Ready to drive away?
Nokia Lumia 710, posted: 22-Mar-2012 18:17
I always use a GPS when driving around Auckland city and was looking forward to testing out the Nokia Lumia 710's free Nokia Drive app. I was very surprised at how easy it was to setup, ie downloading maps and the voices, choose what style map I wanted 2D or 3D and in which color. How quick you can input your destination and then follow the turn by turn instructions.
First map shown is of my trip route. Then click start and I am instructed where to drive. I have a navigational app on my other phone and I found this one is nearly as good as the one I had to buy; well all I can say is thank you Nokia.
Also my bought app was very confusing when I first started to use it, whereas Nokia Drive was basically use once and know what to do next time. Oh and if you have overseas visitors that are more comfortable with a different language, there are a lot of different voices and languages to choose from.
The main map screen shows you how far it is to your destination and how long it will take approximately to get there. While driving the information on the screen will show you the speed you are traveling.
The navigation voice is clear and easy to understand, and I felt so confident in the turn by turn instructions given, I didn’t have to keep looking at the map on the phone. So I was able to concentrate on my driving which to me is a big plus, especially in Auckland.
Also when I intentionally took a wrong turning (several times) the Nokia drive would re-calibrate very quickly, again giving me confidence in the GPS. My opinion, I can drive anywhere without having to rely on a map book, which I always seem to misplace anyway.
Hi I am Dreamy, a 54 year old mum of two teenagers. Ten years ago I didn't know how to work a computer, and my phone was a Nokia 3315. To keep up with my children's interest in everything to do with the Internet, xbox live, computer games, I turned on a computer and the rest as they say is history. Now I wouldn't be without my smartphone. Being connected to my children, my family and friends around the world. Able to read the news anywhere at anytime.Nokia Lumia 800: social features
Nokia Lumia 800, posted: 20-Mar-2012 08:00
I covered the Nokia Lumia 800 hardware in my previous blog post, and promised a review of the software to follow. Problem is, there's so much software to cover. To narrow down the scope a little, I'm going to start out with the phone's "social" software: contacts and social networking. I'm going to have to bounce around a bit, because these elements are so tightly integrated in Windows Phone that they blur together.
Let's start with contact management. The "People" app is where it all happens. Even before you open the app you'll start to see images of your friends flashing up on the app's tile. Inside the app, you have an obvious list of all your contacts, but swipe to the right and you'll see "what's new": a feed of all updates from your contacts from Twitter, Facebook, and other networks you've added. You can tap on the "what's new" title to filter it down to just one network.
One thing to note: if you've added Facebook and Twitter accounts on your phone, you'll get all your contacts from those services listed. This is not always ideal, especially if you follow a lot of people on Twitter. Easy fix: in the application settings for the People app, you can filter your contacts list to only show contacts from the accounts you select. In my case I choose to show contacts from Gmail and my work email, but nowhere else. Don't worry though, you'll still see updates from Facebook and Twitter for the contacts you have displayed.
How does the integration with social networks work? Pretty easy really: Windows Phone automatically links contacts together from each network. You can see in the image below that my lovely wife's contact record has five different accounts linked together.
It's very accurate, with most accounts automatically linked except where friends are using pseudonyms and different email addresses.
With these accounts linked, when I view contact information for any one person, I see updates from their social networking accounts, photos from some, and a history of all my interactions with them, whether that be emails, phones or messages.
The real power of this integration comes to life when you create a group. Add up to 20 contacts into a custom group, and the group's "What's new" tab now becomes a custom filtered social network feed, showing only updates from people in the group.
You can pin groups to your start screen to get a snapshot of the latest updates on a tile, and of course you can send group SMS messages and emails from the group tab.
The social networking features of the phone extend through into other apps as well. The Photos app lets you view photos from Facebook and Windows Live from anyone in your contacts list. And the "Share" option can be integrated into any app (e.g. a photo editing app), allowing you to post updates to social networks from within app.
Finally, in the event that the built-in features of the Lumia 800 don't cut it for you, there's plenty of first and third party apps to try out. Great first-party apps include Facebook, Foursquare, and Skype (currently in beta). For Twitter, the official app is not that great, but Rowi and Carbon are fantastic alternatives.
That's it for a first look at contacts and social software. I'll follow up with a deeper dive on other aspects of the phone software. If you're looking for cool apps for your Nokia Lumia 800 while you wait, I can highly recommend AppFlow for discovering new and cool apps on the Windows Phone Marketplace.
About the author:
Hey. I'm Ben, also known as @nzben on Twitter. I'm a gadget-obsessed software developer. I spend my days building stuff using Microsoft tools and frameworks, but my website runs on Linux, and I harbour impure thoughts about learning Ruby on Rails. I've built apps for all the current mobile platforms except BlackBerry, and at one time walked around with three phones in my pockets while testing apps. I come at the Lumia 800 with a bit of experience in Windows Phone, but my my most recent phone was an iPhone 4S, so I'm no fanboy. Feel free to comment and ask questions - I love a bit of feedback.
Let's start with contact management. The "People" app is where it all happens. Even before you open the app you'll start to see images of your friends flashing up on the app's tile. Inside the app, you have an obvious list of all your contacts, but swipe to the right and you'll see "what's new": a feed of all updates from your contacts from Twitter, Facebook, and other networks you've added. You can tap on the "what's new" title to filter it down to just one network.
One thing to note: if you've added Facebook and Twitter accounts on your phone, you'll get all your contacts from those services listed. This is not always ideal, especially if you follow a lot of people on Twitter. Easy fix: in the application settings for the People app, you can filter your contacts list to only show contacts from the accounts you select. In my case I choose to show contacts from Gmail and my work email, but nowhere else. Don't worry though, you'll still see updates from Facebook and Twitter for the contacts you have displayed.
How does the integration with social networks work? Pretty easy really: Windows Phone automatically links contacts together from each network. You can see in the image below that my lovely wife's contact record has five different accounts linked together.
It's very accurate, with most accounts automatically linked except where friends are using pseudonyms and different email addresses.
With these accounts linked, when I view contact information for any one person, I see updates from their social networking accounts, photos from some, and a history of all my interactions with them, whether that be emails, phones or messages.
The real power of this integration comes to life when you create a group. Add up to 20 contacts into a custom group, and the group's "What's new" tab now becomes a custom filtered social network feed, showing only updates from people in the group.
You can pin groups to your start screen to get a snapshot of the latest updates on a tile, and of course you can send group SMS messages and emails from the group tab.
The social networking features of the phone extend through into other apps as well. The Photos app lets you view photos from Facebook and Windows Live from anyone in your contacts list. And the "Share" option can be integrated into any app (e.g. a photo editing app), allowing you to post updates to social networks from within app.
Finally, in the event that the built-in features of the Lumia 800 don't cut it for you, there's plenty of first and third party apps to try out. Great first-party apps include Facebook, Foursquare, and Skype (currently in beta). For Twitter, the official app is not that great, but Rowi and Carbon are fantastic alternatives.
That's it for a first look at contacts and social software. I'll follow up with a deeper dive on other aspects of the phone software. If you're looking for cool apps for your Nokia Lumia 800 while you wait, I can highly recommend AppFlow for discovering new and cool apps on the Windows Phone Marketplace.
About the author:
Hey. I'm Ben, also known as @nzben on Twitter. I'm a gadget-obsessed software developer. I spend my days building stuff using Microsoft tools and frameworks, but my website runs on Linux, and I harbour impure thoughts about learning Ruby on Rails. I've built apps for all the current mobile platforms except BlackBerry, and at one time walked around with three phones in my pockets while testing apps. I come at the Lumia 800 with a bit of experience in Windows Phone, but my my most recent phone was an iPhone 4S, so I'm no fanboy. Feel free to comment and ask questions - I love a bit of feedback.
The best and the worst in application behaviour
Nokia Lumia 710, posted: 19-Mar-2012 13:13
This post is about the thing I’ve found to be the most exciting and the thing I’ve found to be the most irritating about functionality on the Windows Phone 7platform.The most exciting thing for me is probably such a small thing. But I do wish Android would find a way to incorporate it.I love that you can go to a Contact and easily write on their Facebook wall, or mention them in a tweet. This of course assumes said contact has a Facebook and/or Twitter account. There’s no need to launch Facebook or Twitter. Just go to the People app and find your person to write/mention them.
It’s just so simple. It’s a no fuss way of making contact. And sometimes it’s the little things in life that make such a big difference.
I’m hoping the thing that I find most irritating is just some setting I’ve overlooked.
When I launch the Facebook application it continues to open at an item that is now days old. I don’t know why it does this. But it stalls at this historic update (it’s from a friend’s wall) and then refreshes to the next round of latest news. It’s easily 3-5 seconds before I get the fresh news.
The very next time I launch Facebook this saga starts all over again. It’s like it’s locked onto this historic item and I can’t figure out why.
Remember I’ve only been using the Nokia Lumia 710 for just over a week now. My opinion has changed on a number of fronts in that time and I may well find something new that’s both a joy and a PITA as I become more familiar with the phone and the Windows Phone 7 OS.
I have one really big gripe about the Windows Phone 7 OS which I’ll save up for another day.
Of course all of this is personal preference and what irks and pleases me may not be a bother or be a big to-do for you.
About the author:
Hi, my name is Anita, on Geekzone and other social network sites I’m known as Neets, sometimes with a “_”, sometimes with “_nz”. I’m a proud kiwi living/surviving in Christchurch. I’m not blogging about this Nokia Lumia 710 because I need a new phone. In fact I love my existing Samsung Galaxy SII. When offered the opportunity to review the Nokia Lumia 710 I took it up because, in truth, it was an honour to be asked, but I enjoy writing reviews, I like learning new things and I’ve got a bit of a fascination about how far you can push smartphones. The brief is fairly simple, use the phone as much as you can and then write about your experiences. My reviews will be honest about the good the bad and the ugly based on how I use the phone, which undoubtedly will vary to the way anyone else uses their phone.
Lumia 800 as a PA
Nokia Lumia 800, posted: 19-Mar-2012 11:07
The thing most sole traders and busy executives can agree on is the complete lack of time to accomplish most tasks. I have found that a well prepared and setup smart phone, with a few basic features, starts to pay for itself in a very short time by providing information, remotely, on demand. This is my first blog post for Telecom and Geekzone and I’m going to evaluate the new Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone, on Telecom XT network, in my busy world. I hope to guide you to getting better value from your smart phone if you are a sole trader, small business exec or if you’re just busy enough to want a PA some days.
Unpacking
Unpacking the Nokia Lumia 800 and getting started is easy; the packaging is practical and minimal. I don’t like in-ear earphones, so the complimentary hands free kit won’t be used.
A Nokia supplied cover is excellent value; it is purpose made and goes on like paint. The cover is important to me as I spend a great deal of time in a shed environment where abrasives, knocks and solvents are normal hazards. The complimentary cover is smooth enough that the phone can be easily slid in and out of trouser pockets by adding almost no difference or thickness to the overall bulk of the device.
The supplied charger is an extremely small wall adapter with USB power output and a supplied micro USB cable allows for wall charging or USB connection and charging from a computer. Apart from a manual and license agreement, that’s pretty much the box.
Getting Connected
Because there are several new ideas in how this smartphone allows for collaboration and integration into a busy lifestyle, I decided to try all the settings and buttons I could find for a few days before resetting the device (via Settings, About menu) and starting 'for real'. You will need to download and install Zune to your primary computer or laptop, which is like iTunes if Microsoft wrote it, and you will need to be sure as much information as possible is up to date everywhere you use it as this device aggregates contact, social and other information from as many sources as you have.
This includes making sure the media you have is known to Zune if you intend taking videos, photos and music on the road. For this reason, this prep work is required to get the most value out of this way of working.
Connecting the phone to Zune via USB cable and getting started is a breeze. Zune provides wizard-like setups and some custom steps if required. I completed the wizard walk-through before I started at the first menu item and worked my way through the software until I had understood and tweaked everything to my liking. This took about 30 mins. After that, I tidied up my Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and made sure I had current and valid credentials for Gmail, Office365, my office and home Wi-Fi and all the other software tools I use to keep up with the world.
All this housekeeping took the better part of the morning, but resulted in a magical experience in terms of connecting with my contacts and connections (and their contacts and connections and so on). The interface is smooth, sleek and very responsive and at the touch of a button, I can see what the people in my world are up to and how I may best be able to expand and nurture bonds with distant friends, family and colleagues. All information is aggregated by contact name and the sensitive yet accurate touch screen navigates easily through the social minefield our world has become.
Zune allows for, and the smartphone supports, wireless synching. Essentially, when plugged in to the power supply, this smart phone will synchronise to Zune on the setup office workstation, over the home office Wi-Fi.
At this point I would like to add that this is one of the few smartphones that does not require any kind of priming by a computer or laptop and it is possible to get the device to full functionality without an initial, assisted setup - Zune adds features, content and management but is not required if you find you 'live' exclusively in Facebook, Google or other networks, for example.
Real World Use
Handset envy is high on this model and you will expect to have to show your smartphone off for a few days. After the hype subsides, the smartphone quickly proves its use. My first week ended with the requirement to book a theater show in Auckland for myself and five others, be the sober driver, coordinate pre-show drinks and a light meal as well as scout out a suitable post-show tear down - usually an hour or two to get organised for me.
Theater companies now have websites that sell tickets; booking and paying for the show via the in-built web browser was straight forward. I did not have all the contact or address details for the people in the trip and I used the handset from the roadside to contact, locate and navigate to the various pickup points via those people's Facebook or similar profiles and the information they have carelessly left freely visible.
I had preprogrammed the location of the theater in the phone and had no trouble navigating from Hamilton to downtown Queens Street, Auckland, in time for the show even though it's been a few years since I was in that neighbourhood. Along the way, the GPS showed distance to target, average speed and tracks seamlessly along the maps in a 3D-like interface.
This smartphone maintains local maps and for that reason, when signal drops off, the maps don't fall away as they do on similar devices that stream the maps as you travel.
During the show, the handset proved to be discreet and comfortably out of the way. The volume control works without unlocking the screen and I could mute the sounds to vibrate just by lowering the volume to 0. The tile interface updates and shows, at a quick glance, where the social landscape has been altered.
I used the free Wikitude app to locate coffee shops in the Auckland CBD after the show without a problem. That the coffee shops don't advertise opening times is not a consideration of the smartphone but likely an oversight by Wikitude or the advertisers themselves - getting around was simple and getting lost, impossible.
Once introduced to further contacts while on the trip, I was able to 'friend' people as I met them via the Facebook and a third party LinkedIn application, negating the need for business cards and hand written numbers on tissue paper.
The GPS is presented by the free and inclusive Nokia Drive application and is smart, very responsive and easy to use. Noticeably, this GPS locks on a lot quicker than any I have used before and reroutes accurately within seconds if I miss a turn or overshoot an off ramp. Given Auckland's road network changes frequently, I found the maps to be up to date and the guided drive without a hitch. I found the free and included Bing Maps had trouble connecting, loading and locating me, but because I want to know where to go, rather than what things look like from the air, I have never used static maps from these types of devices and always go for the navigational application first.
Lastly, the evening being a success, a few pictures wouldn't go astray and despite some initial concerns around the camera's ability (based on other blogs' negative reviews of this phone's camera), I have found the camera to take excellent photos and fantastic video, even in adverse conditions.
The handset supports SkyDrive and allows for automatic uploading of media into any connected and supported location - Facebook included. This type of technology should be used with care due to the high quality of the pictures (by default) and bandwidth required to support this kind of data transfer. However, any content can be manually uploaded when in Wi-Fi range at the touch of a button rather than over costly 3G bandwidth. I have failed the camera's post snap auto-correct component as I found it made the few photos I tested it with worse, but I am sure there will be instances where this may actually enhance pictures.
If you are that way inclined and ask really nicely, you can take a photo of a new colleague and associate it to an address book contact with a few keystrokes (or use a picture from any other connected source, Facebook et al. included). Use of the camera does not require the handset to be unlocked, activation is by pressing the camera button for a few seconds, allowing for picture or videos to be taken only, not viewed afterward (unless the handset is then unlocked). This, I found to be great middle ground between security and ease of access.
First Impressions
After using the handset for a week, I have a few frustrations that I would share before I heap praise on this very exclusive tool. As with Android and iOS, there appears to be very slight disconnects between applications that could make for a really smooth experience. For example, if I open a contact's address details, there seems to be no way to navigate to the contact directly from the address book via the Nokia Drive application; I am forced to re-enter the address in the Drive app or copy and paste which works just fine but is an unnecessary, extra step, in my view.
Another frustration is the battery life is advertised at a very unrealistic 335hrs of standby time. Using tools like GPS and social networking means the smart phone is constantly compressing and streaming data so a spare charger in the car, at work and at home is a requirement. If the device was, say, 2mm thicker to compensate for a better battery the hardware would be complete.
On the up side, the device is sleek, well designed and has great screen quality. 'Typing' is easy and suggestions seem accurate for misspelled words. Working on documents from the road is limited to minor alterations rather than full blown document creation due to screen size and virtual keyboard interface.
Most importantly, I can view all my inboxes, SharePoint sites or web based shares and use the few spare minutes during the day to de-clutter information and send quick notes, contributing toward a clearer inbox when I return to my old fashioned desk at the end of the day.
With two year old twins I have a lot of video and photos to take and the video quality is exceptionally crisp and easy to share via all the popular connected mediums available today. If there is no app for your preferred social interface, the web browser seems complete and had no trouble opening the websites I most commonly refer to.
In Summary
If you are a busy body and look for seamless integration into common applications and business connections during the day without the wait of a desktop experience, this handset will save some hours over your working week as well as add some socialisation to your weekend. I have not experienced a smartphone like this before and consider it to be a game changer due to the tight integration into my existing social and business life.
Future posts will share my experiences of untethering my desk and spending more time in the world.
Best Use Hints:
- When putting any mobile phone in a pocket, always make sure the screen is facing your body for protection against knocks and bumps.
- Always backup your SIM card before moving to this newer micro SIM format.
- Get a spare charger, cable and car charger for the smart phone in the initial purchase.
- Spend time learning how to use the device properly if you want to get the most of it.
- Get a broad range of reviews from like minded users before committing to any smart phone purchase.
Pros:
- Sleek, stylish and well designed.
- Good solid strong feel with no build seams or obvious weak points.
- Seamless integration into social and business networking.
- Great price point and deals available at the moment.
- Included sleeve and applications are well suited.
- Battery life is much lower compared to my less functional Android device.
- Uses a great deal more bandwidth than my previous handset but does provide a richer experience.
Worth 4.5/5.0 if I had a awesome-o-meter.
About the author:
Hi, my name is Gund Wehsling (gundar on Geekzone). I am a freelance ICT contractor in Hamilton. I also share the care of my two year old twins out of work hours and support local community groups with the little spare time I can find. I have had several smart phones over the years and find them to be very helpful when used as a business tool. My expectations of the Nokia Lumia 800 are high given the hype and fanfare that was the launch. In my blog posts I will share experiences using this mobile phone as a tool in a busy and demanding lifestyle. Meanwhile, if you need some experienced long or short term ICT help, my contact details are here: www.arcainsula.co.nz
Nokia Lumia 800 Hardware Review
Nokia Lumia 800, posted: 15-Mar-2012 10:32
My first smartphone purchase was the Nokia N95 when it had just come out in New Zealand. I still have it with me actually sitting in my drawer in case if any of the family member’s phone packs up on them and they need a phone in the mean while.
It took great photos and the phone had excellent build quality. I used it for good 2 years before I purchased my first Windows Mobile (not to be confused with the current Windows Phone platform) in 2009, the HTC Touch Pro 2. I replaced the software/ROM on it nearly every day from xda-developers website to gain extra battery life, features that were not available out of the box on the phone, speed and fluidity of the OS. I was very ignorant back then of the iPhone. I had never used it and would tell people off from buying it because it was missing this and that features until I used one for the first time which was the iPhone 3GS. It was speedy, it was fluid, there was almost zero lag and it also had a great hardware design like every other apple product that’s out there.
Back then I thought about my next smartphone and had made up my mind on buying the iPhone 3GS or whatever the next iPhone would be if Microsoft could not come up with their next OS that paid attention to the design, speed, fluidity and a good applications store. Basically an OS that was easy to use because Windows Mobile was not.
The wait paid off and Windows Phone was announced in early 2010 with a redesigned user interface that looks nothing like the competition, with the first handsets were released in late 2010.
I did not like the design and hardware of the HTC Trophy that was officially released in New Zealand so I imported a Samsung focus from USA via Amazon at launch. I had since then been using Windows Phone as my primary Smartphone and have no regrets not buying an iPhone.
When Windows Phone 7.5 (codename Mango) was released in late 2011, I upgraded my Samsung Focus to the HTC Titan which is a second generation Windows Phone device. It has a 4.7” screen which I got use to very quickly.
I received an invite from Geekzone asking me if I would like to take part in the Nokia Lumia 800 trial to which I said yes as I had read reviews about the device, about its excellent build quality, camera, screen and the apps like Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps that come bundled with the device. What made the offer sweet for me was that it came from Telecom NZ. I have been using their network since I got my first Windows Phone and really like their data speeds since web connected apps like Facebook and Twitter load content very quickly.
For me this is the best Windows Phone device out in the market after owning a couple of Windows Phone devices myself and playing extensively with few other Windows Phone handsets that my family, friend and work mates had purchased. It feels great in the hand. It’s made out of Polycarbonate which is the same stuff used to make Ice Hockey helmets. The entire body on the Nokia Lumia 800 is made from one bit of polycarbonate and the colour (Cyan) is dyed all the way through it. Even if you somehow manage to get a scratch or dent on this body, the colour Cyan will still be there on the scratch or dent.
The only thing that comes apart from the Nokia Lumia 800 is the USB latch and the micro-SIM card slot. The 3.7” Clear Black Display AMOLED screen is amazing. The Clear Black Display technology from Nokia helps beat the sunshine reflection on the screen when you are outside and the AMOLED screen displays deep black levels where black pixels do not light up on the display thus saving battery life.
The screen is slightly curved which helps it viewing it from different angles and gives the device a much more premium feeling when you are swiping your hand over the screen. The screen is vibrant with superb contrast and colours don’t look washed out as they do on my HTC Titan’s screen.
The camera on the Nokia Lumia 800 has Carl Zeiss optics with an 8 MP F2.2 aperture, dual LED flash and 720P @ 30FPS video recoding capabilities. The phone takes excellent photos even in low light conditions and is one of the best camera phones I have used. You can even take photos while the phone is locked by pressing down on the camera button for few seconds. I will go into much further detail about camera shortcuts and features in a later blog post talking about the Pictures Hub.
The battery life on the Lumia 800 is great. My first couple of days with the Lumia 800 were not so great when it came to battery life. I lost 70% charge while I was sleeping at night and had only received a couple of emails with no apps running or using the background tasks feature of the Windows Phone. I was worried that that the battery on this device I have received is faulty. I did a hard reset on the phone which takes the phone back to its factory settings and did couple of battery drains and then full charge and this solved the issue for me.
With my personal Hotmail and work Outlook accounts syncing as mail arrives and with Facebook and Twitter syncing in the background 24 x 7 as well I get just over a day out of the Lumia 800, which is the norm with almost all super smartphones that I have used.
The speakers are well placed right at the bottom of the device and drop great sound. The Bass is excellent and there is no crackling or cheap sound coming out of them. I use the device everyday connected to my car stereo via Bluetooth and the audio and call quality is excellent.
This brings to an end of my hardware review of this superb device. I have owned two Windows Phone devices before the Nokia Lumia 800 and I have played with four other Windows Phone devices extensively. I have also played with the iPhone 4/4S. I always envied its hardware design because the competition never even came close. Not anymore. The Lumia 800 feels and looks better than the iPhone 4/4S to me. Nokia has put a lot of effort in designing this phone. The hardware is stellar. I agree with Nokia when they say that ‘This is the first real Windows Phone’.In my next series of blog posts, I will talk about the Windows Phone operating system itself and what it has to offer in partnership with the Nokia hardware.
About the author:
It took great photos and the phone had excellent build quality. I used it for good 2 years before I purchased my first Windows Mobile (not to be confused with the current Windows Phone platform) in 2009, the HTC Touch Pro 2. I replaced the software/ROM on it nearly every day from xda-developers website to gain extra battery life, features that were not available out of the box on the phone, speed and fluidity of the OS. I was very ignorant back then of the iPhone. I had never used it and would tell people off from buying it because it was missing this and that features until I used one for the first time which was the iPhone 3GS. It was speedy, it was fluid, there was almost zero lag and it also had a great hardware design like every other apple product that’s out there.
Back then I thought about my next smartphone and had made up my mind on buying the iPhone 3GS or whatever the next iPhone would be if Microsoft could not come up with their next OS that paid attention to the design, speed, fluidity and a good applications store. Basically an OS that was easy to use because Windows Mobile was not.
The wait paid off and Windows Phone was announced in early 2010 with a redesigned user interface that looks nothing like the competition, with the first handsets were released in late 2010.
I did not like the design and hardware of the HTC Trophy that was officially released in New Zealand so I imported a Samsung focus from USA via Amazon at launch. I had since then been using Windows Phone as my primary Smartphone and have no regrets not buying an iPhone.
When Windows Phone 7.5 (codename Mango) was released in late 2011, I upgraded my Samsung Focus to the HTC Titan which is a second generation Windows Phone device. It has a 4.7” screen which I got use to very quickly.
I received an invite from Geekzone asking me if I would like to take part in the Nokia Lumia 800 trial to which I said yes as I had read reviews about the device, about its excellent build quality, camera, screen and the apps like Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps that come bundled with the device. What made the offer sweet for me was that it came from Telecom NZ. I have been using their network since I got my first Windows Phone and really like their data speeds since web connected apps like Facebook and Twitter load content very quickly.
For me this is the best Windows Phone device out in the market after owning a couple of Windows Phone devices myself and playing extensively with few other Windows Phone handsets that my family, friend and work mates had purchased. It feels great in the hand. It’s made out of Polycarbonate which is the same stuff used to make Ice Hockey helmets. The entire body on the Nokia Lumia 800 is made from one bit of polycarbonate and the colour (Cyan) is dyed all the way through it. Even if you somehow manage to get a scratch or dent on this body, the colour Cyan will still be there on the scratch or dent.
The only thing that comes apart from the Nokia Lumia 800 is the USB latch and the micro-SIM card slot. The 3.7” Clear Black Display AMOLED screen is amazing. The Clear Black Display technology from Nokia helps beat the sunshine reflection on the screen when you are outside and the AMOLED screen displays deep black levels where black pixels do not light up on the display thus saving battery life.
The screen is slightly curved which helps it viewing it from different angles and gives the device a much more premium feeling when you are swiping your hand over the screen. The screen is vibrant with superb contrast and colours don’t look washed out as they do on my HTC Titan’s screen.
The camera on the Nokia Lumia 800 has Carl Zeiss optics with an 8 MP F2.2 aperture, dual LED flash and 720P @ 30FPS video recoding capabilities. The phone takes excellent photos even in low light conditions and is one of the best camera phones I have used. You can even take photos while the phone is locked by pressing down on the camera button for few seconds. I will go into much further detail about camera shortcuts and features in a later blog post talking about the Pictures Hub.
The battery life on the Lumia 800 is great. My first couple of days with the Lumia 800 were not so great when it came to battery life. I lost 70% charge while I was sleeping at night and had only received a couple of emails with no apps running or using the background tasks feature of the Windows Phone. I was worried that that the battery on this device I have received is faulty. I did a hard reset on the phone which takes the phone back to its factory settings and did couple of battery drains and then full charge and this solved the issue for me.
With my personal Hotmail and work Outlook accounts syncing as mail arrives and with Facebook and Twitter syncing in the background 24 x 7 as well I get just over a day out of the Lumia 800, which is the norm with almost all super smartphones that I have used.
The speakers are well placed right at the bottom of the device and drop great sound. The Bass is excellent and there is no crackling or cheap sound coming out of them. I use the device everyday connected to my car stereo via Bluetooth and the audio and call quality is excellent.
This brings to an end of my hardware review of this superb device. I have owned two Windows Phone devices before the Nokia Lumia 800 and I have played with four other Windows Phone devices extensively. I have also played with the iPhone 4/4S. I always envied its hardware design because the competition never even came close. Not anymore. The Lumia 800 feels and looks better than the iPhone 4/4S to me. Nokia has put a lot of effort in designing this phone. The hardware is stellar. I agree with Nokia when they say that ‘This is the first real Windows Phone’.In my next series of blog posts, I will talk about the Windows Phone operating system itself and what it has to offer in partnership with the Nokia hardware.
About the author:
Hi. My name is Karan (billgates). I do not work for Microsoft and nor am I paid by Microsoft. I like what they do. I work as a field engineer in Auckland and hop between Auckland and Hamilton every weekend. I love technology and like to keep myself updated with it every day reading various blogs and sites like Geekzone. This will be the first time I will be writing a blog series myself so really looking forward to this experience. It feels good to have been given the opportunity by both Geekzone and Telecom to review a product that I had been waiting to lay my hands on personally. I know the Windows Phone OS very well so will offer great insights into it including any annoyances that I might find in both the hardware and the software. If you have any questions regarding the device, software or the network performance, feel free to PM me or ask away in the blog series.
