Nokia N8 in your own words: A reader review retrospective

The Nokia N8 was the most divisive, controversial mobile of the last year and our fabulous readers -- that's you! -- had plenty to say on the matter, both sticking up for the Finnish flagship phone and utterly tearing it to shreds. Here's the best of a brilliant bunch of user reviews.

Engines thinks Nokia has blown it: "This was supposed to be Nokia's latest and greatest but it is just so full of problems that it should not have been released onto the market." Marcin Szyjduk agrees: "The phone would be quite good but it crashes like five times a day or crashes for a long time like two-three days! I seriously don't understand how Nokia could launch that phone!"

Some, however, found their dream phone. "It's great with everything and working great, it's the best multimedia phone ever. It's so beautiful and very fast with a good battery life and the camera is just perfect," gushes Ozhin Williams.

Inn gadget couldn't be happier with the phone, but was less pleased with our review: "This is a fully loaded smartphone and NO other phone comes even close to this one. Comparing this to iPhone and saying it's not as usable is something I would expect it from a layman, but certainly CNET seems to have found a new low in tech reporting."

Andrew Grimshaw is thrilled: "The camera is one of the best I have ever seen integrated into a phone." The camera is undoubtedly the best thing about the N8, but is it the only good thing? "Eventually I got so frustrated I simply stopped using it and bought myself an iPhone 4 -- best decision ever -- though I do miss the camera," says Peter Wilson. "People giving 5 stars are hard working salesmen," writes Lamarr, rather cynically.

We found the phone's software unintuitive, and so it proved for many of you. "To go back [in the browser]," writes Nigel Plummer, "you have to go into a menu then hit 'back' which gives you a choice of your last screens. You then have to choose the one you want, hit 'select' then confirm that the page can reload. All that just to go back!"

We'll give the last word to The Leif, as he puts it so succinctly: "A living nightmare. I received the device for free on an upgrade, delivered to my door at 09.45, 25 hours later I sent it back. Awful. Even for free. DON'T GO THERE."

In spite of all the controversy, your user ratings came out exactly the same as ours: an average of three stars. Maybe we were right all along. It's always great to know your thoughts, so why not write your own user review? Speak your brains!