Nokia had a lot to show at its annual Nokia World 2011 on October 26th, which surprised a lot of fans. Lots of rumors had been going around about Nokia releasing a smartphone with the new Windows 7 operating system. Nokia showed the Lumina 710 and Asha 200, 201, 300, and 303; but the spotlight was on the new Nokia Lumina 800. I mean, that the Lumina is not a flip phone is surprising enough. Everything on the Lumina 800 is different and stylish, from the curved glass on the front to the bright color on the sides. The new WP7 OS will be amazing on such a beautiful device as well. People have been waiting for a long time for a good phone with WP7. According to Nokia, the Lumina 800 is also the “first real Windows Phone,” which is going to anger a lot of other companies. Nokia and Microsoft have been working together for a while, and it seems like it paid off. The question now is whether or not the average consumer will switch from Android/iOS to a totally new operating system, WP7.
The new Nokia Lumina 800 comes with a 3.7-inch 800 x 480 ClearBlack AMOLED display, which is under a slightly curved glass, giving it a nice raised feel. The display is also made of Gorilla Glass, so hopefully (fingers crossed), it won’t break easily. It also comes with an 8 megapixel camera with a f/2.2 aperture lens with 720p HD video. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack and a panel that flips out to show the micro-USB charger and the SIM slot on the top. There is no front-facing camera, though, which has raised some eyebrows. Skype integration into WP7 might happen and if the Lumina 800 doesn’t have it, people might back away from it. Personally, I think Nokia is doing what they’ve done best for all these years, making an affordable phone available to the entire world. If you go to a third world country, what phone brand do you see the most? Nokia flip phones. They are cheap to make, easy to distribute, and long-lasting. Nokia is trying to do the same with their new smartphone: it’s affordable (hopefully), easy to use, and easy to distribute.
I think that the WP7 will be an amazing OS. I mean, think about it; this is Microsoft we’re talking about. It is one of the biggest corporations in the world; if they make something like this, there must be a good reason behind it. It’s not going to be like WebOS and just thrown out there with no fanbase or developer support. In fact, Nokia is already giving developers some of their devices for free in exchange for applications. I really think HP should’ve done this as well; WebOS was a great operating system but just didn’t get popular enough (until the TouchPad Fire sale, of course.) Making a completely new phone with a fresh new operating system is a huge risk, and Nokia knows that. They’re playing all their cards with this one; it’ll either be a huge success or an epic fail. Keep in mind, though, that the main OS in the world used on PCs is Windows, so Microsoft will have no problem integrating the OS into the new Windows 8 (coming 2012.) I’m sure Apple was trying to do the same with iCloud and Lion. All in all, tech industries need to focus on one thing: integration. Everything needs to work together seamlessly; people don’t want to do extra work. People want to be lazy; it’s just human nature. They want everything to be used together without any errors.
Burak works on the staff at Manual’s RedEye website.