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With a total of 43 Nokia handsets, 5 HTC, 1 Sony, 1 Alcatel, 1 Ericsson, 1 Blackberry, and 1 iPhone, George claims to have owned a total of 53 headsets over the last 13 and a half years! Which means an average of a new phone every 3 months or so.

Very typical Lebanese eh!

On a serious note, all the handsets I’ve owned over the past 13 years were Nokia as well, except for the first one which was a big fat Nokia D160 that used to run on 4 AA rechargeable batteries!

Earlier in March Nokia Lebanon lent me an N8 device to try out and write a review about it. I’ve been using the phone for over a month now and I have to tell you this, it’s GOOD.

Camera:

First things first, the N8 rocks a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and auto-focus, and that’s what I loved the most about this phone. The images it produces are just so detailed and natural, and you’ll probably have so much fun with the panorama tool that Nokia offers for free via the OVI store. You can check the N8 flickr group to check by yourself how good can its camera be.

Display:

The N8′s 3.5″ display might not be the best in the market, but you can easily watch a movie on it if you’re on a flight or something, that’s how good the colors look on it, let alone using applications or previewing the camera photos.

Keyboard & touchscreen:

The last touch screen phone I’ve used from Nokia was the N97 which had a quite disappointing resistive screen, so I personally noticed a big improvement with the current capacitive screen on the N8, but unfortunately you still cannot rely on it if you’re the type of person who texts a lot. So I wish the N8 had room for a hardware keyboard like the E7.

Multitasking:

The N8′s operating system, symbian ^3, was built to handle as much simultaneously open applications as possible. You can safely browse the internet while you’re listening to music, having your e-mail open, and maybe a Facebook or Twitter client as well in the background.

Satellite navigation:

While other phones offer a built-in GPS chip and leaves you on your own to search for a navigation solution, with the N8 and other Nokia phones you’ll get OVI Maps pre-installed with free navigation. I’ve been using OVI maps ever since I purchased the E72 last year, but experiencing it on the N8′s 3.5″ display was a treat!

What I also liked:

The HDMI-out capabilities and the ability to connect to a USB flash drive through the dongle that ships with the phone.

N8 vs iPhone 4:

Everyone who saw the N8 with me had the same question, how does it compare to the iPhone 4? I actually don’t think there’s a definite winner, it all depends on what you’re expecting to get from your device. If it’s all about games and entertainment, then you should go for an iPhone, but for everything else I’m pretty sure the N8 is up to the challenge.

Overall:

Would I keep it if I had the chance to? Yes, particularly for its superb camera and display, although I’ll be missing the hardware keyboard on my E72!

I personally liked the one performed by the Beirut Duty Free more. I salute the efforts made by the organizers for Nokia’s flash mob, but I would have preferred it to be more natural. It’s not like I’m an expert in making viral videos and stuff, but there’s really no need to perform sophisticated dances, keep it simple like the Dabke in the airport, and allow people to join instead of stressing on the security guards to keep them away of the dancers.

Yesterday I got engaged along with few other people in a fun activity by Nokia Lebanon called “Search for 7″, to win a new Nokia E7 (which I ended up not winning at the end!! ).

The thing consisted of receiving a clue by e-mail every an hour or so, pointing us to a certain location in Beirut where we’ll have the opportunity to grab the E7 for free. The first clue was useless, while the second one indicated that the E7 will be waiting for us at 6AM Hawaii time (that’s 7PM Beirut time) in the location they’ll be hinting for.

The third clue just contained the below photo that looked to me a bit like Joe Pena’s in Gemmayze (which turned to be wrong later!).

The last clue, which made it easy for everyone, contained a QR Code, which after scanning it with my phone said “Meet us tonight at Pacifico to experience the new generation of communicators”.

And so I headed to Pacifico, had some fun with other contestants and some people from Nokia but eventually had to leave early…

Anyway, the good thing is that “Search for 7″ will be open to the public starting next this week and for six consecutive weeks, where everyone in Lebanon will get a chance to solve the clues and win a brand new E7. So make sure to stay tuned to their Facebook page for upcoming details on the contests!

Update:
I just checked Nokia Lebanon Facebook page and noticed that they have already started giving clues for an E7 that will be given away tomorrow April 2nd! Good luck hunting

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of today’s sunset when I saw how colorful it was, and wishing I was out of the office somewhere near the sea with my DSLR.

November usually carries the best times to shoot sunsets in Lebanon, but unfortunately the sun sets so early at 4:30PM nowadays, leaving too few opportunities for employees like me who like shooting photos.

Never thought we would see similar ads in Lebanon, but I got this lovely ad for the Nokia E72 in my e-mail today and it really made my day!

The ad is part of a global campaign by Nokia to position their new device as an alternative to BlackBerry, I’m glad Nokia Lebanon had the guts to use it in Lebanon.

This actually reminded me of a couple of video I saw last, where in the first video BlackBerry literally shot Apple, and in the second video Apple responded with a cool line.