[Nokia Lumia 800] Warren.D:
Nokia Lumia 800 (Black) Review

By XDA member Warren.D

Here’s a review I did for Nokia as they were generous enough to send me a Lumia 800. If I have missed out anything in particular or you have a request/question, inbox me and I’ll do what I can. :-)

Pictures to follow Shortly.

Included in the box:

-	Nokia Lumia 800

-	Headphones (Without extra buds)

-	USB cable

-	AC adapter

-	Phone Case

-	Documentation & Manuals.

Nokia was kind enough to include a rubberised protection case in the box, its rather good quality too, although it can be quite fiddly to fit it on. One downfall I found was that they didn’t include any spare ear buds for the headphones, though I had some spares laying around. The headphones themselves are rather good quality too, they’re sturdy and they sound more than adequate.

Design & Build

Height - 116.5mm

Width – 61.2mm

Thickness – 12.1mm

Weight – 142g

The Apple iPhone now has a serious Rival. The Lumia 800 is truly a beautiful device you can clearly tell that Nokia has put a lot of thought and effort into the design of this phone. It’s resembles the N9 but has a smaller display and touch capacitive buttons. It’s available in 3 colours, Black, Cyan and Magenta.

In no way does the Lumia 800 feel heavy or bulky. It’s made from a single piece of polycarbonate plastic therefore the phone feels very sturdy in the hand, it has sufficient grip (without the case), and has a nice premium feel and Its extremely comfortable to use, even for prolonged periods. The 3.7inch Corning Gorilla Glass display has curved edges making it feel more natural to use, Swiping left to right is an absolute breeze. Nokia included their ‘AMOLED ClearBlack’ technology and the display really is vibrant and crisp. The blacks are truly black, you cannot tell where the display ends when you’ve selected the black WP7 theme. Also unlike my Galaxy S II, the screen does not collect fingerprints!

The 3.5mm headphone jack is located at the top, making it easy to hold and insert into your pocket when listening to music. Next to the jack, we have the Micro-USB/Charging Port which is located under a little door. Although it looks like it is fiddly to use and people have reported that its flimsy, it really isn’t anything to worry about, It helps keep the dust out. Once you have the charging door open you can slide the Micro-SIM slot to the side and it releases, allowing you to insert or change the Micro-SIM. It’s really easy and saves using a battery cover and ruining the ‘seamless’ design of the phone.

Located on the left hand side is the volume rocker, power key and dedicated camera key. The camera key is a welcome addition; you can activate the camera in standby and take a quick snap within seconds, even when using a pass code lock. Though if you do use a pass code it will not allow access to anything other than the camera application, meaning the security of your device isn’t under threat. Located on the bottom we have the loudspeaker and on the back is the 8 Megapixel Carl Zeiss Camera, and a Dual LED flash.

Camera

The Nokia Lumia 800 features an 8 Megapixel sensor with Carl Zeiss optics, 2.2 aperture, Dual LED flash, Auto focus and touch to focus, max resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels, HD video recording up to 720p, Geo-tagging and many more features

I’m no camera expert but the quality of the pictures I have taken so far have all been crystal clear and sharp. The dedicated camera key is brilliant, a feature that I wish my Galaxy S II had. Even when I have viewed the pictures on my laptop they are crystal clear. The HD video recording is brilliant too, and the sound levels are more than adequate. I’m sure the Lumia 800 will do an excellent job capturing all those moments in your life.

Specification Highlights

3.7inch Amoled ClearBlack display (480 x 800)

Corning Gorilla Glass

8 Megapixel Camera with Dual LED flash.

Single-Core Qualcomm MSM8255 CPU clocked at 1400 Mhz

512 Mb of Ram

16 gig of Memory (No Micro-SD slot)

1450mAh battery

WLAN 802.11 b/g/n

HSUPA 5.76 Mbps

HSDPA 14.4 Mbps

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

GPS & A-GPS

3D Accelerometer

Proximity sensor

Magnetometer Sensor (Compass)

Ambient Light Sensor

3G Standby - max 355hrs

3G Talk time - max 9.5hrs

Music Playback - max 55hrs

Full Specification list can be found at http://www.nokia.co.uk/gb-en/products/phone/lumia800/specifications/

Operating system and Applications

The Nokia Lumia 800 runs Windows Phone 7.5 mango, and does a good job of it too, Nokia have really worked their magic. It’s very fluid, snappy and smooth as butter. It really is a smooth experience, I can’t stress that enough. WP7 is still making a name for itself in the fast paced Smartphone economy and I’m sure this device is going to bring the platform a lot of attention. You won’t come across all the apps you’d find in the Android Market or iOS app store but the apps available for WP7 is on the increase as more developers are taking interest. Many of the most popular apps are available in the WP7 marketplace.

Nokia have included three exclusive apps,

Nokia Drive

Turn by turn voice navigation. This app is very useful and has been implemented well. It’s very accurate, and the GPS is spot on and locks with satellites within seconds. You can download the maps free of charge within the application; this saves you from worrying about losing your signal and the maps not loading. There’s a useful toggle in the application to switch between Day/Night modes. Each mode provides a better viewing experience during the day and night. Night mode also decreases the brightness of the display making it less of a distraction whilst trying to keep your eyes on the road!

Nokia Maps

The maps application isn’t much different than the preinstalled bing maps. It offers the option to view local popular places, public transport and search. If you live in Scotland and you’re about to have a weekend break in London, You’re able to tap London into the search option, and then see the nightlife, shopping centres, public attractions in the area, and on top of that you can see reviews and contact details for these places. Pretty awesome!

Nokia Music

This app is really cool! Music fans are going to love it. You can find gigs near your current location, it provide the dates of the gigs, where they’re held at and even provides directions to get to the venue! You can listen to mix radio within the app, and even download mix radio playlists for offline listening, then once you’re connected to Wifi you can refresh the playlist to bring it up to date. You can update using 3G, although it’ll be a data hog and isn’t advised unless you truly have an unlimited data plan. The app will also recommend artists that are similar to your favourites, via the mp3 store that’s built in. You can create your own music profile, which works by collecting data from your downloaded music and pc, to ultimately give you personalised genre mixes.

Apps included in the OS

Internet Explorer is one of the most brilliant mobile browsers I have used. It’s simple, very snappy, and pages load with extremely fast with minimal page rendering. Pinch to zoom is so smooth!

Corporate and business users are going to welcome the addition of Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Office in the palm of their hand. My other half tried the Exchange and it fully synced all of the contacts, calendar meetings/appointments and emails. I personally don’t use these two applications, but many users are going to find them extremely useful.

The People Hub is amazing since the mango update; it has everything your social life craves. It keeps all your social network updates in once easy to use place. You’re able to merge several different accounts within the hub, which saves you switching between different applications. The user interface is simplistic yet smart; it updates all your feeds quickly, so there’s not much waiting.

Within the text messaging application, Facebook chat and Windows live messenger have been implemented and it works well. This again, saves you from switching between multiple apps.

Gaming

With integrated XBOX live, the Lumia 800 will suffice all your gaming needs. I did a comparison between the Lumia 800 and my Galaxy S II with the Sims 3 game, the Nokia with a single core processor clocked at 1400 Mhz and half the RAM always loaded the game much quicker. I had the same result loading Angry Birds on both devices. The graphics on the Nokia are very good, as with most Windows Phone 7 devices. If you love to game, you’ll love this phone for sure.

System updates and Battery Life

Nokia has already rolled out updates to iron out bug fixes, and bring improvements.. The latest update Nokia provided vastly improved the battery life, it now lasts more than a day easily. Also after the latest update Audio quality through the earpiece and loudspeaker are louder and clearer. I believe Nokia are planning to roll out another update in early 2012, with bug fixes and with further battery life enhancements.

Summary

Nokia has done an excellent job with Lumia 800. The handset is good looking, and the build quality is outstanding. The hardware really enhances the operating system and the whole experience of Windows Phone 7. The device has loads of potential, and I’m sure it’s going to pull more people across from Android and iOS. It’s has the wow factor and it always catches someone’s eye. Anyone considering buying this device should take the plunge, I’m sure you won’t regret it.