Nokia Lumia 820, Need Backup?

The Nokia Lumia 820 was released in November 2012, at the same time with its stronger sibling, the Lumia 920 and, even if it isn’t the Nokia’s champ, it doesn’t stand in its shadow either. The Lumia 820 brings a lot of impressive skills and is also available at an affordable price (considering what it has to offer). If you’re thinking about trying the Microsoft WP 8 and you’re also searching for a wise and reliable device, this fellow over here might be the best choice you can make. Follow the next review and find out if the Lumia 820 fits you!

Nokia Lumia 820 Essentials :

    Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support

    Quad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support

    4.3" 16M-color ClearBlack AMOLED display of WVGA resolution

    8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 1080p@30fps video recording

    VGA front-facing camera

    Windows Phone 8 OS

    1.5GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset, 1GB of RAM

    Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band

    GPS receiver with A-GPS and GLONASS support

    Free lifetime voice-guided navigation

    8GB of inbuilt storage, expandable through the microSD card slot

    Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic

    Built-in accelerometer, gyroscope and proximity sensor

    Standard 3.5 mm audio jack

    microUSB port

    Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and EDR, file transfers

    SNS integration

    Xbox Live integration and Xbox management

    NFC support

    Digital compass

    Nokia Music 

For a good deal on a Nokia Lumia 820, just visit here.

Let’s start with its accessories. In its box, you’ll find a charger, the microUSB cable, which serves at both charging and making data connections, a nice headset with in-ear buds and the user manuals.

The Lumia 820 looks very nice and is really heavily built, reminding me of those good ol’ Nokias, popular for their amazing shock resistance. I’m sure everybody knows what I’m talking about. But let’s carry on. The phone measures 123.8 x 68.5 x 9.9 mm and has a weight of 160 g, so it really isn’t a light or slim device, but it won’t seem like a brick either. I personally appreciate it – “heavy is good, heavy is reliable” – this quote surely holds a lot of truth in it. The phone feels comfy in your hand and the matte finish on its back will offer a good hand grip and keep your fingerprints from sticking to it.

The phone features a 4.3 inches AMOLED capacitive touch screen that has a resolution of 899 x 480 pixels, a 217 ppi pixel density and offers some nice viewing angles and a great sunlight legibility.

Above the display reside the earpiece, a secondary camera for making video calls and the proximity and ambient light sensors.

Beneath the display stand three touch-sensitive keys for Back, Windows and Search.

The left side doesn’t hold anything, meanwhile the right one is hosting a party. You’ll find here a Power/Lock button, the volume rocker and a dedicated camera button that can launch it when the phone is locked.

The top is home for a 3.5 mm audio jack and at the bottom, you’ll see the microUSB port and a speaker.

The Lumia 820 features Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 OS that has a friendly user interface, offers multitasking, enables you to control it through voice and more. It’s powered by a Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset, having a dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor, Adreno 225 GPU, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal memory, which can be expanded with a microSD card of a maximum capacity of 64 GB. The phone goes smooth through the interface and won’t raise any lag issues, freezes or annoying stuff like that.

At the telephony department, you have the People Hub serving as a phonebook and doing a wonderful job while at it. It stores lots of info about your contacts, syncs with your social networking accounts and more. The voice quality during a call is very good and the reception is free of issues.

At the messaging area, all of your messages are gathered together and displayed as conversations.

For emailing, the OS offers you a unified inbox.

Typing is very easy and comfortable on the phone’s virtual QWERTY keyboard that offers sound feedback.

At the connectivity department, you have support for NFC, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, quad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA, dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n with DLNA,Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi Hotspot, Bluetooth 3.1 with EDR and A2DP, microUSB 2.0.

For surfing the web, Internet Explorer is a very good companion, featuring support for multiple tabs, among others, and more. You’ll definitely like browsing on this phone, as the pages are loaded fast and fit the screen beautifully.

The Lumia 820 features an 8 MP snapper that takes really great pictures, being helped by a 26mm wide-angle Carl Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash in low light conditions. You’re also being offered options for scenes, effects, ISO, geo-tagging and more.

The video camera is also wonderful, being capable of producing some nice 720p and 1080p videos at 30 fps.

For audio and video playback, you have some very capable players. When listening to music, you’re being offered, among others, some equalizer presets and the Dolby Headphone enhancement. Watching movies is also enjoyable, as the player supports all the popular formats, like Mp4, DivX, XviD and others.

The Lumia 820 features the Microsoft Office app for viewing and editing Word and Excel documents and it’s also capable of viewing PowerPoint files. 

Another useful functionality is the Kids Corner, which enables you to lock your important data when giving the phone to your kids.

The phone holds a GPS receiver and features A-GPS and GLONASS support. For navigation, you get Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps. The first is very handy, as it works offline, offers voice guided navigation and much more.

The Lumia 820 holds inside a 1650 mAh battery, which will keep it alive for approximately two days if you don’t frequently abuse it with games, videos and stuff like that.

Overall, the Nokia Lumia 820 is an impressive device, having a lot of talents and ambitions, managing to be a wise, good looking and obedient companion on one hand and, on the other hand, a really tough guy. 

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Nokia N97 mini, No Small Affair

Nokia N97 mini is the successor of the popular N97. Why the Finns pulled a successor out of the hat so quickly? There is little official explanation, but the main reason is the size of the phone. N97 mini is smaller, making it more attractive for those who have a soft spot for midgets. The second reason seems to be the software. N97 mini has an improved software version, fixing many bugs existing in N97.

Whatever the reasons, N97 mini has already become popular and is one of the logical choices when someone wants a powerful smartphone that fits into any pocket, and I mean the price tag too.

Key features

• Slide-n-tilt 3.2" 16M-color resistive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution

• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash and VGA@30fps video recording

• Symbian OS 9.4 with S60 5th edition UI with kinetic scrolling

• Slide-out three-row full QWERTY keyboard

• ARM 11 434MHz CPU and 128 MB of RAM

• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G with 3.6Mbps HSDPA support

• Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS

• Digital compass

• 8GB onboard storage

• micro SD card slot with microSDHC support

• Built-in accelerometer

• 3.5 mm audio jack and TV-out

• Stereo FM Radio with RDS

• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.0

• Web browser has full Flash and Java support

• Nice audio reproduction quality

• Office document viewer

Full specs here.

 The retail package is as standard as it gets, you will find a charger, a data cable and the hands free headset.

In terms of size, yes, it does matter; the midget version now has only 113 mm in length, 52.5 mm wide and 14.2 mm thickness. The weight of 138g is another improvement over the original N97, which weigh the hefty 150g. The phone is available in Cherry Black, Garnet and White.

The phone has a full plastic casing except for the metallic battery cover, on the sides it features a micro USB port and stereo speakers, also a 3.5 mm audio jack.

On the back panel, N97 mini has a 5 megapixels camera and a flash with two LEDs.  The camera lens has no protection from scratches. Under the back cover is a Li-Ion battery of  1200 mAh. According to the manufacturer, the battery should provide a range of up to 320 hours on standby and 7 hours talk time in 2G and 310 hours of standby and 6 hours talk time on 3G. Under the battery there is also a micro SD memory card slot.

In terms of design, the phone looks almost the same as its big brother. The build quality of the Nokia N97 mini is really satisfactory. With the addition of some metallic elements it is now even nicer to touch than the original N97.

Like its big brother, the Nokia N97 mini runs  Symbian S60 5th Edition. Navigating the menu is faster and slightly more fluid than N97 because of a newer software version. The ARM 11 434 MHz processor does its job well, everything runs smooth and fast.

The task manager  is launched when you hold down the menu button. The interface is similar to the Symbian S60 3rd Edition phones.

When you slide the Nokia N97 mini open, the three-row QWERTY keyboard pops up in front of your face. The keys are a bit smaller than on the original N97 but they are still large enough and will enough spacing to be comfortable even for larger-handed users.

The touch screen is 3.2 inch, 0.3 inch less than the N97. It is capable of displaying a resolution of 360 x 640 pixels and 16 million colors. Image quality is the same as N97’s, the same contrast and excellent brightness level. The resistive touch screen gives you a firm response to the slightest touch . Readability in direct sunlight is excellent.

Telephony is great,  there are no problems with the signal reception or sound clarity.

The phonebook is the same as in any other Symbian smartphone.  The storage capacity is unlimited. On each contact you can add an unlimited number of additional information, such as a secondary phone number, email address, date of birth, fax number and more. Nokia N97 mini supports all common message types - SMS, MMS and email.

The music player is similar to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It has only a few changes in appearance and is slightly better optimized for touch. Songs can be sorted by artist, album, genre and composer.  The player can also be minimized to play in the background. In this case a tab appears on the stand-by screen indicating the currently running track. With the huge number of supported formats you will hardly ever come across an audio file that the phone won't handle. Audio quality is exceptional.    There is no distortion at high volume. Music sounds good even on the standard headphones, but an upgrade will rock your world.

The video player does not support DivX / Xvid. Watching a video on the Nokia N97 mini is generally a pleasure due to its big screen. The Nokia PC suite has a built-in application that automatically converts all kinds of video files to the format and resolution your phone supports.

If you get bored of your own music you can open the FM radio app. It has RDS and knows how to automatically save stations in your area. It can also run in the background, just like the music player.

The camera has 5 megapixels and takes pictures at a maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. It has autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics. Dual flash LED technology helps to capture photos in low light. The interface is similar to that found on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. It offers a wide range of contrast settings, white balance, ISO sensitivity and other common settings. The picture quality is decent, and the colors are vivid. It can successfully replace a compact camera if you are not very picky. Video recording is good, at VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels) at 30 fps.

Nokia N97 mini is still a smartphone with complete connectivity. You can stay connected to the Internet, whether you are in an area Wi-Fi or HSDPA (up to 3.6Mbps). Both USB and Bluetooth are version 2.0 and the latter naturally also sports A2DP. Wi-Fi with UPnP support is also at hand. Finally, the Nokia N97 mini has a memory card slot, which can usually give you the fastest data transfer rates and can take up to 16GB cards.

The web browser is excellent.  Pages load quickly, are displayed correctly, and the information can be read easily, even without zooming the page. If the writing is very small, you can quickly zoom by double clicking with your finger in the area you want to magnify. Flash and Javascript run smoothly.

N97 mini has QuickOffice preinstalled, you can read Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF files. 

The GPS receiver is present and the default navigation application is Ovi Maps 3.0. The large screen is suitable for GPS navigation. Unfortunately, you have only ten days free of charge for voice guided navi. 

Nokia N97 mini is a powerful smartphone, a versatile tool for every imaginable task,  the build quality and materials are on an exacting high level, it’s suitable either for a multimedia enthusiast or as a business tool with high end connectivity and excellent internet features.

 You can have your own Mini on a monthly contract deal here.

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Nokia Lumia 800: Nokia's First Windows Phone

Nokia Lumia 800 black deals

The Nokia Lumia 800 is the first Windows Phone from Nokia, and it's mighty impressive. It might not have enough apps available to tempt established Android or Apple users, but if you're looking for a smart, fast and fun to use smart phone then it's definitely worth checking out the phone deals on the Nokia Lumia 800.

Windows Phone 7.5

Let's not beat around the bush, shall we? You want to know what Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 operating system is like, don't you. Well, in a word, it's good. In two words it's good fun. And with as many words as we like, it's a refreshing difference to the Android and Apple operating systems. It feels big, bold and modern.

On the homescreen you get two columns of 5 tiles. Now, take note that we said tiles, not icons. These things are nice and big, and you have all the essentials there: a dialler, texts, music, internet, social networks, etc. And if there's anything not there that you would like a short-cut for then you can simply add it. Or if you want a full list of apps, you simply swipe to the right.

When you select one of the apps there is a very cool little 3D effect as the tile flips over. And you get the reverse of that as you quit the app to go back to the homescreen. It's little touches like that which really make the experience of using a smart phone pleasant.

Another good feature of the Microsoft OS is that it integrates social networking in to it very nicely. For example with the messaging app you can message someone via text and through social networking sites like Facebook, and it all stays a part of the same conversation.

There's really very little to complain about with the operating system, taken in itself. However, we can't ignore the existence of Androids or iOS's any longer. The advantage they both have over a Windows Phones is that they support huge app marketplaces, Google Play and Apple's app store respectively. Windows Phone Marketplace is, by comparison, tiddly. You have some good apps there, like Amazon Kindle and Tesco Groceries, but your selection is decidedly limited. The good news is that it's growing all the time, but you're always going to have to wait quite a while for the new cool app. And it might not even get there at all. So if you want a smart phone primarily for the app selection, unfortunately a Windows Phone simply doesn't cut the mustard yet.

Other Features and Specifications

The build quality of the Nokia Lumia 800 is outstanding. It feels plenty sturdy and looks great. The front is covered with gorilla glass, making it nice and smooth, and means it should be able to stand up to the odd mishap here and there. It's also nice and slim, slipping in to a pocket with ease. The battery is not removeable though and there's no microSD slot so you're stuck with the 16GB internal storage on offer. To be fair though, that should be enough for most users.

Call quality is very good, but the camera is not a great performer. Its 3.7 inch screen is nice and responsive and uses AMOLED technology which is self illuminating, makes colours look good and creates very black blacks. It's run on a 1.4GHz processor which makes it extremely nippy, whether swiping through the menu, zooming in and out of a page or web browsing. Battery life is average for a smart phone, meaning you'll probably have to charge it every night.

For the full specs, check out Nokia's website.

Phone Deals

The Nokia Lumia 800 is undoubtedly a great smart phone so long as you're not married to the idea of being able to download countless apps for every conceivable task. If that describes you, then check out the best Nokia Lumia 800 black monthly contract deals available on the web! You also have a lot of different colours to choose from, you can also check out Nokia Lumia 800 cyan deals, Nokia Lumia 800 pink deals or Nokia Lumia 800 white deals.

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Nokia E72: Accomplished Business Phone

Nokia E72 black and Nokia E72 grey

The Nokia E72 is the follow up to the excellent E71. It is now a couple of years old but remains an excellent business phone, rivalling BlackBerry in its messaging capabilities. Of course it doesn't have as many features or apps as an Android or iOS device, but if you're looking for a quality phone for calling and messaging, it is very good. With some superb phone deals around now, you can also get it on the cheap.

Business Phone

The Nokia E72 is classed as a business phone for its excellent messaging functions, making emailing and texting on the go simple and fast. One of the main features making this possible is a QWERTY keyboard. Sometimes it feels as if BlackBerry has a monopoly on phones with a full QWERTY keyboard but Nokia is practically giving a lesson in how to design a keyboard for a mobile with this design. The layout is superb and the keys have a slight inward curve which maximises the ease of use. It's a pleasure to use and you'll be churning out the emails on this device in no time.

Another important feature of a business phone is call quality, something which it is easy to almost entirely overlook with most smart phones nowadays. If you want a phone to be a phone though, and you don't want to have a crackly reception while having business conversations then it is of course very important. This is another area in which the Nokia E72 excels, voices are clear incoming and outgoing, so there is no problem there.

While you might not be able to get as many apps as you would with an Android or iPhone, the E72 comes with some pre-installed apps that are very useful for business use. For instance Quickoffice allows you to create and edit written documents. There's also some very good messaging features, including a wizard for setting up your email accounts on the phone. And with Nokia's push-email service, when you get an email you will be notified on your phone and immediately be able to read it.

Operation and Other Features

The Nokia E72 runs the Series 60 OS, which looks quite old fashioned when you take in to account Android and iPhone advances, however it is easy to navigate and with a 600MHz processor works smoothly. There's also a 5 megapixel camera, which is good for phones of its age. Connectivity is also fine, with 3G and wi-fi capabilities. You also don't have to worry about the battery life the way you do with a lot of smart phones since the E72 can go 2-3 days without having to be recharged.

Find the full specs on the Nokia website.

Phone Deals

If you're looking for an accomplished business phone with excellent messaging features and great quality, this is an excellent alternative to a BlackBerry. With the phone now being a couple of years old, you can now find some excellent Nokia E72 black monthly contract deals and Nokia E72 grey deals online, so check them out!

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Nokia Asha 300: Low Cost Feature Phone

Nokia Asha 300 black deals

The Nokia Asha 300 is a simple feature phone, not a smart phone, so if you're looking for something to download apps galore on to, you're much better off getting an Android. However if you're in the market for a simple touchscreen phone that makes calling and texting easy, and even comes pre-installed with Angry Birds Lite, then it's worth checking out the great phone deals you can get on the Asha 300.

Display

The Nokia Asha 300 houses an alphanumeric keypad, ala mobile phones of bygone eras, but it still has a touchscreen for it's 2.4 in. display. That size of screen is fine for budget phones of this type but there is a problem with the touchscreen, in that it is resistive rather than capacitive. In effect what this means is that you're going to have to work a little bit harder to get things moving at your fingertips. If you're not careful it's easy to accidentally open an app when you are just trying to swipe somewhere else.

That's a shame because the phone is run by a 1GHz processor, which is more than a lot of lower end Android phones. The fact is though that you don't really feel that processing power in the speed of the phone most of the time.

Instead of Android you get Nokia Series 40 OS and it works fine, but as we say if you're looking for something that is highly customisable and that has access to a number of different apps then you'd be better with an Android or iOS device.

No Wi-Fi

The most disappointing thing about what is a fine phone otherwise, is that there is no wi-fi capability. It does connect to the internet though, through 3G services. If you want to use it on your wireless network at home however, that's not going to be possible.

In terms of web browsing with the 3G though, it is quite fast, as you would expect with a 1GHz processor running the phone.

Extras

You will find everything else you would expect from a feature phone on the Asha 300, including a bit more actually. A 5 megapixel camera, for instance, is an unexpected bonus. And as mentioned, it is one of the first phones to have a version of Angry Birds pre-installed. There's a music player of course, although not much room to store music with only 140MB internal storage. Having said that however you can purchase a microSD card to increase that up to 32GB.

You can find the full specs on the Nokia website.

Summary

If it weren't for the lack of wi-fi and a resistive rather than capacitive touchscreen, the review for this modern feature phone would be unreservedly positive. If you are able to see past these flaws then it's still a nice little simple phone, and it's well worth checking out some of the amazingly low Nokia Asha 300 black monthly contract deals that are available online.

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Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone Review

Nokia Lumia 900 Black, White and Cyan

If you're a fan of Windows Phones and big screens then Nokia Lumia 900 phone deals will be right up your street. If, on the other hand, you are simply looking for the best phone available whatever its creed, then it's probably a better idea to check out iPhone deals or high end Androids such as the Samsung Galaxy S III.

Why's that, you ask? Let us explain.

Nokia Lumia 900

Firstly it's important to point out that we have nothing against Windows Phones. Actually, they tend to be a refreshing difference to the little icons of an iOS or Android. With a Windows Phone you get big, bold tiles and panoramic menus and it's easy to understand why that would be popular. The problem with the Lumia 900 is that it's not much of an improvement on the Lumia 800.  For Nokia Lumia 900's full specs check out Nokia's website.

As we mentioned, the Lumia 900 has a big screen at 4.3 inches, to the Lumia 800's 3.7 inches. But the resolution is still 800 x 480 pixels so it doesn't produce the crispest of pictures. It does use the ClearBlack AMOLED technology though, which is supposed to make the blacks even blacker so that the other colours can stand out more. And to be fair, the colours are plenty vibrant, the screen simply doesn't produce the most precise image.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment with the Lumia 900 however is the processor. There has been no improvement in that area on the 1.4GHz single-core processor which the Lumia 800 also contains. In comparison, other phones in the price range have dual-core or even quad-core processors, making for much smoother operations and the ability to carry out multiple operations at the same time.

There is a possibility that web browsing will be made faster with an upgrade to the 3G network, which the Lumia 900 is ready for. However with the American counterpart of this phone getting 4G that seems like a minor consolation prize. Since 4G has yet to make the leap across the pond though, there wouldn't have been much point in giving the phone that capability.

Windows v iOS v Android

While we do appreciate the refreshing feel and look of a Windows Phone, we would be remiss if we didn't mention some of the drawbacks. One of those is that there is very little customisation available, you pretty much have to keep it the way you find it. Not much tinkering is possible, at which Android is king.

By far the bigger problem, however, is the app situation. If you have an Android or iOS then you're going to have around 500,000 apps to choose from, that number continuing to grow apace. However on the Microsoft Marketplace there are only around 80,000 apps and it's always the last to get the new cool app everyone is talking about... if it even makes it there at all.

Nokia has provided some free apps of its own to try to rectify this problem. For example NokiaDrive is a turn by turn sat nav app and is quite handy. Then there's the Mix Radio app for streaming radio and Local Scout for finding things in the vicinity. Generally though with a Windows Phone you are going to miss out on a number of apps so for many people that's going to be a deal breaker.

What's more, the Lumia 900 doesn't support Adobe Flash so you're not going to be able to view all videos on the web. That's something iOS phones also have to deal with but in that case there are so many apps available it can be dealt with quite easily. Not so with a Windows Phone.

Summary

Although there are a number of reasons you might not want to take the plunge with the Lumia 900, if you're a fan of Windows Phones, you love big screens and you can do without a vast array of apps then it's well worth checking out Nokia Lumia 900 black monthly contract deals to find the best price. You can also go for Nokia Lumia 900 white deals or NokiaLumia 900 cyan deals.

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