I just got an N8 3 days ago. Symbian ^3 is a major improvement over previous versions. I just got rid of my N82 with Symbian 3.2 and my Nokia 5230 (traded to get my N8)with Symbian 5th so I have recent experience with the Symbian of old. The UI is faster and the games are better due to the Broadcome GPU, the OS has more functionality and the hardware combination is rock solid.

The E7 will be great as well. People complain about Symbian's UI and most have never used it, especially the new version. You don't like the font, change it, don't like the background, change it, don't like the widgets, change them, don't like the icons, change them, don't like the organizational structure, change it. The UI is customizable and speedy due to the new Symbian^3 GPU UI acceleration. The Symbian OS core has been updated with new features on top of the industry leading feature set of of previous Symbian versions. People act like they are incapable of learning a different OS yet they forget that at one time they had to learn how to use iOS, Android, Blackberry, WebOS and Windows Mobile/Phone. It is what the OS can do, how it OPERATES, should be most important.

Enjoy it for yourself.