I have been looking at the Nokia Lumia 800 for a while and, finally, I decided to give it a try.
Here my list of likes and dislikes after two weeks of intensive use.
Likes
I like the fact that the implementation of the Metro UI has been really designed and extended deep into the UX design. To me it really looks clean and light. The side effect is that you may have more strict guidelines when developing applications. Basically all the applications looks and behave the same in terms of User Interface and User Experience. Non bad in principle, but maybe annoying for those developers who want to bring in something different.
I love the typography of the User Interface. Personal thing, but I do really love it.
The phone is really responsive, and fast. From this point of view I am not missing the iPhone at all.
The display is really, really good, and materials and finishing are fantastic. I got the blue one but I think I would prefer a black one. Reason is the bezel would look part of the body of the phone and that should look great.
Contact merge from Outlook, Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks is great, even if it can get messy in the long run. I am just displaying my contacts from Outlook after having had all for a couple of days.
The camera is fantastic for pictures and not as great for videos.
From an application standpoint the market is very well populated, at least for my needs. I have found all the core applications I use on my iPhone.
And now the dislikes. As always they will be much more than the likes since I tend to focus more on what I don’t like.
Dislikes
I feel that the screen is sometimes over populated. Comparing the messaging application on the Lumia and on the iPhone you will have much more controls and buttons on the Lumia. All the buttons on the last raw share the same size and there is no emphasis on the send button
Upgrading the phone to the latest software version has been a pain. I work on a Mac and I had to run the upgrade process through the Zune software on a Windows virtual machine. Long and very annoying process.
Battery life is a serious issue, at least for my utilization profile. With WiFi, push e-mail, and background application I can hardly make one day with the device. Disabling everything and activating the battery saver options in the settings menu will let me go home at night with 40% battery life on the phone.
Audio quality in voice call is not as good as in the iPhone. The maximum volume is very low and i found that the sounds was brighter on an iPhone.
Some applications have their own search button, and I always confuse that with the search button on the bezel, Yes, maybe it’s just me getting old.
It seems that I cannot trim the volume of the sound in the alarm application. I hate this, and I hate how vendors put so little attention to the most used application in every phone.
I think that the iPhone virtual keyboard is still better on the iPhone. I am not as fast as I am on the iPhone on the Lumia. Maybe I will need some more time to get used to the differences.
I also had some issues with certificates from my Exchange server when running the connection over WiFi at the office. This is a weird issue, but I had not seen this on my iPhone.
Some of the applications I installed (Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook) are not as responsive as their equivalent on the iPhone. Yes, I know about Twitter and Facebook integration, but I just wanted to make a comparison between the two different implementations.
Conclusion
I would say that the Nokia Lumia 800 is a very good phone, and it may play as a substitute of my iPhone. I am completely satisfied with the operating system and I like many of the features of the new UI/UX. From that point of view nothing will make me wanting to switch back to the iPhone.
Battery life and audio quality are a no go for me. Audio quality may be a pure Nokia issue not depending on the OS itself. Battery life may be more OS related.
These two things are critical to me and for this reason I will go back to the iPhone for the time being.
you are so right about the black one looking best. The screen bezel merging into the body is an audacious yet brilliant design feature. And this phone is so sturdy you can use it as a small hammer if you need to nail a frame to the wall 😀
pls tell me about the wireless charging facility in lumia…never heard of it before…how is your personal experience with it?
best nokia phone in medium price range. touch is little bit slow but other features like typing,sync,camera and battery is amazing. overall totally worth of money..
I think Lumnia is the good way for nokia to get in to the bussiness
I suggest you to have a hands on experience of this phone and I bet you will love it. I read a review which compared the new nexus with lumia and nexus scored against the lumia on almost all fronts, but in the verdict the reviewer says that even though that is the case, the whole experience that lumia gives makes him recommend Nokia Lumia over the Nexus. As a Lumia owner, I can understand what he means.
I tried this once and it looks like a good built. But I feel the 800 still lacks that “something” that other phones have. It is also like a precursor to the 900 which I believe is better.
good observations. I also had issues with my Exchange server when I tried it. Also, I feel like the apps are not enough even though they are constantly increasing in numbers. Windows phones are young.
Its nice mobile i am personally using this, one of issue in it is sound quality
I would like to extend my thanks to you for this nice article.