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After months of speculation and delays the first Nokia smartphone to run a Microsoft operating system is upon us in the form of the Lumia 800. It may share a similar design to the Nokia N9 and run the Windows Phone platform that is consistent with the software experience offered by other manufacturers, but are there other reasons to give the Lumia 800 your attention?
Microsoft has laid down a fairly strict set of minimum system requirements for any manufacture looking to created a smartphone for the Windows Phone platform. In fact the Nokia Lumia 800 is actually part of the second wave of Windows Phone handsets, launching a year after the software first hit the market. This means it has several improvements over the initial launch line-up, including a 1.4GHz single core processor, an above-average eight megapixel camera and a 3.7 inch OLED display with a native resolution of 800x480.
A 1GHz CPU is all that Windows Phone requires to run smoothly, but with the extra clock cycles of the chip found on the Lumia 800 you can be sure that any slowdown or interface lag will be completely eliminated. In addition the photography features should go beyond what most other Windows Phone mobiles have provided in the past, giving clean still images and 720p HD video capture that is in keeping with Nokia`s long experience in this area.
Version 7.5 of the Windows Phone software is preinstalled on the Nokia Lumia 800. This is the first major revision to the platform to arrive since its launch and with more than 500 changes it is a real step forward. Social networking integration has been taken to the next level, making it easy to use both Facebook and Twitter from within many of the native apps so that you can share media, update your status and catch up with friends. Multitasking is also enhanced, with app switching handled by holding down on the capacitive `back` button in order to bring up thumbnails of your most recently used programs so that you can jump back into them in a jiffy.
As Nokia can do very little tinkering with the software because of Microsoft`s insistence on consistency of experience, it has had to differentiate the Lumia 800 from rivals via the external elements. The unibody chassis is made from a premium polycarbon material which is pleasant to grip and definitely indicated the high end nature of this smartphone. So as not to alienate a younger audience Nokia has created a range of colour options for the Lumia 800, although plain black is there if you want a more businesslike look to your mobile.
The Lumia 800 is going to compete directly with other Windows Phone 7.5 handsets like the Titan and Radar. This pair of HTC phones have larger displays, at 3.8 and 4.7 inches respectively, but since resolution is capped at 800x480 by Microsoft the clarity will be better on Nokia`s offering. The Lumia 800 has all the ingredients of a top smartphone. Now all it needs are the sales figures to match.
