Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone 7 Preview

Nokia’s fall from grace over the last 5 year's has been quite spectacular, before the world of iPhone's and Android's Nokia was the king of mobile phones. But, as with many large companies, they took their eye off the ball and Apple stole a march on them with the advent of the smartphone. Now, it’s time for Nokia’s last roll of the dice: the Nokia Lumia 800, which is the first handset to come from of their new partnership with Windows Phone 7.

The phone

From the offset the Lumia looks strikingly similar to a phone we've seen before, that's right it's the N9, but, re-tooled to work on Windows Phone. Shown off for the first time Nokia World 2011, first impressions are, well, a little mixed, it's obviously not being billed as high-end smartphone, it's not going to worry the iPhone's and Galaxy S' of this world. But that actually might be its ace up the sleeve - Nokia are aiming it at the middle-of-the-road smartphone users. Someone, who doesn't want to re-mortgage to have the latest smartphone.

So what do you get for your money? Well from the looks of it quite a chunky phone, it's not the thinnest and won't win any prizes for being a style icon, but it does have a young, funky feel to it. The handset comes with industry standard 3.7-inch OLED screen, the same tech found in the Galaxy S2. The screen stretches impressively to the edges of the phone and the polycarbonate shell does give the phone a premium feel when held in your hand.

From the face of it Nokia has spent a lot of time on the look and feel of it, and its pleasing to see the phone hasn't been dictated to by the accountants at Nokia. The battery is similar to the iPhone so can't be remove and slots for your microSIM and charging port are all hidden away using top-mounted flaps. It might not be the simplest system, but does mean the design is un-spoilt and keeps its sleek design curves.

Apps and functionality

We'll be reviewing the new Mango update this week, so look out for that, but for the Lumia Nokia has put its own little spin on the Microsft OS with some new apps that you're not going to see on anything other Windows phone. You will find Nokia Drive, which is Nokia's first free turn-by-turn navigation software. It's simple, effective and a nice app to have if you don't already have a sat-nav. You'll be able to the select your destination and then be guided by voice directions.

Next up, is Nokia Music which is similar to Last FM, rather than Spotify, you’ll be able access new music without having to login, it's a simple list of songs Nokia thinks you enjoy and they're grouped together by genre, overtime once the phone knows what sort of music you like it becomes more accurate with its suggestions.

The service was obviously still in beta, so we'll have to wait until the full review for a proper hands-on. But we do like the notion of being able to store songs offline when you're out of signal. There’s also an option to download songs from the MP3 store and these appear to range from 79p to 99p, which seems fairly reasonable.

Other out-of-the-box apps include a new ESPN application, which at the time of writing didn't actually work, but it promises new levels of interaction when it comes to following your favourite teams and sports.

Camera & storage

One of the shining lights of recent Nokia handsets has been the quality of cameras, and this is the case again for the Lumia 800. It's a high-end 8 megapixel camera, which boasts both dual LED Flash and Carl Zeiss optics - combine that with the super-sharp OLED screen and you've got a camera that can compete with the best of the rest.

We're glad report that phone has a quick shutter speed, which is even more impressive because the phone isn't running a dual-core processor. It takes around a second to take consecutive shots which is impressive for any camera phone. The phone also shows you how to get the best pictures using features like autofocus, which is perfect for those of you who always suffering from out of focus grainy pictures.

Any pictures you do take with the phone will be replicated pixel perfect with the fantastic OLED screen which produces exceptional blacks and can even be viewed in direct sunlight – something a iPhone really suffers with. While the display on offer doesn't reach the heights of Samsung Galaxy S2’s Super AMOLED Plus quality, it’s still more than good enough for watching movies and the like on the go.

And with such great multimedia power and features, the Lumia 800 also packs plenty of storage for you enjoy your music, photos and videos on the move. As well as 16GB of internal storage, you also get 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for you to upload and access your files from the cloud.

And when it's time to stop playing and get down to work, the Lumia 800 even packs full Microsoft Office compatibility. With Windows Phone 7.5's great Office Hub, you can create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files with ease, letting you stay productive no matter where your travels may take you.

For the social network users, the Lumia 800 integrates social networking features better than most phones we've used. Letting you easily access Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, among others, from a range of places in the Windows Phone 7.5 OS, it's never been so easy to keep in contact with your friends.

Our verdict

It hard to not feel that Nokia's partnership with Microsoft is the last roll of the dice for the Finnish company. Whether this is true remains to be seen, but the Lumia 800 is the best phone that the company has made in a very long time – throw in a cheap price tag and you've got a Smartphone that has the ability to capture the cheaper end of the smartphone market. But, Microsoft is far from being the market leader and would the same phone running on Android perform better? Almost certainly, but by tying the future to the success of Microsoft Windows Phone is a brave move and could go either way.

Overall there are a lot of positives to take from the Lumia; a stylised look, amazing camera, impressive screen and it won’t cost a fortune. If this is just a taster what we can expect from Nokia and Microsoft it could be a match made in heaven that benefits both Microsoft and Nokia.

The Lumia 800 will appear on UK shelves on 16 November, a Nokia spokesperson said on Monday. According to the smartphone’s pre-order page, the operator Three will be offering it at a SIM-free price of £399.