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Reports emerge of major global hardware defect in Nokia N8

by Scott Bicheno on 17 November 2010, 18:05

Tags: Nokia (NYSE:NOK)

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The last thing it needs

We have had the latest Nokia high-end smartphone in for review for the past couple of weeks. At the start of this week we attempted to turn it on and got no response from it. We left it charging via the proprietary Nokia charger for a while, but still nothing. No success either via micro-USB or any combination and duration of button-pressing.

Initially we were tempted to overlook this as an isolated aberration until we saw a tweet from Russian mobile phone blogger Eldar Murtazin, who Nokia famously took legal action against when he got hold of a pre-production Nokia N8 back in April. "N8 are dying across the world" he tweeted.

Still, we wouldn't go rushing into a story like this without further corroboration. We have attempted to speak to Nokia directly about this but had yet to hear back at time of writing. So we had a look at the Nokia support forums and found this thread: My Nokia N8 is dead,can't turn on and can't charging.

From that thread alone, it's clear that tens of people from the UK to Malaysia are having what appear to be identical issues. In the forums some people have had success from putting it in the fridge - implying there is an issue with an overheating sensor. Other people have found charging another Nokia phone, then switching, works.

Elsewhere some bloke saw fit to make a video of his N8 angst and upload it onto YouTube - see below. In the name of balance we've also embedded a video from Nokia showing the lengths it goes to to test the N8.

Nokia has published a short FAQ answer to freezing problems: hold down the power button for eight seconds. Of course we've tried that and no luck. There's also a forum post from a Nokia moderator warning users not to literally freeze their phone in an attempt to solve the problem. Good advice, no doubt, but we could see no sign of an official solution, or even acknowledgement of the problem.

There's no way of telling how widespread an issue this is right now. A couple of keyword searches on Twitter haven't revealed much in the way of tweets reporting this problem, and we have to assume it's only affecting a small minority of users. But it happened to us, and if we'd bought this N8 we'd be pretty unamused. We'll keep trying to get clarification from Nokia on the matter.

 

 

 



HEXUS Forums :: 7 Comments

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The N900 also had various charging issues. It seemed to stem from that fact the usb port on the phone actually broke. I think alot of people (hardcore techies) concluded that the port was not securely attached to the phone and would come loose or even off. Obviously stopping the phone from charging.

If the N8 goes down in the book as a hardware failure as well as software failure then Nokia can kiss good bye to the high end market. I think alot of people don't hold Nokia in high regard when it comes to choosing a new phone, this latest news will only act as more nails into the coffin for Nokia.

PS My HTC Deisre HD rocks and has no software or hardware issues - Replaced my old trusty Nokia E71 - but wouldn't buy Nokia at the moment.
Brewster0101
The N900 also had various charging issues. It seemed to stem from that fact the usb port on the phone actually broke. I think alot of people (hardcore techies) concluded that the port was not securely attached to the phone and would come loose or even off. Obviously stopping the phone from charging.

If the N8 goes down in the book as a hardware failure as well as software failure then Nokia can kiss good bye to the high end market. I think alot of people don't hold Nokia in high regard when it comes to choosing a new phone, this latest news will only act as more nails into the coffin for Nokia.

PS My HTC Deisre HD rocks and has no software or hardware issues - Replaced my old trusty Nokia E71 - but wouldn't buy Nokia at the moment.

each to there own i think, i have used nokia s alot over the years, recently decided to get Htc Wildfire… worst phone hardware and software wise i have ever used… and all htcs fault, for example htc sync that doesnt even detect the phone…. awful however my gfs 5830 is great touchscreen phone (best resistive i have ever used btw)

Shame nokia are getting bad press but if they use MeeGo well next year all will come back.
Gooooooooooo Symbian!
Cozwin
Htc Wildfire… worst phone hardware and software wise i have ever used

Care to elaborate any further? I had trouble with HTC sync as well, but otherwise I find the Wildfire superb…
chis
Care to elaborate any further? I had trouble with HTC sync as well, but otherwise I find the Wildfire superb…

I cant use htc sync with outlook 2010 x64 version. Had no problems with Outlook 2007 though.
I don't think there is really much to complain about when it comes to htc and their android phones. There alot of nit pickers out here who seem to complain about anything.
Saw on one forum that someone wanted to take their new desire hd back because the camera lense Was not 100% centre in the camera hole. No ones is, but he wanted a replacement. Sad