Review: Nokia Lumia 800 – Lighting a New Way for Nokia?

The Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows phone 7 on board launched in South Africa in Early February with much fanfare. Our review unit arrived shortly thereafter, and we have been playing ever since. The bottom line is that this is one great mobile phone. The Lumia 800 is not perfect, there are many little issues that hold it back, but overall this fresh new device competes well with what’s out there from Apple, and the various Android suppliers.

The Lumia 800 is not the first Windows Phone 7 on the market, but it is the highest profile. Despite all the work Nokia have done, and continue to do with their Symbian phones, it became clearly apparent that they needed to do something significant to recharge their rapidly falling smartphone business and regain some market share which was being gobbled up by Apple and Android

The Lumia 800 is one of four brand new devices from Nokia. The range will stretch from an entry level Lumia 610 all the way to the recently released Lumia 900. The Lumia 800 has a 3.7 inch screen with a solid polycarbonate body. Nokia’s heritage in making superb quality phones comes well to the fore with the Lumia 800. From the moment you fist pick up the phone it just feels class. The Polycarbonate shell has no back cover or openings other than the charging port, which is hidden by a little flap on the top of the phone. This flap does feel very flimsy, but I have not been able to break it with all my fiddling around, charging, and playing with the Lumia.

The other notable feature of the Lumia 800 is the amazing screen. It is not an Amoled but has really deep blacks and a slightly curved profile, which makes icons and images appear to float a little in a deep black background, very fetching. One issue I have is that the adaptive backlight settings are not adjustable and can get a bit aggressive; the effect is that the screen can suddenly become a bit dull. The screen is also very responsive to touch, and in many ways is as good as the benchmark phone in this regard, the Apple iPhone 4. Swiping, typing, and navigation, is really easy and very responsive.

The Lumia 800 has a solid 1.4 Gig processor and enough graphic processing horsepower to run the superior screen. Windows Phone 7 is also very responsive and fluid. The new Windows Metro interface features heavily and is very different to the application dominated interfaces we have become used to. The home screen features live tiles, which you can move around,  and can be set up to keep all your regular apps, such as mail and whatsapp right on top. The live tiles are really useful and show you how many mails or messages are waiting to be read, or what the weather currently is. The live tile paradigm is different and very useful. I do however miss the top info bar from Android for quick updates on new information.

This review is about the Lumia 8000 and not Windows Phone 7, so I won’t go into too much detail regarding Windows Phone. I have to add that Windows Phone is a fresh take on mobile platforms and is very good overall. It may take a little time to get used to, as it is significantly different to pretty much everything out there. I found it did not take long for me to adjust my thinking and found Windows Phone 7 very intuitive and very communicative, with an ability to get things done quickly and efficiently, which is only bettered by my Blackberry. The navigation is fluid and menus very shallow, no digging into menus and layers. All the key apps were available on the Widows App Store, such as Dropbox, Evernote, Even more recently Skype, so the size of the app store, being far smaller than Apple or Android did not really bother me.

The one main niggle I have with the Lumia 80 and Windows Phone 7 in general,  is the current version 7.5 has a very aggressive sleep and multitasking mode  for apps that are not in the foreground. An example is when you switch away from Twitter the apps sleeps completely and when you switch back it take a few long seconds to restart and update with your latest tweets, leaving you staring a blank screen for a little to long.

Nokia have included some key and very useful apps on the Lumia. The first is Nokia maps, exclusive to Windows Phone 7 on the Lumia range. Nokia maps are every bit as good as Google maps, and include lots of useful features, such as directions and points of interest. Nokia maps have always, in my opinion set the standard, for mobile mapping. The second is a related and really useful standard app called Nokia Drive; this is a full-fledged free turn by turn voice prompted navigation app. My experience with it so far has been excellent; a major benefit is that maps are available for most of the world, so traveling is not an issue. Another key plus is that the maps are downloadable directly to the device, so no extra data charges when roaming, in addition there is no problem if you lose signal when negotiating the back roads of Pofadder, which by the way is on Nokia maps.

The Nokia Lumia has another killer app in the Mix Radio app. Mix Radio is basically the same as Spottify and other similar online streaming radio stations which are not available in South Africa. Mix radio gives you access to millions of songs to listen to, you can even download playlists to your Lumia for when you are not connected, like on a plane. If you like the tunes you can even buy them from the local Nokia music store, which is another exclusive feature of Nokia in South Africa, no more fiddling iTunes to get music to download. No other competing platform gives you the ability to legally buy music in South Africa right from your device. The process is simple and the process really in line with international stores. This functionality is really a big deal for anyone who cares to listen to music. The Mix app does use data and responds really quickly on a reasonable 3G connection

The camera on the Lumia is another feature that Nokia have always executed really well; in reasonable lighting conditions the camera with its Carl Zeiss optics, takes really good pictures and its fast. Windows Phone 7 also has another clever feature, no need to unlock the phone, find the camera app and then start shooting, simply press and hold the dedicated camera button on the side of the Lumia, for a short while, and you are good to go, fast and simple.

For those of you looking for the latest greatest Nokia, here it is, and it is complete with a modern fresh operating system that really won’t disappoint. For those of you looking for a great looking really useful mobile phone, camera, dairy, browsing device, the Lumia ticks all the right boxes, gamers will love the Xbox integration right down to your animated avatar, and the ability to continue gaming when away from the couch, and music lovers will really enjoy Mix Radio.

There is no question Nokia is back, and combined with Microsoft’s extensive Windows Live cloud services, mix in exclusive Nokia services like Nokia Drive and Mix Radio; the whole package becomes seriously competitive and fully up to date. If the few niggles, like slow app resume, and the few holes in the range of apps on the App Store don’t prove showstoppers, then the new Nokia Lumia 800 may just be the phone for you.

Steven Ambrose – Executive Editor and major Gadget Geek. Father of 5, and as a result scared of nothing, except being bored. Ran and wrote for Gadget.co.za since 2006, and consults on Technology and its impact on Business via Strategy Worx Consulting. Find me everywhere there is a social platform, but mainly on Facebook and Twitter @ambio