The Nokia N8 features one of the toughest and smartest designs we've seen to date, but the software is just as important. As such, we've been playing with Symbian ^3 for the past couple of weeks, in order to bring you the definitive review. Read on after the cut to find out if Symbian ^3 lives up to our expectations...
If you're already a Nokia owner, you'll find Symbian ^3 very familiar. Although it retains a similar structure in terms of menus, it's actually a completely new operating system, and offers loads of benefits over Symbian S60 5th Edition.
The most obvious difference when you turn on the Nokia N8 is the presence of three separate home screens. You can swipe to the left or right to switch between then, or alternatively press the centre button at the bottom, which also switches from one to the next.
You can put completely different shortcuts or bookmarks on these pages – we wanted the time and date at the top of all three on ours, for instance. You can also have the page completely devoid of features, and just leave a photo or image in the background.
Check out our Nokia N8 keyboard review
Nokia has made an effort with social networking integration, with a widget that supports both Facebook and Twitter. We love it, as it makes it easy to launch both Facebook and Twitter apps, but it can be frustrating if you stick to the widget itself.
This is because it tries to do too much – displaying all your updates in one very small space. It's easy enough to scroll down through them, but can be time consuming when you want to return back to the top to see your regular status.
There's also a BBC iPlayer app, taking you straight to the new Nokia web browser, and letting you watch TV programmes on the go. It works well, although our network restricted use to Wi-Fi.
You may notice a change to your favourite contacts widget – a feature that was offered in Symbian S60 5th Edition, but has been updated here. Along with displaying four of your contacts, you'll now be able to scroll to the left or right to see up to 20 contacts in total.
A notifications widget is another fantastic edition offering details of calls, messages or other updates. We really like the fact messages can be read through the widget – without having to open them up.
Outside of the multiple home screens, the menu structure on Symbian ^3 is similar to Symbian S60 5th Edition. This means you'll find a main menu, and a sub menu for all your apps. It's easy enough to move things around – or add the apps to one of your home screens – but it will take a little setting up before you're happy with it. We really like the fact there's so much customisation available, however.
Nokia has made a big change to its web browser. As with the OS, it'll still be familiar to traditional Nokia users, but it now supports video streaming, with the ability to watch programmes on YouTube, BBC iPlayer and more.
The biggest change with the browser is the implementation of a pinch to zoom feature, letting you zoom in and out by pushing your finger and thumb together or apart. This zooming feature also works with your photographs, and is very much welcome.
It's not the features that really catch your attention when playing with the Nokia N8, however, but the speed at which Symbian ^3 operates at. There's very little lag, no need to double tap on icons or settings, and the Nokia N8 is very fast when multi-tasking. In short, it works, and is enough to help demonstrate the Nokia N8's sublime range of high-end features.
There are loads of apps within Symbian ^3 – and we'll be looking at more of them in the next week. We'll also be bringing you comprehensive tutorials to help you get to grips with your new Nokia N8 – from arranging the home screens to managing Wi-Fi – so be sure to check back here for more updates.
Check out our Symbian ^3 photo gallery below:
