Huh, someone cares

After going through the Lumia thread I was kind of put off, seeing how little anyone cared about the next Nokia generation of phones. Ranted for a few bits but what the heck - it can't do any harm, right? My RAID is rebuilding anyway.

So.

Nokia puts out the next generation of smartphones, which is a combination of Nokia design and hardware and Microsoft's brand spanking new OS - Windows Phone 7.1 (Marketing says 7.5 but this is a discussion for another time) - AKA Mango.

Let's start with hardware.

The phone is very, very similar to N9. While a perfect slab with little features, it does share a nice touch to the user, along with a perfection-embodied Gorilla Glass scratch-proof front. Adding to the design is the rounded edge, which makes the phone feel a lot thinner than it really is.

Left along the IPhone 4, it looks and feels smaller and ligher, thinner, and sturdier, even though it is none of those.

It's actually thicker, but the smart curved design ensures the edges are smaller, thinner and more delicate, compared to the IPhone that looks like a slice of canned spam. It is also actually heavier by 4 grams, but looking and feeling both phones the Lumia feels lighter, due to the fact that it fits the hand more naturally and it feels smooth to the touch, while the iPhone meets the user with hard edges and metal. I have no idea which is sturdier, frankly, I just said that.

The screen is curved out, giving the user a very tough feel, since the glass REALLY opposes bending stress, while in other similar phones the screen feels less thick. All this while keeping it slim.

Unlike the N9 and its (unnecessarily) minimalistic design, the Lumia 800 sports 3 buttons at the bottom of the screen. Back button, Windows button (don't despair, it does the same as the menu button on Symbian - takes you back home) and a search button.

The back button is tied into that OS and takes over any back action that the applications doesn't handle. This means seamless "back" actions not only through the windows of an app, but back through several apps, the desktop and then back again. This feels very natural after a day or so, because no matter what you do, you can always back-back-back to that document you were typing or video you were playing.

Hold the back button for a kind of exposee, except it has larger tiles, in a row (back-back-back, remember?) and it has no "close" function because they don't really run. Windows Phone is a selectively mutlitasking environment. We'll get back to that.

The windows key drops you back to the desktop, which isn't the desktop, for those who have handled Windows before (don't play with me). It's actually the start menu, the left side of the start menu in W7 and the new XP - that is, a list of pinned applications. We'll be back to that when discussing software.

Hold the Windows key for voice recognition. This is cool stuff, you can see some stuff here (youtube). Thing is, MS's Tell Me is a bit behind Siri (Apple's version) in silly jokes, but they are similar in capabilities, MS's version works mainly offline AFAICT and it is potent stuff compared to Nokia's own. Not just contacts and apps, but dictate messages, reply, update status on FB and other cool stuff.

The third key is Search, that boasts an enhanced version of Bing. While the vast majority of the people over the forums agree that this super-Bing is way cool, we also agree it's super-not-so-cool to not give us the option to switch. Other search engines are available from tiles, menus and other stuff, but not the search buttons. That's THEIR button. It has been suggested that long press will select engine. Until then,

Hold the search button for absolutely nothing. Yup. Nothing. Huh. Aw well.

The device also sports volume keys, a sleep-wakeup button and, lower, a camera button with half-press. Absolutely no magic here, they are just like every other button Nokia ever did, except these are a little thinner and higher, which makes the easier to press and slightly wobbly. Not much mind you, but it does remind one of Chinese toys. Oh well.

The back has a 8 MPx camera, but better than E7 because it can take close up pics (actual camera), and a dual LED flash. Nothing fancy, just your Nokia-grade (that's a compliment) Zeiss Tessar lensed, 8MPx, focused camera.

The front hides a proximity sensor and a speaker for the ear. The bottom sports a single, but quite clear speaker over what Nokia claims it's a bored case, not a molded one, which is something not even they know what the heck it means. On the bright side, it has small holes, so less dust. Feels weird.

The hood. Ah, well, the hood is well stocked with a chromed, sparkly, 1.4 GHz CPU, from a newer generation, 512 Mb or RAM (which is unnecessary unless you game because WP7 is quite slim), a 16G internal storage that is DAMN quick, an Adreno GPU capable of making minced meat of anything fittin on its 800x480 AMOLED ClearBlack beauty of a display.

Many sites have been over this. Yes they say, but Phone 1 has more, at 1.5 GHz. And Phone 2 has a dual core. And Phone 3 has 1 GB or RAM. Yes, and this isn't a length contest, if you read the rant in my first link you already know my opinion. The point is, the Veyron isn't the best drive out there. Neither is Saturn 5. And neither is a Bobcat earthmover. It's all down to balance and power to weight.

The hardware has been tuned for WP7.5 Mango, and it performs beautifully. If you ever believed A WORD of what I ever wrote, believe this: the ting is smooth like a lubricated shark and fast. Not iPhone fast. Haha, you bought an iPhone fast.

I can't imagine having a faster CPU because I never hit the ceiling. 3 days now, pushing ALL the buttons, it has never stopped to think ONCE (except wait for online data). It's like you're alt+tabbing though applications, by the time the animation went through it's already loaded, and bored.

Oh, and, boot time is equally impressive. No longer one has to way for *** ever like with E7. Check out the redline race. And that is the LG, with the 1 GHz CPU. Lumia has 40% more crammed in.

And this is the rough cut from the Lumia's hardware. Also under the hood:

The Good

* 1520 mAh battery / 13 hours talk / 2 millenia standby
* 512M RAM 512M ROM, 16G storage
* 800x480 AMOLED (24 bit color) with capa multitouch
* Bluetooth
* Wifi b/g/n
* Proximity sensor
* Light sensor (fine sensing)
* Accelerometer, 3 axis
* Magnetometer (compass)
* a-GPS
* Micro-USB
* Stereo Jack (with mic and control over headset)
* Mini-USB is covered to protect from dust, pocket lint and bad look.

The Bad

* No front camera. Huh. No video calls, ever.
* Battery is non-removable by user.
* mini-SIM only. Be prepared.
* No card slot. Seems to be a trend. Brighter side, cloud storage.

That's it about the hardware. On to software.