Nokia Lumia 800 review

It feels a bit strange to write this, but in terms of smartphones both Microsoft and Nokia are currently the little guys battling against the giants of Google and Apple. It kind of makes sense, therefore, for the two companies to come together to fight back, and their first joint assault take the form of the Nokia Lumia 800.

This is Nokia’s very first Windows Phone 7 device and marks the start of the phone manufacturer moving away from its Symbian platform. In many ways this handset could be make-or-break for the company.

It’s good, then, that first impressions of the handset are so positive. Measuring 117x61x12mm the Nokia Lumia 800 isn’t the thinnest we’ve seen and, at 142g, is about average for a smartphone, but its neat curved sides mean it fits comfortably into the hand.

It looks fantastic, too, thanks to what Nokia calls the ‘single piece injection moulded polycarbonate shell’. It’s this that gives the phone its sleek and sculptured look. Although we reviewed the black version, more attractive Cyan and Magenta versions are also available. Adding to the gorgeous looks is the 3.7in display, which has slightly curved glass that makes it stand out from the body of the phone. It’s good to see that there’s a black ‘bumper’ case included in the box to protect the phone from everyday knocks and bumps, although it lessens the phones desirability.

Powering up the phone shows the high quality of the AMOLED screen. It’s bright with excellent contrast ratios. With its dark blacks it really brings out the best in Windows Phone 7’s tiled user interface. We also tried looking at some images on the Lumia 800 – colours looked a little over saturated, and were a little too punchy in some cases. We compared it to the iPhone 4S and found that Apple’s device produced more realistic tones, but it was little more muted. Both are pretty evenly balanced and it’s really a matter of personal choice as to which one you’ll prefer.

With a resolution of 800×480, the Lumia 800’s screen falls in line with other Windows Phone 7 devices. Squeezed into the 3.7in display, this resolution has a high pixel density and we found images and text to be pin sharp.

While a lot of new smartphones running other operating systems now have dual-core processors, the Lumix 800, as with all current Windows Phone 7 handsets, uses a single-core processor. The Qualcomm MSM8255 runs at a speedy 1.4GHz, making this among the fastest Windows Phone 7 smartphones that we’ve seen – only the far larger 1.5GHz HTC Titan runs quicker.

The UI runs incredibly smoothly, with slick transitions between pages. We didn’t notice any slowdown when running multiple applications and Internet Explorer rendered websites quickly. Java performance, as shown in the SunSpider test, was a little disappointing with the Lumia 800’s score of 6,713ms almost a third slower than the iPhone 4S.

This seems to make little practical difference in every-day use. Comparing side-by-side to an iPhone 4S, the transition from portrait to landscape was just as smooth on both handsets, as was zooming into web pages. In terms of slickness, then, the Lumix 800 is up there with the best of them and was noticeably smoother than Android devices. It helps that the capacitive multi-touch touchscreen is so responsive.

Microsoft has strict requirements about Windows Phone 7 handsets, so Nokia can’t touch the user interface. This can make distinguishing handsets between manufacturers quite difficult. Nokia is attempting to make its handset stand out by adding some new apps.

First up is Nokia Maps, which is in addition to Bing Maps. We can’t say what it will bring to the table, as at the time of writing the app hadn’t been launched. It will be pre-installed when the phone launches on the 16th November and we’ll update our review with the full details of the software then.

Nokia Drive is potentially more interesting, as this app gives you turn-by-turn driving directions. Once you’ve worked out how to use it (you have to press the Back button to bring up the menu to set a destination), it’s a handy way to get from A-to-B. While Android phones have this feature with the built-in Google Maps, Nokia’s version downloads the maps of your choice to the handset, so you can be offline. With free maps available for the most of the world, you can take your phone on holiday for navigation without getting hit for lots of data charges.

Nokia Music gives you a Pandora-style internet radio, where you can listen to music by genres. It covers most of the major labels and lets you buy the tracks that you like. It’s a bit limited, though, only letting skip a few tracks every hour. Until Spotify comes to Windows Phone 7, it’s a handy extra.

Of course, you can add your own music to the handset using the Zune desktop software. With 16GB of storage on the device, there’s a fair amount of room for music, videos and any apps that you want to download. There’s no expansion card slot to add more memory and it’s a shame that the phone isn’t available with different capacities.

The range of apps is also slightly problematic with Windows Phone 7, as there’s simply not the range that either the iPhone or Android devices enjoy. It’s slowly getting better, but more support from major developers is really needed.

While the lack of apps may be a problem, the OS has a lot built-into it. The Outlook email is incredibly easy to use and brilliant if you’ve got an Exchange server at work. Having Office Mobile as standard is brilliant for working on documents on the move, too.

A Micro-USB port neatly hidden at the top of the handset (behind a neat hinged flap) is used to charge the handset and connect it to a PC. It sits next to the SIM card slot, which takes an iPhone-style Micro SIM. If you’re upgrading your contract or buying a SIM-free handset you’ll need to make sure that your service provider sends you out a suitable SIM.

With many people turning to their phone for video and photos, the Lumia 800’s 8-megapixel camera should be of interest. Results with it were mixed, though. Taking photos on a bright day inside showed that the camera’s dynamic range was poor. In particular, light from windows was completely blown out. It even struggled a little with office lights, creating a kind of halo effect. This even happened on a slightly duller day.

Without sunlight streaming in, images were pretty good and, while below compact camera quality, are certainly of good enough quality for web use. We like the fact that there’s a dedicated camera button to take shots, with a half-press focussing and setting the exposure; you can also tap the touchscreen to focus on a point and take a photo.

Video suffered from a similar dynamic range problem. When we took some test footage with the bright sun to our left, the left-hand side of the footage was very soft and quite blown out. This is a tough test for any video camera, but the Lumia 800 was particularly poor. It’s a shame, because out of direct sunlight its 720p footage was detailed. Overall, it will do for those moments that you want video and don’t have a dedicated camera, but the iPhone 4S produces better-quality shots.

Click the video to go to YouTube and watch the full-screen 720p footage

Battery life seemed pretty reasonable, lasting 3hr 30minutes in our video test with the screen on full brightness. Lowering the brightness to half, we managed 5hr 48minutes. It’s half the time of the iPhone 4S, but the Lumia is much smaller, and in-line with other Android and Windows Phone 7 devices.

Even given the problems with the camera, the Lumia 800 is by far the best Windows Phone 7 handset that we’ve seen. That may sound like faint praise, but it’s not. Windows Phone 7 is a slick and smooth OS, besting Android and coming up to iPhone levels of quality. The lack of apps could be problematic for some, but the number and range is growing, while all of the important features (Twitter, Facebook and email) are built into the OS – which is the latest version, called Mango.

With the Lumia 800 Nokia has created a handset that’s beautifully made and desirable, which is half the battle in a lot of people’s eyes. Given you can get the handset for free on a £25-a-month contract (it’s sub-£400 on PAYG and £468 SIM-free), it’s pretty good value too. If the more imposing Android and more expensive iPhone 4S aren’t you’re thing, Windows Phone 7 is a decent alternative and the Lumia 800 the best handset so far.