I went from a Desire to an N8 and I don't have any complaints really.

Symbian 3 is new so yes it has some gliches (I occasionally need to reboot but then again I did on the Desire with 2.2), the camera is a monster, Ovi Store may have fewer apps but the Android Market seemed to have a lot of crap on there. The N8 also feels more solid and 'business-like' in the hand, and the battery seems to last a bit longer too.

I'm not dissing Android/HTC, I really like them. But for me the N8 is damn good.

Once they've stablised the OS and brought in a portrait QWERTY keyboard I'll be pretty much satisfied with it.

Will be nice to see the new enhanced SW update in a month or so, I use SWYPE so the portrait qwerty doesn't appeal that much to me

The N8 was by far the best looking phone with the best specs (excluding processor) on the market in my opinion.

What let the N8 down was Symbian 3.

What let Symbian 3 down was:

- The lack of a portrait keyboard.
- The severely out-dated Internet browser.
- The animation delay when moving home screens.
- The fact it crashed so often.
- The lack of customisation - for example, you kept an icon pressed and nothing happened. A good phone might have given you the option to move it, rename it, delete it or look at its properties.

I think I can agree with most of that. Not sure if it is the same in every way but it looks and acts just like the N95 browser of 2006/7. The home screens thing doesn't really bother me, they've always struck me as being an after=thought. If they're there and they work (like on the Desire) I'll use them, if not then I'm not worried.

Personally, I'm waiting for the Maemo/Meego community to complete the rewrite of closed-source to open-source versions... and I'll see if Nokia release a new research phone - as my mobile usage is closer to needing a pocket computer with a phone stack, as opposed to a phone with a browser...

Shame they got chomped...

Can't agree at all.

I've regularly used a portrait qwerty on a 3.5" screen. Its horrendous. Either on Android or on the N8 in Opera, portrait qwerty on a smalls creen isn't that great.

Use opera. Not outdated.

Animation delay. Just press the middle bottom button. Its instant.

Mine has only crashed after I installed some highly ill advised 3rd party modifications. Take them off and its been absolutely perfect.

Lack of customisation - that shows your lack of knowledge. you have to switch to organise mode and then you can move around/remove the apps.

i'm not sure that i agree with much of that.

- best specs (excluding processor)
It has great hardware graphics and is pretty efficient at using the cpu compared to say droid phones

- The lack of a portrait keyboard.
Portrait qwerty keypads are, to me, pointless. And i don't trust any man who has fingers small enough to use one.

- The severely out-dated Internet browser.
HTML 5, built in flash, it browses just perfectly, i don't know what else you want it to do.

- The animation delay when moving home screens.
Apart from the first time you use it, after booting up, it's instant. but if you don't like it turn it off. this is just garnish.

- The fact it crashed so often.
nope. S^1 did. S^3 is as solid as any other mobile OS

- The lack of customisation - for example, you kept an icon pressed and nothing happened. A good phone might have given you the option to move it, rename it, delete it or look at its properties.
Well that's not really a lack of customisation. it's just that you don't like the way you interact with it. FYI you switch it to edit mode, and then a long press will bring up an options menu with the things you indicate. But to suggest this is one of the things that let the N8 down, i think is nonsense.

Echoing most of the comments here, excellent spec, Xenon flash, etc.

But what done it for me was the look and feel of the phone. It just could not compete with the likes of the iPhone 3/4, Desire HD, samsung, etc

I was actuall going to buy this phone, as I was looking for a good camera with a Xenon flash

I'm surprised you say that - I found the feel of the handset to be a lot more business-like than the 'cartoony' Desire. Again don't get me wrong, I like the Desire a lot but I found the N8 looks and feels more professional.

You were looking for a good camera with a decent flash, so you basically ignored your own primary criteria?

But for me (and for colleagues here), the N8 does look and feel easily as good as, if not better than virtually all the competition.

I still feel that the Desire HD feels a little fisher price in comparison.

I find the whole Desire range is like that - a bit 'cartoon-esque', almost as if it was styled to appeal to 10-12 year olds. Performance-wise it's one of the best but the design was a bit off-putting for me.

I don't know if it's because of my age (mid 30s) but I like a phone to look business-like and the N8 fits the bill.

On another note what do people think of the FM transmitter? I found it to be a bit gimmicky - it's useful I suppose but the sound quality when you hear it through your radio isn't the best. I tried it in my car with the phone being about 1 foot away from the antenna but I had to turn the volume up quite a bit past the normal level. It's a handy feature I suppose but only if you have no other way of playing music through your phone.

Well I'm the same sort of age but have to say I much prefer performance over any consideration of perceived handset 'image'. To be honest I think the N8 has a fabulous hardware specifications and would happily buy one IF it was running anything other than Symbian. I know it has its fans but I wouldn't touch it for anything. Nokia's recent embrace of Windows Phone 7 says it all.

Performance is a given - but I like a handset to look 'right' and the N8 does. I've had no real issues with this version of Symbian at all. Unless you've tried it I think you're being unfair on it.

I thought the N8 has the full Opera Mobile available?
It's ahead of its time as usual in many features.

If so the 'outdated browser' is wrong. There is choice.

It is, Opera 10.1, available in the full "mobile" variant on Symbian. Its not quite S^3 aware yet, in that it doesn't support multi touch or the revised connectivity - both of those are probably coming very soon.

Nokias 'embracing' of WP7 is purely down to management stupidity. Ovi is already more profitable than the Android marketplace, the planned changes to the S^3 interface will easily bring it on par with Android/iOS.

A switch to WP7 (which is definitely an interesting interface) will mean current S^3 users will effectively be downgrading some of the connectivity options that they currently enjoy.

Maybe but that doesn't mean it's good or right for everyone. I have trouble reading the fonts in Opera and some pages render better with the Nokia browser.

OK I've had the N8 about 3 weeks and I've finally given in - I'm getting rid of it and going back to a Desire.

The camera (still and recording) is the best you'll find, no doubt about that. But the whole interface is annoying the crap out of me. What would usually take one or two button presses to do on the HTC takes about 4 or 5 on the N8. In portrait mode some of the buttons are too close together so when you test you get all kinds of errors and for some reason it doesn't remember all the words you add to the dictionary.

The browser on the Desire feels and acts like a desktop browser but the one on the N8 is not that different from what we had on the N95.

In fact on the whole Nokia still seem to be in 2006 with their technology and layout. OK like I said the camera beats every other phone out there but the operating systems seems like it's barely changed.

The Ovi store has a fraction of the useful stuff Android has. On my Desire I had things like BBC Football apps, on Ovi you get the same sort of thing - except it's not an app at all, it's just a link to the webpage.

I may be taking a step backwards regarding the camera but overall functionality is more important. Unless Nokia radically overhaul the way their OS (and maybe Windows will do that) they will fall WAY behind the rest. They need to remember the world has moved on since 2011.

I'm surprised you lasted 3 weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1BKJQa2suo

Bloody hell!!

Think i would have binned that phone after 3 days let alone 3 weeks!

The N8 just looks on the front like a £20 job. The back looks ok though. Software looks very clunky and absolutely awful to use. Cramped screen and that awful nokia font. Hell of a lot of lag as well when choosing things to do on it.

That's just it - the N8 is just too frustrating. It could have been so much more but it's like Nokia seem to think we're still obsessed with the N95 and gave us that phone on touchsreen format.

The front is clean and simple. The back is purely designed around the camera.

I've never felt that the screen is cramped, and there's virtually zero lag in any normal operations. The only "lag" is on the home screen swipes, but apparently thats just the way it was originally designed.

Been using the N8 since November, and its been absolutely perfect. Good call quality, some very good apps, camera that is (as has been said) the best on any mobile, reasonable battery life, and music sound quality that easily beats every other mobile device I've owned (which does include an iPod Touch).

The front looks like the awful design of the LG Pop.

I cant see how lag is meant to be there lol But since i made that post i had the misfortune to use one in phones4u while i was picking up a case for my DHD and how anyone can use that phone is beyond me. Sorry but its truly awful.The lag is present while opening apps and web browing is hellishly slow. The camera is good but to be honest that's about it.

Anyway, each to their own

Aye, each to their own, I happen to believe that the N8 design is up there with some of the best mobile designs - basically for me it ties with the iPhone 4 for being a clean, simple and elegant shape.

The browser is slow, I'll agree with that, but 99% of apps startup pretty damn quick, menu transitions are only delayed by the effects (which I've got switched off).

The one area where it is incredibly slow is installation of apps.

I was using a colleagues HTC Desire (not the HD), and found that to be irritatingly slow, and had very definite lag on it the type of which I've never seen on the N8. Dragging down the notifications window was horrible!

Did he also show you how easy to use the Desire mail client is compared to the awful one on the n8?