Legendary Nokia N8 phone coming back to life in 2026, thanks to THIS firmware project

The legendary Nokia N8 is about to be revived thanks to a new custom firmware project called Reborn, which is breathing new life into Nokia’s classic phone.

The revival comes as many of us might have long forgotten our old Symbian phones, a move which is expected to restore the N8’s lost former glory.

This Nokia phone made a mark in 2010 for its impressive hardware, featuring a “touchscreen monoblock” design with a powerful 12MP Carl Zeiss camera and a Xenon flash that could rival many contemporary smartphones.

The reason for its decline became Symbian, an operating system originally designed for physical buttons rather than touch input.

As iPhone and Android began to dominate the market, Nokia tried to fight back with Nokia Belle, an enhanced user interface, and by the time it was ready, the update servers had started shutting down. 

This could be evident if you somehow find an N8 today and get irked since it is slow, outdated, and filled with broken app links.

But now over fifteen years later, the developer community has stepped in, introducing the new ROM that addresses 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 functioning, updated app store, making the N8 a usable phone which was formerly a mere collectable, finally allowing it to showcase its capabilities.

A recent video of the nostalgic Nokia N8 is out there pleasing millions of eyeballs, demonstrating assembling a working N8 and installing the new software, revealing a smooth interface and a fully operational camera.

But if somebody, by any chance, decides to try this, they must 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 noteworthy that many N8s may have deteriorated hardware, but their revamped design allows to swap parts to create a fully functional device.