It seems like just yesterday (sarcasm intended, unless you’re an American user in which case that may be the case) that Symbian Anna was released on to our beloved Nokia N8, however Nokia have pulled Nokia Belle out of their bag of tricks and is releasing the latest and best Symbian OS over the next few days.
Availability will depend on your location around the world and your particular product code. If you don’t see the update available OTA (over the air) then check the Suite to see if it’s available there – if not then you’ll have to wait a few more days until you can get your hands on the eagerly awaited operating system.
If you haven’t read our 8 reasons to upgrade to Symbian Belle, i suggest you take a look as this operating system brings with it some really awesome updates – your phone will never (quite) be the same again – but much more amazing, user friendly and pleasing on the eye.
Upgrades to the OS include a sleek new design that looks much more polished then that of Symbian Anna. You’ll even get more home screens so you can put all of those must have widgets wherever you want, whenever you want – no more need for third party applications.
The addition of the new notifications tab means you can see all of the latest actions in all one central hub at the top of your screen. You literally have all of the information you need at your fingertips. The phone will now be much easier to navigate thanks to the new navigation at the bottom of the screen.
The phone will now support real multi-tasking and a much better lock screen than ever before. Those wanting to be able to view all of the information they need via the lock screen such as missed calls, text messages and such can now breathe a sigh of relief – it’s finally here!
There are lots of other cool little additions to the Nokia Belle update so check out the updates to see if it’s available for you!
Question to our readers: Already have the Nokia Belle update? If so what’s your product code? If you do have Nokia Belle (official) then let us know what you think of the update – was it worth the wait or was it a long wait for very little in return?
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28 Responses
It’s an old 0609 Belle from November 2011. Where are all those new widgets we’ve seen with some previously leaked Belle versions and on some official promotion of Belle videos/images?
Bookmark widget, Maps GPS widget, switch-off/on button widgets for 3G, etc. Official Belle doesn’t have any of these!
Any info on this? Please!
this is worth waiting interface have got much smoother than never before
belle update still not available for my n8 and product of my phone is 599255
The Belle os may bring “some awesome updates” but it also brings some Apps which appear to be locked in and which cannot be removed (CNN Video, Movie Teasers, Nat Geo to name but three). Trying the settings, installations already in.stalled route does not allow removal of these Apps which, in my case, are neither wanted nor needed.
While almost everything is going smoothly and Belle is really a big step forward for the N8, there is one problem: After upgrading the phone prompts always for the security at boot time and does not accept any code – right or wrong.
The good point is, just ignore the warning, the phone will work without problems. It is a inconvenience, but I could almost live with it, because I turn my phone off very seldom.
“…but much more amazing, user friendly and pleasing on the eye.” and “no more need for third party applications.”, you must be joking, right?
Sure it looks good with the default home screen setup, but it’s a horror for people wanting to keep it simple and functional. There is no common theming on the widgets and they’re all just as ugly on dark background – looks like something from The Wizard of Oz. The lack of simple, usable and stylish widgets for email, calendar and notifications render the homescreens unusable for me. Nice to know that there are six screens, as I can’t find proper use to even one.
One screen having a full screen calendar (similar to calendar app UI), one having only clock and notifications and one for email, music player etc. is what I’m after, but seems totally impossible. Except calendar I got close with Anna, now I laugh and bang my head with the phone.
A big disappointment to be honest. What’s with the HUGE widgets for the digital clock, email and player? And TEXT on icons? WTF. Serious UI fail.
thank you nokia. several ussues like ni automatic wify conrction. cat see what imtyoin now!!!!
help nokia mybrowser wont work owhen my wify on keeps saying connection errr!!!
More bugs coming up in Belle:
The phone keeps complaining about “Mobile data off” all the time. I know that, I turned it off by purpose in the taskbar. But no application is running, so what is this annoying warning good for? Interestingly, if I turn WiFi on, the warning disappears, but still no app is accessing the net anyway.
I seriously think about going back to Anna because of the many inconveniences/bugs in Nokia Belle.
Belle = Bugs evolving – longest list ever ???
in anna we can use virtual sound key for call – music and video but in bell only virtual key in music work and for call and video we shoud first use phone sound button then virtual sound key appear it is very bad
can it solve?
How to play these games in n8 bell ???
Tree Maker and Qvik Wooden Labyrinth 3D
plz help
I don’t get what the big hype was with belle, ugly widgets, lack of widgets…man its unbelievable how long we waited for this. I lost Joiku spot and advanced device lock functionality….a step down from anna if you ask me!
n8geeks plz answer
A follow up on my previous post : Im hating my N8 on Belle even more now.
1) If you do hack your phone and install Nokia pure font, it is poorly done, and many apps it wont fit in the allotted space right. Especially the calendar widget, where it slightly overlaps the time. FAIL.
2) You actually CAN close apps the way you used to with a menu click and “show open applications” – but you have to do it with the thumb breaking long press of the hardware button on the bottom left of the phone. Does nokia not yet understand that people HATE that button and dont want to use it?
3) I cant believe they took away the standard notifications widget. The operator services widget only works for calls. I HATE having the stupid window pop up in the middle of the screen when you have a message, etc, especially with no way to preview. FAIL FAIL FAIL
4) Not only is it slow all around, and you really cant use all 6 homescreens or it gets even slower, but the worst part is that the touch screen is no longer responsive. I even did a full delete data and restore, reinstall bell, etc, and it still sucks. You press a screen icon, and wait a couple of seconds, wondering if it registered. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Ridiculous.
5) Yup, still no way to switch via button push, instead you have to swipe constantly. Stoopid.
And more
6) opera mobile doesnt work for shat, and page loads wont scroll properly until fully loaded. Hate that. Big pages means you are stuck waiting. And the lack of touch screen sensitivity and responsiveness makes using the browser super annoying.
7) No delete icon at the bottom middle of mail. Unbelieveable. You have to use menu, delete. Stupid. And when you preview a message from the awful widget, you can only delete and go back to the widget, it wont let you scroll or go to the next message, unless you enter the app. Oy.
Why? Why? Why are we subjected to this crap? Did we not fork over enough money? WTF?
In Australia we are still waiting for the official Belle release. Nokia Australia keeps giving us the BS line that they are waiting for their corporate partners to be happy before they give us the best release possible. How much longer do we have to wait?
I am really happy with my N8, I am from México and just recently got the official update. But been using Belle for some time (tested those first Betas that where around the Internet). To be honest I never ever tried Anna so I can’t compare, it, I jumped from the original symbian ^3 to Belle . So far everything works as it should, and everything works better than those crappy betas that came before the official release. Maybe I am not using the phone as I should (developer on QT), because all the complaints in the comments, haven’t come up so far.
Symbian has always been a high end OS, and not user friendly, that I have to admit, but honestly, once you tweak your n8 (turn off some useless features), the phone works better than an iPhone.
I totally agree with “G” the mail widget is a nightmare, but it is still usable. I only use it for getting latest messages, to view my complete mail, I use a computer or a tablet.
Guys, this phone is not intended for common users, this is a power device, and as such, there are more things to just sticking with a mail reader phone aka iPhone.
Maybe since I am a developer I think different but basically I would say, if you don’t like an app, write your own.
I don’t agree that Symbian is not user friendly, The fact that it is user friendly is what attracted me to Nokia….In some regards, Belle has made the N8 a little less user friendly by Symbian standards.
it looks like a very smooth improvement, the only thing is that its so different from Anna version, i took some time to get used to belle
John, I can understand your liking the phone. It’s not all bad, and if it worked as advertised, Id like mine more. The reason Im bitching, and the reason you dont understand is that you never had Anna, so you are coming from the worthless Symbian 3 prior to that. My complaint is that there were lots of great things in Anna that disappeared, or were altered to make things worse. Makes no sense to me at all.
only got 1 problem with the new software
I cant for the life of me get into the OVI STORE,tried everything all different conections so I cannot download any apps from the store…
Can somebody pleeeeez help?
I would give Belle 4/5 stars. To get the balance, a. pl work with Google Maps to make in Belle friendly: my GoogleMaps crashes since Belle. Tips like keeping the Wifi on etc, does not work. b. Make work with MS to make Skype with video available for Nokia.
Not much to ask, eh?
Your Comments I have to say that I am not too impressed with Belle. My N8 is very slow at times and impossible to multitask. For example if I send a txt I can scroll to, say, use the web browser until the txt has cleared the phone whereas with Anna I could.
As for removing some ‘useless functionality’ to speed up the experience, as I am a mere mortal with little techie experience, I wouldn’t know where to start….help in this respect really welcome guys
I love the Belle update on my N8. I use all my 6 home screens and wish there where more. I think you should have the option to have as many or as little home screens as you like, not be limited to just 6 or 3 as it was with Anna. I am impressed by most aspects of the Belle update and think that if Nokia had released the N8 with this OS originally, it would have sold many more sets than it did. My only real gripe is the removal of the search bar from the web browser.
My TV-out is not working anymore! It did with Anna.. I used it a lot, since I don’t have an HDMI-TV.. I heard it’s a bug, but it’s still not fixed with an update!Your Comments
why my N8 appier the drives: P is not enough memory?
hi my n8 works well other then the web crashes a bit?? if u want more home screens u can download vhome 3.92 ovi store makes first home screen lots better! I have 13 screens
just thought i would say good phone
Fantastic goods from you,especially “Symbian Anna was released on to our beloved Nokia N8, however Nokia have pulled Nokia Belle out of their bag of tricks and is releasing the latest and best Symbian OS over the next few days.”