Nokia 808 PureView - The Phone

So as usual, I'll try and set the scene, badly, but I'll do my best !! Most 'Professional' bloggers and writers on the web have reviewed the Latest, Greatest and Last Symbian phone as a fantastic camera, with a bit of a phone attached, and that's one of the kinder views. I say most because people like Steve Litchfield from The Phones Show http://stevelitchfield.com/sshow/ and http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/ and Matthew Miller from Znet (who gave the phone a second chance after his initial 'Transatlantic' dismissal) and a little cajoling from comments on his initial review http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/ have given a more reasonable opinion of the phone as 'a phone'. They are not the only two, just people I follow and respect on Twitter and the web @stevelitchfield , @palmsolo, but the VAST majority have simply dismissed Symbian without honestly trying it or giving it a chance, if they did try to use the 808 properly, then I appologise and there educated opinions are valid, as an opinion, they are also WRONG !!!

Right onto my bias one sided opinion on the Nokia 808 and how it works, and before you get engrossed, LOL, I will not be concentrating on the camera, but actually using the phone as a phone. Firstly the 808 can in no way be described as unuseable, it's a good modern phone and people using Symbian currently would be blown away and non Symbian users , I believe , would at least, be pleasantly surprised.

I'll get the bad out of the way first with a couple of caveats (love that word, learned it on the www.) The virual QWERTY keyboard is at very best, bad, the layout is awful, it's inconsistent layout and auto correction is poor, however for me, and this is a personal thing, I can use Swype, either as a conventional keyboard or as I prefer, just sliding my finger round to create words. I'm not a great typist and Swiping quite suits me, I try to use it on any phone I have, however it won't suite everyone and is the only alternative . Web browser, a slight improvement here, still not Android,iOS or Windows Phone Standard, however it has been improved and as I recently bought an Andoid running Nexus 7 Tablet running the latest and greatest version of the OS Jelly Bean, I'd just like to say, I can watch programmes on the BBC iPlayer on the 808 Browser, and despite trying about four alternatives on Android, since the removal of Flash, I cannot do so on the Nexus ! That said, I'm not defending the Symbian browser, but you can't expect Nokia to rewrite and develop a brand new web browser for an OS that has already walking the 'Green Mile' and there are still the old stalwarts of Opera Mini and Mobile browsers for a quicker and more useable web experience, so for me, the main complaints about the phone are eleminated. Only other issue for some people is the quantity of applications available, well numerically the 'Fashionable' Operating Systems have more choice, quality however I think is subjective and personal, for me all my requirements are covered via the Nokia Store (the use of which is still quite 'pants' but gets the job done and has been improved) or Nokia Beta Labs, or my PC which has a few years of sis. Files on it which I can drag and drop onto my PureView.

Now that's the bad over for me, EVERYTHING else is great. The extra oomph provided with the faster processor on the 808 really does make it wizz along, and the extra RAM and phone memory keep it doing so. My requirements of a mobile phone are maybe limited compared to others, but they are communication, entertainment & media and all are more than saisfactory for me on the 808.

http://www.nokia.com/global/products/phone/808pureview/

Communication – Nokia don't make bad 'Phones' , calls, texting and mail are great, equal to all, better than most, mail in the past has been an issue, but with the latest exchange mail on Belle it's as good as any, and before all the Googlites cry me down, after recent issues with Hotmail, all my PIM info is on Google and my contacts Calendars and mail are syncing great over my handsets and my new tablet.

Entertainment & Media- I'm not a big Gamer, but always have a few car racing games, golf and the obligatory Angry Birds on my phones and they are all there. Music and Video just drops on the 808 and plays (again with recent experiences on Android, I tried about four Media Players before most of my Videos would actually play) and the Music player, video player and speakers are all high quality and my NFC enabled headsets all tap and connect to the 808 without issue.As for the web, well I've already discussed it, but for social media my main obsession Twitter is covered by a couple of decent apps as well as,for me at least, the ultimate Social Media application Gravity, created and developed by JanOle from mobileways.de and there are also a couple of decent Facebook apps (which I use far less these days) best for me is Fmobi.I also use the CNN app for news along with the BBC.

Using and Customising the 808

Setting up the handset is relatively simple registering with my Nokia Account and setting up Exchange mail via Google got all my basics on and depending on how app intensive your life is, and you have enough homescreens and widgets to satisfy almost anyone, also alternative sized widgets are now available for some so you have even more flexability in your layout and as such I can just about do anything I want on my 808 without actually opening the application menu if I want to. The phone really is as smooth as my Lumia and Nexus when it conmes to sliding and swyping things around, some apps take a little longer to open, but not irritatingly so and even the awful and hated Nokia Social app is now actually useable, I don't use it a lot, but the widget actually runs really well and updates me at a glance if something interesting is happening so I can jump into Gravity or Fmobi. The latest version of Nokia Maps is still the greatest and most fully featured mapping solution anywhere, including Windows Phone or MeeGo. All my music looks great in the music player and I've a few gig of pop videos and movies on my 32 gig micro SD card.

I have read of people having issues with 3G connectivity on the 808 due to the micro sim shorting on the metal holder, I've been lucky so far and connectivity via 3G or WiFi has been rock solid at home and at work, and I'm now running the 808 as my 'Daily Driver' (must think I'm an American tech blogger, lol) and so far so good. Only down side to this is I've had to make one of my other phones temporarily redundant !! I only have two micro sims, both self created with my sim cutter, and so had to make a hard, if temporary, decision and so removed the sim from my N9 and have kept the Lumia 800 running, and the silly reason was that my other new toy, the Nexus 7 Tablet, will tether easily with the Lumia, but try as I might, it simply won't play with the Hotspot on the N9, which has always been my first choice up until now.

So for those who are still awake, thank you for listening to my ramblings and those who already abandoned it, UP YOURS !!! If you'd have hung in there, I wouldn't have had to abuse you, and you would have seen the photographic unboxing at the end LOL ;-D

Stephen Quin

20/07/2012

Oh ! Quick post script, the Nokia 808 PureView has a REALLY good camera.