Why is the image quality poor on Nokia N8. Solving problems with YouTube Symbian. What phone features do you use frequently?

The day before, HMD Global released an updated camera application for the Nokia 8 smartphone. This update was highly anticipated by many G8 owners. I was one of them. And although I can’t call the Nokia 8 camera downright bad or downright good, I was at least interested. What will they offer us? And now the long-awaited update has come out.

https://twitter.com/serenitatis/status/1002145544448495616

Before this, the “chamber” problem was solved in different ways. For example, using camera ports from Google Pixel. It's really not bad, but you can't use it fully due to the extremely poor quality of sound recording in videos. As a result, I personally began to use only my original camera, even with a slight loss in quality. But enough of the lyrics, let’s take a closer look at the updated application.

Its interface largely uses developments from the application in Lumia smartphones. It's about about the so-called “Pro” mode, which gives significant freedom in terms of manual settings shooting. You can adjust white balance, focus, ISO, shutter speed, and control exposure compensation. This allows you, if you have direct hands, to gain full control over photography and squeeze all the juice out of the Nokia 8 cameras. However, he remained auto mode. By the way, in addition to the Bothie mode, it now has the ability to take pictures in picture-in-picture mode. Naturally, there are other modes like blur or panorama. For those who cannot live without selfies, the “Retouch” mode has also been retained, which improves selfies by adding gloss and shine to the subject of the photo.

I did a little research on the reviews about the new application, and of course I also tested the update myself. Here are some reviews from the 4PDA forum.

In general, users are satisfied, this is confirmed by my tests. The picture clearly became more vibrant and less noisy in low light conditions. I liked the work of the HDR mode; it seemed to me that the final result was softer. However, there are also some unpleasant moments. For example, you can activate professional mode only in portrait orientation. The activation gesture occurs in the album, but for some reason it does not work. Another reason why photos are not saved in picture-in-picture mode. I also sometimes have errors when activating front camera, and judging by the reviews, I’m not the only one and they appeared on the May firmware on the old application.

• Use the cameras' Both mode instead of Color mode to capture low-light images in Photo mode.
• In Pro mode, you can play with the shutter speed to freeze motion by setting it high (1/500 or so).
• Set your shutter speed low to collect more light, although you'll then want to minimize the movement of your smartphone (by placing it on a tripod, for example).
• Using low ISO helps reduce noise, but then you need to set the shutter speed higher.
• By long pressing the shutter button you can take a series of pictures.

Overall I'm pleased with the update. Despite some problems, a lot of work has clearly been done to improve the quality of shooting and the application interface. Of course, this should have been done from the very beginning, but what can you do? Better late than never. And finally, a few examples of shooting, which can be found below in the album on Yandex.Disk.

Today I will tell you about a very interesting program CameraPro N8. As the name already suggests, it is aimed at working with the camera of the Nokia N8 camera phone. In theory, it can work with the entire range of Symbian devices, but CameraPro shows itself to the fullest on the Nokia N8. The 12-megapixel camera is the highlight of the Nokia N8, and to this day, there are no devices on the market that can surpass the camera capabilities of the Finnish smartphone.

There are several ways to expand the capabilities of the Nokia N8 camera. These are various patches that reduce the compression of photos, increase the number of frames in video recordings, etc. But these patches have a big disadvantage - they make changes to the system settings, and it is very difficult to predict the consequences of these interventions. For example, early version One of these patches made the macro mode inoperable. CameraPro N8 is a much more reliable option in this regard. All settings changes occur in the program itself; it does not affect system components in any way. CameraPro is much more flexible in configuration than a patch and you can apply settings without reinstalling mods, signing with certificates, etc. fiddling around. The application is available in the Ovi Store and costs 140 rubles.

I seem to have said all the lyrics, now let’s move on to the program itself. Everything written below is true for Nokia N8.

The first thing we see when we launch the program is ten buttons, five on the right and left. The right block is responsible (from top to bottom) for: setting white balance (auto, daylight, cloudy, incandescent, lamp daylight), picture settings (brightness, contrast, gamma, sharpness, exposure), ISO sensitivity (auto, 100, 200, 400, 800), choice of shooting mode and its additional settings (regular photo, video, timer photo, photo with function anti-shake, bracketing, serial photography and time-lapse photography), calling up program settings.

The left set of buttons is responsible (from top to bottom) for: flash (off, auto mode, forced mode, red-eye reduction mode), effects (no effects, negative, black and white, sepia, vivid colors, natural colors), Exposure mode (Auto, Night Scene, Back light, Center light, Sports mode and Long exposure mode), Focus mode (Auto, Macro, Normal, Hyperfocal, Endless) and more fine tuning autofocus (disabled, single, continuous).

A little to the left of the buttons described above we will see the engine responsible for zooming in and out (zoom). You can also control it using the volume control, just like in a standard camera. By the way, CameraPro has much more zoom capabilities than standard means. The quality, of course, is far from ideal, because... The zoom is software, but since it is there, it’s worth noting. Next, at the top we have something like a status line, which briefly shows the settings of the current mode, and at the bottom in the middle there is a shutter button, which duplicates it on the end of the smartphone.

The program offers a very large set of settings, and I want to focus on certain points. Let's start with the most delicious thing - the video. With CameraPro you can get full 720p HD at 30 frames per second. True, for this you will have to adjust something. So, to get our 30 frames per second you need:

1. Go to the “video” mode settings
2. Scroll to the very bottom and set the Expert mode setting to On
3. Next Options - Expert Video Settings and set everything up like this:

Preset: none
. Video type: H264; prof.=42801F
. Frame size: 1280x720
. Do not touch Custom width and custom height (leave them equal to zero)
. Set the Framerate slider to the max position (to the very right)
. Video bitrate: 14000000 (the author of the program recommends 30000000, but after that my video recording started to slow down)
. Audio type: AAC
. Audio bit rate: 128000

4. After this, click Back twice and enjoy the excellent quality of the video recording.

Separately, it is worth noting another feature of CameraPro - the ability to take macro photography in video mode. To do this, you need to enable macro mode and switch autofocus to continuous mode. The video below clearly demonstrates video shooting in macro mode (unfortunately, Sony Vegas and Youtube ruined the quality).

True, a side effect of continuous autofocus will be the noise of its operation, but it is not so loud that you would pay attention to it. In my memory, it’s a rare phone that allows you to shoot video in macro mode. In fairness, it is worth noting that standard interface The camera doesn't allow this either.

Now let's go over the photo mode. Before using CameraPro to take photos, there are a few things to note. First, in the settings you need to change the location where you save the footage from drive C (built-in system memory phone) to drive E (16 GB built-in memory). The second thing you should pay attention to is the size of the resulting frame. For widescreen shooting, set the resolution to 4000x2248. The third point is the compression ratio. The maximum value means that the resulting jpg file will be minimally compressed, but its volume will be around 12 MB. I also recommend setting up a demonstration of the footage, this makes it easier to filter out bad shots and avoid unnecessary waste of disk space. I won’t focus on obvious things like shooting with a timer; I’d rather talk about the anti-shake and bracketing modes. The first allows you to take pictures in conditions where stabilization of the captured image is necessary (for example, in low light conditions). In some cases, a very useful thing. Bracketing allows you to take three pictures with different shutter speed steps (the step is adjustable in the range from +2 to -2). This mode can be useful for shooting when you are not sure how best to shoot a frame and at what shutter speed. You can also take HDR pictures using bracketing and special software (for example, qtpfsgui).

That's probably all I wanted to tell you about CameraPro. With the help of this program, even without it, the gorgeous N8 camera becomes simply unsurpassed. And it makes the N8 not just a camera phone, but an almost complete replacement for a conventional digital camera.

Moldova, Alexander Popov's blog

Unusual capabilities of a smartphone, and replacing a computer with it! Let's watch in this video!

FULL REVIEW OF NOKIA N8. THE MOST POWERFUL SYMBIAN SMARTPHONE

Taken from the resource: http://hi-tech.mail.ru

Next up is the last part of the Nokia N8 review, definitely the most talked about and anticipated smartphone of this year. I have already tested one of the key features, the 12 MP camera of the device, and compared it with competitors. The results of the largest hi-tech resources regarding the quality of images and the capabilities of the N8 camera agreed that it could well replace a compact mid-class point-and-shoot camera. At least comparisons with Nikon Coolpix S220 and Sony HX5v clearly demonstrated this. You can also check out the video review of the N8, where we showed the camera interface, some games, and the built-in client social networks and much more.

Now let's talk about the design of the device, the main capabilities new version OS, Symbian^3? I'll repeat it a bit. key features smartphone. This is a capacitive AMOLED screen with glass protection and multi-touch, a hardware 3D accelerator, the ability to shoot HD video with stereo sound, and so on. What went wrong with last year's flagship N97 is fixed here. N8 was brought up to the level of the flagships of other hardware companies, plus they added good camera(12 MP with xenon), chips USB type OTG (connecting a flash drive and even hard drive to the phone), viewing unconverted video (mkv, avi in ​​720p play without problems), HDMI connector, Dolby Mobile 5.1 sound, 16 GB of internal memory + card slot, metal case made of anodized aluminum with one of five color options. The starting price is less than 20 thousand rubles.

With such pricing policy and characteristics, appearance Nokia N8 removes from the market delayed, comparably priced Android smartphones such as Motorola XT720, SE X10, HTC Legend, and also casts doubt on at least some success of a number of upcoming multimedia devices, in particular, the replacement of the first bada smartphone from Samsung, the Wave model II. You can make various arguments that the Android OS is somehow better, or the screen resolution is higher, but based on the totality of the characteristics of the N8, it is now out of reach, it is difficult not to admit it. Camera, memory, video processing, free navigation, and so on and so forth. I have no doubt at all that this device will become an unconditional bestseller from the first days of mass sales; in fact, the huge number of pre-orders received and contracts from European operators only confirm this. All other devices in this price segment remain in the shadows; their sales volume will drop by an order of magnitude. Here I’m talking not only about competitors’ devices, but also Nokia’s own models. Against the backdrop of the perfectly balanced N8, the Nokia C7, which will cost comparable but is functionally weaker, makes no sense. Also, the previous flagship N97 mini will disappear from sale in the near future, and the regular N97 is already disappearing. For the coming months, N8 will take the place of the best multimedia smartphone not only in the Nokia line, but also in the market as a whole.

Nokia N8 Specifications:

· Networks: GSM / GPRS / EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS / HSDPA 900/1900/2100

· Display: AMOLED 3.5”, touch, capacitive with multi-touch, 640x360 pixels, 16M colors

· Camera: 12 MP, autofocus, Carl Zeiss optics, video 1280x720, 25 fps, xenon flash

Memory: 16 GB built-in, micro-SD memory card support

· Communications: Bluetooth 3.0, USB 2.1, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, TV-Out (HDMI)

· Built-in GPS module, free Ovi Maps navigation

USB on the go

· 3.5 mm headset jack, Dolby Mobile

Battery: BL-4D, 1200 mAh

· Talk time - up to 12 hours

· Standby time - up to 400 hours

· Operating time in player mode - up to 50 hours

Size: 113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm

Weight: 135 g

· Price: 19,990 rubles

· Beginning of October 2010

DESIGN, CONVENIENCE

I am pleased with the new design concept - beveled corners, minimalist design, noticeable metal texture. N8 is the first smartphone in this style; later similar variants will appear, first of all, E7. If earlier the same design could be found within one line (for example, N78-N81-N86, or E51-E66-E71), now the naming system has changed and devices belong to lines only according to their characteristics. Hence, there are similar devices in different series; they are united by the time of release.

Regardless, the N8 is a nice step up from the previous plastic Nseries, excluding the most recent model (N97 mini). The device is metal, made of aluminum sheet, only on the top and bottom there are small plastic inserts that match the body. There will be 5 colors in total - black, silver, blue, green and orange. Diversity color solutions- a new trend for Nokia, most devices come in bright colors, and I honestly like this trend - the standard black, white and silver options are pretty boring. Besides, diversity is always a plus, not a minus.

The build quality is excellent, with no gaps between the metal and plastic as seen on some other devices. The one-piece body is also a plus in terms of build quality. The problem (or rather, a related feature) is non-removable battery. The Nokia N8 reboots by holding down the power key for 8 seconds in case of freezing, but no such problems arose during use. When dropped, the plastic ends can be damaged; I saw an N8 where cracks appeared, but this was solely due to a fall from a great height. If used carefully there will be no problems.

Compare with Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and Tag Heuer Meridiist GMT:

The slot for the memory card and SIM, respectively, are external, covered with plugs, they can be changed on the fly, but a reboot is required to search for a network. Right there, on the left side, there is a micro-USB connector with a small LED. Below is another slot for charger(2 mm), compatible with older chargers. On the right side there are volume buttons and a camera start/shoot key, plus a very convenient lock slider. At the top end there is a standard 3.5 mm jack, a power button and a mini-HDMI under a flap. The location of the connectors is quite convenient, there are no complaints, except that the plugs for the memory card and SIM are quite hard.

There is a single button on the front surface, which is responsible for calling up the menu and switching between applications. Receiving/hanging up calls is virtual, which is not very convenient - for example, you can no longer disconnect a GPRS connection by holding the end call button.

What else I want to note is the very good quality of the surface coating. I noticed a video online where a smartphone is scratched with an iron coin, after which there are no marks left on it. During the operation of several prototypes, plus a commercial sample, no scratches appeared on the surface.

The screen is large, 3.5 inches, 43x77 mm, has an aspect ratio of 16:9. That is, the same size as the N97, but made using AMOLED technology, capacitive type, glass protection, and so on. That is, completely modern characteristics. Resolution is 640x360 pixels, qHD; compared to WVGA screens, the picture is not as smooth, but you shouldn’t find fault with this resolution - pixelation is not noticeable in any case; for 3.5 inches this resolution looks good.

Color reproduction is excellent, as are the viewing angles thanks to the use of an AMOLED matrix. This is not Samsung's Super AMOLED in the Galaxy S model, which has higher brightness and higher resolution, but the difference in perception is minimal, even if you compare these screens head-to-head. Well, when you buy it in a store, the Nokia N8 screen will seem perfect to you, or close to it. Indeed, this time the company managed to make an excellent product in terms of screen, after a couple of years of lost leadership in technology. The behavior in the sun is also excellent, the information is completely visible, there is a reflective transreflective layer.

Comparison of screens in Samsung Galaxy Everyone has already seen S, I’ll give you a comparison with Sony Ericsson Satio (same resolution, size, but TFT technology). The advantage of N8 is obvious: colors are more natural, there are no overexposures in light areas.

There is a light sensor that adjusts the intensity of the screen backlight, as well as a proximity sensor. When you approach your face during a call, the screen is blocked; the description of this feature is standard and is used in many touch solutions. But you cannot force the maximum brightness; the phone will adjust the brightness depending on the lighting conditions, this is done to save more energy.

Nokia N8 has the largest list of hardware specifications among top camera phones to date. 12 MP resolution, Carl Zeiss optics, increased matrix size (1/1.83”), 28 mm wide-angle lens, xenon flash, mechanical shutter, HD video with stereo sound (two microphone system), extremely high speed. We checked the quality of shooting using many examples, compared with competitors, you can read all the conclusions about the camera in a separate material:

Review of Nokia N8 camera capabilities and comparison with Nikon Coolpix S220, SE Satio

BATTERY

Nokia N8 is equipped with a BL-4D battery (capacity 1200 mA*h), this is a standard in the current line - exactly the same batteries in Nokia E7, C7, E5, as well as N97 mini. In some modes, the device shows record results: 45 hours of MP3 playback, more than 6 hours of video playback, 4 hours of games, 6 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 5 hours of GPS navigation.

That is, the difference with the previous type of battery (1500 mA*h) is compensated by another optimization of energy consumption. And we have to admit that Nokia is one of the best in this area, at least switching to N8 after a long time of using an Android smartphone brings only positive emotions in terms of advantages in operating time.

For most users, we get two days of stable operation, this is provided that widgets are active, listening to music for two to three hours a day, using the camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, and so on. Not a bad result for such a functional device, sufficient for many. If some activities are reduced, the work time may be 3 days.

COMMUNICATIONS

Traditionally there is a built-in Wi-Fi module, only 802.11 n was added to standards b and g. There is also a WLAN Wizard, a simple assistant for setting up a connection. There are quite a few options; if there is any network, it is proposed to create a connection, define a default access point, and there is network filtering. Security standards - WEP, WPA, WPA 2. The settings also indicate the scanning time for the presence of WLAN networks.

The USB standard is 2.0, Full Speed ​​(data transfer speed is about 4 Mb/s), so the smartphone in this parameter is quite comparable with other Symbian devices, N97 in particular. There is support for Mass Storage mode, you can choose in what capacity to use the device - disk drive, PC Suite, Image Print, Media Player. Both the memory card and the built-in 16 GB flash memory are visible as a removable disk. As I already said, for the first time for phones there is a USB function from the go, that is, the ability to connect a regular flash drive. Some people will obviously like this option, at least other manufacturers have no analogues. I note that you can connect not only a flash drive, but also hard disks, the only limitation is that it is required FAT format 32, although most likely NTFS support will be added in future firmware.

Bluetooth version, according to specifications, is 3.0 + EDR, all major profiles are supported. Nokia N8 becomes the second device after Samsung S8500 Wave with this version of Bluetooth. The most important thing is that the data transfer speed is much higher, but the receiving device must also have this technology. There are only a couple of such phones on the market.

One of the main features of the Nokia N8 is its video capabilities, in particular, a mini-HDMI output and video transmission to a TV screen, and even a regular (!) cinema screen. Yes, this is not an exaggeration at all; a demonstration of this process can be easily found on the Internet. This does not require any settings, the HDMI cable is included in the kit, all you have to do is connect the device to the TV and start the movie (or photos, any video, games - your choice). When playing video, the Dolby mobile 5.1 setting works - as the name implies, this is 5.1 channel sound. Naturally, the effect is audible if there is an appropriate system. Great feature, I tell you.

You can watch movies from a flash drive or hard drive; they don’t even have to be stored in the N8’s memory. In general, this is the first time such a device has appeared that combines such capabilities. Illiterate observers may argue that before the N8 there were devices on the market with an HDMI connector (for example, Motorola XT720, Acer Stream), but can they still do the same in terms of video playback? No, they don’t, and this is a fact that is difficult to argue with.

The final feature is a built-in FM transmitter that can broadcast audio to a compatible system, such as in a car.

HARDWARE PLATFORM

I would like to draw a little attention to the hardware platform. What was used in the Nokia N97 could not cope with many tasks, the speed of operations was unsatisfactory. As I said, N97 is the first Single CPU smartphone in the N9x line, without a hardware graphics accelerator. The Nokia N8 uses a different processor, which is quite adequate for most tasks. This is ARM 11, 680 MHz, and when it comes to graphics acceleration thanks to the Broadcom N8 co-processor, it is in the lead, ahead of many modern flagships. Scrolling and redrawing are performed at a speed of 60 fps, 4 times faster than in the same N97 and all other Symbian^3 smartphones.

The amount of RAM is 256 MB, the memory allocated for launching the application (Heap size) and the size of the executable Java application (Jar size) are unlimited. The volume of built-in memory is 512 MB, of which about 360 MB is available to the user, plus there is a 16 GB flash array and support for micro-SDHC memory cards (up to 32 GB). Quite a sufficient amount of memory in current realities. Not the maximum, but compared to the meager 2 GB of internal memory in the Samsung S8500 Wave and the lack of flash storage as such in Android smartphones HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola is a big plus.

There is an accelerometer for automatically rotating the interface depending on the position of the smartphone, silencing calls, everything here is similar to the N97 and other models. But, unlike its predecessors, the reversal occurs without delay, the interface is redrawn smoothly.

A GPS module, accordingly, is also available, Ovi Maps version is 3.04 (in the future - 3.06 with multi-touch support when scaling maps), free voice navigation is also available. Actually, maps in Nokia smartphones and free voice navigation are a good bonus; other manufacturers do not have this (I don’t consider online Google Maps with navigation for some countries here, although they have their advantages). We have repeatedly talked about the capabilities of Ovi Maps and navigation in detail; there is no point in repeating ourselves, so I will give screenshots of the new version from Nokia N8.

A few impressions: this version of Maps works much more stable and faster than in N97, where speed was the biggest problem. As a result, the N8 is quite good as a navigation smartphone. The only thing that upsets us is the detail of the maps and the lack of house numbers (this, however, is true for Russia, but in Europe the situation is different). The traffic jam service is already operating in 22 countries around the world, Russia is still next in line, but next year, I think, the service will be launched here too. In a word, given the free navigation, this is an excellent addition to the functionality Nokia smartphones, especially useful in other countries where online services like Google Maps are simply useless due to roaming tariffs.

SOFTWARE ORGANIZATION

The key differences from a user point of view are that Symbian^3 uses a single-click system, scrolling speed has increased 4 times, and the task manager has been changed? Many applications have been redrawn, but in total there are more than 250 changes. Not all, of course, will be noticeable to users; many relate to the organization of the work of individual applications, so we will look at the most important ones.

For me, Symbian^3, after the first acquaintance with it, turned out to be a suitable OS for most tasks. This is far from the S50 5th Edition in N97. The speed has increased significantly, smooth kinetic scrolling in all menus without delays, a single touch of the screen to select one item or another (the double-click system did not suit many), many applications have been redrawn, primarily multimedia ones, 2 additional desktops have been added where you can place widgets. Also important to me is the bonus in the form of free full-fledged navigation and offline Ovi maps stored in the phone’s memory, a very good calling service (Android is extremely inconvenient in this regard). But a little more about everything.

There are three desktops in N8, this is the first difference from Symbian^1. Some people think that three is too few, but I don’t think anyone uses 10 desktops in the same Samsung Wave. Two desktops were enough for me to place the necessary icons and widgets; I disabled the third. The number of widgets that can be placed is fixed, as is the size of each. These are five rectangular windows, in vertical or horizontal mode, which are arranged in the correct order. The windows do not overlap each other, the desktop looks neat, but the small number of simultaneously accessible widgets on the screen and their small size are a drawback. This becomes especially noticeable when working with a social network widget; only one message can fit on the screen. Widgets can be either online (automatically update information) or offline if you do not want data transfer always on.

In addition to widgets, there are traditional icon panels quick access and favorite contacts, they can be placed on the screen along with mini-applications. There can be 8 quick access icons (two panels of four shortcuts each), two contact panels.

The main menu has not changed, I don’t really like the icons, they are too similar to the first representative of touch smartphones, 5800 XpressMusic. True, due to the bright AMOLED screen, the icons on the N8 look much nicer, but they do not reach the level of rendering in the iPhone. As usual, you can change the order of items, create folders, change the font size. Good level of customization overall.

I liked that the horizontal mode was redesigned; virtual soft buttons are now located at the bottom, and do not occupy a significant part of the screen on the right, as was the case in Symbian^1.

The application manager has changed. It has become less convenient (only one mini-window of the program can be placed on the screen at a time), but more informative and beautiful. It is still called by long-pressing the menu key.

Entering text. The virtual keyboard has not changed much since the days of Symbian^1, and accordingly, the ease of input is at an average level. There is no QWERTY layout in a vertical screen orientation, there is no separate button for switching the input language (this is done in three clicks), there are no punctuation marks on the main keyboard, only a period. In general, the HTC keyboard is far from ideal in terms of typing.

Browser. The browser is based on the same Konqueror project, it supports HTML 4.01 ( full-time job with tables, frames, forms), JavaScript 1.5, CSS 1 and 2, RSS, flash content. Browser localization includes support for 46 different languages, however not all languages ​​are supported on every phone. As in firmware, there is the concept of a “language pack” - a set of supported languages ​​depending on the region where the phone is sold. Russian language is fully supported (KOI-8R, Windows-1251, UTF-8). But everything that was good a few years ago now looks outdated, the browser interface is the main drawback of current smartphones with Symbian^3.

No normal operation with several windows, pop-up submenus, the bookmarking service is archaic and inconvenient. In a word, the browser is bad. The only good thing is that it supports multi-touch and fully understands flash content; objects load quickly and there are no problems.

Social media. There is (finally!) its own pre-installed client for the social networks twitter and facebook, with its own widget. The client looks beautiful, but in the first version it has a number of shortcomings, such as a small number of loaded messages and the absence of any settings. However, there are practically no functional clients other than Gravity, so this pre-installed and free option will suit many. I would like to wish it further refinement, since the design is already quite good, only additional functions are missing.

Active Notes. Notes in the usual sense of the word were only text documents, the options for working with them were printing and sending, now with the Active Notes application, in addition to text, it is possible to insert any objects - images, sound, video files, contact business cards, other files, the type of the resulting file is XHTML. Such an extended note can be opened using an Internet browser, and also sent via SMS (in this case, only the text of the note is sent), MMS, Bluetooth and infrared. A note can be associated with a contact or a group of contacts, and in the application settings menu there is an item to display a note during a call.

Office. QuickOffice application for viewing files Microsoft Office: Word(*.doc), Excel (*.xls), PowerPoint(*.ptt). You can view files from various Office versions(97, 2000, 2003), however, the availability of document editing options is reserved for Nokia Eseries business devices, so for editing on the N8 you will have to install the full (paid) version of QuickOffice.

OviStore. The version of the Ovi application store in Nokia N8 is updated, it is much more convenient than the previous one in the same N97. This applies not only to the speed of work, but also to the general organization, sorting and search of applications. Quite a good client, although there are, of course, ways for improvement. I’m glad that there is operator billing; you don’t have to pay for applications only with a credit card, as in Android. The prices for programs are not encouraging, so I hope that with the advent of more programs, their prices will change, because now the competition is not so high.

Among others pre-installed applications you can note the YouTube client, Adobe PDF(to view the corresponding files), ZIP archiver, dictionary with downloadable databases, photo and video editor, search by device, as well as on the Internet (version 5.00, very useful application), Here and Now (an application for displaying nearby restaurants, cinemas, weather, using GPS and cellular network data).

In addition, Skype (official client) works in Symbian^3, there are already more than 20 games that use a 3D accelerator, they provide quite good gameplay, comparable to the same iPhone (I'm talking about the famous Angry Birds, NFS Shift, Galaxy on Fire, Wave blazer and a number of others). I am glad that such high-quality applications are appearing for Symbian, and with the release of other smartphones on this version of the OS we will get even more of them.

As a result, Symbian^3 is not a revolution, but a completely adequate continuation of Symbian^1. However, no one expected a revolution; we see consistent improvements to the familiar interface, control logic, and so on. Continuity is important because getting used to fundamentally new system It won’t work quickly, plus some loyal users will not accept radical changes. But there are some points that have remained virtually unchanged compared to previous version platforms, for example, browser, widgets, keyboard, this is not very happy. As for widgets, strictly defined rectangles do not look good; in other OSes widgets can be of arbitrary size (however, this is also the case in Symbian^4). Let's see what else Symbian^4 will bring in terms of interface, but even before its release, the models on the third version seem quite interesting to me. With its own strengths and weaknesses. But there's a huge gap between what the N97 was last year and what the N8 is now.

MULTIMEDIA FEATURES

The player's user interface has changed quite a bit. This is a horizontal option for displaying album covers, and vertical album thumbnails; in general, in terms of visualization, everything has become much better. The playback window has not changed, the same large cover, virtual control buttons, the ability to turn on repeat, and adjusting the balance. The player has sorting by artists, compositions, albums, everything is familiar and familiar.

The panel with keys can be placed as a widget on the desktop, so you can switch songs right away, without going into player mode. This window also displays the name of the artist and composition, everything is extremely convenient. What is not clear is the situation with equalizers, the ability to edit settings has been removed, and there are 6 equalizers left: these are Default Preset, Bass booster, Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock.

One of the most important things about the Nokia N8 is its sound quality. Compared to the N97, it’s practically parity, that is, the device turns out to be one of the best on the market. A direct comparison with the iPhone 4 on headphones alone showed, if not an advantage of the N8, then certainly not a lag. In short, the perfect musical solution. The N8's operating time in playback mode is a record for S60-based smartphones, about 45 hours (official specifications indicate 50 hours). For comparison, the 5800 lasted about 30 hours, the iPhone 4 - about 24. The kit comes with a stereo headset with a control panel WH-701, which I have no complaints about, it’s an excellent thing.

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I have already written about the Nokia N8 more than once; you might have become familiar with the seven conclusions before. In that full review- the main details that for some reason we did not have time to talk about earlier. Standard words about the quality of communication: no problems during use, the N8 holds the network a little better than the N97 mini or iPhone 4, in an office building where there are periodic problems, the smartphone performed well. The quality of speech transmission is also not satisfactory, the speaker is loud, and the interlocutor can be heard in almost any situation. It’s good that the N8 comes with two chargers, both a regular micro-USB and a standard 2 mm Nokia charger, so the likelihood of being left without a charger is minimal.

The N8 comes with a black silicone case, I liked it, the device does not slip in my hand, and the case protects the body well. All 5 color schemes will be on sale in Russia, although for obvious reasons now most of the devices are black; this color is traditionally popular and this is what they supply in the first batches. Which color of Nokia N8 is better to choose? I like the light green version, the summer color, plus the texture of the metal is clearly visible. The orange and classic black options look great; the silver and blue ones were the least popular. However, it's up to you to decide. The included case will always be black, not to match the body.

The Nokia N8 price at the start is 19,900 rubles; some networks, due to shortages and lack of supplies, inflate the price, so you shouldn’t fall for it. Well, at this price N8 - best smartphone today in its segment. This is a fact that is difficult to argue against. And the disadvantages listed in the review, such as an archaic browser and not the most convenient virtual keyboard, do not affect this to a large extent. Yes, they spoil the impression a little, but you can put up with them, or change to third-party applications if necessary, or wait for an update.

But the flagships of other companies, sold at the same or higher prices, find themselves in an unenviable position, so we can expect a drop in price, which is a big plus for us, buyers. For the same money you can find, say, HTC Legend (Desire is more expensive), Motorola Milestone and XT720, Samsung S8500 Wave and its future successor, and other devices. In terms of the totality of characteristics, none of these devices is comparable to the N8. I'm talking first of all about the multimedia component - camera, video work, sound; memory and free navigation; case design and materials. In general, Nokia has come up with a perfectly balanced option that will remain the best offer in the line for a very long time.

The famous company Nokia, along with its revolutionary Symbian operating system, can be considered a legend of its time. But time has passed and practically nothing remains of the mighty Finnish brand.

Support for Symbian has ceased, which means that millions of owners of mobile gadgets are left captive of time…………….

How are things really going with YouTube on old gadgets and is there a chance for users to see their favorite videos on their gadgets again - we will try to answer these and other questions in the review ↓↓↓

Problems with Symbian

Error messages appear on the forms one after another about errors in the operation of the YouTube application on Symbian: ↓ ↓ ↓

• The most common message is “Connection error”;
• Applications may not launch correctly;
• Some functions do not work.

A few months ago, YouTube management explained this problem ↓

→ It is clarified that the renowned hosting application will no longer be supported on outdated devices, the list of which includes Blue-Ray set-top boxes and Apple TV (last generation).

→ Due to the API update, owners of Symbian devices will also not be able to view videos.

This is due to the fact that YouTube regularly introduces new technologies and for them to work correctly, appropriate modifications are required from the outside operating systems. As you know, no work has been done on Symbian for a long time, so users of the iconic smartphones of the previous generation should look for alternative ways to watch videos.

Errors can be seen in applications such as YouTube Downloader (connection problem).

Support for the Pocket YouTube and Downloader Pro applications on Symbian 3, etc. has also been discontinued.

Thus, you don’t have to waste time and download installation sis files of various YouTube applications, since most of them no longer work.

There is a solution - view it through a browser

Owners of mobile gadgets running Symbian have no more options but to watch their favorite videos directly in the browser window.

In this case, everything is also extremely simple: ↓ ↓ ↓

In general, this method is not so bad, because most videos work without freezing or other problems. There's only one significant drawback– image quality is lower than through YouTube app for Symbian !!!

There is another way to watch videos in good quality via an outdated gadget: ↓↓↓

• Open the video you like on YouTube through a browser;
• Add “ss” in the address bar before the YouTube name;
• We go to the online assistant service, with which you can download the video;
• Now the video can be viewed offline through the same Real Player or another application.

Note!

If the address was originally like this " http://youtube.com/watch?v=code»

Then after making changes it should take the form “ http://ssyoutube.com/watch?v=code».

Using this method, you can download almost any video in original quality and watch it at any time on your mobile gadget.

And finally, there is one more left dubious option– download the YouTube HD application on Symbian.

This method is suitable for owners of smartphones running Symbian 3.

YouTube HD – quite normal application, which is practically no different from the standard utility. With its help you can download and watch videos on YouTube.

You can download the utility from a free source - http://allnokia.ru/symbsoft/moreinfo-7344.htm

This is done like this: ↓

• place the .sis file on the smartphone;
• go through the file manager;
• install the application.

And even if the formidable management of YouTube decided to disown support for Symbian as an unwanted child, users still have enough methods in their arsenal to watch videos through old smartphones.