MNB RG: Close-ups from the new Nokia Flagship Helsinki

So, Nokia re-opened their Helsinki, Finland Flagship Store this Friday. It had been under renovation for a couple of months. There was a stage outside, some rappers rapping and despite the rainy weather a good crowd inside and outside. Clearly people were interested.

During the summer there was a persistent rumor – especially in “certain circles” – that Nokia was renovating the store to dump out Symbian and split the store between Lumia and a little bit of Asha, so I curiously went to check it out today. There was no split that I could see, just a very stylish and very white interior displaying all of Nokia. Rumors aside, as far as I could tell, there was no split between any product lines and all or most Nokia’s current products were on display. I think the main change aside from the more modern looks was a more living-room kind of design, where there were activities for (especially younger) people to spend a little time there.

One of the few large tables was dedicated to, surprise surprise, the Nokia 808 PureView Symbian Belle device. There were various units to try out in different colors and each was accompanied by a spherical display of miniature figures. The idea was that people could try out the 808 PureView by taking close-ups of the miniature displays. In one of the displays was a dismantled 808 PureView, surrounded by miniature figures. This table took a lot of space from the not-so-large store and it was one of the more elaborate displays, so 808 PureView was surprisingly prominent.

There was another, a little smaller table that showed Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 dummies in red and yellow both, as well as the new wireless charger and the Fat Boy accessory. The new Lumias are indeed quite glossy and the Lumia 920 seems quite phabletty to my eye, in a good way – it also has a prominent horizontal curve on the backside (unlike the more pillowy 800/900). The outsides of the Fat Boy accessory seemed good quality, just like a real Fat Boy – inside there was soft stuff on the bottom and velcro in one end of the pillow and behind that the normal wireless charger that can be pulled out. There was a Nokia logo on top of the Fat Boy signifying the area where to place to phone for charging.