Nokia N8 fights back with heavenly HD video sample (updated)

Nokia is doing its best to rewind the negative spin placed on its flagship N8 after one of its children went missing. As part of the effort, it just published the first un-retouched 720p video captured by a pre-production N8′s Carl Zeiss lens as followup to the first sample images released yesterday. We downloaded the H.264 video’s .MP4 container to view natively (that’s a 600 pixel wide screencap above) and sure enough came away impressed — though we’re curious to hear the original audio that was replaced by a dramatic soundtrack. Now, we’re not saying it’s better or worse than other similarly equipped smartphones shooting well-lit video — without seeing side-by-side video of the same footage it’s difficult to tell. But Nokia, a company known for using decent optics, sensors, and flash units in its N-series devices, certainly won’t be disappointing impromptu photogs making their first jump into Symbian^3. Just imagine what Nokia hardware coupled with a killer user experience could do. Could do. Embedded video sample after the break.

Update: All About Symbian has a marvelously detailed breakdown of the N8′s camera that dives deeply into the phone’s optics, mic, flash, and more.