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Had this phone come out earlier this year, during what we might refer to as the pre-EVO era, its 720p video, spectacular camera, and high-end construction would have returned Nokia to the title of smartphone leader all on their lonesome.

The Nokia N8 excels as a camera phone, and the improvements of Symbian 3 make it one of the company's best smartphones to date. However, it still has its shortcomings and an expensive price tag, making it a hard sell for the North American market.

Had the N8 launched at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, before the explosion of Android slate devices and the iPhone 4, the N8 would have clearly been the best smartphone with little competition.

The Nokia N8 excels as a camera-phone, and the improvements of Symbian 3 make it one of the company's best smartphones to date. However, it still has its shortcomings and an expensive price tag.

With MeeGo (or, indeed, Android) the N8 could’ve been a clear winner; with Symbian^3, Nokia has to persuade users that the N8′s undoubtable abilities outweigh its particular compromises.

The N8 is the slimmest, best-looking and most usable Nokia touchscreen phone yet. But, sadly, it's still not that great.

The Nokia N8 is a good smartphone, a very good smartphone - but it feels like a well-optimised touchscreen version of older handsets rather than the superphone reboot Nokia needs.

The N8 puts the Nseries back to the top where it belongs. Nokia can be proud but they must know it’s just the beginning. Right now they have a winning cameraphone set in pole position. It will be a while before they have one phone to rule them all, if ever.

The N8's not perfect - far from it. But its unique selling points are... so unique that its other 'flaws' (mainly in software - UI and cloud integration, rather than in hardware) can be readily overlooked.

Nokia's N8 has a fantastic camera and crisp screen, but its slow processor and Symbian operating system hold the device back from mainstream success.

Every time I pick up the N8 I think to myself how amazing it would be if the beautifully-designed Windows Phone 7 was running on this beautifully-designed Nokia hardware. Maybe someday we'll see.