This was a shot of the full moon taken at 7.47 PM last Monday. The moon looked glorious, and I thought, “Can the N8 handle this fine?”

Dumb question. Take a look for yourself. You can click through to see the full-sized image (887 KB in size).

By the way, anyone in Lagos up for a smartphone hangout? Basically, we meet at a public place, bringing our smartphones along to compare features and discuss mobile.

To our readers, we wish you a merry christmas (if you believe in Christmas), and a happy holidays (if you don’t).

Wherever we stand, this season is certainly a colourful and exciting one. And having a superb camera on a device like the Nokia N8 means being able to capture really lovely shots in almost any situation. Enjoy the following Nokia N8 productions (feel free to click through to view the full 4000×3000 images, but watch out, that means files of over 1.5 MB in size) –

Beautiful dusk at the Lagos Bar Beach, Victoria Island

Kart racing at Get Arena, Lekki, Lagos

Driving through Surulere yesterday morning and ran into Santa passing traffic - Ho! Ho!! Ho!!!

My sweetheart and I haven't been to a Christmas party in years, but yesterday was different.

Step in the name of love....

In all, the Nokia N8 delivered and we sure will have great pictures to go down memory lane years from now. I recorded some videos too. One thing is sure, for media contant creation, the Nokia N8 simply has no competitors.

How is this year’s Christmas at your end? Where you able to put your phone to use in capturing those moments and memories in audio, still and/or video?

The Nokia N8 keeps shining. The cover of the December/January edition of South Africa’s leading photo magazine, Pix, was shot using a Nokia N8.

To quote the Editor of PiX, “Yip, look at that cover again. Hard to believe it was shot with a cellphone, isn’t it?”

Checkout the news item at PiX Magazine Online

Here’s a behind the scenes video of the shoot:

Last Monday, I received a call from Nokia West Africa. The summary was that I would be getting a Nokia N8 from them this Thursday (today). They kept their word, and I have with me now a brand new unit of the N8. My unit is greenblue. Believe me when I say that the pictures do not do this handset any justice. The greenblue unit positively makes a statement!

Earlier this year, I made an appeal for phone manufacturers and dealers to step up to the plate and provide Mobility Nigeria with loan devices for review. We have had CricketPDA, and now we have Nokia. Let it be on record that Nokia is the first manufacturer to do this kind of thing in this country. We hope that other manufacturers with a physical presence in Nigeria will also step up. Samsung? LG? What say ye?

It Gets Even Better
This has to be said. The guys at Nokia say that this unit is given to me for keeps. Yup; it is not going back. Before you go all blue with envy, the truth is its about time. Think of all the devices that I have spent hard cash purchasing for review purposes. Think of all the mobile devices (including Nokias) that have been purchased because of my reviews. Think of all the mobile devices (including Nokias) that I have given away free or at subsidised costs. Consider all that and you will agree that this has been long overdue. A Christmas present in November! Pass the thanksgiving turkey!!

Thank you, Nokia!

PS: It needs saying too that you can count on me to be as objective as I am known to be in all my reviews, this gift notwithstanding.

First Impressions
Setting up the N8 was a dream come true. Getting my contacts, mails and calendar entries on it was as simple as setting up an Exchange account with my Google Apps email and in a few moments, I was home dry. Am I impressed or what?

Of course, getting my files, documents and media on it was as simple as popping in my 8GB microSD card. It couldn’t have been simpler than that. Shame on devices without an external card slot.

Next was social networking – and that too was dead easy. Using the social networking widget, i was connected to both Facebook and Twitter in minutes. I’m now back online on the go.

I plugged the N8 to my netbook and selected USB drive mode on the device. Immediately, I could copy other files. In addition, I was prompted to install Nokia Ovi Suite. The installation file was on the device. No CD; no downloads. Excuse me, but this is what I call easy setup.

The new Symbian user interface is cool. While the icons are the same old S60 5th Edition icons, eye candy is there. It is different from how it is implemented on iOS or Android or WebOS, but it is there. I don’t have a problem with different. Plus there is haptic feedback when you touch the screen, making the touch experience much more enjoyable.

My device came with the very latest firmware, V11.012, so I was good to go right from the start.

The sales pack contains:

• charger
• headset
• manual
• quick start guide
• USB data cable (also for charging)
• USB-on-the-go adapter
• male miniHDMI to female standard HDMI adapter

That is a very complete pack.

The N8 feels solid (and cold) in the hand. That Aluminium build makes it a solid device. But it doesn’t stop with the build. The user interface is lovely too, at least I can say that of the parts that I have interacted with so far.

So far, Nokia seems to have got it right with the N8. And I haven’t even touched that 12 world-acclaimed camera yet. Nokia has succeeded in making it super easy to pick the N8 up and get going. That counts for a lot. Expect detailed review parts over the next few weeks.

Reactions welcome, please!

I have spent the last few weeks talking about the Android OS, and how it is the best thing that happened to mobile phones since the iPhone Honestly, while Palm’s Web OS has a lot of eye candy, reviews coming in suggest that it has some catching up to do with Android.

Back to topic, there can be no doubt to my readers that my new-found love is Android, after years with Symbian. Still, Symbian has its strengths, the strongest (though not so significant) being that it is a more mature OS. But that is a story for another day.

So, now that I have chosen the path of Android, is there any reason why I would get a Symbian device now?

Yes; if I needed a top-notch camera on my smartphone, I would get a Symbian device at this point in time. It is not because Symbian is better than Android in imaging capabilities. It is simply because Nokia makes some of the best camera phones out there, and Nokia makes the majority of Symbian devices.

Last week, ‘Dayo and I put the venerable-but-still-very-much-in-the-game Nokia E90 to use for imaging and video, and we were still awed by the quality of shots and clips we got from this device.

By the way, I still hold to my earlier position that the Nokia E90 is arguably still the best all-rounder. That guy rocks! I just wish Nokia would revamp that user interface.

Nokia has several other Symbian devices with amazing imaging capabilities. Until other manufacturers like Samsung and LG (both of whom are strong contenders in the camera game) roll out their Android phones, the Android platform currently has no competitors against Symbian when it comes to cameraphones.

It sure didn’t help that the first Android devices were from HTC – well known for less-than-stellar cameras on their devices.

I was discussing with Dayo yesterday, and he mentioned that he had come to realise that a phone without a QWERTY keyboard is not one he would consider as a primary device. He had used the Nokia 5800 for some time now (after a long romance with the E71), and despite finding excellent points about the phone, he just still could not get comfortable with the lack of a hardware QWERTY keyboard.

In other words, the lack of a hardware QWERTY keyboard is a deal breaker for him. He has since replaced the 5800 with the more humble Nokia E63, which meets his requirements more.

Deal breaker: any issue or factor that is significant enough to terminate a negotiation, esp. in business or politics

Dayo and I are clearly in the same class: text input on a mobile device is important to us. Late last year, I purchased a Samsung i900 Omnia in a moment of a streak of daring. Within 5 minutes of unboxing the device, I knew I had made a mistake. I needed QWERTY! I replaced the Omnia with the E90 and lived happily ever after.

What’s your deal breaker? Poor video playback? Lack of a good camera? Lack of a touchscreen?

You tell me.