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Handset maker Nokia is moving its device assembly to it’s factories in Asia in a strategic move to improve time to market for it’s products. The 3 factories Komarom, Hungary, Reynosa, Mexico and Salo, Finland will no longer assemble devices but will only offer smartphone product customization aimed at customers in Europe and the Americas.Such a move is not surprising as a major portion of all electronic goods are manufactured in Asia due to lower costs and close proximity to component suppliers.

This move is expected to impact over 4,000 jobs. If you own a Made in Finland or Made in Hungary Nokia phone , hold on to it as you might not get one in the future.  I pulled out 3 Nokia phones from my collection and found a Made in Hungary , Made in China and a Made in India device. The recent Dual SIM handsets are all made in India including the Asha phones

If you own a Nokia phone , do post below the country in which it was made. you can find it in the box or below the battery.

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It is one year since the day which will remain etched in every Nokia fan’s mind. As one of the most ardent Nokia fans out there , i felt obligated to pay a homage of sorts and post my thoughts on the matter. This is neither an editorial nor a rant but merely a take on the situation one year down the line.

Feb 11 2011 will go down in history as the day that a man changed the future of one of the largest companies in existence. Nokia , a company which literally defined the mobile phone and believe it or not even the smart phone industry is on the cusp of a major transition. It is still too early to proclaim whether it will be successful or not however what we do know is that it is now under the leadership of a person more in touch with consumer demands.

The ‘Elop is a Microsoft Muppet’ rant has been going on since the fateful day the announcement was made but giving it a second thought makes you realize that maybe the decision was for the better. Symbian as an OS is functionally superior to a lot of other operating systems out there but the slow as molasses update cycle has relegated it to being the butt of all jokes. The Belle update which had initially been promised for sometime in 2nd half of 2011 is finally being rolled out to existing handsets in February 2012. Even today the application ecosystem is a rather hit or miss. The situation has improved considerably after QML/Qt became the de-facto development platform for Symbian but the damage has been done. Despite having one of the largest market shares out there , there are still no official apps for extremely popular ereader services like Kindle , no apps for Pandora , a severely broken social sharing experience to state a few of the issues. Clearly developer interest has shifted. A rather horrid browsing experience , poor keyboard make it uncompetitive in the high-end. Nokia themselves know this as there is no Symbian phone currently in the high end segment which is headlined by the Windows Phone running Lumia 800.

The Nokia N9 you say ? The phone shipped 600,000 units in the last quarter according to some estimates but that is still a drop in the ocean compared to other smartphone shipments. The phone launched to rave reviews but once the honeymoon period is over , glaring issues emerge. Read this review by our friend @gosharpshooter for a better idea of what i’m pointing at. One phone does not stimulate an ecosystem and the sorry state of the N9 appstore is a testimony to that. Yes , the phone still continues to be the Qt flagship but the kind of efforts being made by Nokia and Microsoft to stimulate Windows Phone development are heartening to see. Marked by one of the largest developer device seeding efforts involving providing 25,000 free handsets to developers shows you where interests lie and the kind of commitment the companies are willing to put in to make sure they succeed.

Windows Phone gives Nokia a fighting chance for survival and being a significant player in the smartphone segment. Already it has managed to grab eyeballs in the North American market , something which Symbian failed to do in all these years. The Lumia 800 is selling like hot cakes with the 710 rounding up the lower end. The Lumia 900 is expected to be a major hit as well. Coupled with the promise of future handsets with further differentiating features like superior camera , optics and services like Nokia Music , the future looks bright for Nokia + Windows Phone. I have been using a Lumia 800 for the past few months and can say that i am a very satisfied customer. Yes , i still cling to my Nokia N8 but that is really more for the nostalgia than any actual productivity.

One year later , i am happy with the decision that Elop took. One year later , i would say that the company is in a better position to succeed than it would’ve been if it had decided to go with MeeGo or Symbian (makes me shudder to even consider that possibility). Nokia has its work cut out for it. If the information leaking about Windows 8 ‘Apollo’ is accurate , we are looking at a very powerful and modern OS with a vibrant developer community towards Q4 of this year. 2011 has been a rocky year for our favorite mobile phone manufacturer but as they say , things can only improve once you reach rock bottom. Lets take a look in another year and see where Nokia stands.

Dhruv Bhutani is a tech enthusiast who tries to keep a tab on the latest and greatest in the mobile and telecom sector. He is currently using a Nokia N9 , N8 , Lumia 800. Catch him on Twitter @DhruvBhutani , you can also reach out on Facebook and G+

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Here are some Valentine’s Day apps for Nokia phones. These include love apps, games and lot more to explore in this season of love.

List of Valentine’s Day apps for Nokia phones

Tips For Valentine’s Day – These tips will not get you a valentine, but may prevent you from committing the blunders that most people make on Valentine’s Day.LoveCardz – The app allows users to send and receive 3D romantic greeting cards for free. User can create a 3D card, photo card or 3D animated musical card and send it as an SMS, email, tweet or post it on Facebook.The Story Of Valentine’s Day - Get to know the martyr story behind the Valentine’s Day! With beautiful illustrations and lucid language, the story of how Valentine’s Day came into being is impressively told in the comic format.Valentine Special –  Get ideas to make your valentine more special! The apps provide users with tips on how to propose your loved one as well as tips on selection of gifts.Valentine SMS and Gift Ideas – Make your valentine impressive with the best SMS and the Gift idea with this app. The app contains short messages for sms and social network wall sharing and Gift ideas for your valentine.Match Maker -  It allows users to check compatibility with their partners especially with Valentine’s Day is just round the corner.All these apps are free of cost and works on range of Nokia phones. Srivatsan Sridhar is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast who is passionate about Mobile phones and Mobile apps. His current phone is Sony Ericsson Xperia X10. You can follow him on Twitter @ssrivatsan and on Google+

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After the Deadmau5 promotional concert in London , Nokia seems to be taking its efforts to Paris.  A 10 metre high Lumia 800 model has been installed on the Champs Elysées in Paris.

The model is an interactive showcase of WP7 and lets users send messages to Santa keeping in mind the Christmas spirit. Windows Phone handsets will also be provided for the crowd to test out.

[Via - WMPowerUser]

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Remember when my good friend Stefanos Kofopoulos tortured the screen of the Nokia N8 in his famous video about a year ago? Well, Stefanos is at it again and sent over this video, where he puts the Gorilla Glass of Nokia’s first Windows Phone, the Lumia 800 through it’s paces. This video, posted over at his pestaola.gr blog is not for the faint hearted though, Stefanos does not hold back, scratching all over the display with keys, coins and even a Swiss Army knife! I don’t know about you, but those scratching sounds just made me cringe. Horrible stuff. What happens to the display you ask? Check out the video after the break and make sure to watch in full HD for full proof and enjoy!

Source: pestaola.gr

Michael Hell, Austria, Mobile Phone Freak, social networked Fella, down to earth and always up for new Challenges. Also blogging on www.thoughtsfromhell.net, which is my private Blog for Things like Photography and personal Things :) Feel free to add me on http://twitter.com/michaelxhell or http://www.facebook.com/michaelhell

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The second Windows Phone device out of Nokia has now started shipping. The Nokia 710 is a lower end alternative to the Nokia 800 and packs a smaller 3.5? CBD LCD display.

Running on Windows Phone 7.5 ‘Mango’, Nokia Lumia 710 offers a 1.4GHz processor, 3.7? ClearBlack display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash, 720p video recording, 8GB internal memory can also be found on the device. The USP here seems to be the replaceable back panels which come in a variety of colors. Indian pricing details are yet unknown but the estimated retail price is 270 euros.

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The first Nokia Windows Phone went on sale in the UK few days back in the UK and few other countries . (Read  our Nokia Lumia 800 Review). But looked like it was available in limited stores and more easily on a contract. Now online retailer has announced that SIM-Free / Unlocked units of the Lumia 800 will arrive on December 1st in the UK compared to the January 2012 timeframe announced previously.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is priced at 369 british pounds/ Rs.30000 approx /  575 USD (excluding VAT) on Clove and pre-orders are currently underway.  The handset is expected to hit India is mid-December for a similar price tag. But if you want to get yourself a Lumia 800 really soon, you could give Clove a try.

Varun Krish is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast and has been blogging about mobile phones since 2005. His current phones include the Nokia E6 and Apple iPhone 4. You can follow him on Twitter @varunkrish and on Google+

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Much has been written about how Nokia would attempt to differentiate their Windows Phone 7 smartphones to other Microsoft OEM licensees. Well now that we have our hands on the new Lumia 800, we can just see how much, if at all, Nokia has customised the UI in their quest to set themselves apart.

As you can see from the video embedded below, the core Windows Phone 7 experience has been left untouched. The love it or hate it Metro UI is fast, sleek and benefits from Microsoft’s rigid chassis 1 specifications. The first generation Windows Phone 7 devices all contains the same single core 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and nobody complained about the performance.

The one found in the Lumia 800 is clocked at 1.4 GHz which is quite a speed bump. Some has mentioned that the Lumia 800 would benefit more from a dual core processor. Perhaps when Apollo or Tango arrives with 720p display support, but right now Windows Phone 7 is so well optimised it just does not need one.

Many people have asked and I can confirm that Nokia Pure is no where to be seen. In fact there is still no way of changing the default typeface on Windows Phone 7. I doubt many people will mind. Segoe is a modern and clean sanserif typeface that works really well with the Metro interface. So much so I have even used it in my previous Nokia N8. Still it would be nice to see font changing as an option in future Windows Phone updates.

There is one small consolations for those seeking for a more “Nokia experience”. Under the theme settings you will find a new accent called ‘Nokia Blue’. This is the same hue of Nokia’s famous blue logo, and it looks great on the Lumia 800's AMOLED screen.

The Lumia 800 ships with two Nokia-exclusive applications, Nokia Music and Nokia Drive. There is an icon for Nokia Maps, but this takes us to a Nokia Maps app-holder page on the Marketplace, plus it isn’t a Nokia exclusive application. Nokia has also announced an ‘exclusive’ ESPN application, but this was no where to be seen on my Lumia 800. Besides, an ESPN app isn’t exactly that exciting.

Nokia Drive is a free voice navigation application. It works exactly like Nokia Maps on Symbian, complete with 3D landmarks, 2D/3D and satellite mode, and access to a huge database of POIs. Nokia Drive has an advantage over competing maps applications in that you will have access to maps from over 100 countries and these maps are available in offline as well.

Maps are available to download in regions or whole countries. For example the entire UK maps is available as a 231MB download, but you can also download the maps for Wales separately. Map downloads is fast. It took the device ten minutes to download the entire UK map via WiFi. Unfortunately it is not possible to queue downloads.

Voice guided navigation aren’t unique, but at least with Nokia Drive you will know you get this for free with guaranteed access to the latest maps and POIs during the entire lifetime of your device.

The second exclusive application that Nokia has provided is Nokia Music. We all know about Spotify, and that Spotify requires subscription to listen to streaming music on mobiles. It also isn’t available in many countries. Well Nokia Music is similar (in a stripped down sort of way), but instead of paying US$10 a month, you get the streaming bit for free. The application is integrated into the Zune music app.

What Nokia Music provides is a easy interface to prepackaged radio stations that has already been customised for different regions and genres. Nokia has announced that stations can be downloaded for offline listening, though I have found no way of doing so. As the Lumia 800 I have is a prototype device running on none-finished software, this may be possible on the retail version.

In any case, the app makes music discovery a rather easy process and most customers will find being able to get music right out of the box with a new phone to be a compelling experience. Once you start listening to a music you can control the jukebox from anywhere within the OS, even on the lock screen. Pressing the volume button will toggle a pop up control.

As Nokia Music is also a music store, you can easily purchase and download music directly from the phone. Tracks costs from £0.79 and you can buy them individually or the album as a whole (which tends to work out cheaper). Album prices are also competitive. Nirvana’s Nevermind for example costs £4.99 on the Nokia Music store, a full 50p cheaper than if bought via Amazon UK’s MP3 store. Track previews are available for each tracks.

Before I sign off. I have received questions regarding Internet Sharing function on the Lumia 800, or the lack of it. I can confirm that there is no Internet Sharing feature on my Nokia Lumia 800, but Nokia has also confirmed that they are working on making this feature available.

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PayMate, wireless transactions platform provider has developed a unique and leading NFC technology solution that enables easy display, delivery, and purchase of goods and services using NFC. They have partnered with Nokia to showcase the capabilities of NFC in the mainstream Indian markets. PayMate has recently launched Inter Bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) in India.

Nokia promoted the NFC technology on their new phones Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 by offering Ra.One Bollywood movie contents such as ringtones, games, wallpapers. They have also placed NFC tags with unique content across almost 1,000 Nokia outlets in the country.

Other than sharing text, images, URLs and other data, NFC also plays an important role in the mobile payment. Customers could purchase an item by simply tapping their NFC enabled device against an NFC enabled menu or a tag on an item they wish to purchase. After they receive the information about the item the customer can then choose to go ahead and select the item for purchase.

The device could be linked via PayMate to a payment mechanism such as their bank account or a prepaid account and the customer could then authorise the payment directly on to their mobile phones. This acts as a digital wallet, thus eliminating the need to carry cash and credit cards.

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Nokia India just sent us an invite for a launch event on Nov 14th. The invite talks about Amazing New Experiences. We are betting this is the India launch of the Windows Phone devices.  Nokia announced the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 devices at Nokia World 2011 last month where the company promised to bring these devices to India before the end of the year. The Lumia 710 would be coming first followed by the Lumia 800 from what we have learnt. Interestingly both these devices use a microSIM card  like the iPhone 4 , 4s and Nokia N9. Would be interesting to see how operators address this issue. Pricing wise the Lumia 710 is expected to be cheaper than the 800 and the stated pricing is 270 euros and the device can come at around Rs.20,000

Watch a quick demo of the Lumia 710 below

Do check out the review of the Lumia 800 from our UK team. We should have more news on Nov 14th.

For those asking about the invite , here is it folks !

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Back at Nokia World 2011 we had the chance to get a neat little demo of the Nokia Lumia 710 from a Product Manager . The Lumia 710 which is going to be the most affordable Windows Phone device from Nokia along with changeable back covers and a user removable BP-3L 1300 mAh battery.  There are matching accessories available as well including the Purity headset and the Luna Bluetooth headset. Watch the video below ( available in 720p) for a short overview of the device.

The Lumia 710 packs a 3.7 inch display and is powered by a 1.4GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM . On the back is a 5MP autofocus camera with a dedicated shutter button on the side.

Make sure you check out our initial impressions post as well

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The Nokia Lumia 800 is the first device from Nokia showcasing the result of the partnership between them and Microsoft. However the phone which had really caught the imagination of smartphone enthusiasts all over the world was the Nokia N9.

Now it is very clear that the Nokia 800 borrows heavily from the design of the N9 but why change something which is obviously gorgeous ?  So what has changed between them ? Read on to take a closer look at some of the obvious (and non obvious differences) !

Software

One look at the homescreen and you can see the world of difference between the MeeGo Harmattan OS on the N9 vs Windows Phone 7 on the 800. The WP7 operating system relies on a system of ‘Live Tiles’ which represents app icons both static and dynamic in a form of tiles.

On the other hand MeeGo Harmattan on the Nokia N9 does not include widgets in any form. What you do get are notifications of messages and call notifications on the standby screen and in the events view panel. The Nokia N9 relies on a 3 panel system varying between notifications , apps and multitasking bypassing the concept of a desktop as such. The Nokia 800 on the other hand has a secondary menu with a full listing of apps.

With Windows Phone 7.5 ie Mango, it is now possible to search for apps using the icon on the left which brings up the keyboard. Moving on to the multitasking experience , there is a fundamental difference between the two devices. The N9 lets you open as many apps as you want and displays them in a grid.

The multi tasking UI on the Nokia 800 is on the other hand is quite similar to Symbian^3. Well in looks anyways as WP7 restricts you to 6 apps at a time to ensure the best experience possible without slowing down the OS. Minor differences between the two devices also includes the style of keyboard.

Both keyboards work well and are considered to be amongst the best , most definitely leagues ahead of the one Nokia users generally deal with on Symbian devices.  While both the phones sport what is believed to be the same camera module along with Carl Zeiss Optics , the camera software on board is definitely different. You can read more about the camera on our Nokia 800 and Nokia N9 reviews , here you can see the difference in the camera interface between the two phones.

Hardware

Hardware differences between the N9 and the Nokia 800 are few but definitely worth noting. At first glance the two phones are very similar. Dimensions of the two devices are almost identical down to the mm. It is pretty much impossible to differentiate between the two if spotted from the side. However there are a few key differentiating elements in the hardware as well.

The right side of the Nokia 800 sports volume keys along with a power key which acts as a screen lock key as well. An important differentiating factor here is the camera key which is missing on the Nokia N9.

Moving to the back of the phone we can spot the relocated dual LED flash.

It is easy to differentiate between the two devices from the front. The Nokia 800 has a rather large Windows logo present under the display which also acts as the home key.

The display on the Lumia 800 is a bit smaller at 3.7? than the 3.9? panel on the Nokia N9. The display loses 4 pixels in comparison to the N9 but is definitely bright and more importantly highly legible in sunlight.

The Nokia N9 is the first and the last MeeGo Harmattan handset. Moreover it marks the end of an era. With a limited release , Nokia has paved the path for the 800 to fill in the void for those lusting after the N9's design. With a competitive OS , growing ecosystem and great looking hardware , the Nokia 800 marks the beginning of a new era for Nokia , one which we’re looking forward to !

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Swype Keyboard Beta for Symbian has been updated to version 2.1 that brings Symbian Belle support and new install / uninstall experience that lets you install the app easily without any problem. They have solved all the critical issues raised on Nokia Beta for the period of last 8 weeks in the Beta Labs. This is also the last Beta release for the app before it gets graduated to the Ovi store. The previous version was 2.0 that brought portrait and split-screen text input support.

New features in the Swype for Symbian v2.1 Beta

Complete overhaul to the install / uninstall experience. Install to C:, SD Card, Mass Memory, etc, without a problem. (recommended C:)Critical Settings crash has been fixedOfficial Symbian Belle supportThai and Vietnamese language supportMany small bug fixes thanks to our Beta testersDownload Swype for Symbian v2.1 Beta from the Nokia Beta Labs for Symbian ^3 and the Symbian S60v5 Nokia phones.

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Welcome to the FoneArena Nokia Lumia 800 Review. It is barely eight months after Stephen Elop’s infamous burning platform memo, Nokia has announced their first ever Windows Phone 7 device and has even begun shipment to retailers in Europe. Many thought it was impossible, but Nokia did it anyway. Is this a sign that the once complacent giant has finally woken up to the reality of mobile phone business in the 21st century?

Speak to many Nokia employees and in their views are the same: the Lumia 800 is Nokia’s comeback phone. It isn’t the high end device that many hoped for, but it is the first step. After all you need to learn to walk before you run. For Nokia to be able to get the Lumia 800 into the hands of the press eight months after they started working on this device is impressive, but would that be enough. Read on to find out what we think about the new Lumia 800.

Hardware: Chassis one with a speed bump

The Nokia Lumia 800 is easily the most stunning smartphone I have ever held, period. It is made of a single piece of polycarbonate (basically a posh variety of plastic), a first as far as I know in the world of consumer electronics. Unlike other devices with a unibody design, there is no way of getting into the Lumia 800. Unless you were to break it open, the device is completely sealed from the public world. Electronics were inserted during the manufacturing of the plastic itself, before the sealing begins, or so I was told. The use of polycarbonate not only improves reception, it also means that if the Lumia 800 were to suffer from a fall, the damage will not so apparent as the plastic is coloured inside out.

At 142g the Nokia Lumia 800 feels reassuringly heavy – like it actually is worth something. There is a trend for mobile phone manufacturers to release ever thinner and lighter devices and Nokia bucking the trend isn’t surprising. While it is thick at 12.1mm, the tapered edge gives it a slimmer feel. It is also a comfortable phone to hold and use. The bundled rubber case is equally impressive, maintaining the sleekness of the phone without any additional bulk. I showed off the Lumia 800 with the case and many were surprised to find that it had a case on.

On the front you will find curved display made of the scratch resistant Gorilla Glass. Beneath the display lies a 3.7” capacitive touchscreen with WVGA resolution based on AMOLED and Nokia’s ClearBlack technology. It is an incredibly bright screen which works well in both indoors and outdoors. The 3.7” screen is small by today’s larger than 4” standard, though at least it is larger than the iPhone’s 3.5” screen. Below the screen you will find three touch sensitive Windows Phone 7 buttons – the back, home and search keys.

Unfortunately the screen uses a PenTile subpixel matrix rather than the traditional sharper RGB stripe layout. The PenTile matrix is clearly visible even from a distance, giving texts a more fuzzy look than it would be if it was using a conventional RGB stripe. Fortunately most people will likely not be able to tell the difference unless placed side by side with another phone that uses a screen with RGB stripe.

Ugly PenTile aside, the screen on the Lumia 800 is one of the most gorgeous display I have set my eyes on. In terms of colour saturation, viewing angles and contrast level, the ClearBlack AMOLED display is on par with the Samsung Galaxy S II, and we all know what a great display that was. Only the new Motorola RAZR has a brighter screen than this.

The 3.5mm headphone jack resides on the top of the device, alongside the micro USB port and micro SIM slot, both of which are protected by doors. To access the micro USB port, simply press it down before swinging the hatch open. The flap does look fragile and I am concerned that it will break one day. On the other hand the micro SIM slot uses a pop up tray.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is only the second device from Nokia to use the micro SIM standard, and they are the only manufacturer after Apple to have done so. Personally I see it more of a hassle than anything. The loudspeaker and microphone (likely behind the loudspeaker grill) can be found on the bottom of the device.

The left side of the device is devoid of anything, but this isn’t the case on the right side. Here is where the Nokia Lumia 800 is at its busiest. Some would even say that it ruins the design of the phone somewhat. The controls are a volume rocker, power button and camera shutter button.

Each of these keys provides sufficient feedback, though I did find the power button to be a tad too close to the volume rocker, almost always accidentally pressing that whenever I want to change the volume. Incidentally the volume rocker not only allows one to change the volume, it also pops up the music control from anywhere within the OS. This is a key Windows Phone 7 feature, and one that I wish many times that other OS makers would copy. It just works.

On the back you will find the 8 Megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a dual LED flash. The flash is sufficiently bright, and as an added bonus can be used as a fill light when using the camera to film. The camera supports both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, as well as 720p video recording. On paper the camera should perform well. After all the performance of the camera has always been part of Nokia’s better strengths in relations to their competitors. Unfortunately this is not the case. I will elaborate further in the review.

Moving on, beneath the sexy piece of plastic lies a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC with a single core 1.4 GHz Scorpion ARM Cortex-A8 processor and Adreno 205 GPU 3D hardware accelerator. While relatively outdated by today’s standard, the Snapdragon is still an incredible performer, especially when paired with a very efficient Windows Phone 7 operating system.

A modest 512MB of RAM and 16GB of NAND storage, of which almost 14GB is available to the user, are found ticking alongside. The Nokia Lumia 800, whilst isn’t a complete worldwide phone (it lacks a pentaband 3G chipset necessary to be called one), still offers an impressive array of wireless connectivity and features including quad band GSM, quad band 3G, support for HSPA+ up to 14.4 Mbps, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, A-GPS, accelerometer and digital compass. Do not expect to find a NFC chipset inside – Windows Phone 7 does not support it yet.

Powering the Lumia 800 is a single none removable 1450mAh Li-Ion battery. Nokia has quoted a 2G talktime of up to 13 hours. As part of Windows Phone 7 Mango, a Battery Saver program allows users to extend the battery life further by automatically turning off none-essential services like background emails. In my general experience the Lumia 800’s power efficiency is rather good for a smartphone. I found I was able to go through an entire day on a single charge, which is a lot more than say about my Samsung Galaxy S II.

Windows Phone: Mango’tastic

The Nokia Lumia 800 is the first Nokia smartphone to be released in the UK that runs on a smartphone OS that isn’t built in house. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With Nokia now free of the shackles of developing multiple operating systems, they can go back to doing what they do best – building great hardware.

Running at the heart of the Lumia 800 is Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone 7.5 codenamed Mango. Curiously it is almost exactly a year ago I first reviewed the Samsung Omnia 7 and therefore my first experience with Windows Phone 7. Back then I found myself in captivated by the love it or hate it Metro UI, but the love was brief due to how many features Windows Phone 7 were missing. With the Mango update Microsoft has played catch up with Apple and Google into making it a compelling OS not only for consumers, but power users as well.

Where previously Windows Phone 7 did not even contain copy and paste, the NoDo and Mango update brought with it an excellent Internet Explorer 9 browser, multi-tasking, Twitter and Linkedln integration, Facebook Chat, Facebook events integration into the calendar app and yes, even that elusive copy and paste feature. Internet Sharing, added during the Mango update, is surprisingly missing from this prototype device. But Nokia has confirmed that the ability to turn the Lumia 800 into a mobile hotspot will arrive in an update.

Nokia has not done much to differentiate the Lumia 800 from other competing Windows Phone 7 devices. At a glance the Windows Phone 7 looks like a stock version, with a few exclusive apps that are not available on the Marketplace. The core Metro UI experience has been left untouched, which in my opinion, is a good thing. After all why use Windows Phone 7 without its unique mobile UI? The default typeface on the Lumia 800 is Segoe and there is no way of changing that. Personally I do not mind as I prefer the Segoe typeface to Nokia Pure anyway.

There is one small consolation for those seeking for a more “Nokia experience”. Under the theme settings you will find a new accent called ‘Nokia Blue’. This is the same hue of Nokia’s famous blue logo, and it looks great on the Lumia 800's AMOLED screen.

The Lumia 800 ships with two Nokia-exclusive applications, Nokia Music and Nokia Drive. There is an icon for Nokia Maps, but this takes us to a Nokia Maps app-holder page on the Marketplace, plus it isn’t a Nokia exclusive application. Nokia has also announced an ‘exclusive’ ESPN application, but this was missing from the prototype. Besides, an ESPN app isn’t exactly newsworthy no matter how much Kevin Shields screams about it at Nokia World.

Nokia Drive is Nokia Maps for Windows Phone

Nokia Drive is a free voice navigation application. It works exactly like Nokia Maps on Symbian, complete with 3D landmarks, 2D/3D and satellite mode, and access to a huge database of POIs. Nokia Drive has an advantage over competing maps applications in that you will have access to maps from over 100 countries and these maps are available in offline as well.

As the Lumia 800 contains a A-GPS receiver, the phone was able to obtain a fix within a relatively quick time.

Maps are available to download in regions or whole countries. For example the entire UK map is available as a 231MB download, but you can also download the maps for Wales separately. Map downloads is fast. It took the device ten minutes to download the entire UK map via WiFi. Unfortunately it is not possible to queue downloads.

Voice guided navigation aren’t a totally unique selling point, but at least with Nokia Drive you will know you get this for free with guaranteed access to the latest maps and POIs during the entire lifetime of your device.

Nokia Music takes on Spotify

The second exclusive application that Nokia has provided is Nokia Music. We all know about Spotify, and that Spotify requires subscription to listen to streaming music on mobiles. It also isn’t available in many countries. Well Nokia Music is similar (in a stripped down sort of way), but instead of paying US$10 a month, you get the streaming bit for free. The application is integrated into the Zune music app.

What Nokia Music provides is an easy interface to pre-packaged radio stations that has already been customised for different regions and genres. Nokia has announced that stations can be downloaded for offline listening, though I have found no way of doing so. As the Lumia 800 I have is a prototype device running on none-finished software, this may be possible on the retail version.

Regardless, the app makes music discovery a rather easy process and most customers will find being able to get music right out of the box with a new phone to be a compelling experience. Once you start listening to a music you can control the jukebox from anywhere within the OS, even on the lock screen. Pressing the volume button will toggle a pop up control, a feature available as a standard Windows Phone 7 feature.

As Nokia Music is also a music store, you can easily purchase and download music directly from the phone. Tracks costs from £0.79 in the UK and you can buy them individually or the album as a whole (which tends to work out cheaper). Album prices are also competitive. Nirvana’s Nevermind for example costs £4.99 on the Nokia Music store, a full 50p cheaper than if bought via Amazon UK’s MP3 store. Track previews are available for each track.

Camera: This ain’t the N8

The 8MP AF camera with f2.2 lens on the Lumia 800 is not only disappointing compared to Nokia’s previous flagship smartphones, I also found pictures taken with the camera to be poorer than their competitors. Not only are images fuzzy, the colours are mainly cold and the autofocus doesn’t work very well. Images are also noisy and over processed. The lack of xenon flash does not bother me as I find a LED flash to be more useful for video capturing; something a xenon flash is useless for.

If you believe in the ill advised marketing guff that camera phones can replace proper cameras, then the Lumia 800, as it is currently, isn’t for you. At least the two stage shutter button works like what you would expect on a 99% of all cameras with autofocus, press half way to autofocus and set exposure, then press all the way down to capture the image. As the camera module and lens are the same as on the Nokia N9, I can only hope that a software update will improve the image processing algorithm to the same level as the N9.

Below you will find two image samples. One was taken with the Nokia Lumia 800, the other from a Samsung Galaxy S II (bottom image) - both with settings set to auto, no flash. Not only is the image taken with the Lumia 800 washed out, it is also blurry. The white balance is way off, the image is filled with a huge amount of noise. Details are minimal.

The image taken with the Samsung Galaxy S II on the other hand is sharp and have a more accurate white balance. Noise is also minimal. This despite the fact that the Lumia 800 has a better camera hardware than the Galaxy S II, on paper at least. Whether or not this is an issue with how Windows Phone 7 handles pictures or agressive file compression is up to Nokia’s engineers to find out. I suspect it is a combination of the two. The file of the image from the Galaxy S II is 2.82MB, a fair bit larger than the Lumia 800's 2.08MB suggesting that Nokia or Microsoft has set a higher level of JPEG compression.

Below are further image samples taken with the Lumia 800. The original unresized samples, and more, are available to download here.

Video capturing is limited to either VGA or 720p resolution. Like still images, the settings can be changed. These include white balance, exposure value, effects, contrast, saturation and auto focusing. Video capture quality is good but the auto focus lags by quite a margin. It also has trouble in identifying the white balance if the settings were left on auto. Still as far as video capturing goes on a smartphone goes, the results are actually rather decent.

People Hub: The Social Network 2.0

Unlike Android and the iPhone which are built around applications, Windows Phone 7 is built around people. This is its unique key selling point and it shows. The people hub and the integration with social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn is second to none and outclass all efforts by other manufacturers.

Contacts gathered from Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and LinkedIn can be linked together. Normally the OS would link together contacts from different social networks easily, but there are some misses, particularly if your friends do not use their real names. Linking contacts manually is fortunately a two second affair, and in a far more elegant way compared to say, on Android. Once linked, all updates from that particularly contact will appear in their own unique hub. You can post to their Facebook wall as easily as mentioning them on Twitter or sending them an email, all within the profile hub. You can also view any historical text exchanges or phone calls between you and any contacts.

The integration with social networks goes beyond status updates. The Pictures hub allows one to view their Facebook albums, in addition to those stored on the phone. As long as there is a good network connection the transition is seamless. In fact the loading of thumbnails and pictures are so quick, one could almost believe that the albums actually reside on the phone itself. You can also pin contacts to the sub-pictures people hub and even as a Live Tile. This gives users an easy access to all public pictures of the person in question. This is either creepy or unique depending on who you ask.

Phone

As expected, this being a Nokia device, the quality of in-calls is generally good. It is not known of the Nokia Lumia 800 has a dual microphone set up for noise cancelling, but outgoing calls were still good with background noise generally held back. The speaker quality is good and loud, with only the slight odd bit of crackling apparent when in an area with poor signal. As a phone, the Lumia 800 passes with flying colours – but you knew that anyway.

Wrap up

At an estimated price of £400 in Britain, The Lumia 800 isn’t exactly cheap. But what you do get is a phone with a hardware design that is so unique; it is worth paying £400 just for that sexy angular body. And yet some faults have held it back. I can’t help thinking how much of a better phone it would be if the screen was slightly larger, or that it uses a traditional RGB stripe instead of the much maligned PenTile matrix. Still all phones have faults, and some of the faults found on the Lumia 800 aren’t unique to Nokia.

The biggest challenge facing Nokia is educating the masses about Windows Phone 7. As Nokia rightly said, this is the first Windows Phone 7 smartphone. Not from a literal point of view, but a market perception. Long time users of Windows Phone 7 will likely see no compelling reason to upgrade to this, preferring instead to wait for Microsoft to unleash chassis 2 specs (HD screen, dual core processor), and I can’t see how Nokia’s first Windows Phone effort will convince Android power users and iPhone users to part with their phones.

So is the Nokia Lumia 800 worth your time? Perhaps. Yes, the camera is disappointing, but I have hopes that because the camera module is the same as the one found on the N9, a software update will help fix whatever flaws it had. Despite that there is no doubt that the Lumia 800 is a fantastic device, the best Windows Phone 7 device in fact, but it just isn’t for everyone.

Nokia’s best chances with the Lumia 800 are those people who are just getting onto the smartphone bandwagon, and there are plenty of them around. Even disillusioned Nokia Symbian users will likely find the Lumia 800 appealing, providing them with an upgrade path from a dead OS to one with a future, while still retaining the brand loyalty. For those afraid of tinkering with Android, or sick of all things Apple, the Lumia 800 may just be the right phone for you.

Regardless of how one feels about Nokia’s choice in operating system, with the Lumia 800, Nokia has succeeded in crafting the sexiest smartphone to date. And for that alone I applaud them. Welcome back Nokia.

+ Gorgeous design

+ Great performance

+ Windows Phone 7 Mango

- PenTile matrix

- Disturbingly poor camera performance

This review is based on a none-retail prototype of the Nokia Lumia 800 and is running on unfinished software. The review will be updated accordingly when a software update arrives.

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