Home > Nokia N8 and Symbian Belle: what can we expect?
Nokia N8 and Symbian Belle: what can we expect?
By Martin James on September 23,
 2011 at 00:00,

The Nokia N8 is the jewel in Nokia's Symbian crown, but it's all set to get some new shine when the Symbian Belle update arrives for the much-loved N Series handset in the next few months. Let's take an early look at what to expect. 

Symbian Belle vs Symbian Anna: how they differ

Nokia has treated us to many other handsets since the Nokia N8 went on sale just about a year ago now, but the Nokia N8 remains a firm favourite with Nokia fans around the world. Part of it is Nokia's near-obsessive focus on keeping its 12-megapixel camera on a whole different level to anything mobile users have seen before through a series of superb updates.

But it's also about the Nokia N8's basic combination of looks, versatility and features.

However, it's all going to get so much better when the Symbian Belle update rolls out over the next few months. Nokia N8 users have already seen Symbian Anna released for their device, but Symbian Belle takes things a lot further.

Here are a couple of highlights:

  • Six homescreens: that's right, the Nokia N8's beautiful 3.5-inch AMOLED panel will play host to double the homescreens that it now does, so you can get closer to the apps, contacts and services you use the most.

  • All-new homescreen widgets: the real Symbian Belle revolution is set to be the introduction of resizeable free-form homescreen widgets that you can arrange and lay out any way you like. You'll be able to use larger widgets for the services you use most, and devote less space to those you rarely access – it's all up to you!

  • Better multitasking: with Symbian Belle you'll be able to see exactly what's going on in your apps in real time when you access the multitasking view, meaning you don't have to activate the app to see if something has changed.

  • All-new notification toolbar: Symbian Belle will feature a shutter-style bar along the top that will neatly house notifications of all important info like missed calls, messages, updates and the like. Simply drag it down and the panel will expand, giving you more info on the basic details you need to know.

 

There's plenty more besides, but if you're slightly disappointed not to see anything to make the Nokia N8's 12-megapixel camera even better, we'd say that's actually a good thing.

As we've seen with the double-barrel update Nokia currently has lined up for the Nokia N8's camera, it's treating these updates as entirely separate entities, meaning any future updates to keep pampering you with new photographic goodies will arrive when they're ready, and won't be tied to a bigger official update.

The only thing left on our wishlist would be built-in NFC support for the Nokia N8 so it could tap into those exciting NFC capabilities Symbian Belle also has up its sleeve. But we've certainly got enough to get excited about all the same!

What are your expectations for the Symbian Belle update on your Nokia N8? Share your thoughts in the Comments below!

Tags: Camera N8 Nokia N8 Symbian Anna Symbian Belle Update widgets
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  • Peter

    with NFC hardware built-in, how can you make it work for N8 ?

  • Stephens Eloped

    Scrolling homescreens, resizable widgets, widgets that can be placed anywhere…hmmm, certainly sounds like my Nokia N900 (from 2009 btw). Sorry, but until they use the Maemo5 version of multitasking (now seen in the new N9), Symbian’s multitasking scroll-view just won’t cut it. If this is the Symbian of 2012, let’s see a proper multitasking view, and some other features that were *not* in the N900. And if you can’t manage that, Nokia, you need to re-release the N900. Simple.

  • Punjab

    a better task manager which can provide indepth detail about the ongoing process. And the useless preinstalled adobe reader which cannot reflow the text of the pdf files(column resizing).

  • http://www.facebook.com/nic.hanafey Nic Hanafey

    Sounds really great, been watching Belle for a while now- can’t wait to have it on my N8 :)
    As for NFC, unfortunately the N8 doesn’t have the hardware for it- but Google solved that by creating an NFC sticker (RFID tag), hint hint Nokia!!!

  • gaurav saini

    i am using my n8 and loving it

    for belle the changes look promising

    1 as for my wishlist first of battery life with anna it is now about 18 hrs earlier easily lasted more than 36 hours
    i am now forced to use my other Nokia e5 ,more

    2 the other thing is the in call volume and the overall music volume i find them slightly on the lower side in crowded places calls sometimes are difficult to continue
    i don’t know whether other users will agree with this or not it is vat i have observed i prefer a louder handset u can always control the volume if needed

    even at max volume, and slight outside noise the speaker phone becomes unusable i have observed this many times

    can a firmware tweak increase the phone volume????

    3the other thing is the call menu

    once you select a contact it gives you too many options for someone like me who doesn’t

    use social networks much that option is not needed

    the messaging and voice call are all i care about, agree social networking is must for many folks but if its possible to disable this option it will be good for a few simple folks like me

    4 this complaint cant be cured by a update but i hope good folks at nokia will note this down

    the phone shows signs of wear or scratches on the camera plate very fast specially the lower side of camera rectangle i have a silver color n8 and i take good care of it yet the said issue was there within a month of usage
    now using amazer silicon case

    of the above the battery life is most imp for me

    the phone is cool and does its job beautifully

  • Discusszmr

    Nokia should at least put a 512 mb ram and 512 mb flash memory for better oeration

  • Quddus

    Nokia has been giving us amazing inputs to our N8. What is more to expect with our hardware? However, we want keep ourselves updated.

  • Samir_saniya

    I totally agree with Gaurav Saini – especially Battery Life and Vol – if both can be enhanced in this update pls.

  • Saakik

    Don’t use the social widget with Anna. I discovered it keeps turning on the wifi which kills battery life. I removed all of the internet related widgets. Also, do not use any of the screen savers as they kill your battery life. Nokia Sleeping screen took me from a 4-5 day battery life to barely one.

  • Emmanuel Goodluck Chukwudi

    Everything about Nokia N8n is great. The only issue we owners of Nokia N8 has is with The RAM. Is there any way Nokia could increase the RAM to at least 512MB?

  • Djazmaticonuh

    it’s nice. But something should be done to facebook. So we can chat with it. Please i love my n8 cos it knows me more than my mum.lease i love my n8 cos it knows me more than my mum.

  • Sharky

    I have owned my Nokia N8 for nearly a year now, still no complaints,

    Build quality’s second to none, It feels and looks solid, a little heavier than alot of other ‘plasticy’ smart phones, but reassuringly so!
    It looks good and according to my 20 year old, style obsessed niece, the dark grey makes it look ‘expensive’ and ‘well buff ‘ ….which i’m told, is a good thing !
    The Gorilla glass screen appears so far, to be as scratch proof as promised.

    The camera’s gorgeous, the ‘auto’ mode is fine for most situations, but the settings are worth experimenting with for night shots, macros etc. The xenon is infinately better than a LED flash but i’ve noticed that often, in fading light the ‘auto’ flash will fire when a much better photo results from turning the flash off – proving the sensitivity of the image sensor.
    The digital zoom’s ok, but at this resolution a bit higher would be useful. Also the zoom in the image viewer should definately go higher.

    Video is exellent, colours true and bright, but can be grainy if not well lit – as you’d expect.

    Music sounds excellent through decent headphones or hi-fi. Tthe volume’s loud enough, although the max volume’s maybe 15% less than my old 4Gb Ipod Nano.
    Being able to play music in the car, and especially on my home audio system via the built in FM transmitter, is a great feature, and it works better than the plug-in transmitter I used to use.

    The battery life is good. Today i took 27 flash photos, 30min calls and 17min video, and watched them back, and battery was still on 60 percent. I still charge it every night though.

    Two little things that do annoy me are…
    The menu button light shines needlessly bright when viewing photo’s and videos, but flickers feebly to indicate a missed call or message, and don’t indicate an email at all. What’s the point ?
    My other annoyance is this…Ideally, the notifications widget should notify me when I get an email. My email widget isn’t on the primary homescreen, so if I miss the ‘new mail’ sound I’m unaware I have mail waiting. Just lighting up the menu button would be so very helpful.
    Little things I know, hopefully addressed in future firm/software updates.

    I’ve still got 12 months contract left before I can upgrade my phone, but if it was up now, I would still prefer my N8 to anything else being offered at the moment. True you can get bigger screens, faster CPUs and more apps, but size, as the say, aint everything!

    Well done Nokia…Here’s looking forward to seeing what’s on offer in a years time !

  • Daljeetsingh Mca

    i want to have better search option in my nokia N8 music menu .. as m not able to search songs in my list of available songs

  • http://www.serdelpanama.com JULSDELM

    Have a N8 and with ANNA is even better!!!!!
    But, with the new TECH comming…can my No W/Anna handle the 4G TECH?????

  • Csunya Crocodil

    I would expect a better email client in the coming Bella. There is still so much space that is not efficiently used in the application, like huge borders/icons on the side that are stealing space from the reading pane.

  • Hearthacker141

    nfc is possible in n8?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HHC5TMVAP6BBIEJ7IYM4NNGOHE musao

    I am unaible to create a play list for my video files. why cant that be fixed with all the updates anna and and belle’s?

  • Peter Thompson

    Bought my N8 primarily for it’s sat-nav, which fails on two points.

    1. It takes circuitous routes when not needed.

    2. Voice directions need to be sent to car radio via it’s FM transmitter (I can’t hear mine in amy sports car)