A Week With The Lumia 800

Introduction

As a long time Nokia fan, the Feb 11th announcement that Nokia will be focusing on Windows Phone was a bit of a shocker for me and many others. This meant that the platform we grew to love in the past years was going to be abandoned in favour of an OS that is still in its very early days. An OS that was by nature, the very opposite of what we as Nokia fans were used to. So naturally, I was completely against this decision especially after seeing the marvelous N9, running on an OS that could have been Nokia's bright future in its battle against iOS and Android. I went ahead and bought the N9. I simply couldn't resist the combination of killer hardware and a software that matched it. A few months later, I'm completely in love with the N9 but I'll get to that in another topic. I decided I wanted to try windows phone, before completely scrubbing it off my list. I wanted to see what Nokia saw in moving to this OS, that made them make it their main OS. So when my cousin told me he got a Lumia 800, I politely asked if I could borrow it just for a week to see what its all about, and boy did it completely change my views!

Hardware

If you were a fan of the Nokia N9's design, you'll feel right at home here. The Lumia 800 is almost identical to the N9, offering the same brilliant single piece of poly-carbonate uni-body, curved screen and even colour choices. The differences are that the Lumia 800 has the 3 windows phone buttons at the bottom, which in turn make the display a tad bit smaller (3.7" vs 3.9"), a hardware 2 steps camera shutter key, and a different placement of the dual LED flash at the back, which is now aligned with the camera, as opposed to on top of it like in the N9. The device feels very premium despite its plastic finish, sits perfectly in the hand, all thanks to the rounded edges. It also feels much thinner than it actually is because of the tapered edges at the top and bottom.

You can't really complain about the hardware of the Lumia 800 as this is as good as it gets. But if I had to be picky, I'd say that the piece of plastic covering the mini USB port does feel fragile, so make sure you don't drop the phone while its open.

 Software


As I said above, the Lumia 800 runs on windows phone mango. This, along with the Lumia 710 are the first two phones by Nokia that run on the new platform. The OS is very basic and easy to use. You get the main screen which is filled with tiles that can be customised to your tastes and become more dynamic the more you use the phone, and by swiping from right to left you enter the applications list, where you will find all the apps you have on the phone, and have the ability to pin them as tiles. From the tiles that you have installed on windows phone from start up are two apps that shine. The People's hub, and the Me hub. The people's hub is where you can stay up to date with all you social networking contacts as you get a whats new page where everything is in order. Something like a combined timeline for both Twitter and Facebook. On the Me Hub, you can post your status updates on Twitter, Windows Live, and Facebook all at the same time, as well as a page for all your notifications from mentions on Twitter, to photo tags on Facebook. Its all very well integrated into windows phone and frankly, this has got to be the best platform for social networking. Other highlights of the device are the on screen keyboard which is also one of the best I've ever used when it comes to accuracy and speed, and the Xbox Live tile which has all your games and stats in one place, and connects to your Xbox Live account and has all your data. I would have added Local Scout, but unfortunately, that feature still doesn't work here.

What Nokia added to differentiate itself from the other Windows Phone OEMs is add Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive (Both whom unfortunately for the time being, require an internet connection. An update should fix that soon), as well as Nokia Music and a bunch of other apps (I'm not sure if those can be downloaded by non-Nokia devices) like contacts transfer which transfers all your contacts from other phones to your Lumia via Bluetooth, and Apps Highlights which shows you popular highly recommended apps as well as start-up apps that you can download from the market place.

MarketPlace


Despite being a new OS, WP7.5 has plenty of applications. In fact, I found all the apps I frequently use in the market place, and with 55,000 apps already on there, you will most likely find all you'll need. The good thing about Microsoft is that they have managed to convince many important developers to develop for Windows Phone despite the currently small user base. So the result is, many popular apps that are available on iOS also made their way to WP. Another highlight is the fact that all apps developed for the platform follow strict guidelines, and so all the apps you use will almost feel native to the device. They have the same metro look, as well as the same options.


Camera


The Camera on the Lumia 800 is probably the biggest disappointment on this phone. It's an 8 Megapixel Carl Ziess Optics camera, F2.2 aperture, Dual LED flash and a wide angle lens, but unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its specs. It can take photos pretty quickly, and in perfect conditions it does its job, but it just does not match other smartphones, including the N9 which has the exact same lens! I really hope an update comes that fixes the camera. The main grip here is with the autofocus which almost always gets it wrong, and the sup-par details it captures. HD videos are fine, but the focus problem gets in the way.


Battery Life


Although the some users are complaining about the battery life on the Lumia 800, I haven't had that problem. I've been managing to get about a day and a half with moderate to heavy usage (my phone automatically connects to 3G when I'm out). What I basically do is check my social networks very frequently, as well as use whatsapp quite a lot. I also frequently browse the web to look for information. Haven't been playing that many games. Overall I'm very pleased with the battery life. With similar usage, my N9 uses more battery. If you want to make sure your Lumia is using its full battery capacity, just check the Diagnostics app and make sure the full battery capacity is somewhere around 1500 mAh.

Summary

Pros:
- Superb Hardware and Design
- Butter Smooth OS
- Best Social Integration on any platform
- Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive for free navigation.
- MarketPlace has most needs covered
- Very Stable
- Metro UI looks cool

Cons:
- Disappointing Camera
- No Bluetooth transfer
- Dependent on Zune
- Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive need to be better integrated together.


Verdict


So how am I finding it? One word: Brilliant. I never really thought I'd say this but, the Lumia 800 is the only phone I'd trade my N9 for. It does social networking integration so well, its butter smooth, and extremely easy to use. Unfortunately this phone is not yet ready for the Middle East, but once its ready, I'm buying a Nokia Windows Phone.