We started playing with 808 PureView and while trying to put up a comprehensive review couldn’t resist the temptation of comparing it with earlier Symbian Flagship N8. These two devices were not only launched as Symbian flagships but they kept Nokia’s “imaging superiority” flag flying high. N8 was undisputed king before 808 PureView and the 808 PureView was welcomed as a true successor of N8:).

Time to review the amazing 808 PureView then and obviously time to know where it stands amongst Symbian Flagships of Nokia. Just to let you know that review of the imaging capabilities of 808 PureView will be coming in third part of the review as we understand that it deserves separate big article for covering all aspects of the imaging.

Design:

  • 808 PureView’s polycarbonate body looks  sturdy and the device has a Premium feel.
  • The curved glass screen gives it a much better frontal look than N8.
  • But as far as body design is concerned I personally prefer N8’s design and feel N8’s design and that curved glass screen could have been the best design combo.
  • I used to think the three button bar at the bottom of 808 PureView wouldn’t look as good as the single home button on N8. But to my surprise it looks good and is very functional and smooth to use.

Display:

  • The CBD AMOLED display on 808 PureView is simply great. Being full RGB kind of AMOLED it has advantage in color representation over many of competitors smartphones which are packed with “Pentile” AMOLEDs. It is very bright as well. Videos, Photos and other multimedia look stunning on 808 PureView’s screen.
  • Nokia’s CBD (Clear Black Display) tech gives it certain edge over competition in viewing angles and outdoor visibility. N8 being around 2 years old didn’t come packed with CBD. Hence 808 PureView’s display simply looks better than N8, even if it has less pixel density than N8’s display.
  • Nokia has applied some oleophobic coating on 808 PureView’s display which makes it resistant to dirt and finger impressions, and this is something which I really missed on N8’s display. You need to wipe N8’s display often, but didn’t need to wipe 808’s screen yet.

UI and OS impressions:

  • Belle FP1 is not much different in UI design from Belle. But still there are minute differences.
  • Notification bar has been redesigned and you can now clear the notifications.
  • Multitasking is vastly improved. Visually it looks much more appealing.
  • New widgets like 2G/3G switch, Mobile data on/off etc are very handy and make Belle FP1 easier to use than ever.
  • The OS has now “Theme effects” as default and there is no way to switch it off. But in our experience animations are fast and OS is fluid enough.

Performance :

  • With processor speed of 1.3 GHz, the Belle FP1 OS literally flies on the single core CPU and GPU combo.
  • Even with Social, Three mail boxes always active in background, free RAM remains as high as 280 MB. Compare this with Android 🙂
  • All the UI actions are really fast and finish without any lag. Compare it to N8 running Belle and you can feel 808 taking almost half the time in actions like opening Menu, scrolling the apps etc.
  • All default applications and even all the third-party apps which I have used on both N8 and 808 PureView, open much faster on 808 PureView. Handling of the apps from Multitasking view is pretty smooth.
  • Multitasking is breeze and closing the apps is no more waiting game and open application close almost instantly.

Connectivity options:

  • As with other Symbian Flagships, you have a Pentaband true World-phone ready to go anywhere around the globe.
  • Starting off with the basics, you get a : quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and penta-band 3G with HSDPA (14.4Mbps) and HSUPA (5.76Mbps).
  • Local connectivity is very well covered like always. You get Wi-Fi b/g/n with DLNA and Wi-Fi tethering thanks to the JoikuSpot app’s free version.
  • Bluetooth 3.0 is on board with A2DP stereo. There’s USB with On-The-Go support for wired connectivity. You will certainly miss these on iPhones.
  • NFC is very well supported on 808 PureView. Pairing is very simple. Just put two NFC-enabled gadgets together and they will connect.

So friends, this was the first part of review. Second part of the review will cover Social, Browser, Music and Video Player, Gallery , DLNA play and much more.

Coming Soon !!

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