So far, it looks like all I have had for the Nokia N8 is undiluted praise. Does this mean that this is a faultless device? Are there any disappointing experiences that I have had on the Nokia N8?

Well, yes. And here is my list.

1. Poor Web Browser Interface
The built-in web browser on the Nokia N8 is good and meets all my needs – mobile sites, full websites, flash videos, secure sites – and I use it extensively. I have found Symbian browsers highly capable for years and the version on the N8 is no exception.

However, the user interface simply leaves a lot to be desired. Like someone has said, it is as if the browser’s user interface was left behind. For example, I have to take three steps to refresh a page I am viewing. Nokia needs to make good use of the available space to deliver a more user-friendly browsing experience. A bottom horizontal strip of compact icons can make it possible for users to go back, forward, access bookmarks and switch tabs with one just tap.

I won’t push this too far though, because Nokia has promised a new browser in December 2010 or early 2011 – and if what we saw and heard from the leaked videos are anything to go by, I will soon be striking the web browser off this list of gripes. To the new browser!

2. Gmail does not reflect read messages properly.
When you have read an email message (Gmail) online, there are times that when it arrives on your phone, it is marked unread. At other times, in your brower, the read message is set back as unread. This doesn’t happen all the time, but it is often enough. It is pretty annoying having to manually mark your mails again when it does happen. Nokia, please fix this!

3. Social needs comments notifications
The Social application – where you run your show on Twitter and Facebook – works well for me. I do have one niggle: when, for example, someone comments on my status, I do not get any notifications of that. There are notifications for new messages, calendar entries, and friend requests, but this one lacking is significant. Please add comments notifications to Social.

4. Not all DivX movies play
Some DivX play; some others don’t. Yes; I know that the official word from Nokia’s Damien Dinning was that “most DivX videos should play out of the box”, so Nokia was truthful upfront. Still, having to convert some movies before I can play them on my sweet N8 is a hassle. Of course, its likely that if I look, I can find 3rd party apps to deal with this. Still, Nokia? Please?

5. Exchange’s handling of Google contact fields
Exchange on the N8 keeps my device and Google contacts in sync. However, I noticed that whenever I have multiple fields of a particular type in my Google contacts, only one of them is reflected on my N8.

For example, if I have two phone numbers set as “Mobile” for my wife in my Google contacts, the N8 ignores the second one. To get the two numbers to show, I have to go set one to something else e.g. “work”, “home” or “other”. As you can imagine, that is a hassle. People do have multiple mobile lines or work lines and those numbers should sync just the way they are.

Is that all?
Errr… for now, it looks like that’s it. If I find any more niggles, I’ll add them to this page. But if I have used a smartphone extensively for a few weeks and have only a handful of gripes about that smartphone, it must be a good one.

Do you have an N8? Are there other things besides what I have listed here that bug you silly? Please feel free to share.

6. Update! 9/12/10 Phone Freezing Up
In the last 24 hours, I have installed several more applications to the N8. All of a sudden, I am experiencing the phone suddenly freezing up.

I would leave it lying on my desk, and when I pick it up, I can’t get the display to unlock. Eventually, I shut it off. At other times, I would be in the middle of something and the menu key would become unresponsive. Again, eventually, only a reboot solves the problem.

Today alone, I have had to restart my N8 at least thrice. This is both a big bother and a discouragement. Is this a general problem or is it that Some of the apps I installed are simply badly coded? I’ll uninstall them and update this page It turns out that the Skype app that I installed days ago was responsible for this freezing. Its been 48 hours since I uninstalled it and I have had no such issues with my N8 since then.

The MIcroB browser built-into the N900 is so good that there’s no point doing a regular browser review. Take my word for it that it does EVERTHING that your mobile browser can do. As such, I will be focusing on the bits that make it shine.

Copying Text; Saving Pages
The browser has a Hover Mode that allows you to activate a cursor on-screen for selecting sections of text on a web page and copy it for juse in a note or Office document, among other uses.

Web pages can be saved in their entirety, images can be saved, you can search for text on a web page, and open links in new windows.

AJAX and Javascript are no problem. This entire review was produced on my N900. I typed this using the full WordPress interface (forget about needing an app), uploaded the screenshots directly on the N900 (so full file browsing works), and published.

The Other Bits
In addition, it supports SSL, notifying you of the certifying authority when you arrive at a secure site. Pop-ups work, opening as new pages, and full Flash runs fine. The display is wide enough and the user experience smooth and intuitive, making the browsing experience worthwhile.

There is support for add-ons (think Firefox), full-screen mode, and page zooming. You can zoom by using the phone’s volume control keys, double-tapping on the display or using finger gestures.

MicroB supports text reflow (dynamic refitting of text to match the width of the display port), something which not too many mobile browsers support.

Lastly, with the new firmware, the option to enable portrait browsing is provided in the browser settings. I don’t care much for this, though I can imagine that many others want it.

Did I leave anything out?

When you think of web browsing on the N900, kindly forget about everything you thought of web browsing on a mobile phone.

Thanks to a heads-up from WAP Review, we present you the much welcome news that RIM, manufacturers of BlackBerry smartphones, have acquired TorchMobile, the developers of the Webkit-based Iris browser.

By way of a refresher, I reviewed the Iris browser on back in February of this year, and came off with positive impressions.

I also recently tried out the BlackBerry 8900 Curve, and found a great letdown and show-stopper – the highly limited web browser. Now with RIM’s acquisition of Iris, we can look forward to seeing a more modern and more impressive browser on future BlackBerry devices.

New lease of life for web browsing on BlackBerries – currently let down by limited web browser capabilities.

Webkit is dominating the mobile browser engine scene more and more, being the core for great browsers as found on the iPhone, Symbian smartphones, and Android smartphones. That is a huge chunk of the market.

RIM’s acquisition is certainly a smart one. The BlackBerry platform is about to become more attractive to mobile web users.

A few days ago, we published a news item on the release of the latest version of the Iris browser, developed for WinMo devices. The statement from TorchMobile about the new release reads:

The Iris Browser is an advanced, high-performance and versatile Web browser application for mobile and embedded devices. Based on the WebKit rendering engine, it is specifically designed to function in resource-constrained environments. It brings the full Web experience to mobile phones, set-top boxes, mobile Internet devices, portable media players, Ultra-Mobile PCs and other embedded devices – in a fast and user-friendly manner.

I have taken the browser for a spin over the last couple of days, and hereby present my review:

The Iris pre-configured homepage

The default homepage is a custom page by TouchMobile that includes a search box. Tap the “Navigate” softkey on the right, and choose “Show address” to pop up the address bar at the top of the screen. Other options include “Home”, “Back”, “Forward”, “Stop”, and “reload”.

The left softkey is labelled “Page”, and under that menu are options to access bookmarks, history, zoom, tabs, set screen view, tools, and options (settings).

The browser allows the opening and running of up to 4 tabs.

Under “View”, the options to choose include: Mobile Mode, Desktop Mode, and Column Mode. Then there’s a full screen option applicable to whatever mode you choose.

Left: Mobile Mode; Right: Column Mode

Personally, I am comfortable the most with Column Mode. In this mode, the entire page is fitted into the screen and you only scroll up and down. This is by far the most user-friendly way to browse on a mobile device. The other modes will leave you having to scroll horizontally to read page contents.

When a page is loaded, by default you get an overview of the whole page, really zoomed out so you can see the entire page. You then zoom into the section you want to read.

Zooming in can be done by simply double-tapping on the section you want. It works well. Alternatively, you can use the left softkey to access a Zoom menu.

But in all modes apart from Column Mode, zooming in messes up usability, because the content you have zoomed into is not fitted to the width of the screen. To read text, you have to scroll horizontally. This is a no-no. My advice: stay in Column Mode. Don’t touch the dial.

Iris offers a nice page transition effect, with the pages sliding in and out and dropping in and out.

History function

The History function is neat. You get three images of the pages in history on the screen at any time, and you can simply move through your history with finger swipes. Tap the central image and that page loads.

Unfortunately, Youtube videos are not supported

Still, there are limitations on this browser. One of them is flash support. A visit to Youtube and attempting to watch videos resulted in a “Get the latest Flash player” error message.

Besides that, it loads images well, gives you the option to save them, save pages, search through text on pages, and also track your internet usage.

Iris handles secure sites well, and I was able to login to my bank’s internet platform.

The Iris browser is a good job. It leaves Mobile Pocket Explorer in the dust (which is not saying much), but it also gives Opera Mobile a run for its money. I’m not sure which of the two I prefer yet; just a few days is too little time to choose between these highly capable browsers.

Thumbs-up to TorchMobile. But while the browser proves itself capable, I am not too sure that what it offers redefines the mobile web as the developers claim.

Mobile applications developer, TorchMobile, have released a new major version of their mobile browser, Iris. The browser is built on the popular webkit engine and is available for WinMo 5 and 6 devices.

From the TouchMobile blog:

There are many surprises waiting inside, including support for the Flash Lite ActiveX control, big performance gains, reduced memory usage, preliminary RSS and SVG support, the highest Acid3 score of any shipping mobile browser, and HTC accelerometer support.

Yomi has downloaded a copy and is currently putting it through its paces on the Samsung i900 Omnia. His review should be available tomorrow or the day after.

In the meantime, you can download your copy too.