Review of the Nokia Lumina 800 by CashSherpa.com

It’s been over 6 months now that Microsoft and Nokia announced their partnership to bring Windows Phone 7 to Nokia handsets. Now, the very first device is out, the Nokia Lumina 800, and it’s a very nice piece of hardware integration. Here’s some of the features, the pros and cons, and what you can expect from this smartphone, along with some of our thoughts.

The Lumina 800 is a beautiful design, made of a single piece of polycarbonate that wraps around the phone and create a very elegant design, along with a very robust and colorful finish. It also helps give the phone a great antenna reception, regardless of how you hold the phone. On the back, you’ll see a single 8MPix camera along with the LED flash, with a dedicated key on the side to take photos, which makes it one of the faster phones to bring out and take a picture with. The screen itself is a 3.7″ AMOLED display, which includes the 3 dedicated Windows Phone buttons to go back to the home screen, back one step, and search. It’s crisp and very clear, and in many ways reminiscent of the Nokia N9. There’s no question that both the external design and the screen give a very good first impression, and provide all you would want in a phone of this size.

When using it, the first thing you can notice is how fast and smooth it is. Scrolling down or going between tiles, you notice no lag or slow down, and the response time is great, which is refreshing to see from some of the past phones this company released. Along with the default Windows Phone apps, Nokia added its own turn-by-turn navigation option, and Nokia Music, its free streaming service, both of which work great, and the fact that they come for free is a definitive plus. If you’re familiar with the Windows Phone integration, then you’ll feel right at home. It offers home screen tiles that display all your important information, and integrates beautifully with Microsoft services like Live Mail and XBox. It also integrates with some third party services like Facebook, and allows you to see contacts, notifications and pictures from all your connected services in one location. Of course, if you’re used to the iPhone or Android model, then it may require some getting used to.

Overall, there’s no question that this Nokia Lumina 800 is currently the best Windows Phone 7 device on the market. That isn’t to see it’s all good, or that it will beat any Android or iPhone device. Certainly, there’s a lot of reasons why someone would prefer the iPhone, and if you want a large screen, then this will not work for you, and maybe one of the 4.3″ or bigger Android models would work better. Still, if Windows Phone is for you, and you’re willing to cash out the $585 required for it, then you can’t go wrong with this new smartphone.