N8 = 480 euros worth of fail

Question

Long time Nokia user. Started in 1996 with their banana phone, used 9200/9300i/E70/72/75/90 and now I bought a Nokia N8. Since I've had it, i had nothing but problems. 
1. Wifi on the phone is mediocre. There is no simple off button and it takes 20 million menus to turn everything off but wait ... the phone still reconnects without me wanting it. Then you start configuring each widget and untick days on your e-mail accounts. You say you succeeded but wait ... the Nokia N8 phone reconnects yet again to your wifi network. Then you go back in the menu and sub menus and options and advanced settings and you turn everything off again and you disconnect manually from your hotspot ... but wait the phone reconnects again to your router. Now, the only option you have is ... delete destination. 
2. You take your brand new toy to work and want to hook up to your corporate wifi network. You swipe to the second screen, tap your wifi widget to enable scanning, select your network, configure, open the nokia browser and the phone freezes. You look at it and give it a few seconds. Then you push the menu button and load the task manager. You click X on the browser, nothing. You click close all nothing. You press the menu button again and ... the phone is not responding. You are left with the power button. You push the power button, hold of 8 seconds and wait for the phone to switch off. Phone switches off, you give it a minute, turn it back on but it gets stuck on the Nokia logo. You wait 2 minutes and what happens? The screen saver kicks in. You unlock the phone, its the nokia logo. You lock the phone, its the screen saver. You reset the phone again. This time it works like a charm but reconnects to wifi whenever it wants not whenever you want. None of the solutions here on the board worked. Having it hog my service provided contract is not an option. 
3. Theme effects are better viewed off. Putting them on simply ruins the UI experience on this phone. Use the phone a bit with theme effects on and at one point you have 2-3 menus in overlay mode and you cannot make heads or tails. Swiping with theme effects is poor and you are better off with the button to change home screens. 
4. Favourite contact carousel. Good idea, poorly done. I have 4 main contacts, Superman, Batman, Julia and Bruce. I want to call John who is number 6, i swipe with my finger and call John. Afterwards, I want to return the carousel to the 4 contacts I call more often: Superman, Bartman, Julia and Bruce. I use my finger to swipe these 4 contacts into place, release the finger, the carousel moves on its own and shows other contacts. I try again with my finger, position these 4 contacts to the millimetre, release finger and the carousel moves again. After I manage to put my 4 contacts, I reboot the phone and the carousel shows other contacts not the 4 I left before I rebooted. 
5. Image gallery. I have 100 pictures. Swiping from pic 1 to pic 2 pic 3 is all good. Swiping from pic 100 to pic 99 to pic 98 is good. Swiping from pic 1 backwards to pic 100 shows a double jump in transition.  People on other boards have said this is the Nokia way of showing that you are at the end of the gallery. If this is true, Nokia engineers ran out of ideas. Jumping like that between the first and last picture makes you cringe. The animation seems broken!
6. Light sensor. A mind of its own really. You set it one way, it ends up in another. You hold the phone in your hand without having changes in light conditions and the phone changes its brightness on its own.
7. Nokia N8 and OVI Suite. A lethal duo. Crash after crash after crash. OVI crashes 2-3 times a day and formatiing doesn't help.
8. Camera.  Impressive, fast, accurate, interface is 10 years old. I made the mistake of enabling "save location". My phone drove me crazy with the GPS. Every 2 seconds " Define access point, define access point, define access point?" I kept saying NO but the phone ignored me.
9. E-MAIL Client. Back to the drawing board guys. Not efficient and badly done. I would use the web interface but the browser is not good either. Try writing in landscape mode an e-mail on an outlook web access account. The layout is so bad you cannot even arrange the text in a decent manner. That landscape keyboard has got to go.
10. Ovi Store App on the phone. Slow and often fails to sign in eventhough you have proper internet.
11. Third party apps. Gravity is the only app worth praising, the Nokia social needs to go too. I bought quick office full and look at the attachments what happens. 
I can say one thing. If the coming updates do not make this phone work the way it is intended and for the price I paid, I will sell it on eBay and jump ship like most of the symbian users. Now I understand why Nokia's market share is in tatters. My blind loyalty for this company kept me with this N8 and I should not compromise so much for the money I paid. 
P.S: I have the latest updates on it, including the one that came out yesterday. 
Attachments:
Scr000008.jpg ‏41 KB
Scr000010.jpg ‏107 KB
Scr000012.jpg ‏108 KB

Answer 1

Ok dude, I understand your frustration. Thats why i said you are always welcome to switch the board. I have no gain in defending N8 or Nokia. It is not my point. I read your post and I saw your phone history, it was fully comprised of E series devices and iPhone.
Ok, If you are not aware, N8 is not a flagship device from Nokia, It is Nokia's Imaging Flagship and there is no denial in the fact that N8 is the best camera phone available to date, I bought N8 only for its imaging capabilities and i never expect a DSLR quality in it, I just want it to replace a point and shoot, so that i can carry my camera with me always. It Does what i wanted. I know there are Number of Unhappy N8 users too. 
"Some users report that their Nokia N8 would crash when connected to a Wi-Fi network secured with WPA2 (that didn’t happen with our unit though). They suggested switching off Power saving to remedy the problem.........
....Performance near the router improved for both N modes – it went from about -8% to 10% on the positive side....
That’s still not a huge improvement over Wireless G, but it answers why the Nokia N8 was the only phone losing speed near the router when using Wireless N. Performance away from the router remained the same though"
"However further away from the router, it was the Nokia N8 that came on top. Although it didn't show much benefit from the Wireless N mode, the N8 had the most consistent throughput (between 10 and 14 Mbps) that kept its pace from all locations and in all test modes"
GSM ARENA: Its a nice article comparing the WiFi modes of all phones with N band (including iPhone) it tels you about the router settings and the functionality of WiFi n- band (http://www.gsmarena.com/wireless_n_bluetooth_3_spe​ed_test-review-551.php)
I hope it will give you some insight of the problem or at least the impression that I'm aware of the problem. I have read so many  forums, and i know a bit about the frustrations too. 
This review (it is all about connectivity) http://www.fonearena.com/blog/26520/nokia-n8-revie​w-week-%E2%80%93-day-7-%E2%80%93-connectivity.html will give you more idea about the problem. 
Wishmaker
"This cameraphone point on the N8 is moot because I did not buy the phone just for the camera. Let's assume for the sake of argument that I agree with you, what about the issues i've mentioned. I want to use this device for other things than taking pictures"
I was using an HTC desire and i bought N8  for its camera, I'm pretty happy with it. I was aware that N8 is not gonna give me the better browser, or the seamless social networking integration before i bought the phone, I was ready to sacrifice it because of the camera. I know its not the same for all users, And certainly Nokia knows it, thats why they have C6-01, C7 and E7 (Not released yet though) all running in S^3 to address the problem. 
Wishmaker
"You are telling me to find a work around to overcome basic functionality problems? What are we, the 90s where the end user had to put a tin foil on his head and pray to god that it works? Wifi is like SMS nowadays"
How are you using your iPhone, without the bumper or with the bumper? Do you really need a Bumper to use a phone? - I'm not trying to put the iPhone down here, What i say is people do compromises and workarounds to use even the expected phone function of a phone. So why can't you find a workaround to use it for sometime. In N8's case the problem can be sorted out with a firmware update (Hopefully it will), but in the other case, it will never be. 
mate, you got me wrong, My smartphone adoption started with 6600 (Symbian first edition), I was really tired off with the Symbian after some time (playing with 6630, SE P900, 7610), then i purposefully chose a series 40 (to stay away from smart phone). I switched to WinMO 6.1 then after annoyed with the UI, came to Symbian^1 aka V5 (5800). It was full of double tap single tap nonsenses (I loved the phone though and I'm still using it), i was frustrated more than you and i switched to android. Used HTC desire, wildfire (for about 2 months only) then I came back to S^3. i didn't try iPhone only because i don't like the icon centric design of iOS. Before to jump into S^3 my serious consideration was WP7 (i didn't coz WM6.1 really spoiled me, only alternative to the functionality of WM6.1 is Symbian, you will never get what you want in Android or WP7 after using WM6.1). I say this because to let you know that i have a little background in Smartphone OS too. I know whats wrong with S^3. I will say S^3 is the first touchscreen OS from Symbian (Not the UI) Because S^1 is not at all a touch OS, the OS itself. It was just a translation from D-Pad. I consider S^3 equal to android cupcake in 2009. So I'm giving it a fair chance to prove itself. 
S^3 is not ready yet. For example, In call log, it miss the feature "filter by this number", Just because S^3 cant select something, Press and hold popup menu should have it, but the filter is there in the option, you cant select so you don't have filter by selected. There are so many glitches, including the WiFi auto connect. S^1 or any other Symbian controls the connection from within app, S^3 has kind of a universal connection, (its not closed as S^1 or open as iOS or Android, its a hybrid approach, But S^3 didn't get it correct, it gives the priority to some apps (especially email app) than the system settings). S^3 is Complete as a multimedia OS (thats why Nokia released it in N series). its not yet ready for the corporate computing (thats why they pushed the E7 release - E series was never my boat, Because i don't need what they offer).
If you want More understanding about N-Series and E-Series Wikipedia is a nice place.
The Nokia Eseries consists of business-oriented smartphones, with emphasis on enhanced connectivity and support for corporate e-mail push services. All devices have advanced office features. Phones equipped with Wireless LAN also provide a VoIP client (SIP Protocol).
Nokia Nseries is a product family that includes multimedia smartphones. These are mobile devices supporting digital multimedia services such as music playback, video capture, photography, mobile gaming and Internet services. Some Nseries devices support high-speed wireless technology, such as 3G, or Wireless LAN.
A little more in to it: 
The numbers describe the traits of the phone -N7x - 7 series are the balanced phones. they have balanced features and are the cheapest Nseries phones -N8x - 8 series are the camera phones (except N90 and N93) -N9x - 9 series are the high end part of the Nseries
Wishmaker
"Playing games, taking pictures, filming, HDMI and listening to music? These are the only things that the N8 does right. If by your definition, the phone is defined by these major features then you are not doing this board justice"
Unfortunately that is what turns out to be the focus of N8 as per the branding. 
I know what i bought, and I have no complain, If some one don't know what he bought and complain (Like my grinder doesn't play video) it is totally insane.
I'm sorry if I sounded harsh, but that is the truth. otherwise there are no point in branding, Numbering and so on. Nokia can also have a one ultimate product, a superpower almighty and Keep on investing only in that. That is not the goal, You can find a device that is suitable for you in Nokia's product line, if you don't like it, you have other options. 
Finally I give Damian Dinning (if you don't know, he is one of the man behind the superb camera of N8) words here
"What may not be right for you doesn't mean it's rubbish. That would be like me saying that a 2-seater sports car is useless and therefore rubbish because I can't get four people in it. What was the manufacturer thinking of!? Probably that there are some people who that's all they want. For me (as much as I would like a sports car) it's simply not practical (due to two young children), but I don't go around telling others it’s bad. It wasn’t designed with me in mind, that’s all"
".....But if you’re not one of them, that's OK. I hope in our portfolio of products there will be one which suits your needs better. ........."
".....If we still don’t have a product that fits your needs, on to point 5…  
You can find the rest here: http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/11/23/damian-d​inning-on-nokias-full-focus-cameras/
Sorry pal, I don't wanna undermine you, What you say are problems, for sure, I too Hope they will get fixed soon, I too Frustrated in times, But lets first understand these things and try to adopt them. We are frustrated because we don't understand what Nokia are aiming at, We all think that N8 is a "Flag ship" from Nokia so it should be an iPhone killer, No it is not, It is not the ultimate (N9 may sometimes, or it may also turn out to be a geek's phone - more unlikely)
It is not personal, so don't get a grudge, if you want to continue a healthy discussion ya we may, I will try to do this board justice