Early days, then
Office is included, saving files to Skydrive and Sharepoint servers, and is nicely implemented; and Xbox Live allows subscribers to check in. And the power user will soon find the Tiles+List UI tiring. I found it limiting almost right away – it's simply quicker to find seldom-used apps when they're in a grid – and easier to organise things when they're in folders.
Marketplace apps can be viewed by category and some of them are actually quite useful.
Both Nokia and Microsoft have a long way to go together on this new, but very promising platform. Microsoft badly needs a high quality and trusted phone manufacturer to make the software into a great product. Nokia badly needed a modern platform, and now it’s got one. The partnership doesn’t look such a bad idea at all, now.
Most importantly it’s got momentum, with a decent range of software already in the Marketplace – Plane Finder, for example – and more arriving all the time. It can’t be too long before Skype and Opera grace the platform.
Nokia is clearing the decks to push the 800 out in time for Crimbo and its haste in getting this product to market is understandable – but evident in the duplication of music and maps, and some design decisions. Was this really the best enclosure the company had to hand? If the case design isn’t to your liking, the cheaper and fairly cheerful Lumia 710 has the same internals, runs just as fast, yet has a few more curves on its corners that might appeal.
In need of a few tweaks, but a fairly sound offering overall
Verdict
Aesthetics aside, the speed and ease of use of the Lumia 800 – and the remarkable People application – make this a very attractive alternative to the iPhone. Even if you don’t do much social networking, it’s nice to have communications and events aggregated under by contact or group. People who see it, like it. ®
More Smartphone Reviews |
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Nokia Lumia 800
COMMENTS
So far as it goes not a bad effort
And from the title I was talking about the review not the phone itself.
No comment on the maps from Nokia, how was the GPS signal pickup? Does this phone offer all the current Symbian methods of position determination?
The included headphones and music output as a whole got no mention which greatly disappointed me.
The included case that comes with the phone, worthless POS or actually worth using? Did it make the design issues worse or better for the reviewer? Was it even tried? How hard was it to get on the phone and then take off? Did it add excess bulk?
Charging time? Power consumption of said charger? Both when charging and not.
Design issues. OK you didn't find the design that great and I don't mind a reviewer saying that, but given it's been taken from the N9 nearly in its entirety I would wager that the build quality will be much much better than is hinted at in here. The technology of the screen got very short shrift. I find this baffling when it is of such a cutting edge nature.
Come on El Reg, stop pulling your punches. I come here looking for a review that lets the reader know that the phone has been truly used and abused. This reads like it was borrowed for 24 hours and that the reviewer had several other more important things to be doing at the same time. For a review score of 80% I would of expected much more detail. If you felt that all the phone had to offer was covered then I would of said the score, based on this review, should of been around the 58-62% range.
That's because it's not really a Nokia
The innards and antenna are made by Compal, an off-the-shelf WP7 board (because they are all the same). And the camera is better than the one on the E7, better sensor and not EDoF - low-light performance is bad because you can't do miracles with small-and-thin camera modules after Nokia caught all that flak about the lardness of the N8 camera.
Of course, being Andrew, no mention of how the Maemo6 in the N9 was the modern platform Nokia needed and already had, with an app GRID, letter scroll shortcuts, Skype integration, Opera (which will never be ported to WP7 because of MS rules), and TWO days of battery life (and the N9 is a real Nokia in reception and call quality)
Something grumpy or grudging on every page, inadequate battery life, poor form factor & it still gets 80%. You are easily pleased, aren't you?
Nokia or MS? We know you work for one of them
(body) in the chest freezer
Empty shell compared to the N8
I have played briefly with samples of the 800 & 710 and it has the shiny shiny but no where near the customisable grunt I get from my current device.
Read/write from/to external USB memory being a big one.
Symbian may seem complicated to some but you can really make it do things that other phones just wont. Maybe its just me who like messing with settings & trying things out? FM transmitter too, proper useful.
Maybe the N8 was/is the pinnacle of what a phone can do & its all down hill from here in to the phones for nuggets sphere who like shiny over function, but I sincerly hope not.
Only gripe is that Orange take an age to release OTA updates, but other than that, boss!
Gonna take a lot more to prise me away from S^3
