Nokia launches Lumia Windows Phones

"Lumia is the first Real Windows Phone", proclaimed Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO. Well, it seems so. So far, all the Windows Phone partners had come up with designs that never succeeded in exciting the user as their counterparts from Apple and Android ecosystem. Nokia has finally come up with models that Microsoft was waiting for. Today at the Nokia World, Stephen Elop unveiled Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 smartphones. These models are not top end, high specs devices but Nokia is signalling a new beginning.

Nokia has not heavily customized the WP 7.5, but they have added a few applications which will be exclusive to Lumia devices such as Nokia Music, Nokia Pulse, Nokia Drive, etc. According to Techradar, Niklas Savander, executive VP of Markets for Nokia, said: "We made the decision to go to Windows Phone when Mango was pretty much done, so we were able to impact some elements of it but you'll really see the fruits of what we can do with Microsoft when the Apollo version of Windows Phone comes out." So much more advanced, higher spec devices may follow with future iterations of Windows Phone OS.

Lumia 800

Lumia 800 inherits its beautiful hardware from N9. The body is of injection moulded polycarbonate material which helps in giving the best antenna performance. The screen is curved Gorilla glass and the 3.7" ClearBlack AMOLED display (800 X 480) looks beautiful. The device boasts of an 8MP camera with f/2.2 Carl Zeiss lens. Supports HD video recording. Dual LED flash is positioned just above the camera. Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor(1.4 GHz) powers the device and SDRAM is of 512 MB. User memory is fixed at 16 GB with an additional 25 GB of cloud storage as part of Skydrive. Status LED replaces the front facing camera found in N9 hardware. Volume rocker,power and camera button are on the right edge. Like N9, speaker grille is placed at the bottom, 3.5mm audio jack and enclosures for SD card and SIM are at the top edge. Capacitive buttons are provided for the Back, Search and Start functions. Dimensions are 116.5mm X 61.2mm X 12.1mm and weighs 142g.

Lumia 800 will be initially available in the following markets: Spain, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France. Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore, and Taiwan will be getting the device before the end of 2011. US people will have to wait till 2012.  Available in three colors: black, magenta and cyan. The price is about 420 EUR.

Lumia 710

Lumia 710 is a low end device. It does not have the fit and finish seen in Lumia 800. It features the same 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor found in 800 and SDRAM size is also the same at 512 MB. Display is 3.7" ClearBlack TFT (800 X 480). Auto focus 5 MP camera with LED flash handles the imaging department and user memory is fixed at 8 GB max. Hardware buttons are provided for the Back, Search and Start functions. Dimensions are 119mm X 62.4mm X 12.5mm.

It will retail for about 270 EUR and will be hitting Hong Kong, India, Russia and Taiwan markets this year itself. Device will come in either black or white but replaceable back covers will be provided in 5 colors: black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow.

Exclusive Nokia Apps
  
Nokia Drive 
It is a turn by turn navigation app. It is supported over 95 countries and you can choose between 2D & 3D views. 

Nokia Maps 
It is similar to Google maps or Bing maps. Allows you to browse maps, search and find places to visit, directions,smart routes for walking, public transportation details,etc.
 

Nokia Music
It introduces Mix Radio which streams music directly into your device. There will be several preconfigured mixes based on your library or you can create your own. Offline storage is also supported. No subscription or login is needed for using Mix Radio. Song purchases are from Nokia MP3 store.

Nokia Pulse

Nokia Pulse lets you instantly send location-tagged updates and photos to private groups of family and close friends. So syncing up in town and staying up to date is even simpler than sending a text message, but still just as private.

Nokia Sports
 In association with ESPN, Nokia has included a sports news hub which aggregates news about your favourite sports and teams.

Nokia Live View
It is an augmented-reality browser that relies on the integrated camera.

Nokia Purity by Monster
Nokia has announced Purity range of premium audio accessories in association with Monster Cable. There will be on-ear and in-ear models available in different colors to match with your Lumia.

You can watch more Nokia Lumia demo videos here.

Posted in: buzz,lumia,microsoft,monster,nokia,purity,windows phone,WP7