Nokia N8 Goes Official: 12MP Camera, Symbian^3, Due Q3 2010

The Nokia N8 is go! Letting the pretenders to the megapixel throne like the Sony Ericsson Satio and Samsung Pixon12 slug it out for the best part of a year, the Finnish manufacturer has finally weighed in with their bid for smartphone supremacy...and it's looking good.

First things first, this phone is packed with new features from the ground up. The Nokia N8 is one of their first handsets to boast the the all-new Symbian^3 platform, introducing a host of features and functionality that Nokia's handsets have been sorely lacking for some time. Multi-touch and gesture support for pinch-to-zoom makes the N8 more finger friendly than ever before, with a 3.5-inch capacitive display proving the perfect home to prodding and poking.

Proving that the abbreviation 'HD' now has no meaning (thanks, iPad!), the N8 is touted to have a high definition display (despite it actually having one of with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels), whilst the customisable homescreens smack of old Symbian, but Nokia promises tmore freedom to arrange apps and icons as well as improved responsiveness.
The camera is where the grunt of the Nokia N8 lies, boasting the manufacturer's first ever 12-megapixel lens, equipped with Carl Zeiss optics and a xenon flash for a world class photo-taking experience. The moving image is just as easily captured, with the ability to record in HD and edit on the fly thanks to an on-board editing suite. Whilst your mobile masterpiece might not be ready for Cannes, it's easy to show on the telly at home thanks to an HDMI port on the device.
An FM transmitter and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound support means that the N8 can act just as easily as an entertainment viewer, with a Web TV app giving access to streaming news and video content.
The angular edges and form factor of the N8 evokes E-series devices whilst remaining a slender 113.5 x 59.12 x 12.9mm, with the 135g weight due largely to the N8's sturdy aluminium frame. 5 colours are promised, with the accompanying press kit showing off a lime green N8 flanked by a silver and black model. Blue and orange variants are confirmed to round out the selection, making it perfect for those needing a phone to co-ordinate with their ensemble.

As a phone (yes, the N8 does still manage calls and messaging), the handset inherits the must-have du jour -namely Twitter and Facebook integration with alerts and updates appearing directly on the homescreen. Replies can be easily hashed out from the same place, with comments and replies handled with a simple and clean interface. Applications and fun distractions can still be obtained from the Ovi Store.

Nokia's latest bullet point to impress is free turn-by-turn navigation thanks to Ovi Maps, enabling the N8 to act as a satellite navigation device whether on foot or in the car, as well as pointing out places of interest.
One smaller point of note is that the Nokia N8 is intergrated with their new development environment Qt, enabling budding bedroom developers to get to grips with the new Symbian platform and develop their own applications for the operating system with relative ease.
Memory isn't much of an issue, with 16GB of on-board memory (and the opportunity to add as much as 32GB more thanks to an SD card slot) meaning that many a high resolution image can be stored on the N8.
As much as we'd love to believe this unveiling all was meticulously planned by the bods at Nokia, we can't help but feel that yesterday's leak by Eldar Murtazin slating the handset's new interface had something to do with it...

Either way, the N8 is due for a Q3 release at a price of €370. With regards to Nokia N8 deals on pay monthly, we're reckoning that this one will float around at that magical £35 per month price point. More details when we get them!