Nokia N8 just a soft toy for Apple, Google

Nokia just released an awfully sweet little camera. It fits into a shirt pocket and features a 12 megapixel sensor, xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens. If only the rest of the wireless phone wrapped around it, the new N8, were as good.

The world's largest smartphone maker has a lot riding on the N8, which it's rolling out worldwide this month.

The Finnish company has been haemorrhaging market share — down to 37.4 per cent in the second quarter, from 45 per cent a year earlier — recently replaced its chief executive and has announced the departures of two key managers.

The N8 represents Nokia's biggest effort thus far to right the ship. And though it improves on previous offerings, it doesn't come close to matching the state of the art as defined by Apple's iPhone4 and the best devices from Motorola, HTC and Samsung that use Google's Android operating system.

Rise and fall

Smartphones rise or fall on their hardware, software and the apps and services available. The N8 does well on the first and decently on the third; where it falls short is on No. 2.

The N8's software, called Symbian3, is an updated version of the software that's been powering Nokia phones for several years. But "updated" isn't the same as "up to date," and while it has some nice touches it's still behind the times. For example, when you write an e-mail or send a text message and hold the phone in portrait — that is, an upright — position, the touch screen defaults to a telephone-style numeric keypad.

Down memory lane

For some users, that will be a trip down Wireless-Phone Memory Lane, back to those halcyon days when typing the letter "s" meant hitting the "7" key four times. Most people, however, will likely be annoyed at always having to flip the phone sideways to get a Qwerty keyboard.

The N8 also sometimes requires you to go through a multi-step process to perform what ought to be a simple task. Answering an e-mail, for instance, requires you to first hit an "Options" button, then choose "Reply" from a menu.

And the software feels sluggish at times, such as when sliding between the three available home screens. Physically, the phone is mostly impressive. The scratch- resistant, anodised-aluminium case makes it both look and feel like a premium product.

Not all of the five colours are to my taste — bright orange, anyone? — but to each their own. The phone feels solid and good in the hand and, at 4.8 ounces, weighs just about the same as iPhone 4 even though it's thicker.

The reason for that extra thickness is also the most impressive thing about the N8: the camera, which protrudes slightly from the back. It's among the best I've seen in a mobile phone.