Nokia Lumia 800 Specifications
Also known as Nokia Sea Ray
| GENERAL | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
|---|---|---|
| 3G Network | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - RM-819 HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - For Canada | |
| HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100 - RM-801 CV | ||
| Announced | 2011, October | |
| Status | Available. Released 2011, November |
| BODY | Dimensions | 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm, 76.1 cc |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 142 g | |
| - Touch-sensitive controls |
| DISPLAY | Type | AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches (~252 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass | |
| - Nokia ClearBlack display |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes, check quality |
| MEMORY | Card slot | No |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 16 GB storage, 512 MB RAM |
| DATA | GPRS | Class 33 |
|---|---|---|
| EDGE | Class 33 | |
| Speed | HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 |
| CAMERA | Primary | 8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual-LED flash, check quality |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Geo-tagging | |
| Video | Yes, 720p@30fps, check quality | |
| Secondary | No |
| FEATURES | OS | Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 Mango |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon | |
| CPU | 1.4 GHz Scorpion | |
| GPU | Adreno 205 | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, proximity, compass | |
| Messaging | SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM | |
| Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML5, RSS feeds | |
| Radio | Stereo FM radio with RDS | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support | |
| Java | No | |
| Colors | Black, Cyan, Magenta, White | |
| - MicroSIM card support only - SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Document viewer/editor - Video/photo editor - Voice memo/command/dial - Predictive text input |
| BATTERY | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1450 mAh (BV-5JW) | |
|---|---|---|
| Stand-by | Up to 265 h (2G) / Up to 335 h (3G) | |
| Talk time | Up to 13 h (2G) / Up to 9 h 30 min (3G) | |
| Music play | Up to 55 h |
| MISC | SAR US | 1.27 W/kg (head) 1.08 W/kg (body) |
|---|---|---|
| SAR EU | 0.94 W/kg (head) | |
| Price group |  |
Nokia Lumia 800 Review
It is finally here. I have been waiting since the February announcement for a Windows Phone from Nokia. And I must admit, I was quite apprehensive about how good the smartphone would be. Safe to say, those apprehensions seemed to evaporate rather quickly. To be precise, after a couple of hours of playing with the Lumia 800!
Look & Feel
The Lumia 800 does carry a lot of design traits from the N9. All the four edges are curved, and the back is slightly sloped near the top and the bottom - ever so slightly. Below the 3.7-inch display are three touch buttons - return, home (familiar Windows Logo on it) and Bing search. The only three physical buttons on the entire handset are on the right side panel - volume rocker, camera and the power key.
On the top are the 3.5mm jack and a bunch of flaps that cover the micro USB port and the micro SIM card slot. Opening this is a bit of a pain though - not because it is difficult but because of the sheer wastage of time. First, press one flap down, marked by a bulge, enough that the other end lifts up. Once that happens, open it completely. Now turn your attention to the SIM card slot. For this, slide the panel slightly towards the USB port, and then pull it out. Don’t really understand the entire complication. Separate handling of the two ports would have been better - time saving as well as longevity of the loving parts. Flip the phone to the bottom panel and there is the speaker. No other moving parts on the phone, since even the battery is closed away and cannot be accessed.
The Lumia 800 seems to have a lot going for it, design-wise. It feels good to hold, has a nice sophisticated feel and minimalist looks as well.
Camera
One of the big changes for Nokia is that the new Nokia Windows Phones lack a front facing camera which places them on the back foot to start with when compared with the HTC Titan and HTC Radar and other non-WP7 devices.
This move came as a surprise as Nokia devices have long had front facing cameras with the similarly packaged Nokia N9 having one in the bottom corner.
This is exacerbated by the recent acquisition of Skype by Microsoft providing an even stronger link to video calling.
The Nokia response with respect to the lack of the front-facing camera is that the production turnaround time for the initial Nokia WP7 devices meant that they needed to have their functionality focused on their intended user-base, and those using video chat make a very small portion of the market. As the range expands these kinds of features are sure to return at some point.
Although the Nokia Lumia 710 also falls short with its lack of a front-facing camera, the upcoming Nokia Lumia 900 is to incorporate a 1.3 CMOS camera at last. This is an opportune time for this to be re-introduced based on the recent release of the first Skype beta for Windows Phone.
The rear camera on the Nokia Lumia 800 sports the same specification as that on the HTC Titan with a 8MP f/2.2 camera lens and Dual-LED flash, capable of up to 720p HD video recording.
It's a step forward when compared with Nokia's Symbian phones, as there's a touch-based method of focussing and capture feature like that offered on the iPhone enabling better control on the subject focus on photographs.
The Camera app comes with the standard settings to control Scenes (default: Auto), White Balance (default: Auto), Exposure Value (default: 0), ISO (default: Auto), Effects (default: Normal), Contrast (default: Normal),Saturation (default: Normal), Focus Mode (default: (Macro) andResolution (default: 8MP 4:3) as well as a new Metering Mode (default: Centre Weighted) which controls how the camera manages exposure based on the light conditions across the photograph.
A nice touch on the Nokia Lumia 800 Camera app is that you are able to transition directly between the Camera and the Captured Shots and Videos by tapping the soft arrow icon or swiping towards the WP7 hard button bar, returning to the Camera by swiping away from the hard button bar again. This kind of seamless integration shows this is a next generation phone.
Once in the image viewer, there are options to share on Facebook, use as wallpaper, delete, add to favourites or auto-fix. Having played with auto-fix, it does a good job, with the only pity being that it does not remove red-eye, so you'll need a third party app for this.
Also when you select to share to Facebook, auto face recognition kicks in if you tap the tag icon on the upload screen, enable the naming of the image and tagging of anyone in it prior to uploading.
Features & Performance
I had criticized Nokia quite a bit recently for launching very good yet under-powered phones - the Nokia E6 being a good example. However, that seems sorted now. The Lumia 800 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 processor clocking at 1.4GHz on a single core. There is 512MB RAM to help move things along as well. The single core processor will surely raise a few eyebrows, particularly if this is priced in the same bracket as some well established dual core Android phones and the iPhone 4. This neatly brings me to my next point - Windows Phone Mango doesn’t need any more grunt than this, or so it seems. We have seen this OS in action on the older gen Samsung Focus smartphone, as well as the newer ones - the Samsung Omnia W and now this. The interface is zippy, transitions are silky smooth and the phone doesn’t slow down at all. Quite creditable considering the host of 3D effects in the menu.
The 3.7-inch display is the AMOLED type with a resolution of 480 x 800. This display type is similar to the one we saw in the Samsung Galaxy SII, albeit a smaller size. The darker colours in an AMOLED display draw lesser power. Apart from the battery life benefit, it results in really dark black levels. The rest of the colour bunch is quite vivid as well. Brightness levels are extremely good as well, and even at low brightness settings, it is comfortable for indoor use. The display isn't very reflective, which helps a lot in viewing the text in sunlight. Windows Phone 7.5’s UI looked absolutely gorgeous on this display. The rich colours and the deep blacks mean that viewing videos or reading text on this display will be a delightful experience.
There is 16GB storage built-in on the Lumia 800, but no memory expansion slot.
Contact handling has been improved extensively with the mango update. Now, you can even transfer all contacts from any phone to the Lumia via Bluetooth. We tried this with a Blackberry phone, and all 750 contacts were transferred to the People list on the Lumia, complete with any tagged images.
Disappointingly, the call quality of the Lumia 800 wasn’t as brilliant as we had hoped for. The clarity was just not there, and it was particularly difficult to hear the other person if you or the other person happen to be in a noisy place. Also, if the signal strength isn't perfect, there will be noise within the call. No problem with the earpiece loudness though.
The disappointment continues on the camera front. First off, there is no front facing camera. That means, video chats are out of the question. Secondly, the 8MP camera is extremely finicky when it comes to lighting. If the lighting is perfect, then the shots that you take will be quite good. However, if you are taking a shot in less than perfect light, or even indoors, then the images will be ruined by the noise. The camera takes time to focus, particularly when taking close-up shots. This snapper can record 720p HD videos, and the quality is quite satisfactory. There is quite a bit of sharpness, but there tends to be a ‘de-noise’ effect on some details when panning.
But what is really going for the Lumia 800 is the operating system on board. Windows Phone 7.5 looks absolutely gorgeous. I had said this earlier, and will say it again, “WP.7.5 is kicking Android hollow as far as UI slickness and an intuitive feel is concerned”. We feel that post the Mango update, only the iOS 5 is better in terms of the slickness, with WP 7.5 in a solid second place. The Live Tiles are an excellent add-on, particularly when you consider that it isn't demanding a high spec hardware package to do all that. The Xbox Live tile, People and Gallery keep getting updated with new elements at regular intervals - usually a few minutes. If you add the weather tile as well, that keeps getting refreshed as well. It is an interesting sight the moment you slide the lock screen upwards!
Nokia have preloaded the Lumia 800 with a couple of their own apps - Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive. The Maps application asks you to download global maps - well you can select which ones you want, and the navigation voice as well. Downloading these helps improve lock-on and navigation speeds. Nokia Drive is the turn-by-turn navigation app that is useful if you rely on your phone to be the GPS device sometimes.
I must say this - the battery life of the Lumia 800 is impressive. Despite constant connectivity to the Internet, a bunch of calls, messages, and lots of web browsing, the battery lasted 2 full days on a single charge. Admittedly, we were in the initial excitement phase and using the phone a bit more than most people normally would!
My Take
In terms of the package, the Lumia 800 has the hardware, the performance and a very good OS. It does miss out on a memory card slot and a front facing camera. I just hope Nokia get the pricing right, and don’t overprice it.Price In India: Rs:21484 onwards
My rating
/5
FOR
- Quality design
- Clever interface
- Speedy browser
- Intuitive contact linking
- Xbox integration
AGAINST
- Internet text display dodgy at times
- No Flash video
- Zune player takes ages to copy video across
- Video recording not impressive
- Battery issues still prevail
No comments:
Post a Comment