Nokia Windows Phone – Lumia 800 – is hitting a telco near you in March…but can it shine light?
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The 3.7 AMOLED display smartphone with Windows’ tile grid will be sold in Optus, Telstra, Vodafone and all “major retailers” from March, Nokia confirmed today.
The Nokia Lumia 800 on Windows Phone 7.5 has an 8 MP camera with 28mm Carl Zeiss wide-angle lens and HD video.
The camera has instant photo share capabilities and touch-to-focus, which Nokia claim is unique to its brand, which is false, since Samsung S II, HTC Velocity, Moto Razr, iPhone 4 all have this feature.
The Lumia 800 home screen is a grid of live, animated tiles tailored to a user’s liking.
So, what are in the tiles? “Up-to-the-minute” Facebook, Twitter updates, news and weather feeds, email notifications and calendar alerts.
And for gamers, the Microsoft Windows Phone offers Xbox gaming.
The touch phone also features a People Hub, which combines all your contacts and feeds from Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter into one thread pinned to the homescreen.
The Lumia 800 was released in Europe last year, is tall and thin with sports sleek, curved casing.
The smartie is also best in class business with its 30+ year Windows software heritage, say Nokia, plus apps such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and OneNote Bing, Internet Explorer 9, HTML5 and Wi-Fi.
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And for radio lovers, Mix Radio, streams hours of music for free via WiFi, and Gigfinder, which lets you search for live local music events, shares your discoveries and buy concert tickets online.
On the GPS front, Nokia Drive – available in more than 100 countries – turns Lumia 800 into a fully-featured sat nav with voice guided turn-by-turn navigation, info on traffic, speed limits and cameras.
Nokia’s Windows gamble is a game changer and demand is strong here, says Nokia Australia MD.
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“Nokia Lumia will change the way people think about Nokia. It signifies a new beginning for the company, bringing together the very best of Nokia’s handset design and services with the latest Windows Phone software,” said Chris Carr.
“Interest locally for Nokia Lumia, our first range of Nokia with Windows Phone devices, has been extremely positive, with a significant appetite from operators and retailers looking to offer consumers a real smartphone alternative.”
“With uptake from all Australian operators and major retailers, the launch of the Nokia Lumia 800 signals our intent to regain leadership in smartphone design and usability,” Carr said.
Nokia’s Lumia 800 comes in black, blue (Cyan), pink (Magenta) and white.
No word on pricing yet.