Nokia has been feeling the heat lately from Apple, Samsung, HTC and LG. If someone asked me to name 1 smartphone from Nokia I wouldn’t be able to name anything except the Nokia N8, which I reviewed a long time ago.
Nokia has seriously undermined a comeback by delaying the phones and betting too much on the Windows Phone operating system. The Nokia phones have had too many “me too” features and have taken a serious beating at the hands of iPhone and Android based phones.
While we still believe that Nokia has a sizable chance due to it’s sheer presence and branding all over the globe, it has to one up it’s phones before people stop and give Nokia another look.
Here’s a small video showing Nokia Lumia 800 at a glance -
I’ll be reviewing the newly introduced Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia’s first Windows Phone based smartphone on the market.
Size: Nokia Lumia 800 has a smaller size than most smartphones you come across these days but we like it because you can easily hold the phone and operate it with one hand. It’s easier using a phone with one hand. Lumia 800 is 116.5 mm long, 61.2 mm wide and 12.1 mm thick.
Form Factor: It has a very slick form factor. Nokia has really got the hardware design right this time. There are no unnecessary openings in the phone which makes it so much classy. The phone is a little heavy for it’s size at 146 gms (approx 5 oz) that makes it look like it’s more durable and of high-quality.
Display: The Lumia 800 has a curved 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack glass touch screen so it fares pretty good at responsiveness. The colors look vibrant on the phone. The screen is 480 x 800 pixels which is sufficient for checking email, viewing photos and browsing mobile friendly sites.
Operating System:
Lumia 800 is based on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system which mainly includes the Internet Explorer 9 mobile to bring the desktop browsing experience on the mobile, multi-tasking for 3rd party apps, Twitter integration for the Hub (the home screen of the Windows Phone as it is known) and access to Windows Live Skydrive ( free 25GB cloud storage from Microsoft).
Web browsing: With a built-in Internet Explorer 9 mobile web browser you can be sure of running any website that runs on your desktop computer.
Take a loot at the web browsing experience on the Internet Explorer 9 mobile on Lumia 800 phone -
Camera:
Nokia Lumia 800's 8 mega-pixel, Carl Zeiss camera
Since N8, Nokia has placed special emphasis on it’s phone cameras. No wonder considering the fact that for most people their phone cameras are their first and only camera. While this might not be applicable to smartphone users, they are one demographic that wouldn’t mind taking crisp, high-definition photos and videos from their phones. With the 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and 3264 x 2448 resolution you know your ordinary pictures will come out extra-ordinary.
Although it has a powerful camera, some of the photos we have seen are a bit grainy, while in some other pictures the Lumia didn’t handle the lighting well. There could have been better noise reduction for photos.
The Lumia 800 supports high-definition video recording as it supports 1280p x 720p of video recording. Now you don’t have to whip out your bulky SLR for those once-in-a-while moments!
Nokia Drive – At first, I thought the Nokia Drive was some sort of cloud storage provided by Nokia but Nokia Drive is a turn-by-turn voice-enabled mapping service from Nokia.
The good thing about Nokia Drive is that it is available for all over the world and the best thing about this is that you can download maps for whatever place you like for offline access. Great for all those camping and long trips. Also, it’s infinitely more convenient to follow voice-enable directions than to peep in your phone every 30 seconds. Great feature, if you ask me!
Nokia Maps -
Nokia Maps on the Lumia 800
It’s still in beta so expect some changes in the future. You can select map, satellite or traffic modes. While not as extensive as Google maps it can still be a great alternative to Google maps.
Nokia music – the interface looks like Microsoft’s Zune. The music app categorizes all the music into genres. It also enables you to download the songs for listening offline.
Pros
- Good hardware specs
- Powerful 8 megapixel camera – supports high-definition photo & video recording
- FM radio – why always load the radio through an app? isn’t it better (and simpler) this way?
- Voice-enabled turn-by-turn mapping from Nokia – drive without distraction
- Microsoft Office to access Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote and other applications on your phone.
Cons
- Not many apps on the Windows Phone marketplace (although we can expect more in the near future)
- In your face social networking blasting constant updates on the home screen (hub) – but that’s more of an OS problem than the phone’s.
- A bit pricey at €420 and $550 (all prices approx)
If you want to try something other than an iPhone or Android devices you should buy the Nokia Lumia 800. If you like having a lot of apps we suggest you either buy an iPhone or an Android device.
Please rate the review and if you’re using a Nokia Lumia 800 phone, we’d love to hear your opinion in the comments below.
