I put my time machine on just a few years back and I found two (yes, there is one more coming up later today!) incredible Nokia smartphones in the year 2010… They’re like twin brothers too, but from two different eggs, they have different capacities.
The firstborn was the Nokia N8, former King of Camphones. With his 12MP sensor and Carl Zeiss lens, this could have been called the first PureView camera – but Nokia didn’t think of the term yet (not that we know of, at least).
Moreover, there is no “oversampling” or “lossless zoom” to be found – it was just the best smartphone camera at the time, it has been so for years (!) and in fact it’s still the one every other producer has to beat (since clearly, the Nokia 808 PureView is unbeatable).
I’ve had mine for years and I’ve always treated it like a baby, keeping it in a soft sillicone case wherever I went. The box with the content untouched went in the closet and I only took it out today to make these shots. Let the trip down memory lane begin!
This is on top of the box… The color is a bit off, but it’s the engraving I’m after :-)
And here’s the box – it’s blue (the Nokia N900 had a black version of about the same package)
Another engraving when you open the box, now from the backside of the device…
And there it is: carried in plastic.
You got it with a great amount of accessories!
Here you’ll see them in more detail: charger, headset, cables for USB, HMDI-out and USB-on-the-Go. What else could you wish for?
Small card to explain how to put in your simcard and micro-SD.
Front of the device
Left side, screen up, with the slots for simcard and micro-SD and micro-USB (also for charging)
Right side, screen up, with shutter button, standy-button and volume/zoom. You see the on/off button on top as slot for HMDI out and where to plugin the headset.
Turned it upside down, so the right side once more, screen down.
Screen down once more, with the casing for the sensor, which was already quite big.
Carl Zeiss lens in detail – you can’t open the back side to watch any closer (like the lens or the battery)
From the bottom to the top…
The bottom with a small imprint.
Starting up…
The next two shots are close-ups with the Nokia N8 standing on its own (with the menu in Dutch, but you’ll know what it says anyway).
Yes, these are big, but I think they’re worth it too. An hommage to a brilliant smartphone, with still a brilliant camera, in a no less brilliant design. A timeless masterpiece!
Don’t miss the previous posts in this series!
Nokia Time Warp I: Nokia 7650,
Nokia Time Warp II: Nokia 9000 Communicator,
Nokia Time Warp III Nokia 5800 XpressMusic,
Nokia Time Warp IV: Nokia N900
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yes, was going to mention about n8′s lossless zoom for video only. I think the n86 also had lossless zoom. I only know experiences with lossless zoom on the n8. The digital zoom was no where as smooth as what we have in the 808. Also, during zooming, the zoom would be lossy, only when the zoom motion stopped, did the video suddenly sharpen up, as if coming into focus which was an indication of lossless zoom working.
Actually the N8 does have lossless zoom, just that it wasn’t known by many.
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/14361_PureView_Lite_Smart_zooming-ri.php
Thanx for this valuable piece of extra information! Didn’t know about it. You live, you learn :-)
My first PureViewClub comment. However I’ve been reading the articles for months. Unpacking the Nokia N8 strange feelings were stirred. I’m looking at my original N8 boxes right now.