Alright, it’s been a very long time since the last time I’ve post something here. For a fresh start in year 2012, this post is about reviewing the Nokia Lumia 800. The Nokia Lumia 800, is the first REAL WINDOWS PHONE 7 as what Stephen Elop claims it to be and it has been launch since last year. So there must be something special about this phone than other windows phone 7 device out there. And I’ve just used it for 2-3 weeks already, so let’s get starting:
HARDWARE & SPECIFICATIONS
The Nokia Lumia 800 has a 1.4Ghz Scorpion Processor with 512MB of RAM, Andreno 205 GPU and a Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset provide a smooth and good performance on the phones. Scrolling, launching an apps is FAST even with a single core processor! could say on par or slightly better with the iPhone 4 (or the iPhone 4S). It’s a steller kind of phone. The phone uses MicroSIM unlike other phone that used a standard SIM card, and the phone has a non-replaceable battery, so you can’t change your battery but I don’t find it to be a problem for daily use. The battery capacity is 1450mAh so you will get 1-2 days battery life with an average use. The phone has a 16gb on-board storage with no expandable storage for microSD but Microsoft have provide that every windows phone 7 (you need a windows live ID account first) will receive a free 25Gb SkyDrive cloud storage. Enough? Yes! The phone also has an 8 Megapixel Camera with Carl Zeiss Lens and dual LED flash.
Other basic specs that you’ll first notice of this phone is that it’s features a 3.7″ with ClearBlack Display provide an excellent black level, a resolutions of 480×800 given a sharpness about 252ppi pixel density. The display uses an old pentile matrix, so you’ll see some pixel if you look it at close distance but that isn’t something that you should worry about. 
The phone uses a polycarbonate material make it more of a “premium” feel in your hands. Weight around 142g and about 12.1mm thick, so besides having a premium feeling, you’ll also get a comfortable and a solid feeling on your hands. And in case if you don’t want your phone to get all dirty, nokia includes a free soft case with every purchase of the devices. I always keep on using it, don’t want the phone to get all dirty 
On the top, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro usb port to connect your phone with your computer and a microSIM slot for your MicroSIM card. And a speaker on the bottom of the phone. On the right, there’s a 2 volume button, lock screen/power button and a camera key button.
SOFTWARE & USER INTERFACE
The phone features a Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) OS with Metro UI on top. The first thing that you MIGHT feel is User Interface immediately distinguish itself from other OS like Android and iOS. Metro UI has a live tiles, so any notifications, will show on the tiles. The WP7.5 still has those basic features like Dialing, Messaging, Calendar, Calculator, Email and all of that. But since it’s an Nokia exclusive Windows Phone, so there are an additions of Nokia proprietary applications like Nokia Drive, and Nokia Maps. So far testing both applications, it really lock my positions really fast and with extra features that I will explain later (not in this review).
The lockscreen is fantastic, it displays every detail like the clock, battery, wifi status, network, notifications. And to unlock it, just have to press and bring the lockscreen up.
WP7.5 comes with social network hub called “People Hub”, helps you connect and sync your social network (eg; Facebook, Twitter). So every status update, check-in are available with it. The best part of it when you post your status, it shows “via Windows Phone” and although it’s really not that important but it really makes me feel and show others that I had a WP device, not some “via Mobile” that doesn’t really show what device are you using. The social hub, is your private place, you can swipe left and right, there’s your profile, your social network’s notifications and the latest update. The applications instantly update when you swipe to other places.
And I forgot to mentioned is that you can choose 2 kinds of background colours and any kind of colours for the tiles as below.
BROWSING EXPERIENCE
The Windows Phone has a stock browser called “Internet Explorer” and I know you guys might think the browser sucks because of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer desktop browser, but it’s not. The browser performs flawlessly in scrolling, pinch to zoom, tap to zooms is very smooth, better than my android stock browser. The browser loads really quick for a single core phone, and it does not support flash, so you won’t be able to play flash games or see any flash ads in any sites. And if you think of viewing a youtube on a site, it will brings you to a 3rd party applications of youtube, but you need to install one from marketplace first to play it. And below shows browser was capable of running html5 script but html5test shows poor results compare with my other test on the Nokia N9. Here’s a side by side comparison.
Although the Nokia Lumia 800 browser shows poor result in html5test, but that doesn’t mean anything if majority sites in the internet still not using html5 script, so it’s not something to concern about.
Another best features of this browser that I love the most, is that it allows you to view any sites in either mobile version mode, or desktop version mode, for example when you’re in a mobile version mode, your link shows “http://m.facebook.com” but in desktop version mode, your link shows “http://www.facebook.com”. I tend to use desktop versions more than mobile versions like this below…
Another great thing about the browser, you can pin the websites to your startup tiles. It is sort of bookmark thingy, but better. You’ll press it, immediately brings you to that website.
MARKETPLACE
Microsoft includes Marketplace in every windows phone devices (so Nokia Lumia 800 is included) BUT only applies in certain region to have paid apps and Malaysia is very unfortunate not to have paid apps. So, what should we do when Malaysia is not having a paid apps to download apps? Ok, if you hate waiting and already got the phone, first thing you need to do is register a Windows Live ID, but choose country other than Malaysia, in my case, I picked United Kingdom. And now I was able to use Marketplace but the apps shows pound sterling for every paid apps.
The Marketplace still lacks of apps when it is compares to Android Market and Apple’s App Store, but you can still search an apps like Whatsapp, youtube, so it’s really not a big drawback unless you really-really need alot of apps to play with. On a side notes, Marketplace will show you 4 categories; Nokia Collection, Applications, Games and Music. In Nokia Collection shows Nokia proprietary software like the Nokia Drive, Contact Transfer and etc2, but for applications, games and music allows to you download apps/games/music depend on which categories you’re in. And don’t worry, there’s also a free apps in the store.
CAMERA: PHOTO SHOOTING
The phone has an 8 Megapixel Camera, able to shoot about 8Mpx at 4:3 aspect ratio and 7Mpx at 16:9 aspect ratio. Here’s are some photos that have been taken with the Nokia Lumia 800:
In Bright Conditions
The camera performs really well in bright conditions. And here is lowlight and extreme lowlight conditions:
The camera perform very poorly in extreme lowlight with terrible noise on the pictures, but take pretty decent in certain lowlight conditions (refer to the left pictures). And let’s look how the camera performs with macro:
In macro mode, the phone sometimes lose focus and I had to take several pictures and this is one of the best yet. In other hands, let’s take a look how flash perform:
The flash performs abit poor in lowlight, and there are some visible noise on the picture.
*take note: I’m not expert in photograph.
CAMERA: VIDEO RECORDING
The phone able to take 720p video recording and thats about 1280×720 resolutions. Here are some video that have been taken with the Nokia Lumia 800 in various conditions:
The video recording performs pretty well in bright conditions, but in lowlight, it fails miserably (as expected). The first video shows abit red-ish colour and I think it’s part of a software bugs, hopefully Nokia can fix this matter. The phone does shows an option of zooming, but it is disabled when you’re start recording with the phone. The Continuous Auto Focus (CAF) doesn’t seems to work well, I’ve tried close-up, and move distances, it doesn’t really focus unless you’re in some kind of range in the focus area and I think Nokia really should issues this matter.
PRICING & AVAILABILITY
The Nokia Lumia 800 is already available in Malaysia at a price of RM1,699 (Recommended Retail Price) with 3 available colour; Black, Cyan and Magenta. White version Nokia Lumia 800 will soon come in the futures. And if you think of getting a windows phone 7 yet the Nokia Lumia 800 price is kinda hefty, you can opt for Nokia Lumia 710 at price of RM999 cheap.
MY VIDEO REVIEW
Here’s my video review of the Nokia Lumia 800, and please ignore my bad english because I’m still working on it. 
CONCLUSION
My first time using the phone, my thought is that I was going to hate the MetroUI because it looks plain and boring with all the tiles but when I start using it, I just started love it, it is smooth yet simple to use, very rare to lag! It really changed my mind how I think about the Windows Phone since I’ve been an android and iOS user for a very long time. Still, Microsoft and Nokia (since their partnership) should fix several bug especially the cameras and enhance its software, and hopefully they could bring paid apps for Marketplace and Xbox Live to Malaysia.
If you are looking for a different kind of phone, changing your taste, moving from a different platform, the Nokia Lumia 800 is for you to try. Cheers!
