For a long time now, Nokia has been the company responsible for both the hardware and software on their devices but the Nokiasoft announcement in February changed all that. Nokia decided to concentrate on their strengths in hardware and design and let Microsoft take care of the software.

At the time when this decision was taken Windows Phone had just come out, was missing a ton of key features like multitasking, copy/paste and so on. However Nokia obviously was given a look at the long term plans for Windows Phone and they liked what they saw. Then Windows Phone Mango came out and for a lot of people, it marked a level of maturity where they could begin to start considering Windows Phone as a serious challenger and here we are a few months later with Nokia’s first Windows Phone.

Lets kick off the Lumia 800 review with a quick unboxing that will give you an idea of the box contents and a look at the silicon cover that Nokia ships with each Lumia 800. It offers great protection without adding to the profile of the device and if you are worried about being clumsy, Nokia has you covered. Also inside is a set of stereo headphones that come with a microphone to let you make calls, a micro USB cable, and a charging head that uses the micro USB cable as a lead, making it very portable and convenient.

HARDWARE & DESIGN

While the Lumia 800 is by no means a culmination of what that partnership can achieve, it marks a monumental step for both Nokia and Microsoft. It is the first device that will get attention purely because of its looks and draw a user in, letting Mango take it from there. Nokia’s created a top spec Windows Phone in what is my favourite design across all brands and platforms, nothing comes to the premium feel this device projects. Inside is a 1.4 Ghz Qualcomm processor, 512 MB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, a beautiful 3.7” AMOLED Clear Black Display.

The screen is a pentile based AMOLED and to the spec police that’s old technology. I personally haven’t felt any difference at all and text feels nice and sharp to my eyes and I have perfect vision. Infact, the whole pentile debate is a non issue for more than the vast majority of people. The colours are rich, the contrast deep and the blacks are truly black. You cannot tell if the screen is on or not if its just showing the a blank black screen.

The Lumia 800 comes in pink, blue and black, all of which look exceptional. The material used in the Lumia 800’s construction is polycarbonate, which is technically plastic, but feels far from it. The devil is in the details and Nokia has left no stone unturned to make the Lumia 800 feel special. The holes for the loudspeaker are all individually drilled into the unibody enclosure after it is made and the colour of the body isn’t paint that will flake off, its part of the material itself. If I were to really try and pick faults with the design, it’d be have to be with the shiny chrome strip that proudly says Nokia and Carl Zeiss at the back. If you are not careful it will pick up the odd scratch. Another thing which isn’t really a problem for anyone, but can scare people is the lid that covers the microUSB port. You need to open it everytime you need to charge the phone and in that position it feels a little flimsy. However, since you’ll have the charger plugged in that time, the obstruction from the cable being plugged in will act as a protector for it, preventing breakage.

The left of the device is completely plain, while the right houses the volume rocker and power button on the top and middle. The camera button is located on the bottom right hand side and is a very welcome addition. The curved display merges into the unibody casing seamlessly and there’s no edge that you can feel, adding to the great feel that the device projects. Since there are literally no moving parts, the build quality is the best you’ll have experienced yet on a Nokia, and that’s saying a lot.

In terms of thickness, the Lumia 800 is 12.1 mm but the rounded design created the illusion that it’s thinner. Even using the super slim Galaxy S2 (8.5 mm) side by side doesn’t make you say that the Lumia 800 is fat at all.

SOFTWARE

This is where it’s over to Windows Phone Mango and time for Nokia to take a back seat. For a while I have maintained that Windows Phone is not an OS you can play with for a few minutes and then take a call on whether you like it or not. Infact, for a little more perspective, here are my detailed impressions of the Lumia 800 when I first started using it.

The first thing you’ll notice with Mango is how incredibly smooth it is, we’re talking about zero stutter territory here. The dual core 1.2 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM packing Galaxy S2 isn’t that smooth. If you are used to Symbian devices, you’ll feel as if everything is literally flying with no lag whatsoever. Come over from iOS and you’ll feel the same way.

Once you are done flicking around, you’ll notice the tiled Windows Phone UI that makes WP very distinct. The first page is a set of live tiles that can serve as shortcuts to frequently used apps and also inform you about those apps’ current status. For example, you could have a live tile showing you the current weather, the Inbox tile showing the number of unread emails, the foursquare tile showing you your current position on the leaderboard and so on.

Flick to the right you’ll see a list of alphabetically ordered apps. You can choose to scroll to get to the app you are looking for, or jump by alphabet. This approach does take a little getting used to, especially if you’ve been using a grid-based layout for ages. Overtime you get used to it, and the jump to alphabet option does make getting to the app you want much quicker.

SOCIAL INTEGRATION

The core strength of Windows Phone is its inbuilt social integration with Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Windows Live. All you need to do is sign into these respective services and the phone populates your phonebook, links your friends’ Twitter and Facebook accounts, pulls your Facebook photos in, and populates each contact with their latest social network activity. No other operating system even comes close. Microsoft’s philosophy is to make the OS more than just about apps.

Seeing your Facebook photos on your phone’s gallery, waiting to be accessed is great. The phone won’t download all pictures in advance, so you’ll need a fast data connection/WIFI, but it does make everything a lot easier. Want to look at photos your friend uploaded? No going into Facebook and searching for him/her and then loading the photos. Just goto the People hub, and search for your friend and all their uploads will be a flick away, waiting there. There you can also write on their wall, or mention them on Twitter making the whole experience very seamless indeed.

If you are a Google user, you’ll be glad to know that both contact and calendar sync works well. Again it’s only a matter of signing in and the phone does everything else. The only thing is that Windows phone will only pull one number associated with the field ‘Mobile’, so if you have two number with the same ‘Mobile’ field, you’re out of luck.

In addition to the People’s Hub that pulls in all your contacts’ Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin activity into one list is the ‘Me’ tile. The ‘Me’ tile lets you update your status across all these services and also set your chat status. A flick away is the notifications section that tells you of all Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter activity about you, mentions, wall posts, likes etc. This is where Windows Phone finally misses a trick or two. The ‘Me’ tile won’t tell you about Facebook messages or Twitter DM’s, otherwise its almost perfect. You can reply to the activity from the ‘Me’ tile itself and there’s no need to jump into another app. The ‘Me’ tile notifications also aren’t instant, but the phone periodically checks for updates and there’s no option to change that.

The web browser on Windows Phone is based on the IE engine and performs well. It’s smooth, scrolls fast and you’ll never seen those check boxes while zooming in or out. There’s no flash support, and that’s no longer a big deal at all. There is HTML5 support and that’s enough on most occasions. The one gripe I have is that the touch.facebook.com website hasn’t been optimised for it yet, its more to do with Facebook’s inaction than a ‘problem’ with the browser. Their website it seems is still only optimised for webkit and not the IE9 engine. The Windows Phone browser can also surprisingly handle a bunch of tabs easily without losing the loaded information.

The email client on Windows phone is also excellent. Emails arrive instantly and generally faster than Gmail arrives on Android devices. Setting up accounts is a breeze, including Google Apps accounts. The approach Mango takes to having a all-in-one inbox is the best implementation across platforms. You can choose which inboxes to join selectively, or have all merged into one. You can have as many linked inboxes as you like and even name them, great if you want to keep work and personal emails separate, yet combine the odd accounts.

WHAT COULD BE BETTER

Windows Phone has a bunch of things going for it, the core social experience, a great email client, a full-fledged office app, speed, the Metro UI and a capable web browser. That said there are a few things Windows phone needs to improve.

First is notifications. Currently we have Toast and Tile notifications. The former is a pop up on the top of the screen that stays for a couple of seconds giving you a snippet of the text message etc that you have received. The second and permanent mode is the tile count. The live tile shows the number of unread notifications and it disappears once you have seen them. The problem with this method, and the lack of a centralised approach in general, is that you need all your important apps on the homscreen as otherwise you’ll be missing notifications. It’s the same problem iOS had before the iOS 5 update, it’s not a deal breaker but something that can be improved. The lockscreen also shows unread notifications about emails, calls and texts, but third party apps don’t get plugged in, so a unread Whats App message will only show up on the live tile and nowhere else, forcing you to give that live tile a prominent position.

I’d also like Windows Phone to give third party apps a little more ability to run in the background. For example I’d like the twitter apps to keep loading tweets in the background so that they are waiting for me when I open the app. Although, this may be due to how developers have coded their apps, and not just the platform’s limitation. The whole experience is therefore better with a faster connection (3G/WIFI) as you don’t see the phone waiting for the network to load tweets and so on. Inbuilt apps like the web browser can load in the background so that’s not a worry.

The next ‘feature’ of Windows phone is that it resizes the images taken from the camera before uploading, doesn’t matter if you’re uploading to Facebook, Skydrive or Twitter. On most occasions this is great, because uploads are faster and loading times low, but sometimes you just want access to full resolution pictures and Windows Phone gives you no way to do that. I hope that a future update will fix this.

Like iOS, Windows Phone too has taken the closed approach. You cannot sideload apps, send files via Bluetooth, access the file system or use the device in the ‘Mass Storage’ mode. However, the restrictions aren’t as strict as Apple’s. You can sync your Windows phone with multiple computers, copying images and music. With the ChevronWP7 unlock, you can also side load apps after paying a small  fee and bluetooth transfers aren’t there not because Microsoft is against them, but because they weren’t a priority. Given the influence Nokia has on Windows Phone development in the future, I expect that some of these restrictions might not survive.

But as things stand, you can use the Zune client on a PC and the Windows Phone connector on the Mac to manage your files. On the Mac, it uses iPhoto and your iTunes library, so if you’ve become used to these apps, you won’t mind this one bit.

All in all, I found Windows Phone to be a fresh platform that gets a lot of things right, while taking a different approach from what iOS, Android or even Symbian look and feel like. With just a few more tweaks, it’ll be truly impressive. As it stands today, I have had no problems using it as my daily driver and for a mainstream user it presents a very compelling argument.

BATTERY LIFE

Nokia promises a 9.5 hr talk time on 3G networks, with a 335 hr standby time. The Lumia 800 according to Nokia also capable of an impressive 55 hrs of music playback and 6.5 hrs of video. In the real world, all of this translates to about one day of power user usage. This includes 3-4 email accounts syncing, Facebook and Twitter apps checking for notifications, in addition to the phone’s own ‘Me’ Tile. Add to that a healthy amount of web browsing and general fiddling. The odd weather app checking for the latest updates every 30 minutes doesn’t really tax the battery. With moderate usage, you can expect it to last more than a day.

Now Nokia did have some trouble with an early batch of the Lumia 800 with the presence of a bug that prevented full utilisation of the battery, that issue has now been fixed and Nokia is going the extra mile to ensure that the small amount of users who are affected can get replacements. So if I were buying a Lumia 800 today, I’d be pretty certain that I would enjoy great battery life.

CAMERA

The Lumia 800 packs an 8 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a dual LED flash. The module is similar to the one found on the N9, and as such capable of some excellent shots. However, it seems that the software on the Lumia 800 isn’t able to utilize the full potential of the unit as yet. The N9 with the same module gets better shots.

Nokia has already stated than future firmware updates would improve camera performance and going by Nokia’s camera history, I have no doubt in their ability. The device can also shoot 720P HD video at 30 frames per second. It uses continuous auto focus during video capture, which means there may be some focus hunting but that guarantees that everything will be focus despite the fact that you are panning around or shooting closeups and also in the distance. Here are some camera samples from the Lumia 800 camera, both pictures and video.

DIFFERENTIATING THE LUMIA 800

Android manufactures skin their devices, Samsung has Touch Wiz, HTC has Sense and so on. On Windows Phone that isn’t a possibility and the only real way you can distinguish yourself is via apps, design and camera performance.

The Lumia 800 in addition to coming in an incredible design comes with trademark Nokia services that I have really come to enjoy in the last few years, Nokia Maps and Music.

The Maps section is actually divided into two, first there is the Nokia Maps app that will eventually become available for all Windows Phone devices, and the Nokia Drive App that’s exclusive to the Lumia series. On the maps app you cannot pre-load maps so you will need a data connection to search for information, routes etc. But Nokia’s tie-ups with Lonely Planet etc mean that they have a very strong POI database and for popular tourist places you will find a ton of information, more than what Bing or even Google Maps provides.

Nokia Drive on the other hand lets you pre load as many countries as you like for free and then navigate them in any language that you choose. The app alone is reason enough to justify buying a Nokia Windows Phone, over any other.

But there’s more, Nokia Music. Alongside the Zune app is the Nokia Music application that lets you buy music from the wide range of tracks that it offers. But what really differentiates this service is the Mix radio client. It lets you stream music based on a genre you like for free, and you can even download it for offline listening. You can save upto 4 such stations, each of which is good for about 2 hours of playback.

In India, we’ll see Nokia Music launch in a big way next year and all indications point to a DRM free all you can eat subscription model. If that becomes a reality, then along with Mapping, Music will become a killer app for Nokia.

CONCLUSION

The thing about the Lumia 800 is that it is a great fit for a lot of different sets of people. For those looking for a great work phone, the free office functionality on the Lumia 800 is huge draw, not to mention the excellent email client and the Microsoft integration that comes with it. On iOS or Android, you’d easily be paying 10$ plus for ability to edit documents and spread sheets on the go.

For youngsters it has a fantastic auto correct keyboard that is unparalleled across all platforms. Then there is also the tightly integrated social experience, right from tagging photos before you upload them, to not having to jump between apps to keep an eye on Facebook and Twitter. If you are a professional, then there is Linkedin support as well.

For those in their middle ages it has a sneaky clean UI that is easy grasp, along with all the polish and flare of a great looking OS. For somebody looking for a high end premium device that gets the job done, the Lumia 800 is a huge box of eye candy.

The Marketplace has matured over the last few months and now boasts of about 45,000 apps. This means that almost all of your essential/big brand apps are already available for Windows phone. But both Microsoft and Nokia are only stepping up their developer engagement and we are sure to see the numbers pick up quickly. Next, a lot of local apps are also coming, for example official Times of India and Book My Show apps are already underdevelopment, so you probably won’t be missing much.

The Lumia 800 is priced at 29,999 INR in India, while Nokia would like to blame the rising Dollar for this, the customer doesn’t care. At about 26-27,000 the Lumia 800 would have been far easier sell for Nokia. So the question we need to ask ourselves is whether the Lumia 800 worth the extra 3-4 thousand?  After all the Galaxy S2 sells for around that price too.

Apple has effectively priced itself out of the competition, so for anyone who was looking to pick up a iPhone, the Lumia 800 is a great buy, after all he was already willing to live within Apple’s walled garden and Windows phone is a lot less restrictive and the Lumia 800 has the same premium feel to it, not to mention the extra value.

No high end Android comes close to the feel of the Lumia 800. If you look at the raw Galaxy S2 specs, it wins. But when it comes to performance, the Lumia 800 is just as fast, and at times smoother. The advantages that the S2 does have are apps, a bigger screen and an open approach which allows for side loading apps, mass storage etc. Having used both devices, it again comes down to apps. Its good to know that your phone has mass storage and side loading, but the number is times I’ve used those options is very low indeed.

In the end, the Lumia 800 is an excellent device from Nokia, one I have thoroughly enjoyed using. The out of box Windows phone experience is great and the OS definitely grows on you. The device gets a solid 8.5/10 from me, putting the Lumia 800 squarely in the recommended category. The third eco-system that Stephen Elop talked about in February, is well and truly here to stay.

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The Nokia 603 is a mid-range Symbian Belle device that presents a compelling mash up between price, functionality and style. Powered by a 1 Ghz processor, the 603 packs a 3.5″ capacitive Clear Black LCD display, NFC, a 5 MP ‘full focus’ camera comes in black and white, with a choice of back covers in six different colors ranging from black, white, fuchsia, green to yellow and blue.

Announced in October 2011, the device will go on sale in the next two weeks at around the Rs. 15,000 mark. I got some hands on time with the great looking 603 and here are my initial impressions.

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The MeeGo Harmattan running Nokia N9 may be the last of its kind, but there seems to be no death of quality apps that are coming out for the device. It already has apps for Facebook, Twitter and a few games like Angry Birds and Need For Speed built in, but there are a few key apps which are missing.

In this post I have complied a list of must have apps for the N9, all of which are free. Most of these apps are available from the Nokia Store and clicking on the name should take you to the download page. Lets get started.

• DropN9: As the name suggests, its a Dropbox client for the Nokia N9. The app lets you download and upload filed in multiples and is a must have if you are a dropbox user.

• Internet Radio: An neat little Internet Radio app for the N9, that features a UI is similar to the default music player with album art being replaced by cover art for the featured radio stations. Discovery is helped along by ‘Hot Picks’, Locations, Language and Genre sections. Detailed post here.

• Phone Torch: No frills app that lets you use the inbuilt LED flash as a torch. Launch the app and it immediately turns on the LED and exiting the app closes it.

• Photo Enhancer: A free app from Nokia that lets you put filters on images and then share them. There are a bunch of options available like sepia, grayscale, high contrast and so on.

• Simple Mirror: There is no way to use the front camera on the N9, unless you are making a video call. But if you would like to use the device as a mirror, does the job well.

• gPodder:  A great podcast client with full integration to the gpodder.net web service and a unique user interface, supporting YouTube and Soundcloud feeds in addition to normal audio and video podcast feeds. gPodder will help you manage and synchronize your podcast subscription and listening status (including resuming, streaming and downloading). Discover new, free content via gpodder.net’s podcast directory.

• File Manager: The N9 comes without an inbuilt file manager and the this free apps fills in perfectly. Its light weight and does everything you would expect from an app of this nature.

• Battery Usage: This app mimics the battery usage graph that you may have seen on Android devices. In addition to telling you which app eats how much battery, it can also tell you how much of that battery was consumed in the background and how much was drained while the app was actually in use. This will help you decide if you can leave the app running or whether you should exit everytime you are done with it.

• City Scene: The app lets you explore a bunch of cities in the US and Europe in 3D, much like Google Street view, but with a few extra features.

Shortcuts: The N9 has a set of 4 quick access shortcuts which you can bring up by swiping up for a short distance and holding it there. The problem is that you cannot change these without an app. Enter Shortcuts which lets you change the four of these by simply dragging an app of your choice to the current location of the shortcut.

Ionic: An ebook reader for the N9 that supports the EPUB format. It supports navigation by swipe or the volume keys, display themes, brightness control, orientation locking at many more. Create bookmarks with notes, jump to bookmarks or chapters. The Library feature allows ordering books by author or title, inspecting book details, and importing books downloaded from the web.

Sports Tracker: A long favourite of Nokia users, Sports Tracker lets you track and analyze your workouts, share workout data and photos with your friends. You can also track everything online on the developer’s website.

• ScreenshotMee: It lets you take screenshots using the proximity sensor, just activate the app in the background, navigate to the screen you want to capture and cover the proximity sensor on the top right of the device. Then you can choose to save the screengrab or take a new one.

• Photo Frame: Another app published by Nokia that lets you frame pictures and then share them. There are a bunch of frames available.

• Rainbow Brush: Brilliant photo manipulation app,  it lets you quickly and easily give photos a dramatic look by converting them to black and white, while keeping your chosen details in color. This effect draws the viewer’s attention to the colored areas, creating striking images. You simply use your finger as a brush to remove or bring back the original color from regions of your image. You can zoom in or out to ensure your get the right finish. Highly recommended.

• FlickrUp: A great tool to upload a bunch of pictures to Flickr, you can create photosets, define the resolution, set privacy settings in addition to adding tags and descriptions. Has a pretty UI as well.

• Mes Input: An app that lets you add different keyboard to the N9. Like with Swype, you can swipe from the edge to switch between them. For example, I have a keyboard which gives me quick access to smileys, similarly there are a bunch of other options available. You can even create your own keyboard at www.mesinput.com and use this app to install it on the phone.

• Resource Monitor: As the name suggests, this app lets you keep track of the resources that are being used on your device. You can switch between different views that show RAM, Storage and Processes.

• Date Event: The N9′s events screen shows news, Facebook and twitter streams, but it does not show your upcoming calendar entries and that’s where this app comes in. It displays upcoming entries on the events screen and lets you choose which calendar to pull them from. You can also select the number of days it should show entries from. It is still being developed and isn’t in the Nokia Store, get it here directly .

• 3D World Gaze: Cool app for exploring the world around you, built with the premise that the Earth is a giant sphere and we are always on top of it. What follows is that far-away continents and cities are in reality somewhere below you and not linear, like we usually think of them. Detailed write up and video demo here.

So these were my top 20 free apps for the N9/N950. I’m sure I’ve missed out on quite a few other awesome apps, please let me know in the comments section or on Twitter and I’ll do a follow up post!

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Nokia India yesterday held the official India launch event for its Lumia branded Windows Phones, outlining the strategy and philosophy with which the devices will go on sale. Both the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 are expected to be available mid December in India, making it one of the first few countries in the world to get the latest and greatest from Nokia.

There was no official word on pricing in India but it expected to follow global cues, the Lumia 800 is priced at 420 Euros before taxes, while the Lumia 710 is priced at 270 Euros. Correspondingly, I expect the Lumia 800 to launch around the 30,000 INR mark, while the Lumia 710 will retail at around 19,000 INR. The reason for the lack of an official price was pegged on the prevailing fluctuations in the global currencies, we can expect a official quote when pre-orders go live in early December.

We have extensively covered the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 before, so this post is focussed on the maketing strategy that Nokia India will adopt to market these devices. The first step in this direction will be an all new retail experience, with 5000 top Nokia retail outlets getting a makeover.  This includes 2D and 3D branding and a flood of live demo units in the new Nokia arc, the number of live units so placed will be the largest ever for Nokia. The idea behind all of this is to bring the Nokia retail experience in India to a premium level, something which according to Nokia India MD D. Shivakumar has been missing so far. Infact, to ensure that the consumers experience the Lumia devices in the best possible way, sales will be limited to only those Nokia stores that will have received a facelift, so not every store across the street from you will be selling these devices.

Next a significant focus will be also be to train employees across these stores so that they can help the consumer with everything from questions before purchase to setting up devices after sale. So much so, that on the day the Lumia devices first go on sale across the country, each and every Nokia employee will be at one of these Nokia stores showing off the latest devices. Additionally, Nokia India will also be leveraging its Nokia Care centers to get the word out, all of which will feature what Nokia likes to call the ‘Lumia Experience’.

Finally, a few notes on the devices and services. Needless to say they will ship with Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive for free navigation across the India and the world. The India centric coverage has really improved in the last few months and a lot of cities also support 3D landmarks. Second, Mix Radio, Nokia’s genre based streaming service will also be available in India. Next, unlimited music downloads (similar to Comes With Music/ Ovi Music unlimited) are also coming to Lumia devices next year, and there is reason to hope that Nokia will try and go down the DRM free path this time, just like it distributes music in China.

Finally, here is a short video showcasing Nokia’s retail strategy and how it plans to attract consumers to its stores.

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A major update has just been rolled out for the Nokia N9 in the form of version 20.2011.40-4. The update is 218.6 MB in size and can be installed over the air. It brings music controls to the lockscreen, improved multitasking and NFC Tag reading amongst other things. Another major reason to update is the presence of Swype, which you can enable it by going into Settings> Time and Language> Text Input.

Along with the update, a bunch of pre-loaded applications including Twitter, Facebook, Store, Ovi Music, Galaxy on Fire 2, Nokia Drive, Angry Birds, AccuWeather, NFS Shift, Real Golf 2011 and the User Guide have also been updated.

It is possible that the update isn’t available for all product codes just yet. But if your device hasn’t informed you of the updated already, you can go to Settings>Applications>Manage Applications>Updates and check for updates manually.

The updated Twitter application should bring the ability to Twitpic images, something we have missed since the start. The Facebook client gets a few bug fixes too.

Once downloaded, the update seems to take a while to install so make sure you have enough free time before you begin the update.

[Update: Find the Swype for N9 hand-on video here].

The official changelog:

• NFC tag reading to instantly interact with NFC tags
• Music controls on lock screen
• Photo and video shooting with color filters: black & white, sepia, vivid, negative, solarize
• More powerful multitasking with improved memory handling
• Swype for fast typing
• Faster MfE synch, synchronizing only active folders
• Noice cancellation reduces background noise so that your friends hear you better
• Close apps easily with swiping down, this now on by default
• New indicators for standby screen like charging and calendar
• Pre-loaded apps including: Twitter, Nokia Store, Facebook, Real Golf, Ovi Music, Galaxy on Fire 2, Nokia Drive, Angry Birds NFC, AccuWTwitter, Nokia Maps and the User Guide have also been updated.

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The Lumia 710 is the more affordable of the Windows Phone smartphones that were announced at Nokia World. The candybar device will ship in black and white for an unsubsidized price of 270 Euros, before taxes. It packs a 5 Megapixel Camera with a LED flash, a 3.7″ CBD LCD display, and weighs in at 126 grams.

On the inside, its similar to the Lumia 800, packing a 1.4 Ghz Qualcomm MSM8255 (WCDMA) processor with 512 MB of RAM. Another interesting thing about the Lumia 710 is that swappable back covers make a comeback to Nokia devices. So you can have a black or white Lumia 710 with backs ranging from blue, yellow, pink and a few other colours.

Another remarkable aspect of the device is that instead of the usual capacitive Windows Phone buttons at the bottom, the 710 has physical buttons. I am not a huge fan of these as to my mind they detract from the seamless touch experience. That said, you will probably get used to them very quickly.

Like the Lumia 800, the 710 ships with Nokia Drive, Nokia’s free in-car navigation app pre-installed. Also present is he Mix Radio functionality which lets you stream playlists based on genre for free and even save them for offline listening.

(Available in HD)

All in all, the Lumia 710 is presents a fairly compelling proposition if you are looking for a speedy mid range smartphone, and if you like Windows Phone, the Lumia 710 could quite easily be one of the better options out there. We’ll be covering the Lumia 710 in more detail in the future, for now here’s my hands on video from Nokia World.

Looking for the Lumia 800? Find all the coverage including unboxing, hands on video and pictures, a beautiful picture gallery, Camera and  video samples and finally an in-depth look.

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The Nokia N9 has been a somewhat difficult subject for Nokia, one that they are, and should be, immensely proud of. But one that has raised more questions than answers. When the February announcement with Microsoft came, everyone wondered what was happening to Nokia’s upcoming MeeGo phone. Nokia was quick to point out that they would indeed release a MeeGo based device. Then word started coming out that the original MeeGo device, which we now know as the developer only N950, had been canned, and replaced by a beautiful new touch only flagship.

Soon enough, Nokia Connections came and Nokia unveiled the N9. The reaction to that device was incredible, ranging from people calling for Elop’s head because of his decision to kill MeeGo, to calmer, saner voices wondering if Nokia should keep the MeeGo project going, if for nothing but just to keep Microsoft in check. Then we found out that the N9 would only be available in a handful of countries, the world was literally shocked. It made no sense, why release a product at all if you weren’t going to ship it to major markets such as UK, India, US among others. While the world waited and hoped that Nokia would reconsider, another thing happened.

A device code named Sea Ray, which we now know as the Lumia 800 leaked. Infact, Stephen Elop’s entire presentation to the employees, which was supposed to be shared on the company intranet, got out. Some called it a controlled leak, while most just took the device in and didn’t care as long as the could look at an unreleased Nokia phone, specially a secret Nokia Windows Phone. The result was that a lot of the chants of ‘bring the N9 to my country’ stopped. Nokia’s policy was finally beginning to make sense, they weren’t going to release a device that looked just like the N9 in the same market as the N9, specially when that device would define their foray into the Windows Phone market.

The N9 shipped to positive reviews, mine included, but the consensus among the reviews clearly was that as much as they loved the device, they couldn’t honestly recommend the N9 to someone knowing that the Sea Ray was around the corner. But the N9’s core strengths really came through, a breath-taking design, a unique yet intuitive UI that made sense, and judging by the Maps and browser, Nokia could do software.

Finally, last week the Lumia 800 was revealed at Nokia’s megaevent with literally thousands watching. The stock market liked what they saw and the Nokia stock started climbing. A did a quick hands on and unboxing and then two days later a much more through (p)review. I really seemed to like the device.

This is when we all wondered, if we had not seen the N9 before would we have loved the Lumia 800 even more? The short answer to that question for me is yes. When you first look at that design, most people go head over heels over it and if Stephen Elop got on stage at Nokia World and showed off that design for the first time, we’d have had an even bigger WOW.

Now for the long answer, knowing that the Sea Ray was coming, should Nokia have released the N9? I’d again say yes. Why? First and foremost, the people in the countries where the Lumia 800 is going on sale haven’t seen the N9. So for a vast majority the design is fresh, new and amazing. The minuscule minority, which has seen the design before will still love it, its still less than two months old in the real world and Windows Phone doesn’t make it any less pretty. Infact, I’d say that the jazzy WP UI is a great match to the N9’s physical design.

Next, in various interview Elop’s stated that it was a great platform for Nokia to learn from, see what people like and go on from there. He’s made it clear that none of the N9’s strength’s are going away. We’ve already seen the design used with the Lumia 800, Qt is coming to the next billion and the Swipe UI will apparently make its way to Meltemi, Nokia’s now not so secret platform for low-mid range devices.

Finally, the period between February to October was long and painful. Nokia was bleeding marketshare and on top of that mindshare, which we all know can be as bad as loosing marketshare. The N9 showed the world that innovation was still alive and well at Nokia and that the Finnish giant was far from dead. The message was imagine if this is what we can do alone, think about what we’ll do with Windows Phone in a few months.

At the end of the day, the glory period for the N9 is over. Its all about the Lumia 800 now, no matter how you feel about open source versus the closed Windows Phone platform, its water under the bridge. With the marketing blitz planned for Windows Phone devices, only the die hards will cherish the N9 and don’t get me wrong, it’s a device meant to be cherished. The N9 will keep selling in countries where the Lumia 800 isn’t shipping as yet and I’m sure Nokia will provide great support for it, but its time for the Lumia 800 to hold the Nokia torch.

The N9 will remain a crown jewel in Nokia’s arsenal, a hacker’s phone, a Qt device to help prime the developers for the next billion. So I don’t fault Nokia for announcing it and then the Lumia 800, look at what Apple did with the iPhone 4 and 4S, those things even run the same OS! The N950 would never have been able to generate the kind of buzz for Nokia that the N9 did, it bided time for the transition and it was never a lost cause. Nokia’s goals with the N9 were just, lets say, different.

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With the Lumia 800, Nokia and Microsoft’s synergies have finally been able to intersect after months of anticipation and the end result is nothing short of impressive. With the Nokia N9, we saw Nokia create a new class of device that was designed with the ‘eyes up’ philosophy in mind, with Windows Phone Microsoft tried to put people first, giving you the ability to quickly glance at information which is relevant to you.

We all know that the Lumia 800 is one amazingly beautiful device, but since this was going to be my first real experience with Windows Phone Mango, I was curious about what to expect. What would be the notifications like? Is the Metro UI really as good as it is made out to be? Are there any niggles which could threaten to be show stoppers? Will Nokia’s device be differentiated enough from other manufacturers like Samsung and HTC?

So in the following video I go over all of these questions and try and answer them. The video plays for just over 16 minutes, and should give you a fair idea of what to expect from the Lumia 800.

Without giving away too much, all I can say is that I was having a hard time putting the device down.

(Video available in HD)

The Lumia 800 is already on pre-order in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Britain and is expected to hit stores sometime mid-week in November. It is also coming to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the year-end.

Based on what you have seen so far? You do want one? More Lumia 800 stories here.

Have any questions? Let us know below!

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I called the Nokia N9 ‘easily the best looking device on the market today‘ and that statement still stands with the Lumia 800. The capacitive buttons don’t distract one bit from the beauty of the device, and in fact I think it makes the device look better. The premium polycarbonate unibody design, deep colours and the clean lines make the Lumia 800 a very beautiful phone indeed.

It is the kind of device that you will take out of your pocket, just to admire it beauty. Those meetings or lunches that you go to? I’m sure that the device will be proudly placed on the table every single time.

The device will be available in Blue, Pink and Black, all look great, but in my book, the black version looks amazing. Looking for high resolution photos? Jump over to this Flickr set.

Which colour do you prefer?

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One of the core differentiating features on Nokia’s Windows Phones will be the Nokia Drive app. Different from Nokia Maps, which will be available for everyone at the Windows Marketplace, Drive is Nokia’s Navigation app that lets you pre-load maps and use the phone as an offline navigation device.

The app has been created with an in car experience in mind, so the buttons are huge so that you can easily press them across the dashboard if you have the phone mounted. The interface is simple so that you take your eye off the road for the least amount of time and here is what it looks like.

You can download maps for entire countries from within the application. Also present is the ability to download navigation instructions in a bunch of different languages, all from within the phone.

PS: The video was recorded in a noisy room, so apologies for that. It should however be able to give you a fair idea of what to expect from the application.

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Here on Day 2 of Nokia World, we had a fun little performance from the UK’s Got Talent group Diversity and I was able to film some of it on the Lumia 800. So if you’re wondering about what sort of video capture will Nokia’s first Windows Phone device be capable of, look no further.

Make sure you watch the video in HD.

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The Nokia Lumia 800 packs an 8 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with a f/2.2 aperture, one of the largest that you’ll see in a mobile device. The idea behind that is to get as much light into the sensor as possible so as to enable better low light shots. Since the Lumia 800 shares its camera prowess with its older sibling, the N9, you might want to have a look at the N9′s camera accomplishments in a little detail.

But that’s all theory, so to see how the Lumia 800 performs in the worst conditions possible for a smartphone camera, I took an extended set of low light pictures around London. The full resolution pictures are available on Flickr as set.

So as you can see, the Lumia 800 did a fairly impressive job at keeping the noise low, colours accurate and producing a very acceptable picture overall. It might not have the N8′s prowess, but I think it would be fair to say that as far as smartphone cameras go, this is right up there with the best. The only thing that you need to be careful about is waiting for camera to finish focussing before pressing the shutter fully to take the picture, as the auto focus speed on the Lumia 800 isn’t as fast as that of the N9.

What do you think of the camera?

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Nokia had promised that it would cut down on the time between the announcement and shipping, and they have delivered. I have with me the retail box of the Lumia 800, the device that will be making its way to Europe next month itself and other regins soon thereafter.

During the keynote Nokia showed a live stream of the Lumia 800 boxes actually being packed at the Nokia factories in Finland and here’s what everything inside looks like.

Looking for more Lumia 800 coverage? Find out hands on video and pictures here.

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I have just spent some hands on time with Nokia’s first Windows Phone device, the Lumia 800 and here are my initial impressions.

• The design is beautiful, its the same design as the N9, and that’s a very good thing. Most people will not experience the N9 first hand due to limited availability. The Lumia 800 will be the first such device they see, and it looks spectacular. In my N9 post I called the design the best I’ve seen to date and with the Lumia nothing’s changed.

• The Lumia 800 gets a dedicated camera button and that’s always a welcome feature.

• The screen size goes from 3.9″ to 3.7″ to accomodate the capacitive touch windows buttons, and that does seem like a disadvantage of using the same design. However, even otherwise the lower .2″ of the screen  would always be occupied by the back buttons on the N9, so when you actually use the Lumia 800 after the N9, the screen doesn’t feel smaller. The only place you’ll probably notice is this while playing videos and looking at pictures.

• The Windows Phone experience feels natural on the device, this is despite the fact that I am used to the Swipe UI on the N9.

The HD version of the video is available here.

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Here at Nokia World, the first Windows Phone devices from Nokia have just been made official and the first of the two is the Lumia 800. The design of the device is the same as that of the Nokia N9, with the 3.9″ display giving way to a 3.7″ variant to accomodate the touch sensitive Windows Phone buttons, and the only other difference is the addition of the camera shutter key on the side.

Internally, its a whole new ball game, because of the Windows Phone chasis requirements, the Lumia 800 runs a 1.4 Ghz Qualcomm processor, aided by hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. It however shares the camera module with the Nokia N9, an 8 megapixel shooter with a f 2.2 aperture. The screen may be slightly smaller, but it is every bit as nice as the N9′s with everything almost floating on the top.

Needless to say, the Lumia 800 runs Windows Phone Mango and will be shipping next month itself in select countries, in line with Nokia’s new policy of announcing new devices closes to launch. The Lumia 800 will come in black, pink and cyan and will retail at 420 Euros before taxes or subsidies.

Here are a few hands on pictures of the Lumia 800, stayed tuned for a ton of hands on coverage as the day progresses.

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In my last post about the Nokia N9, we went through a customary unboxing and a quick overview of the device. I also shared a few initial impressions.

This time, we delve a little deeper into the N9′s Swipe UI, go over some of its settings and look at the best ways to setup the N9 for daily use.

I also look at two must have applications for the N9, Swipe Manager and Shortcuts. Swipe Manager brings consistency to your swipes and with the ability to define what action each directional swipe does. For example, you can set it to open the app drawer if you swipe from bottom to top, events view if you swipe from right to left and so on. This makes sure that no matter what you want to do, close an app, goto the launcher, the app switcher or the events view, everything is just a single swipe away.

Next is Shortcuts, it lets you change the four default quick access app on the N9, which the phone won’t let you change otherwise.

What follows is the ten minutes with the Nokia N9 video:

Want me to cover something specifically? Let me know in the comments section below!

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Nokia has just started rolling out an update to the Symbian Anna release on the Nokia N8 (and quite possibly other Symbian Anna devices like the C7, E7 as well) in the form of the v25.007 firmware update. The release brings bug fixes and performance improvements to Symbian Anna and is available over the air or via the Nokia Software Updater.

The update is tiny, weighing in at a little less that 1 MB over the air, so don’t expect any drastic changes. The N8  and other Symbian Anna devices support user data preservation, so your data should be safe post the update as well. Look for the update on the E7, C7, C6-01 and the X7 soon.

The update could very well also serve to prep the phone for the Symbian Belle update, we’ll know soon. If you don’t see the update, its possible that it isn’t available for your product code yet.

[via: S60 Inside]

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The N9 is here, I have the black 64 GB variant and I can tell you that the moment you lay your eyes on it, you will be able to say that the N9 in a class of its own. It is easily the best looking device on the market today, truly a pinnacle of Nokia’s design prowess. It feels very premium, the curved display looks spectacular and the whole distraction free (read button free) surface is a real pleasure to look at.

With that in mind, I put together a little unboxing video (available in HD) for you. In addition to the obvious unboxing, I give you a bit of an overview of the product along with a look at the rubber case that Nokia ships with it. Also included in the box are brand new accessories that Nokia specially designed for the N9, all of which look great.

That aside here a few quick initial impressions as precursor to the detailed review which will follow:

• The N9, owing to the unibody design and the polycarbonate finish feels incredibly solid in the hand. Since there are literally no moving parts, it feels great in the hand.

• The display on the N9 is terrific, the screen very close to the surface of the glass and it feels as if you’re touching it directly; almost makes you feel like its floating on top. Easily gives the Super AMOLED Plus on the Galaxy S2 a run for its money, and because its almost the same resolution on a smaller screen (3.9″ v 4.3″), its a lot more crisp.

• The phone feels responsive, and you’re at home with the Swipe UI in a matter of minutes. Its very intuitive and makes you wonder why nobody else thought of it before. Enabling swipe down to close an app from the settings is recommended, it makes the experience better. There are two more apps that help tremendously, Swipe Manager and My Moves, more on them later.

• The camera is FAST. The shot to shot time is incredible and you want to keep taking pictures once you get going.

• The pre-loaded Twitter and Facebook apps are capable, they cover all the bases. The only thing missing is the ability to share pictures on Twitter and that ability is apparently coming in a future update.

• The out of box service support is great, you can directly upload to Flickr or YouTube. Have multiple Mail for Exchange accounts, other email accounts, and even make Skype calls from the dialer itself. There is also support for IMs on Facebook, Skype and Gtalk.

• The N9 makes it hard for you to find a fault with it, if you forget the direction Nokia is going in for a minute.

Please let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below, or on Twitter @v4ibhav.

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Nokia’s Ideas Project is looking for your feedback on the N9 user interface and is offering 10 Nokia N9 smartphones in return. They are looking for ideas to improve some of the key features shown off in this video and other innovative ideas for the next generation of mobile touch screen devices.

So if the N9 isn’t launching in your country and you were looking forward to one, here’s your chance. Head over to the Ideas Project and start brainstorming. The ideas will be reviewed by Nokia’s interface designers and 10 winners will get a N9 each.

Timeline:

• Begins: October 12, 2011 at 09.00am EET (GMT+2)
• Ends: November 15, 2011 at 5pm EET (GMT+2)

Panel of judges:

• Nikki Barton, Vice President, Smart Devices UX Design, Nokia
• Peter Skillman, Vice President, Services ＆ MeeGo Design, Nokia
• Anton Fahlgren, Senior Design Manager, Nokia

Challenge hosts:

• Ronan MacLaverty, Developer Advocate, MeeGo
• Heli Haapkylä, Manager, Crowdsourcing, Nokia

Good luck!

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Nokia India recently had an event about its latest NFC devices like the Nokia 701, 700 and the 600, all of which run Symbian Belle. Since a bunch of us were together, we decided to get in front of the camera and demo some of the NFC functionality that’s ready to be used by the consumers.

We demo Angry Birds Magic, the game that lets you unlock levels using NFC, NFC pairing, transferring photos using NFC and using NFC tags amongst other things. We wrap the video up by talking about the future of NFC apps.

In case you are wondering, the people in the video are me (@v4ibhav), Clinton Jeff (@clintonjeff), Vikas (@tsuvik) and Nikhil Pai (@NikhilPai).

So what do you think does NFC hold for us in the future. Let us know!

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