Nokia Lumia line announced + specs

newstech

26 Oct

It's basically an N9 altered for Windows phone 7. Nokia have just announced the Lumia 800 and 710 at their Nokia World 2011 keynote, representing their first device on Microsoft's platform.

If there's one thing we can take away from this, it's that Nokia still make (arguably) the best phone hardware on the market. You've probably already seen the N9 on the high street; but without the cartoon OS that is Meego and the Metro UI bringing some grace to the display instead, it manages to accentuate just how beautiful the hardware truly is. The phone will be available in Cyan, Magenta and Black, plus Elop also pointed out the fact that the speaker holes are individually drilled (pointless fact to raise the reality distortion field of premium beyond any other).

Talking about specs: we have a 3.7" 'clear-black' LCD display, (what looks to be a) 5MP 8MP camera with LED flash and f2.2 aperture Carl Zeiss lens, 1.4ghz processor, and 25gb of free skydrive storage to get your started with cloud computing (in your face iCloud).

The Lumia 710 is basically the cheaper version of this, rocking the same processor, core graphics and screen technology, just with a cheaper design and lower entry level price.

Software additions to back-up this lucrative partnership between Nokia and Microsoft are the additions of a free satnav service called "Nokia Drive," a music system that seems to be a last.fm-esque experience titled "Mix Radio," and a partnership with ESPN. Three differentiators that (feel free to disagree) don't really seem to be worth all that 'exclusivity' hype.

UPDATE. Pricing: The Lumia 800 will go for 420 Euros (about £365; but will probably cost closer to the £400 after VAT), while the 710 will sell for a tasty 270 Euros (£235: again, round it up to £250).

See how the Nokia N9 hardware is made, because chances are the Lumia 800 is made in exactly the same way.