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.
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Comments 15
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Mark Anderson 18 August, 2010 17:42
So... what you're saying is that Play.com - who have a history of getting release dates wrong - got it wrong again and that Nokia - who have quoted September for shipping for months now - were... uh... right all along?
So not slipped at all then has it?
Incidentally Know Your Mobile have done a review on a near release prototype. They think it's awesome and it definitely puts Nokia back in the game.
Mambo 18 August, 2010 19:57
THe 'Know Your Mobile' review is one of the most rubbish 'reviews' I've ever read. Not even an iota of proof that they really had their hands on the phone, even if they had. No pictures, no sample photos, nothing. And worse, it sounds biased and fawning even if they are not biased. An utterly crap review. AVOID
Anonymous 18 August, 2010 20:33
Bulls***, the Know Your Mobile review is quite accuratev and they certainly have played around with the device. N8 indeed appears to be a great phone, although I would wait for the Nokia's real flaghship N9 .
Mark Anderson 18 August, 2010 20:47
"THe 'Know Your Mobile' review is one of the most rubbish 'reviews' I've ever read."
Jesus, kid. What did they do to you - p**s in your cereal?
It sounded pretty accurate to me.
anonymous 19 August, 2010 11:47
I'm taking the KYM review with a pinch of salt for the time being, as most of the information they presented could easily be found out through research and not much use of the mobile.
The touch screen's responsiveness was for the most part ignored, typing was "good", but the keyboard unmentioned, and in the camera department I'd be surprised if they'd actually seen the quality of the video footage in comparison the iphone's, as they seemed to say the video equalled the hd iphone recording, whereas if anyone with half decent eyesight looks at the N8 video quality demo's and the iphone video quality demo's you'd be hard pushed to say they looked the same.
Mark Anderson 19 August, 2010 12:27
"The touch screen's responsiveness was for the most part ignored"
Erm... hello?
"Typing, browsing and navigating on the Nokia N8 is superb and Nokia has really outdone itself in this department. There is no lag whatsoever, scrolling through menus and folders is smooth and typing is an absolute breeze. So much so, we’d probably say the Nokia N8 has the best touchscreen we’ve ever used, bar the iPhone, which is really saying something."
And, just to be clear... you're talking about viewing videos of demos as opposed to people who have actually used both devices?
Well Ok then!
I don't see what the issue is here - new Nokia phone has good hardware and software and although not as polished as an iPhone is close enough to not make a difference plus you don't have to be iTunes' bitch to use it.
Hardly controversial, is it? Or are we just supposed to be rubbishing Nokia cos it's trendy with the checked shirt and overly tight jeans brigade to do so?
Anonymous 19 August, 2010 13:58
I wear checked shirts and tight jeans, but I love Nokias! This looks like a great phone, but Nokia really do need to sort their release schedules out - I'm all for not bring a phone to market before it's ready, but the details of this came out far too early to keep the excitement going. You can only tease for so long before people just get bored and by an HTC instead...
Anonymous 19 August, 2010 13:59
Buy. I meant buy, not by.
billfred 19 August, 2010 16:10
oh dem, symbian fail. The N9's hardware looks so amazing though!
Anonymous 20 August, 2010 00:59
hopefully it will be good and nokia can get back in the game, i have had some great nokias in the past like the n95 8gb which jst was great but lacked the looks. I do own an iphone 4 which is the only other to have pleased as much as previous nokias and if they get back in the market i think its fair to say there well worth buying, they jst need to compete at the same level as the other phones out there.
Ans sort out the symbian so it can match android and ios
billfred 20 August, 2010 10:41
or how about just use android? or meego?
Anonymous 20 August, 2010 12:28
Oh yh and meego but stop hating ios is gd as well
billfred 20 August, 2010 15:52
I don't, it's never going to be on a Nokia device in eleventy-seven years. And android is also wayyyy better =] so glad I switched from the iPhone.
anonymous 20 August, 2010 18:42
CNET has already done a hands-on preview of the device, and it has pics http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/nokia-n8-review-hands-on-with-symbian-3-49305908
Anonymous 23 August, 2010 22:24
wow from the hands on it looks dam good.
Ahh personally a prefer ios but that doesnt mean to say android is worse in my opinion, end of the day its just personal prefrence so no arguement. This is my first iphone and its been the best or like a said on of the best phones I have had :)