Nokia N8 Review....

 As perhaps many of you do too, and with blogging being such an excellent marketing tool, I occasionally get emails from companies asking if I would like to review their products, and if so, perhaps I would like to write my thoughts about the item on my blog. Some of these emails I take great interest in, some I don't, and the products offered for review are not for me, or in keeping with my blog. Well, upon opening a parcel that had been delivered to my doorstep, I remembered an email I was sent via Nokia, asking if I would like to have a little play with the new Nokia N8 and their Ovi software. Now, I feel like I could possibly be the only girl on the planet with what I call, an old fashioned handset, iphones and the like seeming far too gadgetry ( made up word ) for my abilities, so stuck with my old pink mobile, with proper little buttons. 

 Of course I was overwhelmed to be given the opportunity to review a *smart* phone and couldn't wait to get playing....

Here you shall find out how un gadgetry I really am, as it took me two hours to work out how to plug it in, though am a quick learner, and soon got to grips with setting the battery up and roughly how it worked.  The handset itself is in the classic black colour and being a girly girl, I knew I could soon jazz it up with a pretty cover. It really feels very smooth and sturdy and almost like it could easily take one or two decent knocks in it's lifetime. It has a 12 mega pixel camera with inbuilt flash, which I have to say is superb, and the video is pretty good too.

Having never had a touch screen phone before, I really have nothing to compare the quality to, but as far as I can tell, is bright, clear and although being a novice touch screen user it did seem pretty easy to use. One thing that did get me a little perplexed was the sim card. With this handset coming its way from America, it's sim card was of the international variety, and just didn't seem to work within the U.K. After a little fiddle and thinking, I thought popping my sim card from my old handset may do the trick, and indeed it did seem to work. Now all I needed was an internet connection. After some help from  Violet Posy who also received the same handset, I realised I could use my own home wifi to use the software. Ovi, Nokia's name for their software on the handset has all I would ever need, and more, social applications, games, music, and a store where you can purchase many other applications for the handset. One application that really interested me was the Ovi Maps.

Ovi Maps is something that turns the Nokia N8 into a rival for an expensive TomTom navigation gadget. Ovi Maps is a GPS solution that’ll let you search for places to go and tell you how to get there, turn by turn. Ovi maps was pre installed on the handset and is a free application. As long as you’re connected to the web, it’ll seek out whatever you need. You can browse nearby attractions and much more, my favourite, shops, and also restaurants hotels etc. Ovi maps also comes with a selection of voice packs that can guide you from one place to another, and these are fun to listen too, your chosen voice pack can be downloaded from the Ovi maps servers. You can even record your own or a friends/loved one’s voice for use in the Sat Nav Ovi Maps navigation, which is quite straight forward and fun to do. Miss. Poppins volunteered to be our voice, she had to record 50 or so commands, ie turn left, turn right, take second exit on the left, etc etc, in a quiet place and each command could be reviewed, the recording took approximately 5 minutes. Once recorded the voice pack can then be downloaded to Ovi maps, and when opened, one selects own voice and then you can all have a giggle listening to your own sat nav voice commands on journeys.

So, for me, I have to say the N8 is somewhat of a *wow* handset, I know everyone seems to be talking about the iphone, and I am sure is pretty lovely to own, but for now I think I shall get to know this sleek, smart fella a little better, and maybe find there are one or two more fancy tricks up his sleeve....