Nokia Lumia 800 – A Complete Review and Walkthrough!

This is the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone 7.5’s complete review and walkthrough! Tutorials on using it will follow soon!

Nokia, the company that bought mobile phones to the masses has now stepped into the Windows Phone platform in a deal with Microsoft. And as a part of this initiative, the company has produced a sturdy Smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 800 to get their market share back. I carried a LG B1600 phone initially when the mobile revolution started in India and I was in-fact charged for incoming calls at that time! And then, Nokia stepped into the market and the crowd went crazy. The features that Nokia provided, the promotions that the company did, all went so well until other competitors came in. Once people say better options with phones with colors in them, interchangeable panels and many other cool looking features, the Nokia’s market share started to slide.

Why did I say that? Well, all I wanted to convey is that the Nokia has got the potential to do things that other companies can’t do. And the new Nokia Lumia 800 is a sturdy example. Nokia is definitely trying to push the boundaries with Lumia series running Windows Phone and it has got the capability to be the best Windows Phone on the planet.

Hardware:

Casing:

Nokia is known for building a sturdy hardware onto their devices and the Lumia 800 is no exception to it. Nokia has put in some great effort in bringing out the hardware that people would love. The Phone is surrounded with a matte finished body, that feels good on your hand. This kind of finish is usually vulnerable to scratches though, but Nokia has put the hardware inside a sturdy scratch resistant case this time. The phone that I have with me right now is the Matte black Lumia 800 and I must admit, it’s way too gorgeous!

Being an iPhone user for years, and seeing the same old plastic casing in the phone I carry with, this is a complete change for me. But for all these years, I did not want the matte finished body to come to mobile phones since they would be exposed to a lot of scratches, but this phone changed my perception!

The phone feels a little heavy when compared to the competitors, but still it feels good and filled in your palm. The grip that the phone provides is amazing and it still lives in my hand even at steep angles! There is nothing more to talk about the casing right now. But we have got some more interesting stuffs to talk about in this phone!

Display:

The phone comes with a ClearBlack AMOLED display and the text in it as crisp and sharp. The phone is bright enough to push your retina back into your eye and the color reproduction is amazing. Well, this doesn’t come is the Software doesn’t allow this kind of rendering. And thanks to Windows Phone 7.5 for this great piece work for these kind of smartphones. This 3.7 inches display is well enough for almost all smartphone users to do their tasks with ease.

 Sound Quality:

There’s not much to talk about here. Since the sound quality is not really great but is definitely audible outside. The speakers are placed at the bottom of the device and the audio output is considerably good enough for us to hear. When compared with Sony Erricson Arc and other smartphones of this range, this goes a bit low.

Hardware Buttons:

The Nokia Lumia 800 sports just four buttons unlike the iPhone series. The Volume Rocker, Lock and Power buttons, and the camera buttons are placed on the right side of the device, making it easy for us to use with just one hand. Besides these, there are three soft key buttons placed below the display on the front. One being the Back button, the Windows Start menu button and the Search button. The back button will be the most used button though!

Slots:

There are two slots at the top of the phone. One for the USB cable and the other for the Micro SIM. Opening the slots were real fun. If you need to put in your SIM card, all you need to do is just Push the USB Slot and slide the other slot towards your left.

Camera:

The camera of the phone is not unto what the Carl Zeiss cameras offer. The pictures are sharper and clearer but the White balance and night shots are not pretty amazing. This doesn’t mean that the camera is bad, but the camera falls short of the expectation I had for the Carl Zeiss lenses in Smartphones. In this case, iPhone 4 clearly wins the game.

The video quality is really great and the phone is capable of shooting videos at 720p HD resolution. But unfortunately, the phone’s video starts with a default VGA configuration. You need to manually change it to 720p under settings. As with the case of White balance in the camera, this has got its effect for the videos too. The phones takes a bit longer to process the white balance and the auto-focus is too slow and sluggish. These may be some issues related to software, which we can expect to get it sorted out in the next update!

Battery:

The Lumia is just another smartphone that is power hungry! The phone comes with a 1,450 mAh battery and is stands steady for one full day with regular use. For the first time, Nokia has sealed the battery into the phone that it is not removable by the user. The phone does not run cool as expected when pushing it hard with some background apps running.

Overall, the battery performs above normal when compared to other phones of this category!

Software:

The Nokia Lumia 800 runs Windows Phone 7.5 and makes us feel that this is the best OS for this kind of a device. The OS runs really smooth except that it has got some bugs packed in it. I think Nokia has made the right decision to bring Windows Phone 7.5 to it’s inventory. The phone comes with some apps pre-installed by Nokia. It comes with Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Music and regional MSN app on the phone.

The UI is mind blowing and you will love the way it scrolls through the apps and screens. Its completely metro and is smooth. Windows’ intuitive interface has made the device look rich and steady. The tiles are one of the most powerful features of the Windows Phone 7.5. With live updates from your social networks, weather reports, new and more, the home screen looks lively and with a single glance  you can know what is going on around you!

The usability is what matter when is comes to smartphones and Windows Phone 7 doesn’t suck at it like Android does. The UI is solid, clean, neat, and well planned and now, you can talk about some competition for the iOS! Nokia has not touched any of the internal files much except for some features and the control over the software is out and out done by Microsoft!

Nokia Drive:

The Nokia Drive is turn-by-turn GPS Navigation system that comes bundled with the Lumia 800. These kinds of apps costs a lot when it comes to iOS and Nokia has given you for free. I was expecting some glitches to happen on the Indian roads, but luckily, the GPS worked perfectly well here. And I can now surely say that Nokia Drive would work around the world!

Kicking off the Google Maps, Nokia Drive is a very good alternative if you are GPS dependent! The Nokia Drive initially downloads the map locally allowing you to access it even when you are offline. I downloaded about 360 MB of data for the area I live in!

Nokia Music:

As I said earlier, the phone comes with a Nokia Music app pre-installed on it, and provides us with a lot of ways to purchase music from their store. There’s also a Not-to-be-missed feature in the Nokia Music, and it’s been named the Gigs. The Gigs alerts you about the nearby concerts, their dates and other details, all related to music! And what more? You can even buy tickets with Gigs.

Verdict:

This is a flagship phone from Nokia that is worth the buy. And this, according to me has got the potential to become the best Windows Phone 7.5 device of all time, and can be placed under the classics category as time flies by! Nokia has designed it. But not with a lot of care that Apple gives for its device. The marriage between the Lumia and Windows Phone 7.5 has happened so well that the get along too well. The AMOLED display is a noticeable feature, but the build of the phone is to be considered by Nokia when designing the next version of Lumia. Since this makes us feel more like holding a piece of plastic rather than a rich phone. The phone is actually rich inside, but feels a bit heavy outside.

The microSIM is also a plus for other markets but definitely not for the Indian market. The camera felt short of my expectation, but still, I think we should wait for the next version of the update to fix the White Balancing issue which would solve almost all the glitches that the camera is facing.

Coming back to the Software that comes pre-installed with the Windows Phone 7.5, Nokia Drive is the best when compared to the Bing’s maps. My verdict for this phone is 4/5. And if you are looking out for a phone with a tightly coupled Windows OS in it, this would be your choice!