The legendary Nokia N8 is about to be revived thanks to a new custom firmware project called Reborn, which breathes new life into Nokia’s classic phone.
The revival comes as many of us may have long forgotten our old Symbian phones, a move expected to restore the N8’s lost former glory.
This Nokia phone made a name for itself in 2010 for its impressive hardware, featuring a “touchscreen monobloc” design with a powerful 12 MP Carl Zeiss camera and a Xenon flash that could rival many modern smartphones.
The reason for its decline was Symbian, an operating system originally designed for physical buttons rather than touch input.
As the iPhone and Android began to dominate the market, Nokia tried to fight back with the Nokia Belle, an improved user interface, and by the time it was ready, the update servers had started to shut down.
This could be evident if you somehow find an N8 today and are annoyed that it’s slow, outdated and full of broken app links.
But now over fifteen years later, the developer community has stepped in and is introducing the new ROM that fixes the primary issues of the original Nokia N8 device and is based on Nokia Belle, the last version of Symbian released by Nokia.
The developers have also designed a working, up-to-date app store, making the N8 a usable phone that was previously just a collectible, and finally allowing it to showcase its capabilities.
A recent video of the nostalgic Nokia N8 is out there delighting millions of eyes, demonstrating assembling a working N8 and installing the new software, revealing a slick interface and a fully operational camera.
However, if anyone happens to decide to try this, they should have a backup plan, as recent projects have shown that Windows 10 drivers can dispute older Nokia flashing tools, leading to a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
It’s also worth noting that many N8s may have degraded hardware, but their redesigned design allows parts to be swapped to create a fully functional device.
