Nokia unveils its first Windows Phone-based smartphones

LONDON — As expected, Nokia turned this year’s Nokia World conference as the fitting launch pad for its first line of Windows Phone-based smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710.

The event, attended by hundreds of Nokia customers, partners, developers and media, saw Nokia executives unveiling a total of six new mobile phones, four of them from the Nokia Asha line of feature phones.

Nokia executives led by their president and CEO Stephen Elop, also took turns in exalting the features of each new device and emphasizing what Nokia has done overall to create new unique user experiences that are optimized for Windows Phone by adding more services, accessories and apps. They also thought it worth mentioning that Angry Birds can now be played on the new Nokia phones.

“We are shaped by our experiences and mobile technology opens the door to thousands of these experiences... Early this year we shifted our directions. We want people to experience more,” said Elop during his keynote.

During the period of transition, Elop said Nokia continued to release six Symbian-based products and increased its competitiveness by releasing innovative handsets such as the ones with easy-swap dual SIM features which, he added, helped increase sales traffic to their other products.

He admitted that the company had “tough moments” but now, with the Lumia range shipping in major European countries starting this month and in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, Elop said Nokia is “playing to win. No second-guessing.”

Lumia

Lumia means light and the embodiment of a first real Windows Phone, if you ask Elop.

“We know there’s still space for innovation. We will make it simpler and smarter and designed around the users,” said Elop as he introduced the Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710.

The Nokia Lumia 800 features a 3.7-inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display, a 1.4 GHz processor, a 16Gb internal memory plus a 25Gb of free SkyDrive storage.

The Nokia Lumia 710, which looks more modest compared to the Lumia 800, nevertheless runs on the same processor and other hardware specs.

Both Lumia models got all the premium bells and whistles but what would make them a real joy to use are probably the interactive icons or “tiles” of apps that serve as one-touch shortcuts to social network access, contacts, and other things.

“The Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 have no icons that sit there doing nothing,” said Kevin Shields, senior vice president for product and program management for smart device at Nokia. “The tiles don’t require tapping for the user to open and see what’s happening inside that application.”

Both devices also feature the People Hub application that brings all a user’s different contacts lists from different sites in one place. “Windows aggregate the contacts lists in one place,” explained Shields, adding that the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 are both optimized for Office Hub, too, so that users may store and retrieve their Office files there from the SkyDrive.

In addition, the Nokia Lumia 800 is, to date, the only Windows Phone with voice-activated, turn-by-turn driving voice application. Shields said the Nokia Drive application coverage now reaches 69 million places and counting.

Nokia’s first Windows Phones also promise to deliver new ways for people to enjoy music and sports using the new Mix Radio feature of Nokia Music as well as the ESPN Sports Hub that is exclusive to Nokia.

MixRadio is a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally relevant music. Shields said it offers an effortless way to acquire and experience music with no sign-ups, subscriptions and passwords required. Users can even use MixRadio to start a music download without always having to be online, he said.

The Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 are initially priced at 420 euros and 270 euros (excluding taxes and subsidies), or around P25,000 and P16,000, respectively. The new Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 are scheduled to roll out in other markets in early 2012.

“Our new phones represent something uniquely Nokia,” stressed Elop. “It’s a consumer-led design that further signals our intent to be the leader in smartphone design and craftsmanship.”