Nokia N8 officially unveiled

After months of leaks and tidbits of information trickling in, Nokia have unveiled their N8 handset. The N8 packs in a 12 MP camera and the new Symbian 3 OS. Read on for all the official details.

Available in a wide range of colours, its a pretty nifty looking phone. Looking a little like the N97, the N8 however is a red-blooded capacitive touchscreen phone, with no QWERTY slider and only a smattering of hardware buttons.

The camera is looking pretty special too. Not only can it shoot 12 MP stills, it can also record and edit footage in 720p HD resolution, which leaves the iPhone’s camera trailing miles behind. The N8 comes with a HDMI output so that you can throw your videos and pictures straight onto the a big screen with minimal fuss. There’s also support for Dolby Digital Plus surround sound too, which should go some way towards sorting out the tinny sound you usually associate with mobile video.

There’s plenty of room for storing photos, vids and songs on-board too. 16GB of on-board memory comes as standard, with the opportunity to expand that to as much as 48GB through a microSD slot.

The Symbian 3 software however is a bit of a missed opportunity it seems. While multi-touch functionality and pinch-to-zoom features are now all over the handset, the interface on the whole is more or less unchanged from previous Symbian versions. Great if you love Symbian, less so if you were hoping Nokia were going to make a big Android/iPhone-battling statement, which they probably should have considering the meandering fortunes of their smartphones thus far.

As you’d expect from a flagship smartphone these days, there are plenty of apps built in. Facebook and Twitter integration is included, feeding straight into your homescreen, as well as smart web TV app, while the popular Ovi Maps programs also feature.

Set to hit stores in Q3 of 2010, expect to pay somewhere in the region of £320 for the Nokia N8.