Related Articles
Nokia fans desperate to get their hands on the N8, the company’s latest Symbian smart phone, will probably have to wait until October to finally play with it.
Last week online retailer Play.com said we would be able to get our hands on the N8 by the end of August, but has now changed that date to 8 October.
Play.com will be selling the phone for £420, £80 less than an unlocked iPhone 4 and around the same price as Amazon briefly listed the HTC Desire HD, which is expected to launch next month.
Play.com said the recommended retail price would be £480, though we would guess many retailers will sell it cheaper than that.
Although the October release date is not set in stone, it looks as though the N8 will finally ship to the UK around then, as Nokia has already officially announced in the US that it expects to ship the smart phone by the end of September.
The N8 is a long-awaited sign as to whether a new range of Nokia devices will be able to compete in a high-end smart phone market it has largely been squeezed out of.
Device manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC have already stolen a march with some well received Android smart phones such as the Galaxy S and Desire, while RIM will have a new BlackBerry out, and Apple’s iPhone 4 has outridden its antenna trouble to achieve monstrous sales — it’s still out of stock in many places. We also await Windows Phone 7 around Christmas time.
Technically speaking, the N8 does look impressive, with its 12-megapixel camera or AMOLED touchscreen. What’s most important is how the new Symbian upgrade works. Nokia will hope that it’s good enough to put up a fight with Android and Apple’s iOS, which are constantly improving.
