You might remember than when we reviewed the Nokia N8, we weren’t exactly taken with it — a joyless interface spoilt an otherwise ace bundle of hardware, causing us to award it just three stars out of five.
We stand by our verdict, but lots of you got in touch to explain exactly why we were wrong about the N8. So when it came to compiling the shortlist for our Greatest Gadget of the 21st Century tournament, we thought it was only proper to include the N8, seeing as so many of you felt so strongly about Nokia’s Symbian-toting smartphone.
But mid-way through the first round of voting, the Nokia N8 is currently being roundly trounced by the Pioneer Kuro TV. The N8 holds a dismal 23% of the votes in its first match-up, with the Kuro holding onto the remaining 77 percenty bits with an iron fist.
Why is this happening? Well, we have a couple of theories. First off, the Kuro is undeniably a mind-blowingly good telly, with the deepest blacks and most retina-scorching picture quality we’ve ever seen in a TV set. Indeed, our home cinema guru Ian Morris made a very convincing case for the Kuro winning the whole darn tournament.
But we know that no matter how cool a TV is, it’s not going to get the same degree of attention as the latest, greatest smartphone. The N8 isn’t starving for column inches, having been released only a few weeks ago, so the conclusion we’re led to is that voters are indeed weighing up the comparative value and importance of each gadget, and have found the N8 wanting.
The fight’s not over yet — there’s still time for N8 or Symbian fans to mobilise and sway the voting, but it’s certainly one of the more interesting trends in the competition so far, and certainly not one we expected.
What do you think? Is Nokia’s much-maligned handset trailing unfairly? Or perhaps there’s a secret society of Kuro fans manipulating the vote from a bunker on the moon? We want to hear your thoughts/crackpot theories in the comment or on our Facebook wall.
- Go to this page to cast your vote for your favourite out of these two products, then make sure you click ‘next match-up’ to go through all the contests.
- Every time you vote, you’ll be entered into a draw to win an Arcam rCube, a BlackBerry Bold 9700, a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and a MiFi from Three or one of ten Idapt i4 multi-gadget chargers