Nokia Lumia 800 & 710, Windows Phones Announced
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 26, 2011 12:26 AM ESTJust seven months after announcing its intention to move to Windows Phone, Nokia unveiled its first WP based devices: the Lumia 800 and 710.
Both feature the same Qualcomm applications processor: a single-core Snapdragon S2 MSM8255 running at 1.4GHz with 512MB of memory on-package. The 800 has a more expensive chassis and Carl Zeiss optics, while the 710 is cost reduced in those aspects.
The 800 features a 3.7-inch AMOLED (RGBG PenTile) display, 16GB of integrated NAND (no microSD slot) and a 5.365Wh battery. The 800's camera has an 8MP sensor with a Carl Zeiss f/2.2 lens. The camera sensor and lens stack are borrowed from the N9, one of the ways Nokia was able to bring the 800 to market in such a short time after the Microsoft announcement.
I played with the 800 a bit at Nokia World and the feel is easily leaps and bounds beyond any WP devices available today. The 800 will be available in three colors (black, magenta and cyan) while the 710 comes in black and white.
The 710 keeps the screen size the same (3.7-inches) but moves to a standard TFT-LCD. The 710 has the same amount of DRAM as the 800 but it cuts NAND in half to 8GB. Unlike the 800 however the 710 features a microSD card slot that can accommodate up to a 16GB card (24GB total). Battery capacity drops to 4.81Wh. Both models use micro-SIMs.
| Nokia Lumia Windows Phone Lineup | ||||||
| Lumia 800 | Lumia 710 | |||||
| SoC | Qualcomm S2 MSM8255 1.4GHz | Qualcomm S2 MSM8255 1.4GHz | ||||
| Display | 3.7-inch AMOLED PenTile RGBG | 3.7-inch TFT-LCD | ||||
| Camera |
8MP LED flash rear facing camera Carl Zeiss lens |
5MP LED flash rear facing camera | ||||
| Memory | 512MB, 16GB NAND | 512MB, 8GB NAND | ||||
| Dimensions | 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.11 mm, 142g | 119.0 x 62.4 x 12.5 mm, 126g | ||||
| Battery | 5.365Wh | 4.81Wh | ||||
| Network Support |
WCDMA, EDGE Class B, GPRS Class B
WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 |
WCDMA, EDGE Class B, GPRS Class B
WCDMA 900/1900/2100 |
||||
| Connectivity | 802.11n b/g/n (2.4 GHz), BT 2.1+EDR, USB 2.0 | 802.11n b/g/n (2.4 GHz), BT 2.1+EDR, USB 2.0 | ||||
Nokia announced its unique software bundle available on all Lumia Windows Phones including Nokia Maps and Nokia Music. The former is Nokia's own voice guided, turn by turn navigation app. Nokia Maps allows you to download and preinstall maps ahead of time to avoid streaming map data if you're roaming in another country. Map data can be downloaded on the fly however if necessary.
Nokia Music is a streaming music service that doesn't require a subscription or even so much as a login. You'll be able to stream live mixes as well as save them for offline listening, although Nokia didn't share much about what specific labels/artists would be available via the service. The service will be available in 38 countries - plans for North America will have to wait until NA phones are announced.
Both Nokia apps will come preloaded on all Nokia Windows Phone devices.
The Lumia 800 will be available in six countries in November (UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands). Before the end of the year Nokia will add Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan to the list. The Lumia 800 will be available for around 420 Euros.
The 710, priced at 270 Euros, will be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan by the end of the year.
Nokia will bring a US-specific lineup to market in early 2012 on multiple carriers. The Lumia family will hit mainland China in the first half of 2012. Nokia also mentioned it has plans to release LTE/CDMA Lumia products but it didn't commit to any timeframe. Based on Qualcomm's roadmaps I'd expect to see LTE devices toward the middle/second half of next year.
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inighthawki - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
Considering that with these specs the phone runs phenomenally, smooth as butter and quick response in everything, I don't think it really needs any better hardware except maybe a higher resolution display if people care about it.gvaley - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
What do you call smooth? Or quick? I've never played with a WP7 device but I watched the Lumina 800 hands-on video on gsmarena.com and I dare to say this looks like a typical Microsoft OS - slow underneath, but craftfully disguised on UI level.Animations ARE smooth, but each transition takes way too much time putting the wait time at an unacceptable level for a modern OS. This is great to wow people, but start using it on a everyday basis and you'll feel like throwing the phone against the wall in null time.
Yes, Android is a bit choppy at times but overall I would name it the speed champ, even on the 1GHz single core I have in my Galaxy S vs. the Nokia's 1.4GHz. iPhone is somewhere in between.
a5cent - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
WP7 is hands down the best OS Microsoft has ever made. It really is fast. WP7 runs on an extremely limited set of hardware (even compared to iOS), but this has allowed MS to optimized the hell out of WP7 and take full advantage of absolutely everything that hardware platform has to offer.Yes, the transitional animations are unnecessary and time wasting eye candy, but they aren't hiding a slow OS.
If you are interested in the academic endeavor of calculating PI to a million digits, then the OS is almost irrelevant and the device with the faster CPU will win (in most cases the android phone). However, if you are more interested in a consistently fast & smooth UI, then WP7 is at least as capable as the best android phones out there. On comparable hardware, WP7 will always leave android coughing in the dust. Note that Google isn't at fault here. The culprits are mainly OEM's that are required to develop their own hardware drivers to get android running on their new phone models. This is an area where OEM's always skimp, and more often than not the faster hardware does nothing more than compensate for the OEM's shoddy programming.
gvaley - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
Calculating PI...yes, very useful :-) What I'm interested in is whether heavy apps (Nav software and games come to mind first) will run faster and more efficiently on WP7.As far as the UI speed goes, for me it's the faster the better, not the smoother the better. And as I said, Android is the undisputed champ here.
But I agree 100% with you about the OEM's shoddy programming. My Galaxy S was irritating to say the least until I installed a custom ROM. THEN I realized how fast Android really is.
a5cent - Thursday, October 27, 2011 - link
> And as I said, Android is the undisputed champ here.I'm not sure if I want to agree or disagree with you. I have a Galaxy S plus but don't want to take the custom ROM route. I just don't agree with the concept that I need to void my warranty to get my device to work satisfactorily. :-(
The "heavy" apps you mention usually use OpenGL or DirectX which makes them somewhat less dependent on the OS than your average app. In most cases, raw hardware power will win the day again... similar too, but not quite as extreme as calculating PI. However, this ignores one important issue:
The WP7 developer has a precisely defined hardware spec to program against. Every WP7 app will be targeted to run well on that platform, it will be optimized for that hardware and make use of everything it has to offer.
An Android game may be CPU bound on one device but GPU bound on another. How much the GPU runs ahead of the CPU (and vice versa) can change drastically from one device to another. This is just one of MANY such issues android developers need to deal with. In such an environment hardware optimization is not economically feasible. Also, in the interest of being able to run on as many devices as possible, android developers will often opt to program against the lowest common denominator, i.e. overlook functionality that only high-end phone users could benefit from.
Consequentially, even with 300'000 android apps, no software exists that really makes any one of today's high-end Android handsets shine. On the other hand, WP7 isn't living up to it's potential either because the WP7 market is too small to support exclusive development of big AAA titles.
To answer the question... from my perspective it is currently a draw. However, WP7 has the much higher potential, but it needs a larger chunk of the market to be fully realized.
Aikouka - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
Sure it can. I placed a comment on DailyTech's article on this, and I think it's a decent point. The "antiquated hardware" isn't a problem if this phone isn't aimed at a high-end. If this phone is priced adequately, it could serve itself as a low-cost alternative to Android and iOS that runs extremely well.zorxd - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
yeah the problem is that from what I heard this won't be a low-cost phone.archer75 - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
Don't get hung up on specs. A windows phone will feel much faster than an android with twice the specs. Even faster than an iphone.I didn't believe it either until I played with one in the store. Then sold my atrix and picked up a samsung focus. My wife has an iphone 4 so I can compare against that too. This windows phone is damn fast.
zorxd - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
well I will be waiting on benchmark to confirm this but I am a bit scepticalB3an - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - link
I dont think he's talking about benchmarks. And benchmarks dont show everything, infact for many things they're totally useless.He likely means in general everyday use. Like going through the OS menu's and using the built in apps, or the UI animations, they're all super smooth, responsive and fast. This makes it feel much quicker than a Android phone with better specs.
I'm not bias either, i have a SGSII Android phone, but even the best Android phone around isn't as good as ANY WP7 phone when comparing responsiveness or smoothness.