AT&T to sell Nokia Lumia 900 for $100 on April 8

Nokia's Lumia 900 smartphone will hit AT&T's store shelves on April 8, a move Nokia hopes will usher a return to the U.S. in a big way.
The phone will sell for $99.99 with a two-year contract, AT&T told CNET. It is one of the most affordable flagship products AT&T has ever sold.
There's a lot at stake with this launch. Nokia badly needs a buzz-worthy hit product in the U.S., a market it has struggled to operate in over the last few years despite dominating early in the cellphone business. AT&T hopes the 4G LTE-capable Lumia 900 will spark interest in its still new next-generation network. Microsoft, meanwhile, needs any Windows Phone to succeed in the market and establish some legitimacy to its platform.
The Lumia 900 faces the same challenges that many past Windows Phones have struggled to overcome, including convincing consumers that the relatively new mobile operating system is worth taking over Apple's iOS and Google's Android. The iPhone and a host of high-end Android smartphones dominate current sales.

Nokia already has a smartphone in the U.S. with the Lumia 710 for T-Mobile USA, and the device appears to be selling well. But the phone, which was designed to be more affordable at the expense of higher end specifications, hasn't been a blockbuster and is selling at the country's fourth-place wireless carrier.
The Lumia 900, by contrast, will come packed with some of Nokia's best hardware. The phone will have a 4.3-inch ClearBlack Amoled display, an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera lens, and a higher capacity 1830 mAh battery. The phone will be available in matte black and cyan blue, while a white version will hit the market on April 22.
Customers can begin preordering the black and blue versions on March 30 in store and online.


At $99.99, the hope is the attractive price tag will be enough to turn some heads and get the device in the conversation for consumers considering a new phone. A typical flagship phone will sell initially for $200 or more.
The Lumia 900 should get a fair share of marketing support. Nokia's partnership with AT&T was one of the carrier's centerpiece announcements at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, part of a broader push for LTE products. The phone was Nokia's big announcement at CES.
With AT&T still rolling out LTE products and markets, the company will give this product a lot attention. Another planned LTE Windows Phone, the HTC Titan II, isn't expected to get the same kind of push.
With few indications that Verizon Wireless or Sprint Nextel are rushing to stock new Windows Phones, Nokia and Microsoft only have AT&T and T-Mobile to rely on in the near term, at least in the U.S. Elsewhere, there are signs Nokia's Windows Phone is starting to surpass its older Symbian smartphone platform.
But in the U.S., where Symbian never got off the ground, Nokia has a blank slate to work on.

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Nokia 700 : How To Extend Battery Life

The Nokia 700 may be slim, but it still manages to cram in all the features you might expect of a smartphone twice its size. That means web browsing, social networking, instant messaging music all come natural to the Nokia 700. And as one of the first Nokia Belle phones, the Nokia 700 ushers in a new era of Symbian functionality, as the most intuitive Symbian phone yet.

Using the Nokia 700’s energy-saving features you can use the Nokia 700 for longer. Here’s how to do it.

First of all, there are many ways to save power on your Nokia 700. You could tap the menu, go into settings and turn down the brightness of the display, or switch off bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you don’t need it. However, there’s a much easier way to do so, should you find yourself in a charger-less state.

Activate power saving

A handy power-saving mode ensures that even when your battery is at its lowest, you can make it last for as long as you need to squeeze the Nokia 700’s charge.

To activate it, simply hold down the end call button lightly. A menu will pop up with several options. One of these is ‘Activate power saving’. Simply tap on it to activate. You’ll see that your screen has dimmed, and that your battery meter looks different.

You won’t be able to browse the web. The whole idea is to extend battery life enough should you need to make a call or send any emergency texts. It’s a handy feature to have, and you never know when you may need it. It's that easy. Don't forget to deactivate power-saving mode the next time you charge your Nokia 700.

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9 Great Phones At CES 2012 - Part 2

9 Great Phones At CES 2012 - Part 1

Sony Xperia Ion (AT&T)

The first Sony-branded smartphone, the Xperia Ion offers a stunning 4.6-inch, 720-by-1280-pixel (720p) glass screen and a 12-megapixel camera. Under the hood is a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that can handle PlayStation-caliber games in addition to music and video. Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) is the unfortunate default OS, but Sony is promising an ICS upgrade later this year. Sony is still sorting out just which PlayStation games will work on this thing (PS1? PS2? Xperia Play? Tablet?), but it's clear the Xperia Ion will be a serious competitor on its arrival in the second quarter.

HTC Titan II (AT&T) 

America's first 16-megapixel camera phone is here, and it's a doozy. The massive HTC Titan II sports Windows Phone 7.5, LTE data speeds, and a 4.7-inch screen, and can snap photos with a resolution of 4,640-by-3,840 pixels. The rest of its specs aren't as impressive, thanks to some leftover Microsoft-specified restrictions, but you still get a fast (single-core) 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor, 480-by-800-pixel screen resolution, 720p camcorder, and 16GB of internal storage (albeit with no memory card slot).

Nokia Lumia 900 (AT&T)

Now this is what we were waiting for. Nokia finally shows off its first high-end Windows Phone 7 device, as the preceding Nokia Lumia 710 was too budget-oriented to inspire much buzz. The LTE-equipped Lumia 900 packs an 8-megapixel-camera, Carl Zeiss optics, and a 4.3-inch AMOLED Clear Black display. As part of Microsoft's last CES keynote, the powerful Nokia Lumia 900 may be a fitting sendoff.

Huawei Ascend P1 S (Carrier TBA)

Who would have expected the world's thinnest smartphone to come from Huawei? The Ascend P1 S is just 0.26 inches thick, which is two hundredths of an inch thinner than the Motorola Droid RAZR. The Ascend P1 S impresses in other ways too, with a 4.3-inch, 540-by-960-pixel Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4460 dual-core processor, a pair of cameras, and Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) preloaded. No word on a carrier yet for this one, though.

Lenovo K800 (China's Unicom)

Intel's Atom chip was fine for low-power netbooks, but it has traditionally been too power-hungry for smartphones. The Lenovo K800 could change that, at least in China—and, if successful, finally brand Intel as a player in the smartphone market, after years of empty promises and false starts. The K800 is no slouch otherwise, either, with a 4.5-inch, 720p multi-touch screen, Wi-Di, and a massive battery. We're keeping a close eye on this one, as well as Intel's other deal with Motorola, which could bring us a U.S. device sooner rather than later.

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Leaked: Nokia Lumia 900 coming in Jan

Even as Nokia scrambles to fix a software glitch in the recently-launched Windows Phone-powered Lumia 800, here is a news leak that hints at its successor.

A leaked image that appeared on My Nokia Blog suggests that the Finnish giant is expected to unveil another top-end Windows Phone called Nokia Lumia 900 at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to be held in Las Vegas in January second week. The company is also expected to announce several other smartphones along with the Lumia 900 at the event.

According to Web reports, Lumia 900 which resembles Lumia 800 in looks, will come with a 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display and will include the new Windows Phone Tango update. The smartphone is also likely to feature a front-facing camera and is expected to come in a variety of colour options.

Lumia 900 is also said to sport a 1.4GHz processor, an 8 megapixel rear camera with single LED flash. It is also rumoured to pack support for 4G LTE networks.

Nokia last week also announced that the next version of its Symbian OS will be called Nokia Belle. The OS will also be available soon on some of the older generation Nokia smartphones like, Nokia N8, Nokia E7, Nokia E6, Nokia X7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia C7 and Nokia Oro.

via [TOI]

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Review : Nokia Lumia 800

It’s the end of the year and Nokia has finally announced its “Piece de resistance” handset – the Lumia 800. It’s the first, of course in the series and is based on their MeeGo running N9 device only this one is, of course, running on the latest version of the Windows Phone 7 OS, which is Mango. We’ve already done a detailed preview of the handset where we outlined the kind of features it comes with, but here’s a closer look at the overall functionality.

Form Factor
The Lumia 800 is built out of a single block of Polycarbonate plastic. Don’t let the ‘plastic’ part sway you as the handset is quite durable. It sustained quiet a few hard knocks and drops from about 2 feet without too much of scratching or any issues with functionality. The 3.7-inch, slightly raised gorilla glass display, although quite a fingerprint magnet, survived quite a bit of torture without giving in to scratches. So, in terms of durability and funky design form, the Lumia 800 is definitely high on our ranking. If the slippery shell doesn’t meet your fancy, worry not as Nokia has thrown in a rubberized case that makes it much easier to manage.

Features and Performance

Interface
Powered by a 1.4GHz Scorpion processor and running the Windows Phone Mango (7.5) OS, the Lumia 800 is a seriously speedy handset. When it comes to functionality, as limited as the OS itself may be, the Lumia 800 manages to do everything it’s capable of extremely well. WP7’s stripped down; visually simplistic user interface is what keeps most of their handsets, irrespective of processing power, running quite smoothly. The Tile and Hub set up is really what makes WP7 so attractive. Unfortunately for Nokia though, this fantastic piece of hardware can’t live up to its true potential that’s curtailed by the OS. The Linpak Benchmark test we subjected it to gave us a score of 49.3 Mflops, which is impressive as far as mobile handsets go. Multi-tasking was, of course, a non-issue.

Although WP7 is a user-friendly system, like we’ve said many times before, it’s still in its nascent stage and will require a considerable amount of tweaking before it can really give Android or iOS a run for their money. The few things about the Lumia 800 we took issue with, included the fact that Nokia has decided to go Micro SIM on us and also leave out the external memory support. Like the N8, the uni-body design translates to; should your phone hang, restarting it will not be as easy as it used to be. Thankfully, the Lumia 800 functioned without any “hang-ups”. But it seems like a - if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em - type of sentiment is at play here.

What we also noticed with the otherwise crystal clear display was that whites usually took on a slightly yellowish tone. This was especially noticeable on websites with white backgrounds. Other than that, visibility in broad daylight from any angle was top-notch.

Media
It was quite surprising to see that Nokia missed on including any audio enhancements for the 800 and that is a major downer. Audio quality was consistent with any other high-end smartphone, but it could have surely been better with a few options to personalize the output. We did find the decibel level a tad low, especially in crowded areas. The speaker phone was also a little too low for our comfort level. The built-in FM radio was just fine and even managed to pick up signals quite well on a daily commute through the city. Nokia has pre-installed TuneIn for Internet radio options as well.

Once again, we were plagued with the Zune menace, meaning we had to make sure that our videos were first compatible with the software, before it could take its own sweet time transferring to the handset. Once on the handset, the picture quality, Nokia’s Clear Black Display enriched the colors. 16Gigs of internal storage space is also quite a bit to keep media lovers fairly satisfied, even if they can’t extend it any further.


Connectivity
The connectivity domain, the Lumia 800 comes across as a very capable smartphone. Packing 3G Wi-Fi capabilities under its belt, you’re good to go wherever you are. What is lacking though is the facility to create a hotspot, something that even the guys at Apple made sure of including with their latest devices. While we’re quite fond of the IE browser on WP7, the lack of Flash and Silverlight support was a bit of a setback. Speed-wise, the browser functions very well. Setting up accounts of any kind is a breeze, just sign-in and let the device do the rest from syncing with People’s Hub for your contacts to e-mail and calendar dates. Social networking, chatting, posting messages is a real easy task on the 800.

The Lumia 800 also includes Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps and Bing Maps, which we thought was overkill. Nokia Drive is a real boon for those unfamiliar with cities they’re travelling to or even living in. The interface is easy to read and getting locations and details in the area is also simple and quick. With Bing Maps pre-loaded, Nokia Maps seems a bit redundant, but it’s there, nonetheless. Times Point is another pre-loaded application that gives you all kinds of information on what’s going on in your geographic location. There’s also the Weather Channel and Nokia’s App Highlights that showcases a list of Lumia 800 friendly apps, specifically chosen for the device. You can shake the handset to get new apps displayed.

The marketplace is loaded up with all kinds of handy apps and plenty of free Maps for Nokia Drive. Pity no one’s developed a multiple codec supported video player… yet.

Misc. Features
Basic mobile functionality from the Calendar for appointments, reminders etc, Alarm clock and a Calculator are also onboard. What you don’t see here, you could easily find on the market place. Microsoft Office with SkyDrive and Office 365 support is also really handy.

Camera
An 8 megapixel shooter is strapped onboard the rear of the Lumia 800 with Dual LEDs comprising of the flash. Settings include scene modes, white balance, ISO settings, a few effects and a Macro mode. Sadly there’s no 1080p HD video recording support, which is another drawback. The maximum resolution is 720p HD for video. Image quality was not what we expected from a Nokia device. Image focus was a problem in most areas when talking about quality in slightly low lit outdoor conditions. Video recording, in stark contrast was quite good with pretty decent audio levels.

Battery
A 1450mAh battery sits under the Polycarbonate shell and is quite capable of providing users with a fairly decent battery life. In our stand alone video test, with all connectivity turned off, the Lumia 800 ran for 6 hours and 35 minutes before shutting down. In our tech2 Loop Test, we ran the handset for 8 hours and 20 minutes non-stop. Usage, with EDGE running constantly, included 2 hours of video, 2 hours of audio, 2 hours of audio streaming, 2 hours and 20 minutes of calls. On 3G though, don’t expect too much as we were barely able to use it for a full day before it required a charge.

The Bottom Line
Nokia has priced the Lumia 800 at Rs. 29,990 (MRP), which does make it one of the more expensive WP7 handsets on the market today. This could be a problem for the company as cheaper options like the HTC Radar could pose as a competitor. Granted we’re talking about a company that was once held in extremely high regard in this field, but if Nokia is looking to make a serious comeback, the Lumia 800, as well-built and powerful a device as it is, is just too damn pricey. The last thing we need right now is another “premium” type product with limited functionality; I think we’ve gone way past that curve.

Should the new WP7 updates bring features like hotspot creation, Flash or at least Silverlight support, HD video recording and most importantly reduce dependency on specific content transfer software like Zune, the Lumia 800 is just the handset to take Nokia back up a few notches on the list.

via Tech2

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Nokia Lumia 710, all set to roll out across the globe

Soon after the Lumia 800 created waves across the globe, the Nokia Lumia 710 is all set to roll out in countries like Russia, India, Hong Kong, and Singapore in the coming week. The Finnish company has announced that the second handset in its latest Windows Phone line-up has already reached Taiwan.

Powered by the Mango OS, the Lumia 710 was revealed earlier this year along with the Asha range. Equipped with People Hub, it is capable of grouping contacts and also displays emails, social networking interactions, calls, and texts with a particular contact in an integrated view. The phone offers talk time of up to 7.6 hours on 3G networks.

The front panel of this smartphone is graced by a 3.7-inch capacitive WVGA TFT ClearBlack touchscreen which displays visuals in 800 x 480p resolutions, while the flip side is dotted by a 5MP camera. The snapper is geared up with LED flash, auto focus, 720p HD video recording, one-touch image sharing and more.

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Pre-order Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 in India

Nokia'a latest Windows Phone based smartphones — Lumia 710 and Lumia 800, have finally been announced for India and will be available in next ten days through Nokia Priority stores which has started accepting preorders for the devices.

"Users just have to pay a booking amount of Rs 1,000 to own Lumia 710, 800 after 10 days," said a Nokia Priority store customer care executives to The Mobile Indian.

While other Nokia Priority Store executives said that the minimum booking amount could vary from Rs 500 to Rs 3000 at different stores.

On pricing of the Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 phones, the executives said, "As of now we don't have the final pricing but the device is expected to be around Rs 30,000."

According to media reports, the Lumia handsets would be priced around Rs 19,000.

Lumia 800 features a 1.4 GHz application processor and 512 MB of RAM that will power Windows Phone Mango 7.5 operating system. The device uses the native Windows user interface with live tiles, and works smoothly.

Nokia Lumia 800 has an 8 megapixel snapper encrusted with Carl Zeiss optics with a dual LED flash capable of recording 720p HD videos. In terms of hardware, the smartphone is almost identical to the Samsung Omnia W but has internal storage capacity of up to 16 GB as compared to 8 GB on the Omnia W.

Nokia Lumia 710, on the other hand, is an entry level Windows Phone from Nokia. It has got exchangeable back covers and will come in black and white varieties, with the choice of black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers.

Its 3.7 inch screen offers an 800 x 480-pixel resolution with a ClearBlack TFT, which Nokia says, is good for readability in sunlight. At the rear, there's a five-megapixel auto-focus camera with an LED flash. The camera can also shoot HD video at 30 frames-per-second.

Social networking has been taken care with full integration of Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In, which also allows easy photo-sharing. Like all Windows Phone devices the default browser is the Internet Explorer 9.

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