Nokia Lumia 800 Review

After the downfall of the mighty Symbian OS, Nokia has released it’s first Windows powered handset with Windows Mobile 7.5 Mango, the first result of the partnership between Microsoft and Nokia. It has sure proven to be a success and it is by far the best Windows Mobile phone out there today.

In the box

The box is your usual Nokia packaging, but I’m sure when you get your handset you won’t think about the box and just get straight into opening it up to see what’s inside. Opening up the box is the shiny new phone, underneath it is your Soft cover, color match to phone which is brilliant, you can save some money on buying a phone case; the next layer is you handset information for those that needs it, and then the Nokia Charging and Data Cable, Nokia Fast USB Charger and the Nokia Stereo Headset.

Nokia Lumia 800 Full UK Specification

Height: 116.5 mm
Width: 61.2 mm
Thickness: 12.1 mm
Weight: 142 g

Keys and Input Methods
Dedicated hardware key
Power Key
Volume Keys
Camera Key

Display and User Interface
Touch Screen
Display size: 3.7 ”
Screen height: 480 pixels
Screen width: 800 pixels

Display technology
Corning Gorilla Glass
AMOLED
ClearBlack
Curved glass

Memory:
16 GB mass memory (no slot for micro-SD cards)
512 MB SDRAM memory

Looks and Feel
Nokia have been making phones for a long time and they have never made anything so slick in design. With seamless polycarbonate shell, the device definitely feels solid and soft in hand whilst holding it; the Nokia Lumia 800 is also available in the black, cyan and magenta colors. When you turn it over to use it, you can see the gorilla glass that covers the screen and three Windows Phone touch buttons at the bottom thus giving a smooth, seamless look. The only physical buttons are mounted on the right-hand edge, however with no labels and found myself sometimes mistaking the camera button for the wake button but not a big issue. When the phone is off, it reminds me of some sort of stealth aircraft sitting on my desk, the phone looks dark and quiet.

At the top corner, Nokia has placed the standard 3.5mm headphone jack; next to it is a micro USB port that’s used for both charging and syncing and along the top edge there’s a sliding cover with access to the micro Sim card slot. The Nokia Lumia doesn’t have any opening for battery replacement or memory card slot for expansion; it has a nice curved design with comfortable holding in mind compared to the iPhone 4/4s which has edges that makes it uncomfortable to hold after prolonged use, the size is perfect fit for the hand and the pocket.

Operating System

The Nokia Lumia is Nokia’s first Windows Phone smartphone with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango since Microsoft and Nokia announced their partnership; The Windows Phone 7.5 Mango comes with various things that makes it stand out from Android and iOS; the UI is very seamless, fast and also has little details that makes you want to look around and keep digging. Since they are both working together, the device is packed with the right processor speeds and memory to run the OS smoothly with no lags. The selling point of the Windows Mango Operating System is the simplicity, clarity, excellent flow of menu operation and the way Microsoft seems to have modernized the windows mobile OS, they have kept the office integration and also added the Xbox integration which makes it a good device for a wider range of demographics. I was very skeptical about the app store, but the Windows Market Place is packed with lots of apps although still behind compared to iOS or Android’s numerous variety, however I was able to get all my favorite apps I enjoyed using on my iPhone were available, the only downside for me is that not a lot of apps are free but the free ones are great. The Lumia 800 comes with a number of different Nokia Apps for Windows Phone built in, like their free navigation app, Nokia Drive and also Nokia Nokia Maps and Nokia Music.

Social Media Integration

The Nokia Lumia 800 has deep integration with contacts and your social networks; it is implemented in such a way that you can possible forget that you are on Facebook or twitter. I like the way you can access your Facebook and twitter contacts from your phone-book and also how you can select a contact and as long as you have set their details up, you can view everything they are up to across all networks integrated. This feature is definitely a great tool and they way Nokia and Microsoft implemented the feature gets a 5 star from me. Warning though is that I didn’t seem to be able to find any good Twitter app and the official twitter app, I had trouble logging into my account with it.

Camera

The Lumia has a 8-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and anyone who knows about those would know how brilliant those lenses are and gave Nokia the edge for photographers, it has dual LED flash and autofocus, but it’s a bit too slow for a quick snapper in comparison to the iPhone; it will record video in 720p HD at 30fps which isn’t as good as the iPhone’s 1080p mode choice but the 720p is still amazing and with the 16GB storage, you can do a lot of those.

Battery life and call quality
The 1450mAh battery is capable of 13 hours Maximum 2G talk time, 265 hours Maximum GSM standby time, 9.5 hours Maximum 3G talk time, 335 hours Maximum 3G standby time, 6.5 hours Maximum video playback time and 55 hours Maximum music playback time. Although battery issues were reported, Nokia quickly released an update that seems to fix the issue and during the test it lasted a day using all the heavy, battery draining features of the phone, but that is expected of any smart phones out there today. I tested the Lumia using Three UK mobile service provider and had no problems with signal or 3G connection for internet speeds; unfortunately you can’t tether with the Lumia 800 but it’s still fast when mobile browsing.

Conclusion
– The battery life is still lacking.
– Great handset with quality OS and UI.
– Lacking from facing camera.
– No tethering.
– Could do with a faster camera.
– Market place not as robust as the iOS and Andorid market place but growing.
– Fast handset.
– Great for social networking.

The handset used for testing was provided by Three UK . Three is a communications company focused on bringing the benefits of the internet to mobile communications. Three offers attractive pricing and give customers the widest choice of ways to stay connected.