Last week, after much anticipation, Nokia released Symbian Anna, their update to Symbian^3 that packs features such as a portrait QWERTY keyboard, faster web browser, and an overall easier to use interface. Owners of the Nokia C7 were also given near field communication (NFC) capabilities; the NFC chip that was inside the C7 since it first started shipping was disabled because the software to make it work simply wasn’t ready on time. Nokia N8 owners also have something to be happy about with Anna, an updated camera interface and improved red eye reduction. Further tweaks to the Nokia N8 have just been announced on Nokia’s official corporate blog Nokia Conversations, and they’re available to users in the form of a 1.7 MB downloadable update that for now is labeled a beta, but it promises to increase the video recording capabilities from a maximum 720p resolution at 24 frames per second to 720p at 30 frames per second. Continuous autofocus has also been added, along with a grid overlay you can now use while recording video so you can make your clips look all the more professional.
There’s nothing really bad to say about this and we congratulate Nokia for not only keeping the N8 up to date, but also taking imaging incredibly seriously. We’ve yet to see one of their competitors match them in the camera department, which is saying a lot, but at the same time everyone else has moved to Android, so there’s one less reason to stick with a Symbian device. That being said, if taking pictures and capturing video is what you need out of your smartphone, and you use the smartphone portion of your handset for mainly talking and texting, then it’s impossible for us to recommend anything other than the N8.
We’re all curious though to see how the next generation iPhone will compete with what’s been the uncontested champion of camera phones since it first hit the market in the fall of 2010.