During the past years Nokia was self-destructive. Many people accused it of choosing a wrong direction, i.e. Nokia should not work on connecting the next million but on making high-end smartphones. Some used to think Nokia had wasted all its potential to create something worthy. And the thirds used to think Nokia must refuse its native operating system and adopt Android. The financial results were too bad and more importantly, no matter what handset the manufacturer was designing, they were all doomed to failure. In some sense, Nokia’s smartphones were captives in a prison the company had itself built. There was a need for a change.

Photo Credit By Andree Wallin

The change was Stephen Elop. As he moved from Microsoft, he got involved in Nokia’s convalescence. The first thing he had to think of was what to do with the attitude towards Symbian. After long negotiations Nokia decided to switch to Windows Phone, though again many people didn’t believe this merge would succeed.

We have already talked that US consumers start loving Nokia but that love was not something Nokia acquired easily. Every Nokia smartphone had to face a serious obstacle and fight for its name. However, the hardest task was assigned to the Nokia Lumia 800, the first Lumia line handset, which worthily carries the name of Spartacus among Nokia handsets.

This phone changed people’s opinion on Nokia as a smartphone maker. This phone showed that Nokia smartphones can perform better being packed with weaker features like a single-core 1.4GHz processor or a screen the resolution of which can’t exceed 480×800 pixels. This phone proved to all the faithless that Windows Phone is the future, and that  with the help of special Nokia apps, particularly Nokia Music, Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps and Nokia Transport, it will one day become unreachable for other platforms.

All in all, there are a myriad of features we can talk about for hours, but I hope you’ve read our Nokia Lumia 800 review, which clearly points out the cons and pros of the Lumia 800. Plus, this phone will not cost you an arm and a leg, for example in Europe it is sold for free on contract. Other than that, many retailers offer attractive Lumia 800 deals. No need to go deep into the mobile operators’ deals as well as the countries in which the phone was launched because in almost every country the Lumia 800 was released its average price was $550. Unlike other high-end smartphones, which you will hardly find at less than $600, its price is most affordable.

All these options helped the Nokia Lumia 800 maintain its freedom. Every place where it set foot on opened its doors in front of the phone. As a result, the Lumia 800 became a bestseller in many European countries. This made the US change its mind, and the country required Nokia to bring this handset to the States. However, Nokia didn’t hurry to open its embrace and receive the US as a prodigal son. The manufacturer started playing up. That’s why the Nokia Lumia 800 is available nationwide only at Microsoft stores. The company requires $899.99 for an Entertainment Bundle, which includes the phone and three additional accessories — Nokia Purity HD stereo headphones by Monster, Nokia Play 360° wireless Bluetooth speaker and Nokia Luna Bluetooth headset.

The story doesn’t end here, because the Nokia Lumia 800 was the first smartphone to win its freedom, while the rest of Lumias still have a long way to go to earn that status. Seems the Nokia Lumia 710 was able to follow in the footsteps of its brother. Notably, launched in the US via T-Mobile the phone managed to be included in the top 3 best-selling smartphone chart.

As to the Nokia Lumia 900, it’s the first Windows Phone-powered LTE handset, thus all the routes to the US are obstacle-free for it. Moreover, Nokia and Microsoft have prepared a most magnificent 4-8 week campaign. It’s unprecedented, and note that even Apple has never come up with such a project.

Ultimately, the Nokia Lumia 610 is the first Windows Phone 7.5.1 Refresh/Tango smartphone, which allows the manufacturers to pack the phones with weaker hardware. For example, the Nokia Lumia 610 sports only 256MB of RAM. Moreover, its price is set to be $189, which is another weapon Nokia firmly holds in its hands.

The liberation struggle has started with the Lumia 800 but we don’t know when it will end. Hopefully, the Lumia 900 will prove to everyone that Nokia is not worse than any other manufacturer.

While many manufacturers are waiting for their turn of getting Windows Phone Tango to make and compete in the low-mid end of the Windows Phone market, Nokia has already prepared its low-end Lumia line handset – the Nokia Lumia 610. I am sure the carriers and retailers will come up with a myriad of Lumia 610 deals to snatch customers...

Recently the Nokia N8 was thought to be the best cameraphone ever and even when HTC announced the HTC Titan II with a 16MP camera photography art lovers remained devoted to Nokia because of the perfect performance provided by the N8. The company didn’t hurry with the launch of its successor, and only yesterday at MWC 2012 it announced the Nokia 808 PureView with a 41MP camera (!!!!!!!!).

I don’t know where to start at, because there is too much to talk about. Well, let’s take a quick look at the rest of the features as the main topic for today will be the phone’s camera. The Nokia 808 PureView runs Symbian, but as Nokia has dropped this moniker, let’s call it Nokia Belle. It sports a 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 360×640 pixels, which can’t view the shots in a worthy way, but talking honestly there is no smartphone display able for this deal. Other than that, there is also a 1.3GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, 16GB of internal memory, which can be expanded due to microSD/SDHC card slots, Bluetooth 3.0, micro HDMI, a 1400mAh battery and a 0.3MP frontal camera. Thus we are dealing with a camera, which is also a smartphone.

Now let’s focus on the monster camera lens of the Nokia 808 PureView. As the company explains, it has been working on it for 5 years. Now that the processing power allows your smartphone to process images larger than 20 megapixels, Nokia can implement its long-standing plan. Moreover, the technology used on the Nokia 808 PureView is a new one and in the future we’ll have its improved versions.

The Nokia 808 PureView has a very powerful sensor. Its summary is below:

• Carl Zeiss optics of focal length: 8.02mm.
• 35mm equivalent focal length: 26mm, 16:9 | 28mm, 4:3.
• F-number: f/2.4.
• Focus range: 15cm – Infinity (throughout the zoom range).
• Construction:· 5 elements, 1 group. All lens surfaces are aspherical.

1.          One high-index, low-dispersion glass mold lens.
2.          Mechanical shutter with neutral density filter.

• Optical format: 1/1.2”.
• Total number of pixels: 7728 x 5368.
• Pixel Size: 1.4 microns.

But the main advantage of this technology is not hidden only in the sensor. The second outstanding feature is called oversampling. Thanks to it shots will have smaller sizes but will keep three main pros: great image quality, lossless zoom and excellent low light performance.

Look actually when taking pictures with 38MP cameras their sizes are about 10MB, but as the Nokia 808 PureView is a smartphone the memory storage of which can’t be too big the company had a problem of not bringing the largest picture but the best quality. As a result, you can get the quality of the full sensor even taking snaps at default shooting mode (5MP).

The next advantage is the lossless zoom, which allows to zoom without losing quality:

• 3x is the default zoom mode
• 4x lossless zoom at 1080p
• 6x at 720p
• 12x when recording videos at nHD (640×360)

Finally the Nokia 808 PureView is the combination of a large sensor allowing long focal length and large f/2.4 aperture. And as aperture is kept at a maximum when you zoom in, you get faster shutter speeds and reduced noise.

Nokia 808 PureView Sample Photos

Nokia 808 PureView Sample Videos

Source PureView imaging technology white paper via PhoneArena

Have you ever thought why Nokia firstly launched the more powerful smartphone (the Lumia 800) being in such a faltering situation when it could release the more affordable Lumia 710 without a risk? That’s Stephen Elop’s strategy, which led to the fact the US starts loving Nokia. Now that the entire globe is talking about Nokia’s first Windows Phone-powered smartphone, the company is preparing for the next strike, the Lumia 710.

The Nokia Lumia 710 was announced by Nokia in October 2011 and released in November 2011 alongside with its elder brother the Nokia Lumia 800. It is the second Windows based phone from Nokia. Company’s CEO has branded these two phones as “the first real Windows Phones.” But he also specifically mentioned the Lumia 710 is more “affordable.”  So this means the Lumia 710 is a mid-range phone, and though it came out simultaneously with its twin brother, it is not the same as the Nokia Lumia 800.  We will try to see what it means in the Nokia 710 preview below.

Design

The Nokia Lumia 710 was codenamed as Sabre, and Nokia is not naming its devices out of nothing. This phone was meant to look like a curved sabre and it does look one. It is beautifully designed in front and back colors and is available in black and white for the front cover and black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow for the back cover. So there is a plenty of color combination possibility as to user’s taste. While being only a smaller (and accordingly a weaker) brother to the Lumia 800, this handset’s design is fantastic in the strict sense of the word, it  resembles a highly sophisticated but simple device snatched from aliens, or some say even it resembles a medical tool, used for instance in the dentist’s cabinet.

The front panel features stylish physical buttons below the screen, and that’s all for the front, apart only for the proximity sensor, which can be taken as a front camera, but there isn’t one. The power button, the headset jack and the USB port are all on the port and there is a volume control and camera buttons on the side. The back has a 5MB camera with a single LED flash and there is a speaker grille below.

The device is made from smooth plastic and feels nice in the hand. Its dimensions are 119×62.4×12.48 mm and it weighs only 126 gr.

Display

The Nokia Lumia 710 is equipped with a 3.7-inch TFT capacitive, multi-touch display with the resolution of 480×800 pixels (252 ppi in density). The screen uses ClearBlack technology for better auto contrasting and readability under direct sunlight conditions. It displays nice colorful images with 16M colors and has also light and proximity sensors. You can also be sure your screen is durable as it uses GorillaGlass.

Camera

The handset comes with a 5MP back camera shooting with a 1280x720p resolution, and that’s ok, for this phone is not meant to take professional photos of presidents and then display those images in a photo competition. We can say it is a simple camera for home users; the quality of it is enough to satisfy every good taste. The camera is packed with autofocus, touch to focus, video stabilizers, face detection and digital zoom function. Video shooting is nice, with 720p HD and 30 fps. However, the Nokia Lumia 710 has no frontal camera: but this is not Nokia’s fault, it’s just Windows Phones do not have it on them.

Hardware

The Nokia Lumia 710 is equipped with a single core 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor to enable you to multi-task smoothly. The device has modest 512 MB RAM and 8Gb of internal memory with no memory card slot. The phone comes packed with a standard 1300 mAh Li-Ion battery, which will provide you 400 hours in standby mode (2G), up to 7 hours of talk time (2G) and up to 38 hours of music play back mode (3G).

Software

The Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800 are the first Nokia smartphones running Windows Phone operation system. The current version installed is 7.5 called Mango. So expect to find all standard applications, which come along with Mango. The soft includes smart IE9 for quick navigation and support of HTML5, full integration with the social networking trio: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Gamers are going to get their favorites through Xbox Live Hub. A separate attention should be paid to ESPN’s Sports Hub, which will provide sport fans with access to sports news, scores and statistics. You can watch ESPN sport analysis or selected video clips, plus you can use GPS for finding information on local sports. The app can be customized to the preferred sport type and team. You can send your letter in a more professional way through Microsoft Mobile.

Nokia has packed the phone with its own exclusive applications, like Nokia Drive and Nokia Music. Nokia Drive is also available on the Lumia 800 and it’s basically a sat-navigation application. You can use preloaded maps or download whatever maps you like. It can show 3D maps and is quick to fix your location and guide you step-by–step to your desired navigation, displaying how much distance was covered and how much is still left to get to the destination.

Another exclusive application from Nokia is Nokia Radio with its Radio Mix feature. It boasts of 15 million tracks available, which are divided by genre and artist, and which can be downloaded for offline listening. Create then your offline playlists and turn your mobile into an independent radio station.

Conclusion

To sum up the view for the Nokia Lumia 710 it should be stressed that this phone is produced for mid-range sales, so it is correspondingly priced. The Lumia 710 will launch Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Russia before the end of the year and will cost €270 ($376).

It is customary to write in reviews the phone in question is the latest technological achievement of humankind, but we will not say it for the Lumia 710, which knows the modest place it belongs. But this phone is different from others, because it has its own unique personality, its own soul. It is true that in its white version, it can resemble a small refrigerator, but then who said fridges are bad things (especially in summer time).

The Lumia 710 will look amazingly beautiful if you are traveling by air. Take to any airport and just compare it if you can to the body of any passenger airplane, and you will see what I mean. The Lumia 710 would be equally great for dentists and flight attendants in its white/blue combination, and for teenagers in its various other colors. It is true its elder brother Lumia 800 is much stronger, but to me the Lumia 710 can win the heart by its design, professional character and smooth behavior.

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Superheroes always have their anti-heroes, otherwise their existence becomes senseless. Recall any comics and you’ll see there are always super heroes loved by everyone and evil heroes rejected by the public. And when the main hero triumphs over, the story ends, because the hero can’t go on without a competition — that’s the credo of his life. The same thing happened with Finnish mobile manufacturer, Nokia. This company was leading in all phone markets and lost its glory. At the moment it’s difficult to imagine Nokia was once popular in the US, but it was so and US senior citizens will confirm my words. Anyway, it’s never easy to permanently dethrone a king unless you decapitate him, as he can always come back and turn everything over.

As you guessed, Nokia popped off because it was alone in the long run, in other words Nokia began dying as it always happens with superheroes. Years passed and the public came up with new heroes calling them Apple and Android. Many people started to worship them and many people found a new embodiment of God in them (forgetting their former idol, Nokia).

Apple and Android are the right mapping of our times; the Cupertino-based company is controlling everything in its activity, inside the company everything is planned in details and all people obey. In short, Apple is a perfect example of discipline. On the other hand, we are dealing with Google, which is known for its democratic views, and involves people by its openness. In practice, such projects always succeed and Android wasn’t an exception. As a result Google’s mobile operating system dominates the market and has already conquered half of the world.

Small companies try to preserve their existence in this panorama, and manage to stand the competition. But on the whole, big companies take the lion part. The same was with Nokia (though we can’t call it “a small company,” in this case its popularity doesn’t mean anything). And in the last few years the “once most popular mobile brand in the world” was not being able to get back its glory. Want it or not, Nokia’s back, and people have already started consuming Mango instead of Apple and sweetmeats.

Chapter 1: Discovering the tumor

Yes, Nokia spared no effort to find out why US smartphone users dislike this brand. If this “disliking” referred to the US and only the company would probably decide to leave it in peace and focus on other regions. Sadly though, the tumor spread and the countries where Nokia was once a leader began denying Nokia products.

Nokia forgave its competitors for all these losses, but when European mobile operators started preferring Android- and iOS-based smartphones, Nokia decided to act, i.e. take certain steps. By “steps” I mean the decision Nokia had to make concerning the choice of the operating system its handsets should run to win the battle.

This was the question of the day, because Nokia realized its main problems come from Symbian^3, while it was thought to be the key feature of Nokia smartphones. Beyond doubt, it was hard for Nokia to ban its native platform and choose another one. Moreover, it had a limited choice — either Android or Windows Phone. We even didn’t discuss iOS, because Apple will rather dig its own grave than share iOS with anyone. Well, many people thought Nokia tended to merge with Android — this would be the biggest coalition in the mobile history. But Nokia, as always, preferred to attack on different fronts at a time. (Such a strategy always makes a panic among enemies.) It worked. Nokia decided to treat the disease using several methods simultaneously.

Chapter 2: Getting rid of the disease

Before that Nokia had invited Stephen Elop, who was the president of the Microsoft Business Division at that time. This person is known for his “plain mind’ and the ability to make right decisions in difficult situations. Nokia haters called Elop a mole and assumed he agreed to take up that position to sell the Finnish company to Microsoft.

In contrary to this, Elop sold his shares of Microsoft and completely got involved in Nokia’s problem. There was no time and the “doctor” had to start the surgery immediately. He started.

While many fake friends were waiting for Nokia’s death, those who sincerely believed in Nokia knew it’ll come back.

Secondly, Nokia (no, starting here we must say Stephen Elop) analyzed the opportunities of both operating systems and came to a conclusion Android devices act and look the same. So if Nokia had chosen Google, it’d become the next bucket filling water into Google’s mill. Microsoft was in a more beneficial position as there were no many manufacturers cooperating with it and Nokia had all chances to become its main partner. I guess you understand what it means. Finally their negotiations successfully ended and the world saw one of the biggest unions.

This announcement was made back in April and from that time on the entire mobile world (including Nokia fans) didn’t believe the Finnish company could succeed. Sometimes it seems to me I was the only one who believed in Nokia (not being devoted to it at all).

Now you probably think I’ll say Nokia launched the Lumia 800 and the story ends. I must disappoint you, as Nokia was slier — it announced the Nokia N9. A phone with a stunning and buttonless design, but with one “defect.” A defect called MeeGo. Of course, this is a pretty nice platform, but MeeGo didn’t have future and the N9 is the first and the last smartphone with this operating system. Geeks were gradually getting interested in what phone the whole world was talking about, and wondered when it would be launched. Well, Nokia announced the list where its new flagship should appear. There was joy all around, but many people were more happy for another thing — they wanted this phone to “criticize” Nokia’s product once again. But it didn’t happen as Nokia turned out to be smarter and left out a lot of countries from that  list. As a result, the Nokia N9 went only to those countries, where Nokia remained a leader. Almost the whole Europe and the US were looking forward to the day Nokia would launch the phone in their territory, while Nokia was firm in its decision.

When almost all conversations stopped about why Nokia isn’t offering the N9 in their countries, the company announced its first Windows Phone Mango-flavored design, the Nokia Lumia 800, a phone with the same appearance as the N9, but with Mango inside. Yes, Nokia blew all minds up.

The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 are smartphones in which nobody can pick holes. They are unique in terms of design and exceed many other smartphones on the market. Plus, WP Mango has come with many improvements and even Android lovers accept the huge job Microsoft developers have done.

Having a perfect product (I mean a high-end smartphone with a perfect OS) both companies started its promotion. I have no wish to introduce sales numbers in the UK or in other countries where this handset is launched, because you know it better than me, but I want to note — Nokia didn’t launch the Lumia 800 in the US. Caprice? Call it however you want, I think this is the most correct strategy — you do not like Nokia, so it’s OK, right?

Chapter 3: New life

Many geeks used to think Nokia has a goal to snatch Android and iOS users, but Stephen Elop is smarter than you think, guys. To clarify the situation, Stephen Elop announced Nokia is aimed at first-time users. Let each platform remain with its users, Nokia will attract those who will hold smartphones in their hands for the first time in their life. Do you know what happened? The second biggest carrier in the US is already in negotiations with Nokia and most likely will offer the Lumia 900 4G next year. Yup, Nokia hit the target!

Plus, Nokia is actively working on Symbian and it will soon launch Belle update. MeeGo is not forgotten as well, and though there are rumors we’ll see other devices running this OS, the N9 remains very popular. Moreover, it has already got PR1.2 update. Not that cool?

Totally, Nokia didn’t make real changes in its devices. I mean if you look at the posts where Nokia’s old and new handsets are compared with the best products on the market, you’ll see their key features are almost the same. They are the following:

• Stunning style
• Beautiful screen
• Great camera
• Integrated social networking
• Bing Music
• Easy browsing
• Microsoft Office
• Free sat-nav
• Powerhouse performance
• ample storage.

So what can US consumers say against the Nokia Lumia 800? I guess you’ll keep silent, folks, because this handset is perfect.

Announced at Nokia World 2011 on October 26 the Nokia Lumia 800 is the company’s first smartphone running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. It denoted the turn the company made from previously used operating systems – Symbian and MeeGo. The phone was officially launched in the UK on November 16, and is reported to be available also in the US, though not officially announced. Nokia has stated this was their “best launch ever.”

Nokia Lumia 800 Design

Nokia keeps traditions in letting users see where the screen ends on the phone, that is the screen does not occupy all the front space, but stops a little before the edges thus creating beautiful margins clearly discernible in non-black models. The Nokia Lumia 800 is made from a single piece of polycarbonate and is available in black, pink and cyan colors. The phone comes with dimensions of 116.5×61.2×12.1mm and weighs only 142 g. The corners of the phone are markedly pointed, which makes it very handy, but if you are a fan of roundish phones, this can be uncomfortable for you. On the top you can find the headset jack and hidden microUSB and microSIM card slots, which are a little hard to open. The tradition lovers would find on the back a big metallic oval segment with the camera eye, Nokia and Carl Zeiss brands on it. Right upwards to it there is a smaller oval segment with the flash. On the right there are chrome buttons for volume, power and camera.

Nokia Lumia 800 Display

The Lumia 800 boasts of a 3.7-inch AMOLED capacitive curved glass display powered with Gorilla Glass and Clear Black Display technologies. The first one does not let the display be scratched, and the latter allows users to see the texts and pictures with the same quality under the sunlight. Moreover, the screen can be Swype-ed and supports multi-touch input. Its resolution is 480×800 pixels and it supports 16 million colors.

Nokia Lumia 800 Hardware

The Nokia Lumia 800 is quite powerful, when it comes to hardware. The phone is packed with a 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor with Adreno 205 GPU meaning we are dealing with a high-speed CPU. This processor is in a good collaboration with 16GB of internal memory and 512MB of RAM. The memory can’t be expanded, because Microsoft has its limitation on this. The device comes with a 1450mAh battery and from a single charge it will provide 9.5 hours of talk mode, 7 hours playback, 55 hours music playback and 335 hours standby time. As for connectivity, it is a “beast.”

Connectivity specs:

• WEP
• WPA
• 802.11b/g/n
• WPA2-Personal
• WPA-Enterprise

1. Data synchronization

• ActiveSync
• Microsoft Zune for PC and Mac Connector Software

2. Local connectivity

• WiFi
• Micro USB
• Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
• USB 2.0 High-Speed
• 3.5mm AHJ Connector
• Bluetooth Stereo Audio

Nokia Lumia 800 Camera

The handset is equipped with an 8MP camera from Carl Zeiss Optics, an autofocus, a dual-LED flash and is able to record HD videos at 720p and 30fps. There is no front-facing camera; it’s not Nokia’s fault, but Microsoft’s. Unfortunately, the phone lacks zooming option, which is not that good. You can make nice videos during the day, but the camera seems to be a bit slow to respond to the sudden brightness change and the focal range is poor. In low light condition, the Lumia 800 gets more nervous to focus, but the dual LED flash can be turned on permanently while videoing and enabling focus and color settings to achieve closer to daylight quality.

Nokia Lumia 800 sample photos

Nokia Lumia 800 sample video

Software

The Lumia 800 runs Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, which provides an ultra-simple exploitation experience. The WP7 enables you to run several applications in the background, but only selected apps can do so, while the rest are just disabled (suspended). There are a couple of exclusive applications installed, including Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, Nokia Music, App Highlights and Contacts Transfer app, which lets you quickly transfer contacts from your old phone. Add to it such indispensable tools as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, Chat and SMS. The Symbian users were already accustomed to Nokia’s profile situations like General, Silent, Meeting, Outdoor, Pager and Offline, but they all disappeared on the Lumia 800, except for the Flight Mode and putting the phone only into vibrate mode. Many people were viewing these profile options as redundant, but just now their presence could be very handy considering the currently abound development of location and time based auto profile switching applications. As to closing applications, the previous Symbian experience of hitting the back physical button is gone, but it is done through the screen back button.

Nokia drive

For drivers, there is a very useful Nokia Drive navigation application, which is very similar to Google’s Maps or TomTom. This can display the map of your position, the directions to drive, the car’s speed and the distance to your destination. It supports 2D and 3D maps, a night mode and satellite view, you can download (via WiFI) maps from over 100 country locations and it shows the distance to be covered.

Nokia Music

Nokia Music opens to show the number of tracks saved on the phone. A quick tap then opens an A-Z list showing Artist, Album, Song, Genre or Playlist.

A swipe to the left from the main Nokia Music screen takes to the Mix Radio, which is a streaming service transmitted through the data connection. The playlists are refreshed each week and there’s a choice of genres to pick from. The Mp3 Store is accessible with another swipe, and one more swipe will give you information on local gigs with prices and other info. It is a standard FM radio, requiring the headphones to act as an antenna to connect to the station. There is also the Marketplace, which provides access to purchase additional music for your personal collection from the Microsoft store.

Nokia Lumia 800 Unboxing

So you have bought the smartphone and now it is time to extricate it from its box, which is pretty attractive and implies there is a high-end device inside. Apart from the phone itself, there is a rather impressive pack of manuals in different languages, and this is not surprising remembering this device has quite different specs compared to Nokia’s previous handset both on technical and operational side. Then there are the charger, the USB cable and a headset. Nicely enough, there is a casing to be found inside just like it was in case of the Nokia N9, which makes protecting the phone from scratches possible right from the unboxing stage. It fits perfectly and smoothly and makes noticing there is a case virtually impossible.

Conclusion

The Nokia Lumia 800 is a new generation high-end smartphone and an amazing thing to own, to feel and to want. It can inspire to new levels and dimensions of experience and experimentation. Judging by the reactions coming from the countries where it is officially available we can deduce it gets and will continue to get very good reception among general public and it seems irrespective of where it is. This of course comes as a disappointment to those, who think the Finnish company is dead, and cannot compete with its main competitors , but again, factual responses prove this is just an illusion and has nothing to do with reality. One of the main advantages this smartphone has is it is very simple to use; it just speaks to you, it responds to your demands very smoothly.

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The Nokia C7 is the second device from Nokia coming with Symbian^3 operating system. The original name of the model used to be the Nokia C7-00, which was then officially cut to the Nokia C7. The handset is also known as the Nokia Astound. This device and the Nokia N8 simply have almost the same software package. The basic difference here is the camera and the design. In both cases the winner is the Nokia N8, coming with a 12 megapixel camera and a buttonless touch display. The customers will be required to pay way less for the Nokia C7 and this is where the situation will shift in favor of the Nokia C7.

For the first time Nokia is trying to show the camera emphasize is not the most important criterion for a smartphone. Interestingly, with the introduction of the Nokia Astound the manufacturer also decided to introduce its luxury version called the Nokia Oro. This handset comes at the price of  $1635. It’s made of 18 carat gold, sapphire crystals and hand wrapped leather featuring the same specs as the original device.

The Specs of the Nokia C7 include:

Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz
Operating system: Symbian^3, upgradable to Symbian Anna OS
CPU: 680 MHz ARM 11 processor, Broadcom BCM2727 GPU
Screen: 3.5 inch, 640 x 360 pixel, AMOLED, capacitive
Camera: 8 megapixels, dual LED flash, face detection and geo-tagging features
Memory: 8 GB storage, 256 MB RAM, 1 GB ROM, expandable through memory card Micro SD
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, NFC, compass
Battery: 1200 mAh, BL-5K
Size: 117.3 x 56.8 x 10.5 mm
Weight: 130 gram

Design

Externally, the model looks like a typical Nokia device, but with some sort of innovative touch. The handset comes with a plastic casing similar to those of the Nokia C6 and the Nokia N97. But luckily the back cover of the battery is made of metal. But to call the sense of the device the same as those of metal bars will not be true. It’s mostly plastic, and it’s obvious when you hold the phone.

The handset turns out to be slightly sleeker than the rest of smartphones using 3.5 inch displays. While still an older model the handset comes with 10.1 mm thickness, which is pretty slim for the devices of its kind.

Display

The screen is similar to other models from Nokia, e.g. the Nokia X6. Its resolution is 640×360 pixels and 3.5 inches. It’s covered with special plastic glass, displaying up to 16 million colors. The screen Type is AMOLED, but it cannot be compared with the Super AMOLED from Samsung, this technology is of a different generation. The screen is comparable to the Nokia N8 and the Nexus One. Under direct sunlight it comes with a good picture quality, and it’s here that it triumphs over other handsets.

The display accommodates up to 16 lines of text (not in all modes), supports three font sizes chosen by your phone. It somewhat fades in the sun, but it is typical of this type of screens (exception — all the same Super AMOLED).

This is one of the first products from Nokia, supporting multitouch, you just have to make moves with your fingers (pinch-to-zoom), so that the image gets separated. The screen is capacitive, similar in execution to that of the Nokia X6 and behaves exactly the same way. Sensitivity of the display in most cases is satisfactory, but sometimes it does not react to clicks (software flaw, just like that of the X6).

Connectivity

This is the second version of the Nokia with Bluetooth 3.0, which is also called High Speed. When transferring files to other devices with this technology it activates Wi-Fi 802.11 n, a theoretical transfer rate is about 24 Mbit/sec.

The model supports various profiles, particularly, Headset, Hands free, Serial Port, Dial Up Networking, File Transfer, Object Push, Basic Printing, SIM Access and A2DP. Working with the headset does not cause any difficulties. It also supports standard Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g n. It’s not the first device on the market with such a set of connectivity, still it’s kind of nice to see all of the features available on a single device. And everything works like a clock, without causing any problems.

Camera

The Nokia C7 comes with an awesome 8 megapixel camera with an autofocus, which is great. It just walks behind the 12 megapixel camera of the Nokia N8, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. Originally these two cameras cannot be compared due to the difference in megapixels, still both of them are capable of using f/2.8 aperture rating for low-light shooting. The Nokia C7′s camera is using a dual-LED flash and an EDoF focusing system, but the Nokia N8′s camera is using Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and Xenon flash.

With the Symbian Anna update the Nokia C7′s camera got much improved.

Memory Capacities

The device comes with 8GB of built-in memory, plus there’s a chance of microSD expansion for up to 32GB. The RAM of the device is 256 MB (in contrast, the Nokia N97 Mini has only 128 MB of RAM). For Nokia this is a giant leap forward, which means an increase in the stability of the system and speed.

Battery

The capacity of the device battery is 1200 mAh. The phone can work up to 390 hours in standby mode and from 5.5 to 12 hours in talk time mode (UMTS/GSM).

On the downside is that the battery will require charging in two days. Against the background of many competitors, who do not live more than one day, this is a good indicator. The main energy eater is the desktop with widgets. The total time for recharging is about 2 hours.

Software

Unfortunately, in all its glory this model shows that Nokia’s efforts to create social applications for its Symbian^3 smartphones were futile. In contrast to previous trend of different apps for different series, Nokia’s now decided to have identical apps for all Symbian^3 devices.

The manufacturer has created a separate application, which brings together all the accounts of social networking websites, while the authentication occurs via Ovi. This is an attempt to artificially increase the number of Ovi users.

The handset comes with three different homescreens. The shift to another homescreen can be obtained with the use of Swype technology. This time the homescreens are more widgetized, thus you get a chance to optimize widgets for each of the homescreens.

Ovi Store

The handset comes with Ovi Store allowing to have a large list of free applications and games for download. Due to the fact that at the moment Angry Birds is also available for Symbian^3 devices, the Nokia C7 gives you the chance to experience this Apple-designed game on your device.

The Nokia C7 comes with pre-installed Adobe Reader and QuickOffice, but for the editing of the documents you will be required to get a paid update from Ovi Stores. The smartphone also supports Flash Lite 4.0 allowing to watch videos with the YouTube app (also coming as one of the pre-installed apps).

Conclusion

Describing my impressions of the Nokia C7 I should mention it’s among the top smartphones on Symbian^3. Judge yourself, it does not support HDMI-output, and a 12-megapixel camera, but there are other features of the Nokia N8 available on this device.

At this point in the C line there is the Nokia C6, which has a QWERTY-keyboard, is expensive and is not very attractive. Thus this model comes to fill the gap. It’s a nice device for those accustomed to Symbian. Coming with a small number of interesting games and an old interface, the device features several high-end specs. It can be called a great device running Symbian S^3 in terms of price/quality ratio.

If it is quite difficult to compare two seemingly identical boxes, then the task becomes much easier by thinking what’s actually inside those boxes, for the content happens to be quite different when touched and tried on hand. The word is about Nokia’s twin brothers – the Nokia N9 and the Nokia Lumia 800. Both are born at nearly the same time (Nokia N9 in September 2011, Lumia 800 in November 2011), we can say even from the same genetic source, but the outcome went slightly different as to what they became. A little warning before proceeding: the word both in this review is going to be used twice or thrice more than usual due to already understandable reasons.

Design

Both phones have the traditional already curved design, made from single piece polycarbonate. The looks are virtually the same, apart from the fact that the Lumia 800 has a Windows Phone logo below its monitor, and two other quick launch buttons on the left and right of it. As to dimensions there are no differences, as both have 116.5×61.2×12.1mm characteristics. But they actually weigh differently, the Nokia N9 is slightly lighter, it weighs 135g against the Lumia 800’s 142g.

Memory

Here is where we start to see more difference between these two, and these differences can actually make difference as which one is more preferable and why. The thing is that while both have the same 16 GB of internal storage, on the RAM side we surprisingly discover that the N9 is quicker than the Lumia with its 1GB of RAM against 512GB of the Lumia 800. That means that the N9 is potentially twice stronger than the Lumia 800. Moreover, according to SunSpider 0.9.1 benchmark, the N9 is said to be even faster than the iPhone 4 and the Galaxy S II.The phonebook of both devices has unlimited entry place, and both have no card slots available.

Display

If we were asked to describe in one sentence the difference between the designs of these two, then we could say that there is a big eyed brother (the Nokia Lumia 800) and its small eyed brother (the Nokia N9), and all this refers to screen sensor buttons. Both handsets have AMOLED capacitive touchscreens, 16M colors, Gorilla glass displays, Multi-touch input method and fingertips swipe of a sliding motion. The display size is almost the same, the N9 being a little longer, as to anti-glare thing, the N9 uses Anti-glare polarizer, whereas the Lumia 800 works with Nokia Clear Black display system.

Camera

The two smartphones are packed with an 8MP camera with a resolution of 3264×2448 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, an autofocus and a dual-LED flash. As to frontal camera, the N9 is equipped with a simple VGA front camera, but the Lumia 800 considered it unnecessary. Video recording again is of the same feature in both with 720p at 30fps.

Nokia N9 sample video

Nokia N9 sample photos

Nokia Lumia 800 sample video

Nokia Lumia 800 sample photos

Processors

Here Lumia 800 takes revenge over N9 for its RAM lag by having a slightly stronger of 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor plus Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset, 3D Graphics HW Acce, and N9 is equipped with 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU, PowerVR SGX530 GPU, TI OMAP 3630 chipset.

Battery

Here both have the same type of battery, which is a Standard 1450mAh Li-Ion  battery (BV-5JW), but what it does in both devices is a different matter. Stand by duration in the N9 is up to 380 h (2G)/up to 450 h (3G) and in the Lumia 800 it is up to 265 h (2G)/up to 335 h (3G), so this makes the N9 look more attractive, but no need to hurry there. And that’s because in talk time the Lumia 800 can do up to 13 h (2G)/up to 9 h 30 min (3G) as compared to the N9’s up to 11 h (2G)/up to 7 h (3G).

Software

As to the operating system, the N9 runs on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan, while the Nokia Lumia 800 is built on Windows Phone 7.5 called Mango. MeeGo was released in May 2010 and is made on Linux by a mix of Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin software platforms. As to Microsoft’s Mango, it was released this year at the end of September and does everything to make you forget you are using a smartphone, and think you are dealing with a laptop. Though it is easy to give preference to Mango over MeeGo, but I think it is too soon to do so, considering that Nokia would not release almost similar phones nearly at the same time. So what’s the issue here? One guess is that the Nokia N9 is indirectly directed to more sophisticated customers, who know what Linux is, and probably some programming skills. MeeGo indeed can be said to possess amazing multi-tasking possibilities, whereas Mango so more directed to general public, with ease of use and navigation. Finally, MeeGo is a dead platform, and the Nokia N9 is the only handset running it, while Windows Phone thrives.

Other features

The N9 did keep NFC feature, while the Lumia 800 dismissed it, but the latter has a built-Stereo FM radio with RDS, while it is absent surprisingly on the N9. But N9 can boast of its currently much spoken TV-out feature, whereas it’ not there on the Lumia. The N9 is also equipped with a Dolby Mobile sound enhancement, Dolby Headphone support.

Conclusion

Even though there is a widely accepted notion that the newer the phone is, the better, I personally think that the Lumia 800 needs time on its side to prove its superiority over the N9. The thing is that the N9’s multi-tasking and RAM advantage can be more comparable to Nokia’s main tow competitors, while the Lumia 800 is more of easy to handle, big-button, windows looking smartphone. But this is a purely subjective view, for the standards of assessment can drastically change within a small time when the Lumia 800 can really be loved and make the N9 look obsolete.

Source

Mango is the new brilliant version of Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS, and it has found its way onto quite a few handsets from Samsung, HTC and others. Now it’s our turn to get excited as we have a weеk only left till Nokia World where Mango flavored phones will be introduced. If you are one of the die hard Nokia fans like us and can’t wait to get hold of one of these smartphones, here are the must have apps for you to install on your Nokia Windows Phone handset as soon as you have one.

Shazam

This is one of the nicest apps you will find on Windows Phone. It identifies any song, simply by listening to it. If you happen to love the song, Shazam will take you to the Zune Marketplace from where you can download it, of course. What makes this app great is the fact it allows you to preview the first 30 seconds of the song before you buy it.

Download Shazam Free or paid Shazam Encore

Iheartradio

This amazing app allows you to stream music from any of the 750 radio stations in the U.S.. One of the best features is that you can find channels by genre, or find a radio station by its city. You can also locate some celebrity channels, thrown in for fun. Just like Shazam, if you love the song being streamed you can grab its lyrics, as well as download it from the Zune marketplace. All this takes place within seconds. If that is not enough, you can also sign up to build your own radio station, which will keep streaming songs from your collection.
Download free

Foursquare

If you are a fan of Foursquare, you need to have the official app on your Nokia Windows Phone. It’s nicely designed, and you’ll find all the features here that you get on their website. You can access your past checking, friends and all the other information you store in one easy to use interface. Foursquare is even quicker to use than the official website.

Download Foursquare

YouTube

Since Windows Phone does not yet support flash, the official YouTube app is an absolute must-have for video junkies. Once the app is installed, watching videos is pretty much like on the actual website. You can search for videos and upload just as easily and share them with the world. You might also want to try the mobile YouTube site.

Download

Flickr Manager

Flickr has become such an integral part of our lives that we absolutely need it on every device we own, including the Nokia Windows Phone. Flickr Manager is really easy to use. Setting up an account or signing into an existing one is so straightforward you will be surprised. You can leave comments on photos with a single tap. Most importantly, photos look absolutely gorgeous on the screen because the app is designed rather well.

Download Flickr Manager Lite free or paid for 0.99$

Angry Birds

Once you have played Angry Birds, we promise you will never want to quit. After playing it for some time, you will ask yourself, “How on earth did I live without this crazy, birdbrained game?” It works very well on the large touch screen and it’s simply a joy to play. Install this app as soon as you buy your Windows Phone and you can play it when you have time to kill.

Download Angry Birds Scoop free or Angry Birds paid There are some other versions so go ahead to check them out.

Netflix

If you are a Netflix subscriber (as you most probably are), then this app makes it easy to view your movies on the go. Video quality through streaming is absolutely great. Navigating around the app is made as easy as possible. You can find the list of movies that you have watched, and those that are in line. You can also see which movies are the most popular at the moment and do just anything you want with this app.

Download

Flixster

This is  the must-have Windows Phone app for all movie buffs. Quite frankly, if you watch movies, you should not be caught without this app. It lets you know the show times for upcoming movies. You can also see ratings and reviews for each and every movie. What’s more, you also get information about DVD and home media release dates, so that you can purchase them. The interface is clean and it lays out information in a simple way. Overall, it is an incredibly helpful little app.

Download or may be you can have a look @ IMDB’s WP app as well

Yelp

If you refer to Yelp (who doesn’t?) for reviews of nearby restaurants, you need to install the Yelp! app right away. As on other phones, this app is feature rich and locating nearby restaurants is so easy. Posting your own reviews about the places you have visited is also quite simple. In many ways, it is more pleasing to view than the official website.

Download

The Weather Channel

This app pretty much does what its name suggests. Find out whether it is going to be bright and sunny, rainy, or cold outside, before you venture out of your home. What makes it a must-have app is the way it is integrated with the Windows Phone. Its layout is minimal and fits in well with the tile structure. You can in fact learn about the weather without entering the app. You can see the updated information on the tiles, if you place the widget on top of the home screen.

Download

ESPN Scorecenter

All sports lovers need to have this app for easy access to the latest scores in any game that are being played. The app also lets you check out the latest news and commentary on running games. If you want to go to a specific match in the past to know about the scores, it is pretty easy to do.

Download

Tripit

If you are a regular user of Tripit, you will want to install the official app without hesitation. Like other apps, it makes the process of logging in to the service and finding information about your previous trips as well as entering new information about your travel very quick. Information is laid out in a clutter free manner and finding what you need is always very easy.

Download

These are the apps we think are a must-have for your brand new Nokia Windows Phone. Twitter and Facebook are not included on our list only because they are already installed by default. Enjoy!

The Nokia 701 is the new business device from Nokia coming with the Symbian Belle. Earlier it was known as the Nokia Helen. Its design is very similar to that of the Nokia C7-00, but the specs of the device and the software are very different. I must firstly note that it’s working on the latest OS  from Symbian, which strongly differs from the previous generation of smartphones. In addition to this, the Nokia 701 comes to be one of the first devices from Nokia using the latest version of codenaming.

The specs of the Nokia 701 include:

Network: GSM / EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Operating system: Symbian Belle
CPU Speed: 1GHz
Screen: 3.5 inch, 640 x 360 pixel, LCD ClearBlack
Camera: 8 megapixels, LED backlit, fixed focus, HD video smka
Memory: 8 GB internal memory, expandable through memory card Micro SD
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b / g / n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, NFC, compass
Battery: 1300 mAh, BL-5K,
Size: 117.3 x 56, 8 x 11 mm
Weight: 131 gram

Unboxing

The Nokia 701 comes in a box with only a few accessories, which is the typical package for most of the latest Nokia devices. The box includes handsets, typical charger (no wireless charging accessories unfortunately) and USB cable. The rest of the accessories need to be purchased separately. The simplicity of the box is also reasoned by the fact that the device will come at somewhat higher price and thus there’s no need to add more accessories, which will raise the price of the box even more.

Design

The device is quite thin. It’s not among those less than 10mm devices, but still 11mm is not a big deal. The Nokia 701 is partially made of elastic plastic. This means it’s not that heavy. The only component, where the device is made of metal is the back part. The battery is covered with a special detachable metal piece, which makes it comfortable in touch and easy in changing the battery.

The edges of the handset are pretty rounded. This gives the handset a somewhat childish appearance, though I would say round edges are great anyway.

The smartphone is the “greenest” handset in the company’s portfolio. The device is made of “green” materials, as well as plastic and metal, which can be decomposed by microorganisms. This is a good step towards attracting customers who prefer “green” lifestyle.

The device comes in 4 different colors: Steel Dark, Silver Light, Amethyst Violet and White.

Display

“The brightest display in the world today.” This is how the representatives of the company introduce the handset to public. And they’re not mistaken because the display of the new phone comes with an innovative technology. It’s built on the IPS ClearBlack technology, which provides the best display experience among the high-end devices. The resolution of the display is not that large, reaching 360 x 640 pixels with a diagonal of 3.5 inches, this is good enough for the smartphones of this class. The display of the Nokia 701 is larger than the display of the devices of the same series, that is the Nokia 600 and the Nokia 700. It’s also protected by Gorilla Glass technology.

Hardware

Just like other smartphones based on Symbian Belle, the Nokia 701 runs on a 1 GHz single-core processor, has Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, chipset, GPS, 3,5-mm jack, Micro USB connector (USB2.0), accelerometer, ambient light sensors and proximity. The built-in memory of the device is 8 GB; in addition there is a slot for microSD memory card up to 32GB. The main improvement in the hardware is the GPU. Its performance has been increased four-fold compared with the previous generation of Symbian phones.

Camera

The camera of the Nokia 701 is simply great. It’s an 8 megapixel one, which is the latest trend among the high-end devices of its class. The camera allows to shoot pictures with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. The video capturing capabilities allow to shoot videos in HD format (720p). The camera comes with Dual LED flash but unfortunately autofocus is missing. Nevertheless, for a camera like this the lack of the autofocus cannot be regarded as a disadvantage.

The handset is also using a front VGA camera designed for video chatting.

Battery

The device comes with a 1300 mAh battery. At first glance it’s too weak for such a smartphone. But as the company says, it provides 17 hours of talk time and 71 hours of music playback, which is not bad. At any moment the battery of the handset can be replaced.

Software

The device comes with the possibility to support multiple homescreens coming with their individual wallpapers. The choice of the widgets is not that large, but obviously the basic widgets have gone through interesting changes and you can always get more of them from Ovi Store.

The handset comes with the latest version of Nokia Maps. The application will allow to have free-offline worldwide voice navigation, including such territories as the U.S.

The device comes with the same virtual keyboard option, which is basic for all Symbian Anna devices. This is something great, as the keyboard is quite large and allows to have a great typing experience. In addition to it, there’s a predictive text input feature, which helps avoid making too many typing errors.

The rest of the interesting apps and features of the Nokia 701 include NFC support, SNS Integration, Photo editor and organizer.

Symbian Belle

At the moment the Nokia 701 is running Symbian Belle. But the manufacturer got this version of the Symbian OS to the handset as an update as originally the smartphone used Symbian Anna. Now we have the last version of the Symbian operating system. It has gone through a list of improvements compared with Symbian Anna. A set of applications for Symbian Belle will include a number of programs from Microsoft, including Microsoft PowerPoint Broadcast, Microsoft Lync 2010 Mobile, Microsoft OneNote and Microsoft Document Connection.

Symbian Belle adds contextual navigational buttons, which used to be the prerogative of MeeGo- Harmattan. It includes typical back, search and context buttons, which are being modernized by the page you are in adding something like attachment button while writing an email.

Pros

• Bright display
• Small dimensions
• Symbian Belle OS

Cons

• Fixed-camera not supporting macro shots
• Default browser has some bugs

Conclusion

Nokia 701 is a great smartphone that runs on a platform of Symbian ^ 3 Belle with an ARM 11 1 GHz processor and has IPS-display reflecting up to 16 million colors. This means the device is ideal for using outdoors without worrying that the display will get blurry under direct sunlight. It looks elegant and most importantly, without any kind of unnecessary details as kickstand.

The specs of the smartphone are also amazing. It has a great 8 megapixel camera (it’s the best option and will be the best until the time Nokia releases a 12 megapixel camera), noise cancellation option, Nokia Maps and Symbian Belle. Let’s say this is currently one of the best options available on the market.