Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710

Nokia launched two Windows power smartphones today, the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710.

The Nokia Lumia 800 takes its place as Nokia new flagship, with a curved 3.7-inch 480 x 800 resolution ClearBlack AMOLED LCD, encased in a stylish black, cyan or magenta case. Inside is a 1.4GHz processor, 512MB or RAM, 16GB of internal storage and maybe its best feature, a 8MP camera with f/2.2 Carl Zeiss Tessar lens with a dual led flash and a dedicated camera button. On paper at least, this should be better than the camera on the Apple iPhone 4S and on any Android phone.

A bit perplexing is the absence of a front camera. That is one feature that distinguishes a Windows Phone 7 device from a Windows Phone 7.5 device.

As with other Windows Phone 7.5 Mango devices, it comes with 25GB of free SkyDrive. Over and above this Nokia added Nokia Drive, a free turn-by-turn voice navigation program. This is the first Windows Phone to come with free turn-by-turn voice navigation. Nokia Drive voice navigation works in the Philippines. Google Maps navigation, found in the Android phones and the iPhone, works here to, but without turn-by-turn voice support.

In addition, Nokia added a new service called Nokia Music with Mix Radio and an ESPN Sports Hub. 

It seems a bit like deja vu, a potentially great camera, free turn-by-turn navigation, but this time instead of a Symbian packing N8, we have a Windows power Lumia 800. Retail price is US$585, which should put it at around Php26,000 to Php28,000 locally. A bit more expensive than we were expecting, but I think this will sell really well here. 

The other phone announced is the was the Nokia Lumia 710 which sports a 3.7-inch 480 x 800 resolution ClearBlack LCD,a 1.4GHz processor, 512MB or RAM, 8GB of internal storage and a 5MP camera. We expect this phone to retail locally at about Php16,000 to Php18,000. 

Well, that's all. Right now Nokia's Windows Phone 7 line-up looks a bit thin.