Nokia 8: As pure as the driven Android - it's a classy return HMD's efforts to put the Nokia brand over what we call the "Shenzhen generics" formula haven't exactly set the world on fire yet. But in all honesty, you'll struggle to find anything better for £399, the revised price of the Nokia 8. China's supply chains and market maturation have caused a great levelling in the phone …
Are you suggesting they should change their name to say, "Phone Shop"?
After all, they've not warehouses either.
Or maybe they're actually ahead of the game. Now that many cars come with slots for your SIM card, they could be the warehouse that sells you cars, which also happen to be phones.
I have a Nokia 6 too, but sometimes the screen and fingerprint sensor just don't respond properly. It's driving me crazy.
I've been through Nokia support who didn't really help very much, and I went back to Carphone Warehouse who were frankly no help at all.
I'm thinking of getting a new digitiser and trying to fix it myself, but my question is whether - as a Nokia 6 user - this affects you too or whether I just have a defective model..
"I have a Nokia 6 too, but sometimes the screen and fingerprint sensor just don't respond properly. It's driving me crazy."
A couple of times I've noticed a lack of response at the top of the screen, but it has worked perfectly after a reboot, so I assumed a transient software issue rather than a hardware problem.
I find the fingerprint sensor works best if (a) I make sure the narrow sensor learns a broad area of my fingerprint when calibrating by pressing different parts of my finger to it, and (b) I press it firmly and keep pressing until the screen visibly unlocks (which is just after the haptic vibration) - it needs a firmer and longer touch than the main screen.
>Because of what apple told you? Because of what the internet told you?
nah. I've had both iphones and BB10s and (one) Android myself.
don't like Androids much - 18 months of Nexus 5 means I went the distance. Not only did I never like the OS (the hardware's quite nice except for battery life) the phone went off even security patches after only 2 yrs of ownership. I was happy when its headphone jack died, to be honest.
At one point, when I had to replace a Z10 which I dropped in a pool (it almost worked afterwards - only the wifi died) I almost considered getting MS Lumias, though I generally dislike MS, rather than going back to $$$ iphones. But I did not reconsider Android. I bought my son a 640 Lumia, Win8, then 10.
Currently an iPhone SE (6) from Craigslist. $300 Cad, and I figure Apple will keep it patched for a while, unlike Google's Nexus/Pixel line up, which isn't that cheap anymore in any case. Keeping it on iOS 10 and off iOS 11.x until Apple gets their digits out of their rectums on 11. How well an SE 6 would run on 11 is also an open question - I expect slow-ish, but doable with most background stuff turned off.
if you want to call my dislike of Androids as straight-out Apple a**-kissing , go right ahead ;-)
Reading this review, I wish I had a better feel for Android, because it looks like a decent phone. And not $1500 CAD, like a loaded iPhone X. which is ... stupid, IMHO.
Bokeh is the effect seen on very out of focus items, particularly light sources. For cameras with mechanical shutters, the shape of this reflects the symmetry of the shutter - often hexagonal.
With software, you can change the shape of this in real time. From Android N you can use a pre-loaded range of animal silhouettes, including a gecko and a grasshopper. Hence, Live Bokeh.
" For cameras with mechanical shutters, the shape of this reflects the symmetry of the shutter - often hexagonal."
No, you're thinking of the flare from bright lights, which is usually polygonal due to the shape of the mutlibladed iris. The shutter doesn't come into it.
Bokeh is the 'pleasingness' of the out-of-focus parts of the image. The shape of the iris can affect this, as can the type of optical arrangement.
The days of the sub-£300 generic (like the 1+One) have gone down the plug'ole along with the value of the pound
Not for grey imports. Buy from a UK importer via Ebay, pay by Paypal using a credit card, and if it goes wrong you've got first recourse against the vendor; If they aren't around or won't help, you've got the Ebay and Paypal guarantees, if they won't cough up you can go to the credit card provider under Section 75. Buying from a UK vendor, you've got no import duty liability, and no long wait for delivery. The importer I bought from has been around for a while and promises they'll honour a one-year warranty, but you never know.
But, if despite all that it all goes shit shaped for me, and my lovely Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X goes titsup, and I can't get it resolved, or a refund, I've only ponied up less than £160.
you've got the Ebay and Paypal guarantees, if they won't cough up you can go to the credit card provider under Section 75.
Section 75 doesn't apply if you pay via PayPal, only if you use the credit card directly with the supplier. PayPal is an intermediary, so the usual credit card protection doesn't apply.
"I think they call "Bokeh effect" depth of field on proper cameras."
No bokeh is the quality of the out of focus areas. Some lenses have a pleasing bokeh and are therefore suited for shallow depth of field shots where you want an attractive but non-distracting background. Others, not so much. Calling a fake depth of field effect, 'bokeh' is hopelessly confused.
The number of pixels on that display is very impressive, but I wonder what the increase is in battery usage to manage all of those pixels versus a lesser resolution.
I know that more pixels equals better image quality, but given that the phone has a better resolution than my 32" HD telly, I can't help but wonder how noticeable that benefit is on something with a screen a fraction of the size of a domestic TV.
I know that more pixels equals better image quality, but given that the phone has a better resolution than my 32" HD telly, I can't help but wonder how noticeable that benefit is on something with a screen a fraction of the size of a domestic TV.
But I bet you don't tend to watch your 32" telly from 12" away.
The benefits (or drawbacks) of resolution depend on 3 things,
1) the resolution;
2) the size of the surface over which that resolution is displayed on (the diagonal screen size);
3) the distance from that surface it is being viewed from.
(of course, the quality of the manufacturing, backlight and so on also do matter, but let's assume we are talking screens of equivalent display quality)
For example, using this TV viewing distance calculator, for a 5.3" display:
1.8 Feet Maximum Viewing Distance for NTSC/PAL(720x480/720x576)
0.7 Feet Maximum Viewing Distance for HDTV(Fully resolved 1080i; 1920 x 1080)
For a 32" display:
11.2 Feet Maximum Viewing Distance for NTSC/PAL(720x480/720x576)
4.2 Feet Maximum Viewing Distance for HDTV(Fully resolved 1080i; 1920 x 1080)
So to get the full effect of 1080 resolution, you cannot view from more than 4.2 feet away a 32" screen or, if you shrink that down to a phones 5.3" screen, you can't view it from more than 0.7 feet away to get the same apparent visual clarity.
I have been after a new device for a good while, as my ageing Note 4 is now chomping through batteries at a frightening rate (new battery, phone turns off after nine hours, from a full charge, even if left mostly idle), destroying microSD cards, and still running Android 6. No device exists that ticks all my boxes (regardless of price), but this is the closest I've found. I've had it for a couple of weeks now, and the antenna placement (on the top and bottom, as opposed to the sides) makes a noticeable difference for me - in places where the voice signal would drop out, it now functions adequately (no longer lose the call), if not perfectly. There are some minor annoyances though, such as no notification LED, and no removable battery - though teardowns of the device show that it's not completely terrible to take apart, it's not something I need to worry about for a while as I had 40% battery left at the end of a day with medium to high usage.
Infuriatingly, my biggest problem with it is I can't get an answer to "what LTE bands does it support" - the Nokia "full specs" don't mention it, Nokia on Twitter are ignoring the question, as is the author of an Arstechnica article that lists the bands (I asked for a source for that information, none was forthcoming). Are the bands region limited depending where you buy it? Who knows! This is mostly of interest for when I'm in the US - I'm trying to determine if I'm better off buying a portable hotspot, or if the phone will natively work on the carriers I can roam with.
I was also looking for the supported LTE Bands as I wanted to know the difference between the two Dual SIM models they offer, I requested through Nokia Support and got this answer;
In regards to your questions about LTE band in Nokia 8, it is good to know that both phones support the same LTE Bands. Those bands are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 40, 41.
From the picture, the C seems really too close to the E.
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/ce-marking_en
Why does it matter? ElReg explained it previously:
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/13/ee_power_bar_wrong_ce_marking/
Okay, I'll get my coat and go nitpick somewhere else :)
... yes, it's a WinPhone and stuck on V8, but there's damn little I care about that won't run on it and it still stuffs everything else on battery life and signal strength. The rest of the time I use a WileyFox. North of £500 for a phone isn't happening - period.
Well, not quite. I do have an iPhone, because sometimes I need to check software on the thing, but that's a business expense. It lives in a drawer, gathering dust along with the Blackberry Curves and assorted other junk (which reminds me - it hasn't been powered on since August - it probably needs an OS update or seven).
925 remains my favourite.The 950 sat next to me now, however - I would tell it to go die in a hole somewhere, but it's already done that. Hardware is fine, the software is broken now;
*Currently restarting randomly and repeatedly
*turns off for no reason at all
*sometimes requires restart for Bluetooth to work
*camera will not autofocus under any circumstances
*APIs no longer working for Facebook or LinkedIn, meaning the people hub is now just a phone book
*Groove music switched off at the end of this month
Four months left on the payment plan, and I can't get rid of it soon enough. 20 months ago it was a great device, now I regard it with the same disdain as my works iPhone.
Funnily enough I've been thinking about the 7, as I mentioned above, to replace my 925 which is starting to show it's age.
Had a 950 which I won from Windows Central but sold it as it was a bit too big for me. The 925 is getting a bit stroppy and looks pretty bad around the edges which are scratch magnets no matter how careful you are. Mine is also running W10M rather than 8 and I've modded it to put the wireless charging coil inside as the charge cover broke and I wasn't buying another. Still a great phone, even after 4.5 years, but the battery is getting worse and I'm running in to more and more websites that won't play nicely with Edge.
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Well, I'll try the SIM thing - that might explain why after some restarts it demands the A1B2C3 thing because I've entered my password too often, even though I've not touched the phone except to yank the battery.
The main problem seems to be the screen crashing - the Bluetooth remains connected, even though the phone is totally unresponsive and requires off and on-ing again
None of those problems with my 950 either. In fact two years on it's the only phone I've ever had that I enjoy using as much now as I did when I bought it.
The only problem I have is self inflicted, the autofocus doesn't always work after I dropped it for the umpteenth time but I'm going to change the camera module, £25 fix and it should be good as new.
Does everything I need and is far more enjoyable to use than Android, don't care what anybody else thinks so don't bother...
Much of that sounds like hardware issues, possibly just one, since mine (and my better half's) 950s do not suffer these issues.
Obviously, Groove switching off is a service issue.
By FB and Li APIs, I assume you mean the clever people stuff they had with WP7/8. That was removed ages ago I thought.
The people 'hub' stills collates Phone, SMS, Skype and email communications and is streets ahead of anything else - because they are just phone books.
And Skype looking after SMSs as well keeps the messaging stuff (that I use at least) together. It would have been great if they all could have been collated, FB, Skype, WhatsApp etc.
But they weren't so I dropped FB and almost never use WhatsApp.
One pointer though, if you are bothered:
When I first got my 950, 3 years ago, I noticed it restarted if I put it down too hard or knocked it.
I discovered that slightly tensioning the contact springs on the battery fixed it.
I recalled the memory because I just put a brand new Original replacement battery in it last week and the same issue happened.
The LinkedIn API dropped off ages ago, the Facebook one during the summer. I've always found Skype to be a massive ballache on it, and nobody I know uses it anyway, so it's usually sat neglected.
Shonky hardware and abandonware OS aside, I will miss the elegance of the design - it peaked in 8.1, but even with Microsoft's best efforts in WP/WM10, the tiles flipping with actual info makes the droid and Apple efforts look prehistoric.
I have fallen out of love with the platform now though, so difficult to really find anything positive with it.
The 925 is a security vulnerability nightmare, thankfully for you, nobody cares, not even hackers.
Interesting that Microsoft get a free pass for not updating their old devices given nobody else gets that luxury... That should be a clue where the FUD is spewing from...
I very much like the look of this and would consider it for my next phone. I still have a Samsung Galaxy S5 because every high end Android phone released since I got it has decidedly underwhelmed either in value or specification, usually both, and I don't want to move to Apple (though I have seriously considered doing so on more than one occasion). I hate the messing around that the likes of Samsung do to Android and the bloatware that both manufacturers and carriers put on phones so I want to buy a phone outright (ie: not on contract) with as close a stock Android experience as possible that has decent specs and will be properly supported with updates etc. long term. Shenzen Generics are a better proposition in terms of cost and for a less bloated OS of course but I don't want a phone from a company from a country that is subject to laws that have caused the likes of WhatsApp and Skype to either pull out of, or dilute their product's privacy 'to comply with local laws'. So what the reviewer sees as negatives (no gallery app, raw 'butt ugly' Android etc), I see as positives when coupled with a much more reasonable price tag than Google's Pixel. So what if stock Android isn't as pretty if it works and is going to be supported long after a carrier or hardware manufacturer gets bored with supporting my device? £399 is a price I'd be prepared to pay to bypass my a carrier for a device that should work well and that I could keep for two or three years if I had to.
I want to buy a phone outright (ie: not on contract) with as close a stock Android experience as possible that has decent specs and will be properly supported with updates etc. long term. Shenzen Generics are a better proposition in terms of cost and for a less bloated OS of course but I don't want a phone from a company from a country that is subject to laws that have caused the likes of
You have your point, but do keep the facts intact. Shenzen Generics phone you buy (should you buy) often come in at least two versions, one for china, one for international. Where the china version is the one subject to china laws (no google) while the other isn't. However neither one of them comes with less bloated OS, just like most Android-based device. Nokia here frankly is an exception (no bloat, stock Android, stock gapps, maybe some updates?, sd card, headphone jack).
but I don't want a phone from a company from a country that is subject to laws that have caused the likes of WhatsApp and Skype to either pull out of, or dilute their product's privacy 'to comply with local laws'.
I wouldn't get to hung up on this. You already know the vast majority of phones are made in China, regardless of the badge on the front, the handful made outside of China use a lot of China sourced components (and you'd have a very restricted choice), and if doubt you think that (regardless of what they say) Western code and hardware design aren't very accommodating to their local security services.
Yet another stupidly thin, rounded rectangle complete with data mining OS. Oh for the glorious days of the Nokia Communicator. Bring back the clam shell. Bring back QWERTY. Bring back innovation.
If it keeps them alive I suppose it's a baby step in the right direction.
Oh for the glorious days of the Nokia Communicator. Bring back the clam shell. Bring back QWERTY. Bring back innovation.
I assume you are aware of the Gemini PDA, a crowdfunded revisit of the Psion 5. Should be arriving on backers doorsteps in 6 weeks or so if the producers are to be believed.
but this is a false economy: if you make phones, you need your own Gallery app to show off your imaging smarts.
Must disagree. One of the most annoying thing about Android phones is the pointless app duplication insisted on by manufacturers when Google does perfectly reasonable ones already. Out of the box on most you get two calendar apps, two music apps, two gallery apps etc etc.
This is the right way to go, IMHO.
Totally agree. After having to move from Samsung to LG (v20) because of the whole Note fiasco I suddenly realised what a bloated cow the Samsung Os was. While not quite stock the LG Os is much closer to pure Android - but still with it's own Gallery App, Email and a few others. What's the point? I never use them - I just use the chocolate box versions.
When we can configure an android device with the same preferred applications we use elsewhere and NOT be forced down googles choice because you can't remove them ... but then it would be nice if say Firefox ran on android device without crashing when one ends up on a google search page. Lets have a clean 'no-google' option out of the box.
But then I still have my N900 on the desk here even if I can't use it on the move.
"When we can configure an android device with the same preferred applications we use elsewhere and NOT be forced down googles choice because you can't remove them ... but then it would be nice if say Firefox ran on android device without crashing when one ends up on a google search page"
Yes there are a lot apps that needed google play services and some cannot finish loading up without google stuff, but Firefox isn't one. Firefox for android works without google services, and works searching with google. May I suggest you to reinstall Firefox? if not please do file a crash report.
If it wasn't for the fact that my current Huawei, nearly 3 years old, still really performs well for me, I might have considered this. Suffice to say that buying a replacement Huawei is a no-no for me because of the EMUI (aka "I want my Android to look like any phone other than an Android") interface, the only downer here (yet again) is the sodding sealed battery!
"If it wasn't for the fact that my current Huawei, nearly 3 years old, still really performs well for me, I might have considered this. Suffice to say that buying a replacement Huawei is a no-no for me because of the EMUI (aka "Hi! I'm an iPhone!") interface, the only downer here (yet again) is the sodding sealed battery!"
ftfy.
buying a replacement Huawei is a no-no for me because of the EMUI (aka "I want my Android to look like any phone other than an Android") interface,
That Apple-wannabe look is fairly common on Chinese brand phones, but hardly reason not to buy, when there's plenty of really good launchers that will give you any number of appearances. My Xioami comes with the makers MIUI skin (which is pretty good if you don't mind the look) but I use Nova Launcher instead If you don't like Nova, there's easily another twenty really good launchers to choose from.
I have one of these. I like it :)
My main niggles are that the sim card and sdcard slot are combined, there is only one speaker (as far as I can tell) and there's no notification LED.
Apart from that, it's working fine, battery lasts ages if lightly used as I do, but I would imagine could hold up for a day of medium-heavy use.
Just one homescreen?...
Ok, so there's just one homescreen before you start customisation but dragging any icon (from the main homescreen or from the app draw) to the right of any homescreen adds more homescreens as you need them. You've just got to have at least one icon on each screen.
Sparse quick settings?
Notice the "pencil" icon at the bottom of the expanded quick settings menu? Tap it and you can add or remove quick settings icon as you need.
Dude, learn the OS before you make summary judgements! I'm glad the author likes the HW though. I bought a Nokia 6 for my son a month ago and he loves it.
BTW, is the charge port still a micro-USB? I don't recall that it was mentioned.
I took the plunge into Android when I saw the prices of the new iPhones and the Nokia 8 came in at the right price. So far, I can't complain - as Andrew says the phone is built like a tank with a responsive, clear screen. And stripped down Android is fast and not nearly as scary as I thought it would be.
The only thing I don't like right now is the default camera app which is a bit sluggish and not a patch on the one Nokia shipped with the Lumias. Can we have that one back please?
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