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Our Nokia Lumia 800 Review

Nokia Lumia 800

The Nokia Lumia 800 represents Nokia’s push to re-capture some of the smartphone market share it lost after abandoning the Symbian OS for a Microsoft OS. The unibody phone has some great features like Gorilla Glass so it can take hard usage, an 8MP camera, and a 1.4GHz processor. It also offers excellent access to apps and great call quality.

New and Old Design

The Nokia Lumia 800 is related to its predecessor the Nokia N9 so there are some similar features. For example, both phones have Gorilla Glass and both phones have a clear black AMOLED display. However, the display on the Nokia Lumia has been changed so that the typical capacitive buttons (3 on this phone) use the lower portion of the screen which reduced the display size to 3.7 inches. That’s still a healthy sized display but it’s smaller than the Nokia N9 display at 3.9 inches. The casing is made of high grade polycarbonate. The phone has a camera button, volume rocker, power button, loud speaker, microSIM card port and microUSB port.

Snap the Camera and Listen to the Music!

This phone has one camera on the back so it can’t be used for video calling since there’s no front facing camera. It has an 8MP camera with autofocus. There is 720p HD video also. In both the camera and video there are some quality issues for those who demand perfection (or use these features extensively), but for the average user the quality is more than fine.

The Nokia Mix Radio gets high approval ratings. The Nokia Lumia uses Zune software integration for audio and videos. Playback quality is good and the clear black AMOLED enhances the experience for video.

Interface 1-2-3 and Connectivity

The Nokia Lumia has a simple and sensible homescreen made up of tiles with each tile providing an easy shortcut to an app or a phone function like calling and emailing. There is a second screen that lists the available applications. The apps that are available include ones designed by Nokia including Nokia Music, Nokia Drive (GPS), and Nokia Maps. Nokia Music gives you access to a range of music genres able to hold numerous playlists and music tracks.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is a tri band 3G and quad-band GSM phone. It comes with Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi. You get 16GB of memory. Internet browsing is fast and smooth which is greatly appreciated. There are a lot of draggy smartphones on the market. You can double tap or pinch to zoom.

How About Performance and Battery?

The big question that remains is: what about call quality? The answer is that it’s high. You would expect Nokia to have mastered call sound by now, and so it has. In another area of performance, the Snapdragon processor performs extremely well even when you load up the phone with apps. Unfortunately, the battery does not last all day if you use the phone regularly. It will surely have to be recharged each evening and sometimes before. It is hoped that this will be corrected in the next Nokia upgrade.

What We Liked

The Nokia Lumia has a gorgeous display with the tiles on the homescreen seeming to float on the black AMOLED display. We like the camera button because it enables the phone user to take successive pictures rapidly. The loudspeaker is at the bottom edge of the phone and we like that too. You can lay down the phone on either side and still hear the loudspeaker or music playing.

What We Disliked

It would be nice if there was a front facing camera for video calling and especially as people get more and more used to this feature. There is no Adobe Flash support. Also, the battery definitely needs to last at least a full day before needing recharging.

Our Final Verdict

This is an outstanding phone that has already matured as a Windows OS unit. The phone works great, has quality construction, offers full functioning, and gives access to great apps. The display is right-sized and the images and text are clear. There’s a lot to like about the Nokia Lumia 800 and is highly recommended for the typical smartphone user looking for affordable quality.

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	Nokia Lumia 800
General
Form Factor	Candybar
Dimensions	116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 (mm)
Talk Time	570 mins
Standby Time	335 hours
Weight	142 g
Quad Band	Yes
Photo and Video
Integrated Camera	Yes
Camera	8.00 megapixels
Camera Flash	Yes
Video Player	Yes
Phone
Polyphonic Ringtones	Yes
Smart Phone	Yes
Internal Memory	16GB
Messaging
Instant Messaging (IM)	Yes
MMS	Yes
Screen
Colour Screen	Yes
Touch Screen	Yes
Screen Resolution	480 x 800 pixels
Connectivity
EDGE	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Email	Yes
GPRS	Yes
HSDPA	Yes
Web Browser	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
GPS	Yes
Music and Radio
FM Radio	Yes
MP3 Player	Yes
MP3 Ringtones	Yes
Additional Content
Downloadable Content	Yes
Downloadable Games	Yes
Downloadable Ringtones	Yes

Nokia Lumia 800 Full Specification

General

Photo and Video

Phone

Messaging

Screen

Connectivity

Music and Radio

Additional Content