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Nokia Lumia 800 Hands-On Review

Last week, I was able to spend some time playing with my friend, Bryan‘s new Nokia Lumia 800. I have never used a Windows Phone before, you see, and Nokia Lumia 800 is one of Nokia’s latest phones running Windows Phone 7.5 operating system. I will share my user-experience, instead of going into technical details.

Nokia Lumia 800 review
Nokia Lumia 800

First off, the design of the phone looks quite unique and different from many other smart phones in the market. I like the sleek body of the phone. It gives a nice grip because of the Polycarbonate material used and it lies comfortably in my palm too. However, I think some people might not like the rubbery feel. The display looks very clear as if the graphics on the screen are floating on the curved glass.

Nokia Lumia 800 review
slim

The phone’s operating system is very responsive and intuitive. I didn’t have to spend much time understanding the way how things work on the phone. Scrolling is very smooth – the animated transition while swiping sideways make the phone looks very lively. Operating system-wise, I think it’s very simple and easy to use. I would say it’s as simple to operate as the iPhone’s iOS.

The multitasking ability is rather limited because the system will only keep the latest 5 applications open concurrently. Opening more than 5 apps at the same time, the earliest opened application will be closed automatically. Bummer!

People Hub is one special feature of Nokia Lumia 800 that I should mention here. As the name suggests, it is a social network hub that engages me with friends and family. People Hub displays Facebook and Twitter updates from everyone in my contact list and it gives me a quick way to stay connected with them. Replying to a tweet or liking a Facebook status could never be easier using this phone.

Nokia Lumia 800 review
pre-installed applications

Nokia Lumia 800 has a few pre-installed applications which I find very useful, such as Office Mobile, Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps. Office Mobile offers a convenient way to create and edit Microsoft Office documents on the go. Office documents can be saved on the phone or uploaded to the free cloud-based SkyDrive online storage for easy access. The latter two pre-installed applications are exclusive to Nokia Lumia phones and they are free of charge too!

Nokia Lumia 800 review
Nokia Drive

Nokia Drive is a reliable GPS navigation application on Nokia Lumia 800. Its clear turn-by-turn voice guidance instructions will definitely be a life-saver to me while driving – being someone who gets lost even in her own hometown! Maps of a country can be downloaded so that it can be accessed in offline mode. This particular feature will save a lot of money from data roaming if I use the phone overseas.

Nokia Lumia 800 review
Nokia Maps

Nokia Maps is similar to Google Maps which we can use to search for locations and points of interest. The maps load up almost instantaneously and the positioning is very accurate too. As good as it looks, it lacks a comprehensive list of places as compared to Google Maps, unfortunately.

It was a pleasure using Nokia Lumia 800, albeit for a short while only, and I’m impressed with its built-quality and the operating system. The overall experience was very positive in terms of system responsiveness, user-friendliness and the features of People Hub. The availability of some useful Nokia exclusive applications make Nokia Lumia 800 a more desirable phone to own with the retail price of only RM1,650 in West Malaysia.

With love

5 thoughts on “Nokia Lumia 800 Hands-On Review

  1. Cool… I might actually consider this phone… really tired of IOS & Andriods … this might be something outstanding & hopefully not too buggy 🙂

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