The first Symbian ^3 handset from Nokia

Apr 27, 2010 10:50 GMT  ·  By

Today, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia announced officially the upcoming availability of the high-end Nokia N8, the first handset from the company to run under the Symbian ^3 platform, and also the first to boast a 12-megapixel camera. According to the company, the new device is meant to offer users enhanced connectivity to other people, or to places and services, while enabling them to create compelling content and to stay in touch with friends via social networking sites.

On-demand Web TV programs and Ovi Store applications are available for the Nokia N8 too, as soon as it will land on the market in the third quarter of the ongoing year, priced at EUR 370, before applicable taxes or subsidies. Moreover, the new mobile phone includes free global Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation, which will offer users access to guidance to places in more than 70 countries all around the world.

The Nokia N8 introduces a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Xenon flash and a large sensor that rivals those found in compact digital cameras. Additionally, the Nokia N8 offers the ability to make HD-quality videos and edit them with an intuitive built-in editing suite. Doubling as a portable entertainment center, people can enjoy HD-quality video with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound by plugging into their home theatre system. The Nokia N8 enables access to Web TV services that deliver programs, news and entertainment from channels like CNN, E! Entertainment, Paramount and National Geographic. Additional local Web TV content is also available from the Ovi Store,” Nokia stated.

Nokia N8 is meant to deliver easy access to social networking sites, so that users can update status, share location and photos, or view live feeds from Facebook and Twitter via a single app, straight from their handset's homescreen. Additionally, the phone will enable users transferred calendar events from social media sites to the calendar on the device. Not to mention that the Symbian ^3 OS on the device brings forth major advances, such as support for gestures like multi touch, flick scrolling and pinch-zoom.

According to the handset vendor, “the Nokia N8 also offers multiple, personalizable homescreens which can be loaded with apps and widgets. The new 2D and 3D graphics architecture in the platform takes full advantage of the Nokia N8's hardware acceleration to deliver a faster and more responsive user interface. Symbian^3 also raises the bar in performance by delivering greater memory management allowing more applications to run in parallel for a faster multi-tasking experience.”

The Nokia N8 was integrated with Qt, so as to simplify the development of applications. The software development environment enables developers build applications and easily deploy them across various platforms, including Symbian. Application builders can download the Nokia Qt SDK to start their work with Qt. For the time being, the SDK is available in a beta version.