NOKIA Lumia 800 Pro Reviews

It’s pretty clear that Nokia and Windows Phone already have its fans. Microsoft and Nokia continue to work on improving the Windows Phone environment, as well as the devices powered by this platform. While the Lumia 800 is one of Nokia’s top tier phones, we still think that the Finnish company still has some things that need to iron out before it can battle Android and iOS. However, we were pretty content with the Lumia 800 hardware and software performance and think that there’s enough marketplace for all three mobile platforms.

After testing the Lumia 800 for several days, it is perfectly clear that Microsoft and Nokia have made a terrific deal by burying the hatchet a year ago – this is convincingly the best Windows Phone device, apart from the bigger, but otherwise almost identical Lumia 900. Just about all the Lumia 800’s shortcomings boil down to the platform being flawed (no Flash or Silverlight, no microSD slot), some of which are expected to be remedied with the upcoming arrival of Windows Phone 8. There's not anything to be done about the lack of a front-facing camera, though. A rather overly-defined concept of this platform has resulted in the previous devices featuring Microsoft's mobile OS looking so much alike that it was difficult to differentiate them, thus making them uninteresting. The Lumia 800 is different, especially regarding its design and performance, and it offers a far more pleasant and promising experience while working with Windows Phone than any other competitor does. Furthermore, the Lumia 800 feels fantastic when held in hand, offers optimal ratio of resolution and display size, as well as exceptional contrast. The device is fast and economic when it comes to battery use. Everything seems well thought on the Lumia 800 and this is surely a smartphone that will do a great job for Nokia’s (as well as Microsoft’s) return to the big league of mobile gadgets.

The Lumia 800 is one of the best Windows Phones available. It’s a charmer to look at and feels good to hold as well. It also comes with a nice suite of useful Nokia apps, which help it bridge the gap with Android when it comes to turn-by-turn directions and mapping. There are some downsides, like a lack of a front-facing camera, blurry video recording, and a camera that doesn’t impress as much as Nokia boasts, but overall it’s one of the best Windows Phones around. That is, if you count it as around at all. The Lumia 800 is only available as an unlocked phone for $500 in the US. Sadly, that may be it’s biggest weakness.

The Lumia 800 looks lovely and Windows Phone 7 shows promise, but the screen's quality is disappointing for a smartphone at this price.

The Lumia 800 is exactly what it looked like when it was first announced at Nokia World: it is an N9 running Windows Phone. Ironically, in moving from the wildly imaginative Harmattan to the more straight-laced Windows Phone OS, this smartphone has undergone the reverse of the transition Stephen Elop wants to see Nokia make. He wants the company to stop being known for unexciting reliability and to start inspiring greater emotional attachment in its users. The N9 was that irrationally loved device, and no matter how hard the Lumia 800 tries, it simply isn't as thrilling. For anyone still stuck on one of Nokia's Symbian devices, the 800 is an obvious upgrade. It lacks the N8's superb camera, but otherwise it easily trumps anything and everything in the company's recent portfolio. Windows Phone provides a modern and attractive user interface and the Lumia 800's hardware maintains Nokia's reputation for attention to detail and insistence on high build quality. The picture is less clear for those considering alternative Windows Phones, as the Lumia 800 actually falls behind by not including a front-facing camera or mobile hotspot capabilities. Choosing your favorite there will depend on how much you love the Lumia 800's sterling physical design and how much faith you place in Nokia's ability to execute on its ambitious plans for software differentiation. The Lumia 800 has the potential to be great, but today it's merely good.

The collaboration between Nokia and Windows has led to an interesting, innovative product. Often new phones are similar to their predecessors, but with Windows Phone Mango on the Lumia 800, you have no idea that you are working with a Nokia phone, and there is no resemblance to the old Windows Mobile. The speed, the clear screen and the many applications make the Nokia Lumia 800 a good smartphone. It takes some getting used to, but it is a positive experience. This is partly due to the good support of different e-mail accounts, agenda items and contacts and the integration of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The camera allows you to capture moments anywhere you are: only you have to watch that you have focused when you push down the camera button. The phone is very decent; I personally find that the back could have a more exciting design. Overall, the Nokia Lumia 800 is a unique product.

The Nokia Lumia 800 will sell well - it has already risen to the top spots in popularity for several carriers. It will boost Nokia's market shares and Windows Phone's shares too - but chances are it won't dethrone the leaders. The bigger question is, will it save Nokia from their burning platform? It's too soon to tell.

Is the Nokia Lumia 800 the real Windows Phone that you've been waiting for? It's undeniable that the Lumia 800's unibody design, with its curved profile and convex display, certainly creates a head turning effect for many. It might be on the heavier side of things with its 142g weight, but it does provide users with a phone that's well built with a solid feel. The additional buttons, from the three standard shortcuts to a camera button on its right, have certainly changed a few things on the Lumia 800 when compared to the similar looking N9. A reduced 3.7-inch display, though using the same AMOLED technology and a WVGA resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, also meant a higher pixels per inch density for the Lumia 800. And that did put the Lumia 800 at an advantage over similar Windows Phone makers such as HTC, with images and videos that had richer colors and details on its 3.7-inch display.

An impressive debut for Nokia’s new look smartphones; a refreshing alternative

Using the Nokia Lumia 800 to take photos is very much like using a modern compact camera. It produces appealing images that are perfect for sharing in a multitude of different ways, whether that's via the LCD screen, your usual social networks, email or even good old-fashioned prints. 8 megapixels is more than enough resolution for the Lumia 800's target audience, with images inevitably being downsized in some way or other to suit their final destination. Nokia have also made it surprisingly easy to take and share photos, from actually getting into the camera mode to taking a picture by simply pressing the screen and then reviewing it through onscreen swipes and sharing it via a couple of menu options. The only real fly in the photography ointment from a camera point of view is the annoying shutter-lag which makes taking pictures of moving subjects something of a hit and miss affair (often quite literally). All in all, though, devices like the Nokia Lumia 800 are definitely eating into the cheaper end of the compact camera market, something that's backed up by both sales figures and the very camera-like experience that the Lumia 800 offers.

The Lumia 800 is indubitably the best Windows Phone hardware out there right now. When people previously spoke in hushed tones about wanting Nokia to make Windows Phones, the unspoken reasons for wanting a Nokia WP7 device were a few notable features - a camera without compromises, hardware build quality that’s unique and solid, Nokia’s attention to detail, and Nokia's existing market share and ability to get those devices to market.

I was quite impressed with the Nokia Lumia 800, the smartphone features an excellent design, probably one of the best looking Windows Phone devices we have tested. It certainly feels like a quality smartphone, just what you would expect from Nokia in terms of the build quality, the AMOLED display is really nice, and that paired with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango makes the Lumia 800 a great device to use.My first ever mobile phone was a Nokia handset, and I have had a number of Nokia mobile phones over the years, although I haven’t owned a Nokia handset for quite a few years, probably about 10, the Nokia Lumia 800 is the first Nokia smartphone that would make me consider buying a Nokia phone again. If you are in the market for a new smartphone or specifically a Windows Phone smartphone, then the Lumia 800 is definitely worth considering, have a look at the photo gallery below. The handset we tested in this review was from UK mobile carrier Three, the Nokia Lumia 800 is available on Three with a range of different mobile contracts in the UK, it is also available from a number of other mobile operators.

The tyranny, at the moment, is that the Lumia 800 currently isn't available in North America through any official channels. The most devoted can import it, and it will work on the 3G of every American and Canadian GSM carrier, but that's not the same as buying either from a carrier store or unlocked from Nokia. There's a real chance that the phone might reach AT&T or Verizon with an LTE upgrade along the way. Until then, Nokia's best phone for some time, and one of the better Windows Phones, is missing out on a chance to make its name known at a time when it might matter the most.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is a very nice phone, I absolutely love the design. It feels great in my hand, and it is incredibly robust. I have already accidentally dropped it once on a hard surface, and I could not find any trace of the impact. The Polycarbonate construction really paid off. Overall, the phone won’t earn any “top speed” records, and I’m pretty sure that specs-oriented buyers will criticise it for that. I think that Nokia knew it and they’ve decided early on that they could not get into this fight as Windows Phone is not yet multi-core friendly anyway. The blunt truth is: this is not a “heavy weight” handset when it comes to pure number-crunching, but this doesn’t mean that the user experience is slow – on the contrary.

It's hard not to like the Nokia Lumia 800 in terms of design, how far Microsoft has developed its operating system, and what Nokia adds to it. But there are downsides. You can't expand its storage with a microSD card, and there's no support for Flash - though, with the announcement that Adobe is discontinuing development of Flash for mobile devices, that's less of a big deal than it used to be . There's also no desktop sync for contacts and calendar, and - as yet - a relatively small software market. We like the Nokia Lumia 800, but we don't love it.

Aesthetics aside, the speed and ease of use of the Lumia 800 – and the remarkable People application – make this a very attractive alternative to the iPhone. Even if you don’t do much social networking, it’s nice to have communications and events aggregated under by contact or group. People who see it, like it.

Nokia's Lumia 800 is a sophisticated and capable smartphone that melds its hardware beautifully with the Windows Phone OS. Whether it's the best phone for you right now depends on certain factors. First, you need to establish whether you're a Windows Phone type of person. If you're thrilled by dual-core processors, extremely high-res screens, large camera sensors, customizable widgets, expandable storage, USB mass storage and other such features, then you'll be better off with Android or -- to a slightly lesser extent -- iOS, because that cutting-edge stuff is currently absent on Redmond's OS. On the other other hand, if you want to be part of a carefully crafted, simple and generally happy emerging ecosystem, then look no further.

The Nokia Lumia 800 is probably Nokia’s best smartphone so far. It has a sturdy and sleek construction plus a vivid display, paired with refreshing software from Microsoft. If you are just moving up to a smartphone, or if you have one of Nokia’s Symbian devices, the Lumia 800 is a stellar upgrade: It’s fast, it's easy to use, and it looks great. Compared with the iPhone 4S or with high-end Android phones, though, the Lumia 800 has a few potential deal breakers, as it lacks a dual-core processor, 1080p video recording, and a front-facing camera for video chat.

I suppose the bottom line is that this is not Nokia's "A" game. This might be kind of like Nokia's "Do whatever you can to get something decent out before the end of the year" game. While the Lumia 800 isn't the best at photos, nor the best at value-added software, nor the best at speed, big screens, or battery life (relative to the secondnd generation Windows Phones)…I believe it is the best in design. The single piece of polycarbonate sculpture combined with the true-black AMOLED screen and the uniquely personal, beautifully designed Windows Phone operating system make for quite a pleasant experience that feels incredible in your hand and is gorgeous to look at. Plus, it comes in black, cyan, or magenta! Like Apple, the Nokia brand carries a lot of weight with it. Even though the Lumia 800 may not be the best Windows Phone around, it is still a very desirable, enjoyable, and attractive device.

If Nokia is looking to get back into the U.S. market, the Lumia 800 is a great device to crack the door open. Its sophisticated yet understated design is one of the most attractive we've seen, and it's matched by the sleekness of Windows Phone 7.5. If you don't mind buying unlocked phones, this is the Windows Phone to get. The problem is that this device isn't available through U.S. carriers yet, though something similar from Nokia should arrive early next year, presumably with 4G LTE support. If the Lumia 800 is a sign of things to come, Nokia's future will be be bright.

And so it begins, Nokia's partnership with Microsoft has reached fruition and the first taste is in our hands. Bearing in mind how quickly Nokia got this to market, the custom Nokia Apps they pulled out of the bag and the reformatting of MeeGo hardware to fit a Windows Phone platform, we can do little but commend. The Nokia Lumia 800 sports a beautiful screen, slick design and promising OS only made more attractive by the inclusion of Nokia Maps, Drive and Music. While it does have its weak points, with the AMOLED delivering a blue hue when viewed at an angle and lackluster noise handling in the images, not to mention less than stellar battery life, we still find it very easy to recommend Nokia's new flagship as the pros outweigh the cons ten to one.

As a physical specimen, Nokia’s first Windows 7 phone is spot on, but it isn’t quite the finished article

The Lumia 800 is by far the best Windows Phone you can buy. And you can buy it and use it on AT&T's American network if you reallyreallyreally want to. But sadly, right now it comes at a high enough premium ($577 pre-tax) and with enough hardware caveats that you're probably better off waiting for Nokia's official stateside launch in 2012.

All eyes were on the Nokia Lumia 800 as an augur of what's to come for Windows Phone in general, and for Nokia in particular. As it stands now, this phone isn't the home run that Nokia needs to compete in the big leagues with the likes of the Android superphones. However, the bold, fresh design is a welcome change, and proof that Nokia still has the design chops that can make Windows phones stand out. The camera situation is the phone's single weakest point, and Nokia absolutely needs sharper rendering on the 8-megapixel camera, plus a front-facing camera of some sort, in order to compete. Still, there's hope, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the announcement of the U.S. version of this unlocked phone.

Although we had our doubts during initial familiarisation with the Nokia WP7 environment the transition from the Symbian environment is much less painful than expected. In less than 48hrs we went from wanting to return to our old phones to not wanting to let go of this one. Whereas the start screen tiles initially felt a little unwieldy and wasteful of the display real estate the reasoning behind the GUI styling soon became apparent such that we realised it is all about simplicity and intuitiveness. Start screen icons are large to minimise the chances of incorrect icon selection. The phone dial pad screen only has what it really needs to make a call. The alphabetical apps list is the easiest way to find apps as we all know our A-Z. We did note a number of issues with the review device, but have been told that most will be fixed on the production release. The biggest stumbling block of these being the poor video capture and lack of zoom during recording. The result of our time with the Nokia Lumia 800 has left us wanting more. The big question you have to ask is: do you buy the Nokia Lumia 800 with WP Mango installed or do you wait and see what devices Nokia release on the next and Nokia influenced WP8 devices next year? But right now, the problem we have is handing this one back.