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.


























































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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.


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.