Hi Roger,

Thanks for your points. Just thought I’d clarify some things though.

1. Actually, we were not told anything about any new browser, and we are actually too close to its retail launch for them to actually update the browser that drastically before retail. In fact my team has seen an earlier build of the phone, and I’ve been told that the N8 we played with yesterday has been updated quite a bit already. I guess the most we will see are changes in the form of a software update after it goes on sale, but I don’t think that it will be that much better to be frank.

As for Flash, Flash Lite and Flash 10.1 (which is on Android 2.2) is actually very different. Flash 10.1 runs significantly better than Flash Lite. I still think that it’s better for them if they didn’t add Flash Lite support, or let you turn it off, as it affects the browser performance drastically, just as you saw in the video.

2. Swype was also not mentioned at all in our press kits or at the event itself by any of the product managers. It seems too big a deal for Nokia to “forget to tell us”. I will check with Nokia about this. It would be good if they do come with Swype. Their current text input solution just feels very clunky to me.

3. I don’t doubt it’s the best camera phone in the market. You’re absolutely right. Like I mentioned in the video, the F2.8 is just insane.

4. I actually beg to differ that those features differentiate the N8 from it’s competitors. The N8 isn’t the only phone with HDMI out, and Dolby Digital 5.1. The Motorla Milestone XT, for example, has HDMI out too. Also, both Samsung and LG have phones which support Dolby Digital 5.1. By the way, you need to have a proper surround sound system that supports Dolby Digital 5.1 to even be able to use it. Nokia, for example, bought a 5.1 surround sound system yesterday that wasn’t using the right standard (which they apologised for), so they couldn’t show us the 5.1 surround capability. That means most people who buy this phone won’t even be able to take advantage of it. Bluetooth mouse and keyboard control is also not new. Sony Ericsson feature phones, for example, have supported this feature for half a decade now. To be realistic, most consumers will hardly use the HDMI out, or the mouse and keyboard control features. Nokia phones have supported USB On The Go for several generations already, and most smartphones today (all Android phones in fact) support USB charge + data transfer. So in our opinion, those features still don’t really mean much to us, and we don’t think that makes the phone stand out that much.

You’re right. We forgot to mention the GPU, which is supposed to be 3D capable. What we were told, though, is that 3D rendering won’t be enabled until a later software update as apparently Symbian^3 still doesn’t support 3D rendering yet. This is, however, the first time I heard someone say that the N8′s GPU is the fastest in the world. I’ll go find out about this, but once again I’m a little sceptical. Most high end smartphones today such as the Samsung Galaxy S, the iPhone 4 and Motorola Milestone have pretty powerful 3D rendering capable GPUs already.

If you follow our content over the years, you will know that to us, the user experience matters more in a smartphone than the specifications, because even high specifications mean nothing if the user experience isn’t good (the N8, by the way, is not using a very powerful CPU, clocked at just over 600Mhz, compared the 1Ghz on the Galaxy S, and 800Mhz + on an iPhone 4). As such we would spend more time taking a look at the software than at, what I like to call, “bonus” features.

We do, however, acknowledge that different people have different priorities on what they look for in a phone. As such, we usually spend more time revealing the phone’s performance and usability then telling you if we think the phone is good or not. I hope this clarifies the video better.

Thanks so much for your support!