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Brief Review of the Nokia Lumia 800

My impressions of the Lumia 800, from a real-world usage perspective:

Design

Those that have seen (and liked) the Nokia N9 will be pleased to see the Lumia 800 has been designed using the same principles that make the N9 such a physical masterpiece.

Cut from a single piece of polycarbonate, the Lumia 800 is both functional and svelte.  The ‘slab’ design makes the phone easy to hold, but the rounded edges and the slightly raised, 3.7” AMOLED touch screen give the phone a modern, distinctive look.

Physical buttons (camera, power and volume rockers) are all located on the right-hand edge of the phone and are finished in a smooth, ‘chrome’ feel.  The buttons are easy to use, despite their smooth appearance.

A 3.5mm headphone jack is located on top of the phone, along side the Micro-USB port, which allows for charging or connecting to a computer/laptop.  The Micro-USB port is covered by a plastic port cover, which feels a bit flimsy and requires the user to be careful when it is open that it does not get broken off by mistake.

A speaker sits on the bottom edge of the phone for music and speakerphone use.

The phone itself measures 61.2mm wide, 116.5mm long and 12.1mm deep.  This is slightly larger than this reviewer’s current HTC Mozart, but not uncomfortably so. 

The phone sits nicely in the hand and does not feel heavy in the pocket.

Performance     

Whilst the Lumia 800 does not follow the trend of dual, or quad-core CPU’s, the single-core Qualcomm 1400MHZ CPU does not show signs of slowing the Windows Phone 7.5 ‘Mango’ operating system down.  On the contrary, the WP7 operating system feels snappy and light, with scrolling and ‘swiping’ operations showing no signs of stuttering or lag.

The Lumia comes with 512MB of SDRAM, and this, combined with the Qualcomm CPU, gives the WP7 platform a great base to work from.

Using various applications, both included (Nokia Drive, Email, IE9 Mobile) and 3^rd party (Carbon, Facebook), the phone handled everything this reviewer threw at it, with no usage discomfort at all.

The Lumia 800 comes with 16GB of onboard, non-upgradeable storage, which for the every-day user should be plenty for music and video files, but this reviewer wishes that Microsoft would relax their ‘no upgradeable storage’ requirement and add a Micro-SD slot.  This would only enhance the WP7 capabilities.

Batterylife is measured at 9.5 hours of talk time and 335 hours of standby time.  This seems a bit short for this reviewer, but on testing the phone in daily use, with multiple phone calls, text messages, light internet browsing (which is a joy with IE9 and the AMOLED screen) and music playing, this reviewer was able to get over a day’s worth of battery life.

Features

Speaking of the AMOLED screen, it is does a great job in showing the deepest blacks, but could be a little better in colour reproduction. Whilst this is not a big problem, on some applications and video files, users may notice some saturation with screens/pages filled with lots of colours..  The other ‘complaint’ I have is that it is not at a higher resolution for video.  Whilst the current resolution (480x800 pixels) is fine for normal use, the phone could be enhanced with a more detailed screen.

The phone also comes with an 8MP rear camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, which whilst good, is not outstanding.  If you are looking for a smartphone with a camera for high-end results, then the Lumia may not be for you.

One of the main reasons I was interested in the Lumia 800 was the Nokia Driveapplication that comes standard with this phone.  In short, this app is excellent in its design and execution, with an uncluttered layout and smooth, simple operation.  One of the main benefits in using the Drive application for navigation is the ability to download the required maps to the phone, so it can be used in an ‘offline’ state.  The maps for Australia were around 200MB in size, which takes a chunk out of the included 16GB of storage, but is well worth the effort.  Just be sure to note that you cannot download these maps using your NextG connection, but will require a WIFI connection to download the required maps.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Nokia Lumia 800 is an excellent combination of form and function.  The phone does have some minor downsides (lower resolution screen, camera could be a bit better), but on the whole, Nokia has produced a fine phone that is easy to use, thanks to WP7, and also has provided some real-world applications (Drive, Maps) that will appeal to purchasers. 

The Lumia 800 shows that Nokia are Microsoft are taking advantage of their partnership with each other, with this phone being an excellent example of both companies’ best traits.  Highly recommended.