Top 10 Ways Nokia N8 Symbian^3 Firmware Update Improves Your Nokia
By Phil Barker on January 17,
 2011 at 00:00,

One of the great things about the Nokia N8, is that it's constantly being improved. Firmware updates allow Nokia to fix problems, add extra features, and make lots of improvements. To find out everything you need to know about firmware updates on your Nokia N8, join us after the break...

Firmware updates are Nokia's way of improving its handsets, offering gradual improvements and additional features as and when they're required. There's lots to know about firmware updates, so read on to find out more.

Bugs

Nokia is constantly working on getting the best out of its smartphones, so each firmware update for the Nokia N8 will bring fixes for known bugs.

Features

Firmware updates can also bring additional features. One of the rumoured firmware updates for the Nokia N8 includes a portrait QWERTY keypad, so it's well worth keeping an eye on so you don't miss out.

Costs

Some firmware updates are particularly big in size – especially if Nokia is introducing extra features to the Nokia N8, in addition to fixing bugs and offering better performance. It's worth looking at the size of the update, and using Wi-Fi rather than 3G if it's a large update.

OTA

Nokia offers a couple of different ways to upgrade the firmware on your Nokia N8. One of these is OTA (Over the air), which you can do with just your phone itself.

NSU

NSU – or Nokia Software Updater – is the other option when it comes to firmware updates. You can download the latest firmware using NSU and your PC, letting you save money on data costs, and transferring the firmware across to your Nokia N8 via USB cable.

Check for updates

Now you know it's worth checking for the latest firmware updates on your Nokia N8, how do you go about it? The easiest way is to open the onscreen numberpad and press: *#0000# followed by Options and Check for Updates.

Symbian ^3 Updates

It's not just updates specific to the Nokia N8 either. With Symbian ^3 being a brand new OS, there are lots of things that can be made better, so firmware updates allow Nokia to improve its operating system as time goes on.

Performance

Speed is another reason you should always check for the latest updates. Along with fixes for bugs and additional features, firmware updates can also bring performance boosts.

Stability

Being a brand new operating system, Symbian ^3 still has the odd issue when it comes to stability, occasionally crashing. Firmware updates can help this, bringing more stable software.

Backup

Before updating to the latest firmware, it's always worth backing up your files and contact details - just in case anything goes wrong during the update. That way, you'll be able to copy all your files back across should the worst happen.

  • Frank

    Continuous auto focus pls to be the supreme phone of the greatest :) I really wanna have it Nokia

  • Jimbo

    the N8 has been full of bugs and issues since its launch in Nov 2010, and as such I have not been able to use it as a mobile phone due to the problems…. its almost been 3 months and still no updates to fix the basics that really need sorting…

    lockups / reboots
    ovi store and ovi maps stop working after hard reset…. hence I’ve not been able to use ovi store since nov 2010…. there is a beta update to ovi maps though at least.
    hard reset wiping everything including symbian v3 software which is why ovi store stopped working…
    and yes have to do hard reset when the phone totally locked up and cant remove the battery instead!

    I’m still using my reliable nokia n86, as the n8 is a joke if I could sell it I would but I wouldn’t want the problems with my n8 passed on to someone else!

    as a flagship phone is is a phone to avoid…

  • Jimbo

    the N8 has been full of bugs and issues since its launch in Nov 2010, and as such I have not been able to use it as a mobile phone due to the problems…. its almost been 3 months and still no updates to fix the basics that really need sorting…

    lockups / reboots
    ovi store and ovi maps stop working after hard reset…. hence I\’ve not been able to use ovi store since nov 2010…. there is a beta update to ovi maps though at least.
    hard reset wiping everything including symbian v3 software which is why ovi store stopped working…
    and yes have to do hard reset when the phone totally locked up and cant remove the battery instead!

    I\’m still using my reliable nokia n86, as the n8 is a joke if I could sell it I would but I wouldn\’t want the problems with my n8 passed on to someone else!

    as a flagship phone is is a phone to avoid…

  • Kuramamickey

    I hope Nokia N8 fixes and let you edit the equalizer for the Music and also edit the Song details, especially the Artists’ names, Album, and add an Album Art.

  • Jerry1ken

    So when is that major firmware update scheduled for . . . . I mean we really do need a good browser and a reworked widgets menu!

  • bapru

    zenon light in video is urgently required

  • kentnicklloyd

    So is there an update, my N8-00 is still saying it is up to date with “software version 011.012 installed”. I hate to say it nokia but unless you can do something about the battery life of the N8 I may well be going over to a google phone, looking at a HTC Desire HD at the moment, when I upgrade, I might even see what windows 7 phones there are out there but the Android OS appears to be taking over on mobiles …..

  • Ravi

    looking forward to QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode and also quality of Youtube videos which is at present absolutely worse. iPhone 3g released in 2008 has very good video quality

  • E39A

    Absolutely in Love with my N8 anyone who is having battery issues should make sure to turn off the wifi scanning, all my apps work fine ovi maps is spot on, ovi store does need to be revamped for better usability though and some apps are utter bloat-ware. The youtube is crap quality but that is not Nokia’s fault that is Google doing what they can for Symbian, since it is one of their main competitors they will not update the quality to match the Android phones, the QWERTY does need a update or they should allow devs to put some QWERTY options on the ovi store, swype is OK but the portrait swype is only available to the older S60 phones, the xenon flash will never be used as a video light it would burn out the capacitor. I do agree with the equalizer comment, my older 5530 and n96 and 5610 all gave a edit mode available and also let you add album art manually, there is a way for album art, a trick I used is if you use windows media player scan all your songs on your comp or external HD and if the album has available track id and album art, it will find it on the net WMP’s metadata service is usually top notch compared to ovi players, then then close out WMP go to ovi player and load all those albums it will show all the album art, if you just use ovi player directly its usually gets some album art but not all. For me personally I just do the WMP trick it does take some extra steps but if you want album art thats the way I went, In regards to the buggy N8′s Nokia has addressed this issue they said they will repair your phone for free, but you have to contact customer support and take it back to the retailer or send it direct to Nokia, it will take a while though and you will not get a replacement which in good faith Nokia should do so they win back their customer’s confidence and get back that customer loyalty they lost with the N97 which is utter junk in my opinion, but don’t lose faith loyal Nokians I’am crossing my fingers and hope this update does fix the web browser and the camera GUI and home screen GUI and add some other things that would fix the stability of the OS.

  • rathika

    how can i upgrade nokia x6 to symbian^3?