USB OTG make for a powerful and feature-rich device. I can't say any more about the camera than what's already been said. It's the best, and it lives up to the hype. My only other minor niggle apart from the menu button is the non-replaceable battery, but it's not really much of an issue considering the build style of the device. I suppose it makes more sense having it the way it is. The only major problem I can think of is its underpowered processor, which means further software optimisation, which means more time is wasted. If applications are developed for other platforms that have better processors, that means developers have to spend more time optimising their software for less powered hardware, which ultimately means shoddy ports. A prime example being Asphalt 5.
The Symbian^3 OS
Now this is where it starts to become fun. After reading and watching many reviews, I had a brief idea of what to expect. The OS didn't look perfect, but it looked like a big improvement from S60 v5, and already being fond of Nokia and Symbian, I decided to take the plunge and give this device the chance I thought it deserved.
Inconsistent UI
The user interface is extremely inconsistent. The clock, connectivity and notifications jump from the top of the screen to the bottom on screen rotation, and the clock doesn't appear at all on the homescreen except via a widget. Furthermore, there are 3 buttons on the homescreen at the bottom, but 2 in the menus. There are 3 when you rotate the screen. It looks a mess.
The notification bar at the top of the screen is fairly slim on the homescreen, but increases in size in the menus and applications. Why can't it stay the same size throughout?
Screen real-estate - When in the calendar, in text messages, in most applications.... most of the screen real estate is consumed by the large notification bar at the top, and 2 layers of buttons at the bottom, altogether consuming about 1/3 of the screen's real estate.
Kinetic scrolling - When browsing the Ovi store, the kinetic scrolling is as smooth as butter. As is the photo album, it scrolls through like a dream. Absolutely nothing to complain about in that respect. But in other places such as contacts, text messages, the web browser and Social Networking client, KS can be very choppy. Why is this? Why can't they use the same KS algorithm throughout the device? Is there a lack of communication at Symbian/Nokia?
Text messages consist of a tone, and an on-screen notification which is non-obtrusive and is very well done. Mail notifications consist of a tone, and that's it. No on-screen notification. Why couldn't this be integrated the same way as text messages?
The ability to click the camera button to view a search bar in the file manager was a great idea. Why couldn't this have been implemented throughout the OS?
Integrated applications such as the Ovi Store and Social Networks client have their own themes which change the colour of the menu buttons. Why? Why not leave them the same colour as the theme you have chosen? It means that the application has to consume more time and resources changing the theme.
Most menus will draw up from the bottom of the screen to display options, but then you have menus like the Ovi store which display in the centre.
When scrolling though album arts in the Music Player, why is there a full screen button which shows menu buttons that don't even get in the way? It's not necessary. Furthermore, why are the menu buttons not in big boxes like everywhere else in the OS?
The homescreen you have chosen is the active one. The others seem to stay in some sort of freeze-state until you scroll to them, which means widgets don't update until you select the home screen they're on. This is stupid.
The menu buttons at the bottom change in size depending on screen orientation. They're a little slimmer in landscape mode.
There are probably many more inconsistencies to be found, but all-in-all, they make the OS feel unprofessional, user-unfriendly, and generally a frustrating experience having to jump all around the screen to access the same thing dependent upon where you are in the phone.
Unresponsiveness
As already mentioned, the Ovi Store's KS is very smooth, but then you have the top and menu buttons which can become unresponsive and can take multiple presses for them to respond. This seems to be a recurring theme throughout the entire device.
Screen rotation can be a pain. It just feels as though there is some sort of struggle to rotate the screen. It's not fluid, and there's a minor delay.
Typing on the keypad can be also be a pain. Using regular text entry, there's no auto-correction, no space between keys, and just no improvement from its predecessor. It looks aged and can be a struggle to use with even fairly small fingers. Not forgetting the fact that text entry consumes the entire screen.
Sometimes, when just locking and unlocking the device, it feels as though there's some delay. Sometimes I'll have to do it multiple times for it to respond.
There's absolutely no excuse for this unresponsiveness. It existed in S60 v5, and still exists to this day. The N8 was delayed long enough for all of this to have been straightened out. A massive let down.
Bugs and crashing
A few days ago I was playing around with my N8. I went to lock the device, but the screen refused to turn itself off. I restarted my phone multiple times but to no avail. After about 15 minutes it decided I was frustrated enough and turned itself off.
The web browser still does the same as it has always done on Symbian. It just randomly closes. I don't want to go too much into the browser since there is an update due, but this is now, and this is what we have now. But this also seems to be a recurring theme throughout the device. There are many applications that will just randomly close.
My N8 has automatically restarted itself a few times since I've owned it. Sometimes it feels like it's running slow, and a restart usually cures it. However that just leads me to believe there's some sort of memory leak, or poor memory management in the Symbian OS.
Again, absolutely unacceptable, for the same reasons I've mentioned. Except these problems are more frustrating when taking into consideration how much time Nokia have had to straighten all of this out, and the seriousness of these flaws.
Lack of interest
The Ovi store simply sucks. There are no two ways about it. Developer support is abysmal. There are a few good games on there, of which most are pooly ported. It feels as if the Ovi Store has stagnated, for example, I've seen just 2 Web TV applications added since I've owned the phone. Everytime I visit the Ovi Store it feels as if I see nothing new, just rehashes of the same old applications found on S60 v5.
Symbian doesn't have that "Ooooooh" factor. I previously owned a Palm Pre, and the UI just blew my mind. It's outstanding. Symbian just doesn't have that.
When I show my friends my phone, they like it, but nothing about it makes them want to run to the store and buy one. There's nothing about the user experience that's unique, or done well enough for people to feel they could spend long periods of time using.
Nokia apparently had 400,000 new developers jump on board over the past year. Then where on earth are they?
Conclusion
People might think that I'm just nitpicking, but having paid outright for this device, with the ongoing delays, and with the ever increasing and bettering competition, I feel that I have the right to complain.
I acknowledge that no device is perfect, but if even half of the problems I've listed didn't exist, I'd accept the device for what it is. I know that improvements are on their way, but why should we wait any longer? We waited long enough for the phone to be released, let alone wait longer for it to be of the same standard that competing smartphones were at 12 months ago. Symbian itself is many years old. Nokia should be masters at it, yet every time a new phone is released, the OS feels extremely immature.
Nokia's development roadmap might as well not exist. They are extremely unreliable with release dates. Their development takes far too long. They're falling further and further behind.
Most of the time, I find myself just constantly checking the device updates, in hope of something. I'm sure many of you guys do that too. That's a bad sign. It just shows that what's already in place is not adequate. We want more. We deserve more. We should have had more when the device was released.
The emphasis of this phone seems to be solely on the camera, USB OTG, Bluetooth 3.0 and HDMI. If I wanted a feature phone I wouldn't have paid half of what I paid for this phone. A smartphone needs to add more to the table than solely features. If the UX was improved, I'd be happy to sacrifice any of the mentioned features. The UI is something I use every day - USB OTG is something I've used once.
My personal opinion and credibility of Nokia is forever declining. The market seems to feel that way too. Time is ticking. The competition is becoming more dominant, making it harder to break into an already over-saturated market. The market seems to be shifting to tablets. Nokia can't even get their phone OS right, let alone think about releasing a tablet. Another potential market that Nokia will struggle to enter if they so desire.
If the next update doesn't iron out most of these problems, I'm going to be getting rid of my N8. I wouldn't recommend this device to the average consumer. There are better alternatives out there.

Answer 1

crazyfan wrote:
People might think that I'm just nitpicking, but having paid outright for this device, with the ongoing delays, and with the ever increasing and bettering competition, I feel that I have the right to complain.
Actually, I'm sorry to say that what I've highlighted in bold there is exactly the words that occurred to me when I was reading your entire section entitled "Inconsistant UI" - absolutely none of what you raise in there is a bug. It is natural that the screen usage varies according the the activity currently being undertaken and screen orientation. Most people who have criticised the home screen are upset that it isn't as customisable as they'd like - you are the only person I've suggesting it should be much more strictly regimented.
I've used S^3 in N8 and C7 models, and I haven't noticed the issues that you describe with scrolling and rotating.
The Ovi Store UI being different is not an issue with the phone, it is something that is increasingly common in many Nokias - Nokia seem to have divided their development of devices and services into two separate organisations, which is why the separate services (Ovi Store apps for all phones are created by the Ovi people, not the same ones who design the phone UI); so where they really ought to be issuing the direction to stay in line is in the Ovi department. As for this app changing the theme, it doesn't - it simply has (for better or for worse) its own UI distinct fromp the phones, just as any software written for a PC may have its own look-and-feel distinct from the PC's OS.
crazyfan wrote:
Typing on the keypad can be also be a pain. Using regular text entry, there's no auto-correction, no space between keys, and just no improvement from its predecessor. It looks aged and can be a struggle to use with even fairly small fingers. Not forgetting the fact that text entry consumes the entire screen.
I'm no fan of virtual qwerty (or in my usual case azerty) keyboards on touch-screen phones because I have never yet found any that I really like to use.
One issue that I do have here is that the availability of accented characters varies according to the phone language, which isn't very helpful to those of us who have cause to write in several languages. I much prefer to type on portrait mode on the traditional phone keypad, because you always have access to all accented and special characters. I have even been able to type messages using the portrait keypad quicker than I can using a normal physical keypad, which impressed me a lot.
I've been using N8 and C7 models through work, I have just got my own N8 which I bought whilst travelling because it is still quite hard to find (and therefore more expensive than it needs to be) in my own country - consequently I don't even have one of my two primary languages in the phone, but whist I can't access some necessary characters at all through the landscape qwerty I can get absolutely everything in the portrait keypad. Definitely room for some improvement there.
crazyfan wrote:
Lack of interest
The Ovi store simply sucks. There are no two ways about it. Developer support is abysmal. There are a few good games on there, of which most are pooly ported. It feels as if the Ovi Store has stagnated, for example, I've seen just 2 Web TV applications added since I've owned the phone. Everytime I visit the Ovi Store it feels as if I see nothing new, just rehashes of the same old applications found on S60 v5.
This is a consequence of the fact that Nokia is in the midst of a change in OS support, S60 will (I imagine) not be much longer for this world as S^3 is phased in, and Maemo development stalled when Nokia got into bed with Intel to develop MeeGo (which would otherwise have been Maemo 6) which still hasn't made it to the market. These delays getting the new operating system established is affecting app development because the developers are caught in a catch-22 whereby there is no point developing extensively for the 'almost obsolete' S60 and Maemo 5, but there isn't likewise much to gain in developing for S^3 or MeeGo because one is only just launched and one not even here yet. None of  this is a fault of the N8, and unlike certain fruit-flavoured devices we would mention, with the N8 at least you have the choice to shop for apps elsewhere.