Published in Mobiles

Nokia rolls out Mango phones, gets back in the game

by on26 October 2011



Updated: Weight of the world on their polycarbonate shoulders


Nokia’s top brass is in London for the Nokia World event, undoubtedly one of the most significant launch events in the company’s illustrious history.

Nokia is using the occasion to introduce its first Windows Phone handsets and wave a tearful goodbye to Symbian and MeeGo in the high end. Of course, the Finnish phone maker is also introducing a few other phones, such as the affordable, Symbian-based Asha series, but the real focus is on Windows.

nokialumia800



The two phones that are stealing the limelight are the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. The 800, codenamed Sea Ray, features a 3.7-inch curved ClearBlack 800x480 screen in a 116 x 61 x 12.1mm chassis weighing 142 grams. This doesn’t sound too impressive considering the weight and thickness of new Android phones. The CPU of choice is Qualcomm’s 1.4GHz Snapdragon MSM8255T with Adreno 205 graphics. It features 512MB of RAM, 16GB of storage and no microSD slot.

nokialumia710

The Lumia 710, aka Sabre, measures 119 x 62.4 x 12.5mm and it has 8GB of internal storage, no mircoSD here, either. It features a 3.7-inch WVGA ClearBlack display and the same 1.4GHz processor and graphics.

At this point we are not impressed. We were hoping for a lot more from an industry heavyweight that practically dominated the market for more than a decade. The only thing that sets Nokia phones from the rest of the Windows Phone 7 crowd is a few exclusive apps and, well, that’s about it. Nokia’s and Microsoft’s Hail Mary play is to limit access to certain apps and keep them Nokia-exclusive, which risks alienating consumers and other phone makers, whose products will end up less competitive from the get go.

No word on price yet, but considering the spec and the price of similar devices, Nokia really can’t go overboard. (Oh yes it can. The 800 should sell for €420, while the 710 is priced at €270. sub.ed.)

Update:

The official specs are out and it appears that both phones use the same 3.7-inch WVGA displays, but the Lumia 800 boasts curved glass on top. The 710 features a 5MP camera, whereas the 800 has an 8MP unit, but neither have front-facing cameras.

It appears the prices announced at the event did not include taxes, i.e. 20+ percent of VAT in Europe, depending on the market.

You can check out the full spec sheets here.


 


 



Last modified on 26 October 2011
Rate this item
(0 votes)