In-depth analysis of Nokia’s Next Big Bet – Nokia N8 (Camera and Symbain^3)

Yesterday, Nokia unveiled their new flagship device, the Nokia N8 featuring 12MP camera module on-board capable of recording 720p HD video at 25 frames per second, the latest handset from the Finnish company has set eyes on becoming the new imaging champ in the mobile phone world. Then, this is a smartphone based on Symbain^3 with all the possible connectivity options covered, also add a dedicated graphics chip coupled with 600MHz CPU. 

Below are few of its key specifications.

• Frequencies: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 2100 /1900
• Dimensions: 113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm, 135g
• Screen: 3.5″ AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch
• Memory: 16 GB internal, 256 MB RAM, support for microSD
• Connectivity: HSPA 7.2/5.76 Mbps, WiFi b/g/n
• Camera: 12 MP with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash
• Video: 720p@30fps CPU: 600 MHz

It has all the things that are needed to wow consumers, here today we are going to analyze it from aspect of Imaging and Software – the much misunderstood Symbain^3.

Imaging – Nokia N8 features 12 Mega pixel camera module with 720p HD video recording is nothing to shout off as there are other phones featuring similar capabilities from Sony Ericsson and Samsung.

N8′s camera capabilities are not revolutionary but they are surely evolutionary. Nokia, yesterday in its press release stated the use of large sensor without giving any crunching number, but folks at gsmarena.com calculated the exact offering.

the quoted focal length of the lens, 5.4mm – as printed on the device itself. We also know the effective focal length, 28mm – as flaunted in the marketing materials. So let’s divide the effective focal length over the quoted one and we get something along 5.185. Then it’s easy to look up that number in Wikipedia’s Image sensor format article. So, it turns out that the Nokia N8 camera sensor stretches over roughly 1/1.9, which is an impressive number on its own. Even if Nokia N8 was a dedicated digital camera, its sensor would still be considered large.

Nokia N86 featured 28mm wide large sensor optics and was considered as a big reason coupled with dual LED flash to capture very good photographs in low lighting conditions. Thus, addition of  a larger sensor should provide more ability to capture vivid detail in low lighting shots as claimed by Nokia, addition of xenon adds more power to the package but Xenon flash is definitely not very good for objects lying near, as they over saturate them with too much light. There is no perfect solution to it but a camera featuring dual type of flash, both LED and Xenon would have definitely helped. Sony Ericsson K850 was the first handset to feature this type of solution.

Nokia in its blog published few of it’s new refinements. The first one, they named was more rendering of natural colors in photos. They say “Unlike some competitors, the Nokia N8 doesn’t produce over-sharpened or “digital looking” images”. Well, to be frank with the above statement, earlier Nokia’s high end phones such as Nokia N95 were always producing over-sharpened or high color saturated photographs as compared to Sony Ericsson offerings to give a more vivid look to them. Nokia says they have improved red-eye correction feature which they firstly introduced with N86, decreased time to detect faces or say improved face-detection feature, reduced time for auto-focus by 50 percent which equates to half a second.

The latency in the shutter release has also been improved and is now running at about 150 milliseconds which is even better than few dedicated digital cameras. Nokia N8 also houses a 30 per cent smaller Xenon flash, than previously seen on a Nokia device, yet sports roughly the same power.

Nokia releases first untouched 720p video sample taken using a pre-production model.

Nokia N8 first HD video sample from Nokia Conversations on Vimeo.

Operating System – I don’t like the way Symbian foundation upgrades its operating system forcing developers to code differently way too often, also making older applications of no use.  This was the scene when they introduced signing certificate procedure with Symbian s60 v3, thousands of software available for Symbian s60 v2 became obsolete on s60 v3 . Earlier, they were seriously looking to code Maemo to next level, but now everything starts again after they struck partnership with Intel.

Apple updates its iPhone OS in a much better way than what Nokia does. Look at Android, it is evolving with every os update and taking functionalities to the next level of experience for users. Symbain^3 brings nothing new as far as visual experience for users is concerned except for few things. They are coding this platform again from ground level and every operating system evolves with updates along with passing time. Symbain^3 too will evolve but in the meanwhile it doesn’t bring anything revolutionary but Symbain^3 is laying the groundwork excellently, which very few are taking notice.

There may be many criticism while comparing it to other operating system offered by competitors but lets have a close look at it. It is no secret that Nokia now takes software development more seriously than ever and for the last two years, it introduced services such as ovi mail which were not much of a  success and also engaged with developers through conferences but still it was unable to match up with number of softwares provided by iPhone OS.
Symbain^3 is based on QT framework. Qt is a cross-platform application framework that allows applications to be written in C++ and deploy them across a range of devices. C++ applications written using Qt show the same performance as native application and are portable across major mobile platforms, they can also be ported to desktops after recompilation but we aren’t concerned about that. QT apps can be run on

Symbian platform and earlier S60 devices
Maemo/MeeGo and embedded Linux
Windows Mobile

It makes relatively easy for developer to code a software in QT framework and make it available across all major platforms and it may also help Nokia gather more applications for its ovi store. QT framework is still not fully compatible with Symbian as not every module is supported, but things are being worked out and will be updated in future releases. Below is a video showcasing an application run across various mobile phones using different operating system.

For Users – There are definitely few things that users will see for the first time in Symbian, though they are already present in Android and iPhone os such as single tap to open applications instead of double tap, multi-touch gesture support, new home screens providing more flexibility. Symbain^3 also integrates Music store with the Radio application, allowing users to buy a song while listening to that song on Radio.

Symbain^3 utilizes a new graphic architecture which utilizes the power of hardware to ensure that devices feel snappy and responsive. Nokia N8 utilizes a special chip for graphics and thus it should feel snappy but it can’t be said for all devices.  Symbian^3 brings support for HDMI v1.3a and above plus HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).

Nokia says Symbian^3 architecture is future proof and will be able utilize 4G more efficiently with core technologies already forming the base. Symbain^3 has all the necessary framework laid but it now remains to be seen, the way it is driven by Nokia.

HOW TO OPEN NOKIA N8 CAMERA MODULE