Or claim warranty with Nokia and post it to them. Mine is a Korean one that works fine. The first time I rotated the camera it felt really tight and I wasn't sure it was supposed to go that far, but now it's nice and smooth, although it still feels like one of the data cables, rather than the plastic case, is preventing it from rotating more than 180-degrees. This still a tad unsettling.

The one I returned recently to CompUSA had this problem. Turn it to use as a 'camera' (point away from you) and the image is upside down.

The two units my brother and I bought both have this issue. We'll be making warranty claims. Nokia should probably do a recall. This new device has been a letdown so far, not only because of this but for a number of other reasons as well.

What other reasons ?
I am loving mine so far, this being the only issue (hardware speaking) I had with it.

A recall is unnecessary due to the small scope of the problem (sorry, can't divulge details). There will be occasional "clumps" of bad webcams but not entire lots or shipments. I realize it won't seem that way to someone returning one and getting another, but the problem really shouldn't be that pervasive and all the bad webcams in the wild should be coralled soon.

I'd also like to see what other problems you've encountered.

Texrat, thanks for the heads-up. I noticed the non-flipped image in my webcam preview before this thread surfaced, and wrote it off as a design flaw (albeit an obvious one) rather than a production problem.

Since my N800 is now languishing somewhere in the Huntsville repair queue with a broken kickstand, I called 1-888-NOKIA-2U hoping they might also fix the image orientation before shipping it back to me.

Alas, even though they signed for my Express Mail delivery at 10:30am last Friday, the unit still hasn't been entered in the repair database, internally or online. The telephone rep claims there are no repair notes on the camera issue (which doesn't surprise me), and they can't add it to my repair ticket until I show up in the system. *sigh*

Can you offer any magic words, QA codes, etc. to help ensure that the camera flip gets handled as a bona fide hardware defect? Call me paranoid, but I can imagine "We're sorry, sir, but you've already told us you dropped your phone..."

This probably isn't the best thread to post a list of problems, but since two people have asked:

1. Broken camera flip switch (on both the N800s I've used so far)

2. Whenever the N800 makes ANY sound, it makes a very quiet (almost inaudible, but definitely real) hiss for about 2 seconds afterward. For example, if you have UI sound effects turned on, it hisses every time you click the screen. It does this even when the volume is all the way down. This issue affects both N800s I've used, and I think it's probably a design flaw. The noise is quiet enough that I didn't notice it at first, but it's pretty lame nonetheless. Nokia really needs to work on QA.

3. This one is unique to my device: The past three nights when I've gone to sleep the N800 has had a full battery. Each morning, the battery has been completely dead, to the point where it won't start up without plugging it in. Not sure what that's about, since it's been holding a charge just fine during the day. Something must be causing it to crash and then maxing out the CPU until the battery dies...

4. This doesn't directly affect the N800 as of yet, but the fact that the 2007 OS is incompatible with the 770 less than 1.5 years after its release doesn't bode well for the new device... This has already been discussed at great length in the comments on Ari Jaaksi's blog, and as I've said there, it really makes me wonder if buying the N800 was a mistake.


I really enjoy using the thing when it works properly, but there are some pretty significant problems. For $400 I expected better.

Mine does that as well - at least it isn't a hardware defect (I hope!)

It's not going to be that easy. Again, sorry I can't divulge details but you will very likely have to have ANY device with webcam flip issue replaced outright. Repair options are limited at this time to my knowledge.

And some of you are describing issues I haven't seen in any of the thousands of N800s crossing my path, so I'm really at a loss...

I can't hear any hiss, even with my ear pressed into the device.. either you guys are in very quiet rooms, or your hearing is way better than mine ;-)