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Nokia’s Lumia 800 smartphone and saviour

Nokia and Microsoft are both banking on the new Lumia 800 to provide them with a big comeback in the smartphone market, currently dominated by Android devices and Apple’s iPhone.

The fact that two global market leaders -- Nokia has seen its market lead cut by Android and Apple, while Microsoft operates the world’s premier PC operating system, while failing so far to crack the smartphone market -- have tied up so much hope in one device is reason enough to give it a close look.

Nokia announced in February that it was switching to Windows Phone as the operating system for its smartphones. The Lumia 800 is the first fruit of that partnership.


It is a purely Windows device. Controls and functions are identical to smartphones using the system, like those from HTC or LG.

But the Lumia is supposed to get a boost from its design, its camera and Nokia’s navigation service.

Nokia will have to deal with the fact that, just this summer, it released its first, and likely last, smartphone using the MeeGo operating system, developed in collaboration with Intel: the N9.

The Lumia 800 looks identical to the N9. It has a seamless polycarbonate housing with rounded corners, meaning it sits better in the user’s hand. Connections for earphones and a mini-USB device are hidden under a plastic lid along the top side. Next to that is the dock for a micro SIM.

It comes in classic black, light blue and bright pink. The screen is also slightly arched and merged into the housing, keeping with the overall feel of the device. Measuring 3.7 inches (9.4 centimetres) diagonally, it has a resolution of 800 X 480 pixels.

Despite bright colours, that means the Lumia’s display is significantly less defined than the display of the iPhone 4, with its 960 X 640 pixels.

Its camera has a wide-angle lens from Carl Zeiss and an 8-megapixel sensor. Nokia is especially proud of its serially produced integrated navigation service, which comes with a 3D view that lets users view a city plan from a bird’s eye view.

When it comes to software, the Lumia 800 is firmly in Microsoft’s hands. The centerpiece of the operating system is the large tiles that have become the calling card of Windows Phone on other applications. Those provide an initial overview of email and contacts as well as links to the app marketplace and the XBox Live gaming area.

Even if you want to download a free app like Twitter, you have to set up a Windows Live account with Microsoft. Prices for apps in Microsoft’s Marketplace are significantly more expensive than those for iPhones and Android machines.

But, if nothing else, Nokia has delivered a machine that’s up to running Microsoft’s demanding operating system. Whether you’re using email, Facebook or an internet search engine, using the Lumia 800 is like paging through a magazine, with large text and colourful pictures.

And the processor, with a speed of 1.4 gigahertz, makes sure that the phone reacts with lightning speed to every touch of the finger, hindered only sometimes by the speed of the internet connection.

The touchscreen navigation is expanded by three buttons on the screen’s edge. There is a back button, one that creates a direct link to internet searches, and a Windows button that returns to the initial screen.

Users will have to make do with the Lumia 800’s 16 gigabytes of storage. There is no SD card slot. Nor is there a second camera on the touchscreen side for video telephony.

Then again, Nokia and Microsoft do not seem to tire of telling everyone that this is just the first device of their partnership and that customers should be ready for more products in the future.

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