Review Product I Review Hand Phone I Nokia Lumia 800 Review

I replaced my last smartphone, a Samsung Galaxy Ace, around Christmas last year. There was so much choice that it was hard to figure out what would be the best option, so I spent ages online looking at deals and in stores getting a feel for different models. I had set my budget at more of an entry to mid-range smartphone, so £100-150 max. Being tempted to push the boat out and try something a little different, I went for the Nokia 800 running Windows. Although at the higher end of my budget, I’m glad I opted for this one as it’s definitely lived up to expectations. There are, of course, a few downsides that I’ll cover, but all in all it’s been a pretty impressive smartphone.

… The Brand … Having only owned one Nokia previously, the almightly 3310 some many many years ago, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The brand is a strong contender in the mobile market, but having become more of a Samsung user I wanted to see for myself what Nokia could do. The 800 is part of the Lumia range and when I saw this in a phone store I was also shown a slightly cheaper and similar version (can’t remember the model number, apologies!); at around £40 cheaper, however, it was also far more limited and the screen quality was instantly noticeable as being weaker. Comparing the 800 to other makes and models of a similar specification, it seems like a reasonable price and from a brand that often comes with recommendations.

… The Looks … The 800 is sleek and smart to look at, though still appears reasonably robust. It weighs in at 142g and has a height of 116.5mm, width 61.2mm and thickness of 12.1mm. It fits well in my hand and feels ‘just right’ in terms of size and weight. I’ve known some smartphones to seem too plastic-y and fragile, whilst others have been too heavy and cumbersome, hardly being able to hold it in my rather small paws because it’s too wide! The screen size is also adequate at 3.7”, which I find allows for easy navigation of menus, use of keys for texting, and image size for watching video clips etc.

At the top is the slide/clip that opens up to be able to both charge your phone and/or get your SIM card in. My bug bear was the initially when I got this phone, it didn’t seem to work. There’s a knack to pushing this little thing down and sliding it across to make the SIM holder pop up, you put the SIM card in, and you push down and slide back across. This piece of plastic this slides and opens upwards is quite small and dainty, and being fragile means that there’s 10 times more likelihood of snapping it off or damaging it. Despite following the instructions, the stupid thing seemed to get jammed after I got it open and the SIM card in. I took it to the 02 store and they were completely useless, and didn’t do anything to help other than say it was my fault! I wasn’t entirely buying this as I don’t recall the latch lying flat I bought the phone, which I mentioned, but they were quick to dismiss this idea. Anyway, I took it to a local phone shop that sell accessories and do care plans etc for mobiles, and they very kindly removed the latch and replaced it for me. All for free (thankfully, as I wouldn’t have wanted to pay for what ended up being a lot of hassle!!) Apparently this has happened a lot with the 800s, so be aware when doing this for the first time. Whilst most of the phone looks sleek and feels robust, the latch for the SIM card isn’t!

I really like the style of this, probably in part because it’s quite understated, and because it looks quite stylish. With more squared edges and its rectangular shape, rather than anything rounded, it has a certain sleekness to it despite its price and being more plastic than metal. It doesn’t look or feel tacky. The plastic and screen were elements I was worried about getting scratched, so usually the first thing I do is get a case or a cover. The case I bought I got from eBay (searching for Nokia Lumia 800 leather case); it was only a few pounds and has a tab that you pull up to bring the phone out of the case. It keeps it safe, but I guess at that price you get what you pay for and so I wasn’t super impressed. Finding good quality cases or covers is a little more difficult for the 800, especially when the market is dominated by iPhone accessories, so the best bet usually is eBay. Having said that, I stopped using the case and to my surprise, my phone has been pretty much fine in my bag and pocket ever since. It doesn’t seem to be the type of quality casing to scratch or scuff easily, and the screen is very robust as there are, as of yet, no scratches or marks of any kind.

… The screen … As I’ve mentioned with the display, it’s a good size in my opinion, and it’s also good quality in terms of colours and images. It has WVGA 800x480 resolution and TrueColour (24-bit/16M) display colours. The display comes with brightness control, Corning Gorilla Glass, ambient light sensor and tactile feedback. Okay, so it all sounds rather technical. In a nutshell, the colours look bright and vivid as they should, and images have a high degree of clarity and crispness to them.

… The Camera … Having a decent camera was on my list of criteria because I always carry my phone with me so having it handy for pictures of ‘spontaneous’ moments is important. This comes with an 8MP camera, which has a flash and effects options. To use, there’s a button on the side to open the application which allows you to start taking pics instantly. You always need to swipe up to get past the screensaver first, but I like that getting ready to take a picture is still nice and quick. You can zoom (though you lose a lot of quality doing this) and adjust the options accordingly very easily. I find that taking a picture is pretty quick in terms of shutter speed and time for the phone to re-adjust to a new image. The pictures come out very clear and I’ve been fairly impressed so far with photos taken during the day or in darker situations. The one problem can be during the day when it’s sunny but when your subject doesn’t have light on them, and when the flash then doesn’t really seem to make much difference. However, this has only happened once so far where the pictures have turned out rubbish, so I’m happy.

You can view these by swiping across to see full-sized versions, and on each you can use to fingers to expand the image by zooming in and getting a closer look (if you dare!). There are different ways of viewing the images in the sense that you can drag an old image over and still see the moving images in front of the camera, which I thought was quite funky, or get a tile view of photos in your album. I find it’s pretty easy and intuitive to use, and helps you be creative and more spontaneous in your taking and sharing of photos. So far then, I’ve been pretty happy with the camera!

… The Battery …
Unlike most phones I’ve had in the past, this doesn’t have a removable battery. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of this at first and it’s still not something I’m entirely comfortable with, though I’ve had no problems thus far. It’s an integrated rechargeable battery and the spec suggests a standby time of 265 hours and talk time of 13h (when using 2G), with a max standby time of 13 days. I don’t tend to believe what’s given as ‘recommended’ or ‘usual’ battery life suggestions as they often seem to be less than we’re led to believe. With average use of this, meaning some Wi-Fi applications, texting, calls, etc, I tend to charge every day, though it’s not always needed. I can usually get away with just a quick top up charge in the morning before grabbing the phone to take to work, so the battery lasts with my amount of use fairly easily over 2 days. This obviously varies depending on how much you use it and what you’re using it for. As with most smartphones, battery life isn’t spectacular and you’re probably looking at daily charges. Charging is, however, nice and easy with the charge provided and can be done either through a wall socket or via USB when connected to your laptop/PC.

… Connectivity …
This comes with a USB adapter (which forms part of the wall charging plug, so you don’t have twice the amount of cables!) and it also has Bluetooth. Now, this is the part that gets on my nerves a little bit. I’m a huge fan of drag and drop. You know, plug something in and just ‘drag’ over what you want from a file on your computer and ‘drop’ it in to the phone file that comes up under My Computer. But no, as with Apple the Nokia 800 all but forces you to use software too. To transfer files to/from your phone, you’ll need to download Zune, which is easy enough to do, though using it I find can be less straightforward. It’s reasonably intuitive in some respects but not all, meaning the simple act of getting photos off my phone, or trying to change my ringtone, can be a long and frustrating process.

… Usability …
Having used Android previously, coming to Windows took a little adjustment. I say little, however, because it really was quite intuitive to get to grips with. The home screen, if you will, has tiles that take you to all of the things you’d expect, such as contacts and messages. Swiping this across with your finger provides a full list of all applications. You can quite easily then customise your home screen so that all of the tiles you most use or want most readily available are set up as you want them and in whatever order you want them. I loved this aspect because it made the phone more geared to me and what I use, and it’s quick and simple to do.

To put the phone to sleep or wake it up there’s a small silver button to the right hand side. You then need to slide up on the screen to get rid of the screensaver. There’s the camera button below this, and a sound button above to adjust the volume of music / ringtones / in call volume etc. On the left hand side are buttons to zoom in/out on the camera. Nice and straight forward!

In terms of responsiveness, I find the phone opens, uses and changes settings, screens and applications pretty quickly. It doesn’t take an age to load up your messages, then realise you need to make a call or put 3G Internet on to send an email. It’s smooth and the phone generally seems able to adjust and keep up with me well. Some applications that I’ve got from the market can take a little longer to load, such as Vouchercloud, but this is more due to accessing the Internet and the app itself rather than the phone.

… Problems, Houston? …
Yes, there has been a problem. When connecting your phone and using Zune, it sometimes suggests updates. I did this once and it seemed to take forever to do, but once you start you cannot disconnect your phone so you have to wait it out. I did patiently wait and thought everything was fine. A few hours later when I went to use my phone it froze, wouldn’t do anything, and I was a bit baffled what to do as holding the power button down did nothing and it’s not like you can take the battery out either. It then turned off. And wouldn’t come back to life. This panicked me because I needed to use it, but even if I didn’t, it would still have been a concern. I hadn’t had the phone for long and not really being sure what to do with it, I Googled the problem to find I wasn’t alone. However, the fix was quite fairly simple though I’m not 100% sure what actually fixed it. I plugged it back in to my laptop and it didn’t do anything. Disconnected and tried again, loading Zune and checking for updates (again). Nothing. I left the phone there and went away for a while in frustration. When I came back, the phone was on and taking charge from the laptop. Being a bit weary, I left it for a while longer and then disconnected, and it suddenly seemed just fine and back to normal. This seems a bit temperamental to me; I’m not sure if it’s just coincidence but I’m going to blame it on the update or put it down to being just a ‘one off bad day’ for the phone as it hasn’t happened since. Not entirely pleasing, but as it hasn’t happened since and all phones can have their glitch problems, I’m not thinking it’s too big a deal.

… Media …
The Lumia 800 has 512MB of memory (mass memory 16GB), which I find is enough for my needs. I can store plenty of photos and I’ve added several apps, so I’m happy. I don’t use my phone for music so I can’t really comment too much on this, but it has the capability to do this and transfer files via Zune, or use the app to download them.

It comes with pre-downloaded apps and all the usual bits and pieces you’d expect, such as a calculator and calendar. Facebook was already on there, along with the app store marketplace and a few others. Anything you want to download you can get from the former, which I’ll talk about in a minute. The use of media on here was quite impressive in my opinion for the mid entry range; it’s geared towards social networks, contacts, video clips, websites etc. It’s all on there and ready to use, set up in a way that enables you to get the most out of what’s available.

There’s an app section that allows you to see your ‘profile’ and collate all of your social network sites and emails. I thought this was quite a funky idea if you’re a bit of a social butterfly or just very connected with keeping up with what’s going on. You can do updates, see what’s new, get all of our messages, all from the one place.

Setting up email accounts and social network accounts was really easy to do and the info is stored so that you only need to do so once. I’ve never really had any problems, though sometimes apps can be a little temperamental, it’s never more so than you’d get with any device.

… The Marketplace – Apps Galore? … One of the bugbears with Windows is that the marketplace seems a little behind the curve. Apple stormed in first and claimed the monopoly. Along came Android and kept up a good pace. Then Windows joined in the marching band and still seems to be struggling to keep up. You get full access to the store and all apps, but the apps available on Windows mobiles and in the marketplace is still somewhat limited. You may notice on some website where the app version is available that often it’s just for Apple or Android users. For instance, I can’t get a banking app from my bank, nor can I get the Quidco app, both of which I was quite surprised about as they’re big brands. It’s been a while since Windows introduced their store and mobiles so it’s a little disappointing to see the accessibility is still pretty limited.

In addition, some apps don’t seem to work, though this seems to be an issue with the game developer. The case in mind is Words With Friends, the geeky game I can’t help but love. I used it all the time on Android (the beautifully free version!) but then when I got the Windows phone I found there was no free version. I nearly paid for the full version, but then I looked at the reviews. For months the game has been glitchy and simply doesn’t work, but it’s never been fixed! People still pay for it and are bitterly disappointed at having wasted precious pounds on something Zinga or whoever can’t be bothered to sort out. Point is, is just seems that whilst the apps are there, the development and expansion seems to be a little slow.

… Overall Verdict …
Okay, so the Lumia 800 definitely isn’t perfect, but it’s still quite an impressive mid-entry level smartphone and the best I’ve owned thus far. For the price, you seem to get a lot of features and the workings of the phone itself seem quite quick and effective. The Windows apps are disappointing, the SIM latch is too fragile and I have had a ‘moment’ with thinking the phone had died. But when weighing it up for the price and what I wanted this phone for, it’s ticked most of the boxes; good for entertainment, relatively reliable, looks sleek, good camera, novel features, quick to use, and intuitive to navigate. Recommended for those who want the features without the heafty price tag.
Selling for around £140 when I bought this / now also at £200 SIM-Free at Amazon

Advantages:
Sleek but fairly robust, good camera, responsive & intuitive to use, screen image quality 

Disadvantages:
Limited apps, having to use Zune for file transfers

Source : http://www.ciao.co.uk/Nokia_Lumia_800__Review_6095752