Nokia N8 review

Nokia's new flagship phone arrives with an arsenal of media features

The definitive Nokia N8 review
The definitive Nokia N8 review

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Video is in the same league as the camera on the Nokia N8 - we're talking HD video recording and a decent smattering of features designed to give you the best video possible.

The settings on offer aren't as extensive as on the camera mode, but that's to be expected.

White balance and colour manipulation are on offer, which are among the most important for setting the scene.

What is impressive is the sound recording - while the HD video looks a little choppy at times, the sound recorded thanks to front and back cameras is full and accurate, far better than the likes of the Samsung Wave and Galaxy S.

The night mode is odd; it's still really clear and bright, but the lack of frame rate leads to very strange footage, so it's a shame a dedicated video light wasn't included by Nokia.

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It's more about the power of the image capture on the Nokia N8 – check out the world's smallest stop-motion animation filmed using a high-power lens and the N8 to show what's possible with this camera.

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However, don't go thinking it's the world's best HD camcorder on a mobile phone – the iPhone 4 is easily its equal, although we'd imagine the superior optics on the Nokia N8 would give it a slight edge to the highly-tuned eye.

But either way, the Nokia N8 has a fantastic camera performance, which we'd hope it would do, given the Finns has been boasting about the HD powers of the N8 for nearly half a year now.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.