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TheVerge’s Nokia Lumia 800 Review

| November 3, 2011 | 86 Replies
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My instant reaction was, “well that was quick”, to the news that TheVerge has already published their review of the Nokia Lumia 800. Normally you would expect these to appear at the very least, after they are on sale and some time after the reviewer has used it.

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/3/2534861/nokia-lumia-800-review

  • Natural and pleasant to the touch, with great ergonomics and weight balance
  • Perfection eluded by the physical keys (note, original purpose of this design was to have buttonless face)
  • Lumia 800 is exactly the sort of delight for the senses that you will have expected an N9 clone to be.
Screen
  • Clear Black lives up to the marketing – can’t complain about it. You’ll struggle to distinguish where the display panel ends, creating illusion that the screen is suspended atop the surface – v. organic appearance that lends Metro tiles an air of sophistication
  • Pentile screen like N9 but as with N9 no distinguishable impact.
  • 3.7″ WVGA feels just about right
  • Does have gorilla glass
Connectivity
  • Disappointed about lack of NFC and Internet sharing (NOTE: Internet sharing is coming. Nokia are working on putting it there).
  • Battery life marginally less impressive though they say not unreasonable given having 1.4GHz. They got 23 hours with usual push email, web browsing, music, photo and video capture. Nokia lists longer talk time than N9 but shorter standby. HTC titan lasts just as long.
  • Reception consistently good.
  • Bluetooth contact transfer to bridge software incompatibility with NWP and Nokia legacy devices.
  • Speaker identical to N9, subtly different. Good enough to want to listen to music through it.
  • Ear buds are quite terrible though.
Camera
  • Same as N9 – that’s a good thing.
  • Speed of operation where it shines. Quick to start quick to take pictures.
  • Focusing speed not sublime though, as none of N9 special software optimization there. Lumia 800 currently stock Windows Phone camera software. Not a bad choice, performancce still satisfyingly quick.
  • Motion blur detracts from what is otherwise v. high quality 720p video.
  • Lack of front facing camera.
Software
  • Gone are menu systems, no longer will you be laughed at by trendy app-loving peers.
  • Nokia’s to date OS with a future bright enough to justify Lumia branding.
  • “Why does it feel so underwhelming?”
  • Familiarity. It doesn’t create something new and altogether better. (Well I believe it’s good enough and pretty good considering the time constraints. The Lumia 800 is the first real Windows Phones, but the first real Nokia Windows Phones are coming in 2012!)
  • Lumia 800 with N9 software bells and whistles might have been a hero device (wait to see what Nokia does with Apollo. Remember before Nokia has already openly said they jumped on a moving bus. Not enough time to make changes here, but Nokia Stamp will appear. This will significantly differentiate them from the rest)
  • Wants the swipe goodies to be present in Lumia 800. Vlad says sadly just superficial tweaks.
  • Microsoft has done stellar job of refining basic WP user experience.
  • Would have been nice for Nokia to implement the awesome homescren keyboard of N9 along with terrific haptic feedback (hmm I must get my hands on the N9 keyboard as I cannot fault the WP keyboard.)
Lumia Software:
  • Nokia Drive improves offline navigation with voice turn by turn.
  • Music includes Mix Radi ostreaming.
  • Both are very good at what they do.
  • Unlike HTC’s underwhelming Hub for WP7, Nokia’s additions offer real added value to the user.
Ecosystem:
  • The main reason for Nokia’s abandonment of MeeGo and embracement of MS?
  • WP Market place not up to the standard yet but MS has good dev tools and Nokia’s presence to add credibility to the platform.
  • Gravitational pull of MS and Nokia’s collective determination can reasonably be expected to produce the critical mass of good apps for WP to truly compete with the best – just at this moment it lags.
  • Multitaskic overview is good, live tiles offering more info quickly and easily
  • Calendar arguably the best of the bunch.
Getting the basics right!
  • iPhone 4S, an Android handset and Lumia 800 – all three getting basics right.
  • Push mail at same time, calendar alerts going off simultaneously, notification unintrusive, smooth pinch zoom, web rendering correct, and threaded email.
  • What makes the difference is extra layer of polish in iOS.
  • As new entrant, WP will need to beat others to such new features and improvements to attract defectors.
  • Honourable mention for MS’ windowsphone.com website. You can find your phone “with disturbing accuracy” ring it, lock it with password or wipe it completely.
  • Everything on that site worked as advertised.
  • great extra to have and a wonderful base from which to build and expand the WP web ecosystem.
Wrap up
  • N9 was that irrationally loved device, and no matter how hard the Lumia 800 tries, it simply isn’t as thrilling.
  • For anyone still stuck on one of Nokia’s Symbian devices, the 800 is an obvious upgrade
  • acks the N8’s superb camera, but otherwise it easily trumps anything and everything in the company’s recent portfolio; provides a modern and attractive user interface and the Lumia 800’s hardware maintains Nokia’s reputation for attention to detail and insistence on high build quality.
  • The Lumia 800 has the potential to be great, but today it’s merely good.
It scores 7.8. Nokia N9 scored 7.9

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/3/2534861/nokia-lumia-800-review

Cheers Just Visiting for the tip!

7.8 is pretty good. It should get even better when we see Nokia’s purpose built windows phone that is in the 9 series (therefore meant to be along the high end along with the likes of N9). We should see improved camera, improved hardware, and improved software. Also covering basics such as a front facing camera and actually putting back internet sharing (which is listed as the negatives in this review)

Cheers JustVisiting and phishbone for the tip!

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Category: Nokia, Windows Phone

About the Author ()

Hey, thanks for reading my post. My name is Jay and I'm a medical student at the University of Manchester. When I can, I blog here at mynokiablog.com and tweet now and again @jaymontano. We also have a twitter and facebook accounts @mynokiablog and  Facebook.com/mynokiablog. Check out the tips, guides and rules for commenting >>click<< Contact us at tips(@)mynokiablog.com or email me directly on jay[at]mynokiablog.com
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