Nokia N8 Pink

Just a few months after releasing its flagship multimedia mobile of 2010, Nokia has released a new and very pink version of the N8. Although there have been a few tiny physical changes, the pink N8 has exactly the same tech specs as the original N8. However, our test model came loaded with Symbian Anna, the updated version of Nokia's mobile OS that's due for release this summer. Let's take a look at what Symbian Anna brings to Nokia's handset.


Although Anna is essentially a fairly minor update to the Symbian OS, it does, slowly but surely, bring Symbian a little closer the other popular mobile operating systems of 2011.

While we're waiting for Nokia to release its new range of Windows Phone 7 handsets—which won't be coming before the last quarter of 2011—the firm is continuing to develop its custom Symbian OS and has promised to keep on doing so until 2016. Don't forget that Nokia is still a leading global mobile phone manufacturer, even if the firm's profits and market share are slowly being eaten away by the fast-growing and highly competitive smartphone market.

A major Symbian update known as 'Belle' is due for release in the latter half of 2011 and will bring, among other things, a notification bar for fast access to certain features. In the meantime, however, Nokia has released the more minor Anna update, which brings a few small new features to the interface.

Note that the pink N8 won't come pre-loaded with this new version of the OS and you'll have to wait until Anna is released towards the end of the summer to update your phone (Nokia C7, N8 and E7) via the Ovi Suite. What's more, our tests were carried out with a developers' version of Anna rather than the final version, so some things could still be set to change or to improve before the final update goes live.


With newly designed icons, a browser that's supposedly twice as fast, a full keyboard in portrait mode for SMS, smoother operation, messages displayed as conversations and an improved calendar, Anna (aka PR2) brings a few small changes to the Symbian interface. We'll be looking at all these new features and more in the photos below and the video above. All in all though, Anna does improve some features in the phone's interface, but it still can't match the smoothness or the simplicity of an iPhone, or the customisation options seen in Android handsets with the Sense (HTC) or TouchWiz (Samsung) interfaces. Apart from that, the new N8 Anna phone has a decent set of tech specs and a good battery life.