T-Mobile is fortunate to have two great budget Windows Phone Smartphones, On is the HTC Radar 4G which came out last year and sports a 3.8-inch touchscreen with 480×800 resolution, powered by a 1Ghz processor  with 512MB Ram and 8GB of Internal Storage. The HTC Radar 4G is a 14.4Mbps device on the T-Mobile network. 5-megapixel camera with F2.2 lens, LED flash, and BSI sensor (for better low-light captures). Front camera: VGA front camera. HD video recording: 720p HD.

The Network also carries the Nokia Lumia 710 sports a Clear black 3.7-inch display, powered by  a 1.4Ghz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, with 8GB of storage a 5 megapixel camera that records at 720p and a front facing VGA camera for video chat. The Lumia 710 also comes packed with ESPN app, Nokia Drive(navigation), Netflix and a few other applications. Also the Lumia 710 uses a micro-sim.

In this video we pit both devices against each other. Why? the are priced similar at Under $50 and geared to the entry Smartphone market.; so lets see which is the best budget Windows Phone device on the T-Mobile Network

We had heard word about this during CES but need some more confirmation, but its looks like the whispers are true, the Nokia Lumia 900 which is a top tier handset is coming to AT&T on March 18th for just $99.99; which BGR is now reporting  Nokia and AT&T are going for some very aggressive pricing here. The Nokia Lumia 900 will the second Nokia Windows phone in the US and the company’s first 4G LTE device. The Lumia 900 is a 4.3-inch AMOLED Clear black display device. it is power by a 1.5Ghz Processor with 512MB of ram. its got a rear camera with an f2.2 aperture and a front-facing camera with a f2.4 aperture for some great videos and video chats. March 18th can’t come any soon, for AT&T customers.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is the first Windows Phone by Nokia on the T-Mobile network. This device is geared at the first time smartphone users and is priced competitively and accordingly at $49.99. The Lumia 710 sports a Clear black 3.7-inch display, powered by  a 1.4Ghz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, with 8GB of storage a 5 megapixel camera that records at 720p and a front facing VGA camera for video chat. The Lumia 710 also comes packed with ESPN app, Nokia Drive(navigation), Netflix and a few other applications. Also the Lumia 710 uses a micro-sim. The hardware feels solid, though a bit plasticy with the replaceable back cover. The Lumia 710 is light weight and feels comfortable. though I will say the physical button bar can be a tad hard to press at times. The device doesn’t have a front facing camera for video chat

In this video we shall see how well Nokia first official reentry into the US market fairs, and is it the true budget smartphone it is dubbed to be.

5MP Camera

The camera test of the Nokia Lumia 710 is a set  recording at 720p, This video also includes shots in low light as well as some still attached. The Lumia 710 does a good job with its 5megapixel camera in taking stills as well as recording at 720p. It is also one of the few windows phone camera that allows photos to be taken widescreen.  Enjoy the camera test footage below.

Conclusions

The Nokia Lumia 710 is a very solid entry back into the US market, at an entry price point of $49.99 and at some places free, the Nokia Lumia 710 is a very attractive offering to the first time smartphone user, plus the addition of Nokia drive goes a long way in giving smartphone user a free turn-by-turn navigation system that can be used in over 140 countries world wide.  The are things I wished Nokia had done with the device, the lack of a front facing camera Is not acceptable in this day and age, though the excuse may be it’s a budget device and Skype has not been integrated into windows phone. But we know its coming and I don’t want to upgrade to use it, the use of plastic on the build is a choice I didn’t expect Nokia to take, which makes the device feel cheap in some areas. Overall the Lumia 710 is still very solid, pplus the battery life on the device puts other devices on the network to shame.

Nokia Lumia 710 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

At CES 2012  we got a chance to talk to Microsoft Senior Product Manger for Windows Phone Greg Sullivan, He was able  to share some thoughts on Windows Phone 7, what Microsoft plans where are it pertains to 4G LTE, User experience, Hardware & Carrier partnership

The Nokia Lumia 710 is the first Windows Phone by Nokia on the T-Mobile network. This device is geared at the first time smartphone users and is priced competitively and accordingly. The Lumia 710 sports a Clear black 3.7-inch display, powered by  a 1.4Ghz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor, with 8GB of storage a 5 megapixel camera that records at 720p and a front facing VGA camera for video chat. The Lumia 710 also comes packed with ESPN app, Nokia Drive(navigation), Netflix and a few other applications. Also the Lumia 710 uses a micro-sim

The hardware feels solid, though a bit plasticy with the replaceable back cover, we will get more to that in our full review. Till then hope you enjoy our unboxing & first  impression video

Nokia on Jan 9th announced the Lumia 900 as an exclusive device in the US market to AT&T.  We got some hands-on with the device. The Lumia 900 is a 4.3-inch AMOLED Clear black display device. it is power by a 1.5Ghz Processor with 512MB of ram. its got a rear camera with an f2.2 aperture and a front-facing camera with a f2.4 aperture for some great videos and video chats. The Lumia 900 is also a 4G LTE device on AT&T, so you can expect some very stellar speeds .

The Nokia Lumia 900 benefits from a range of leading content experiences:

- The AT&T U-verse Mobile** app lets U-verse TV subscribers browse the U-verse TV program guide, schedule and manage their DVR recordings, and watch hit TV shows while on the go. The U-verse Mobile library includes more than 100 TV series and more than 700 TV shows from a variety of genres.

- Nokia Drive, available to download from Windows Phone Marketplace, provides free voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation with a dedicated in-car user interface that turns the Nokia Lumia 900 into a GPS navigation device.

- The exclusive ESPN sports hub is pre-loaded on Nokia Lumia smartphones, and provides a one-stop sports application for news, videos and scores.

- A partnership with EA to bring over 20 of the world’s most popular games to the Windows Phone marketplace, coming first to Nokia Lumia devices.

Nokia Lumia 900 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Show Press Release (978 More Words)

PRESS RELEASE

 

First Nokia smartphone designed specifically for the US features LTE, large display and exclusive applications

Las Vegas, US – Today at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nokia and AT&T announced the Nokia Lumia 900, the first of Nokia’s Windows® Phone-based range to feature high-speed LTE* connectivity.  With Nokia’s largest display, the Nokia Lumia 900delivers a rich content experience from a phone that still fits easily in your hand.

Coming exclusively to AT&T in the coming months in cyan and matte black, the Nokia Lumia 900 has a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack Display for rich, bright images both indoors and out, faster connection speeds based on cutting-edge 4G LTE technology, and a long-lasting 1830 mAH battery for enjoying content all day.
The primary camera includes Nokia’s exclusive Carl Zeiss optics, with large aperture (F2.2) and wide angle focal length (28mm) for high-quality, uncropped images even in low-light conditions. In addition, the Nokia Lumia 900 includes a front-facing cameraboasting a large aperture and a wide angle lens that ensures sharp, bright images for high-quality video calling, right out of the box

Nokia’s third Lumia smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 900 builds on Lumia’s head-turning design on the outside and a rich social and Internet experience on the inside.  People Hub is the quickest way to connect with friends with Live Tiles for real-time updates and a fast Web browsing experience with Internet Explorer Mobile.

“The introduction of the Nokia Lumia 900 with AT&T is another significant milestone in the ongoing rollout of Nokia’s global smartphone strategy,” said Chris Weber, president of Nokia Americas. “The Nokia Lumia 900 is designed specifically with the US in mind and the announcement of this collaboration with AT&T, in addition to other recent announcements, signifies a new dawn for Nokia in the US.”

he Nokia Lumia 900 benefits from a range of leading content experiences:

- The AT&T U-verse Mobile** app lets U-verse TV subscribers browse the U-verse TV program guide, schedule and manage their DVR recordings, and watch hit TV shows while on the go. The U-verse Mobile library includes more than 100 TV series and more than 700 TV shows from a variety of genres.

- Nokia Drive, available to download from Windows Phone Marketplace, provides free voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation with a dedicated in-car user interface that turns the Nokia Lumia 900 into a GPS navigation device.

- The exclusive ESPN sports hub is pre-loaded on Nokia Lumia smartphones, and provides a one-stop sports application for news, videos and scores.

- The CNN App for Windows Phones provides the latest news and video from CNN’s reporting around the globe and direct access to iReport, CNN’s participatory news community.  Launching globally for free in the next month, the CNN App will be exclusive to Nokia users for 90 days.

- The Univision App will be exclusive to Nokia Lumia users in the U.S. and Puerto Rico for 18 months, delivering unique and exclusive Spanish-language content experiences, including Univision entertainment, sports and soccer coverage, plus news, cooking and local content for different U.S. markets – all in one App.

- A partnership with EA to bring over 20 of the world’s most popular games to the Windows Phone marketplace, coming first to Nokia Lumia devices.

“Nokia and AT&T worked hand in hand to bring the Nokia Lumia 900 to market. Our powerful 4G network really amplifies the benefits of the Nokia Lumia 900. Sharing high quality images and videos with its integrated social networking functions is faster than ever; content from U-verse Mobile is more enjoyable on the crisp 4.3-inch screen, and with its huge battery people can do more without worrying about recharging,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices for AT&T. “Together, we are working to supercharge the ecosystem around the Nokia Lumia 900 and the Windows Phone platform.”

*Limited 4G LTE availability in select markets.  4G speeds delivered by LTE or HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul, where available.  Deployment ongoing.  Compatible data plan required. LTE is a trademark of ETSI.  Learn more at att.com/network.

**U-Verse Mobile: Access to select content requires qualifying U-verse TV plan or monthly subscription fee, and WiFi connection and/or cellular data connection.  Available content may vary by device and/or U-verse TV subscription and is subject to change.  Data charges may apply.

Read more about the Nokia Lumia 900 on Nokia Conversations.
http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/01/09/nokia-lumia-900-born-for-the-usa

About Nokia
Nokia is a global leader in mobile communications whose products have become an integral part of the lives of people around the world. Every day, more than 1.3 billion people use their Nokia to capture and share experiences, access information, find their way or simply to speak to one another. Nokia’s technological and design innovations have made its brand one of the most recognized in the world. For more information, visit http://www.nokia.com/about-nokia

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries.  It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T │DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available athttp://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

Despite retaining its position as the largest handset maker in the world, Nokia’s market share has dropped significantly in the past few years, with increasing numbers of people dropping Symbian in favor of the iPhone or Android. When CEO Stephen Elop announced in February that Nokia would be adopting Windows Phone as its new primary platform, opinions were divided. Part of this division was based on the announcement of the N9, with many considering MeeGo to be a better path to follow as it would allow Nokia not only separation from the competition, but also total control over the software on its phones. With the launch of the Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7.5, aka Mango, consumers can now decide whether they think the decision was justified – and whether they will make a return to Nokia handsets.

This review is based on the user experience of both the Lumia 800 and the Nokia N9 to offer an opinion on whether Nokia was right to jump to Windows Phone or if the Finnish giant should have stuck with MeeGo.

Overall: stunning hardware, fresh software

The design of the N9 was a major hit with reviewers, offering a sleek unibody exterior with no joins or seams to be found anywhere. The screen is slightly convex, providing improved viewing angles, and the Clear Back Display displays colors brilliantly even in direct sunlight.

The N9 is slightly more striking than the Lumia 800 because it lacks any buttons on the front at all, whereas the Lumia has the obligatory three Windows Phone buttons, albeit capacitive: back, home and search. The N9 also boasts a front facing camera and a charging light, both of which would be welcome on the Lumia 800.

Both devices could be heralded as the devices Nokia fans have long been wanting. The N9’s MeeGo is completely new and fresh, but still has hints of the N900’s Maemo 5. Boot-up time for the Lumia is mere seconds, and miles faster than the N9. Both Windows Phone and MeeGo are departures from Symbian, with streamlined and easy to understand menus and a noticeable lack of lag. In day-to-day usage, though, the Lumia 800 has the edge: in my time with it there has been no lag whatsoever, despite a populated home screen and lots of installed applications. In contrast, the N9 is prone to stutter when scrolling the list of apps even without having anything new installed. It’s still a very quick device, especially when playing games, but it isn’t the faultlessly smooth scrolling experience that is offered on iOS and Windows Phone.

Social Integration

Both the Lumia 800 and N9 are social powerhouses, allowing the user to add various accounts. The N9 currently offers more though, with Skype, Picasa, Flickr and YouTube being in the native accounts list. The MeeGo device also has a native feeds client, so you can keep up to date with your favorite blogs and news outlets easily and quickly, even having the option to have new feeds pushed straight to the events homescreen. Aside from feeds, Facebook and Twitter streams are updated so you can see the latest happenings without opening the respective applications, and notifications for everything appear above the feeds. This screen also has a weather app located at the top, and tapping this will give you a ‘lifestyle’ option, where you can see the forecast for walking the dog, jogging, or even having a migraine or being affected by your arthritis.

The Lumia 800 offers support for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and email accounts. While it doesn’t (yet) offer the same amount of social services as MeeGo, it’s still the winner for this category because the quality of the services is better. When you link to your Facebook account, for example, you can merge contacts in your address book and your Facebook, then if you turn off having your social media friends in your address book the phone still shows the ones linked to your contacts – meaning you can see the latest from the contacts you want to, without having hundreds of friends clutter your list. The address book, known as the People Hub, allows more functionality than MeeGo, too. If you scroll to a particular contact you have the option to write on their wall, see their latest status updates, who wrote on their wall and their latest photo uploads. Similarly, the Me Hub will give you real-time updates of who has mentioned you on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and lets you respond immediately – without opening an app.

This level of social integration is what separates MeeGo and Windows Phone from iOS, which has always had quality apps for social media but still lacks any true integration of it. While iOS5 integrates Twitter to the degree that you can share anything, this is also present in MeeGo, Windows Phone and Android, and the truth is iOS still is limited when it comes to having comprehensive fields in the address book. Moreover, it is precisely this level of integration that allows Microsoft to talk about “Your world at a glance” – whereas other phones require you to install applications and open them to have notifications or contact someone, Windows Phone lets you do it all right from the homescreen, making it all quicker and much more seamless.

SMS inbox now a communication hub

With Maemo 5, Nokia introduced a true communication hub by having online conversations (such as MSN Messenger and Facebook Chat) stored in the inbox alongside SMS conversations. The N9 continues this as does Windows Phone, but the latter takes it a step further by storing all communication with a particular contact in one thread. This means you can be talking to your friend Joe on Facebook and when he goes offline you can continue the conversation through text messaging, and it all shows up seamlessly in one thread.

It’s a simple touch, but it’s one that makes us wonder why it hasn’t been implemented before. As phones are communication devices, it’s a touch of brilliance to offer such a simple and obvious improvement over the competition.

Browsing and email

Both of the new Nokia phones have great browsers. Neither play Flash, but rendering, scrolling and pinch-to-zoom are quick and smooth, which will have Symbian users around the world releasing a sigh of relief. Website content fits to the screen and a double tap will enlarge that particular area.

Copying text on the Windows Phone browser is exceptionally easy, just a single tap on an area will highlight it and the user can drag the edges to incorporate more or less text, and a copy icon appears. This method is far easier than the Samsung Galaxy S II’s clumsy method which required multiple taps at the best of times, and took time in the browser.

Microsoft developed the Lumia browser, so credit for improvements over Symbian can’t go to Nokia on this one. It can, however, for the N9. It’s perplexing that Symbian has the cumbersome and painful to use browser that it does considering the exceptional one the N900 had – the Maemo 5 device’s browser had a cursor allowing for hovering over drop-down menus and rendered pages like a full desktop browser. The N9 isn’t quite so advanced, but it’s easily on par with others. It is quick, both to render and for navigation, streamlined and tapping the address bar will bring a list of your most-visited sites as well as letting you enter an address or search the web.

The Windows Phone keyboard is a joy to use, and the Lumia 800 is probably the first phone without a hardware keyboard that I enjoy typing on. As with the browser, credit for this must go to Microsoft and not Nokia. The keyboard is uniquely designed in that it predicts what letter you will type next and slightly enlarge it, making typing more accurate than it can be on other devices. It has an excellent auto-correct that is only rarely wrong, and unlike the iPhone it offers more than word when it makes suggestions – the bolded one is what it will correct to, while the others can be selected manually.

The N9 keyboard is comparatively weak. Oddly, it takes up a minor amount of screen estate, which is good for composing long messages in a text field but can make typing difficult. It has auto-correct off by default, and when first used out of the box is cumbersome and difficult. After a few seconds in the settings menu and a few tweaks, though, it becomes much more manageable and it becomes easier to type quickly. The main drawback, however, is that the space key is narrow, meaning the full-stop button is often pressed instead.

The email clients on MeeGo and Windows Phone are both very good, although the Windows Phone’s edges out MeeGo’s because it offers threaded messages and the N9 doesn’t. This reduces clutter and makes it much easier to find a message as it removes any need to open countless emails to find the one you want.

The main drawback regarding emails on Windows Phone is its peculiar feature of disconnecting the Wi-Fi when the phone is locked. If you have data enabled, it automatically switches to that – if you don’t, then basically you go without emails. While it isn’t really a problem in terms of receiving emails if you have a data plan, the fact is that Wi-Fi consumes less battery than 3G, so it isn’t the battery-saving measure Microsoft claim it to be. Conversely, the N9 keeps the wireless connection active while the phone is locked and so emails and messages from Skype, Facebook and so on continue to be pulled down.

Lumia 800 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Marketplace (Metro apps)

One of the biggest criticisms of Windows Phone is its lack of apps compared to Android and iOS. As it stands today, there are over 40,000 in the marketplace and most of the main ones are covered. From that perspective, the majority of users will not find it a problem. The biggest issue will probably be for those used to the iPhone App Store who enjoy using quirky apps like insta.gram or playing games specific to that platform.

Aside from actual numbers, what separates the Windows Phone applications from their counterparts is the way they are done: the Metro interface. Whereas other platforms require the user to press the screen to go to, on Facebook for example, messages and notifications, Windows Phone does it all with a swipe. The approach is far more intuitive and takes away the frustration of trying to tap a button that isn’t responding due to its small size. When using a Twitter application, the user swipes to see timeline, a swipe to mentions, and another for messages. This approach is used in all applications, and is a pleasure to use. One of the pains of the Galaxy S II’s 4.3” screen was needing to use two hands in order to reach an icon in either of the left corners, but on Windows Phone a larger screen size will usually not inhibit usage, because it only requires a swipe.

This interface is similar to the N9, except the N9 swipes in and out of apps but still requires pushing a button to open something within an app.

Nokia N9 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Streamlined menus

A strength of both Windows Phone and MeeGo is the easy access to everything. Fans of Android point out that it can be customised so you can have your favourite thing available quickly, and this is true. It is also true that iOS permits moving icons to the first screen and having apps and games in dedicated folders. What hasn’t been addressed, though, is how users of both operating systems need to scroll through multiple pages to find something that isn’t immediately available. MeeGo solves this by having just the one page, and Windows Phone has the start screen with user-defined content, and the app list, which lets the user filter by typing the first letter to bring up everything beginning with, for instance, ‘B’, or typing the entire name of the app. By categorising alphabetically the user can find things much faster than scrolling through menus. Critics of Symbian mentioned that it had a home screen, then the first menu level, then folders to get elsewhere, then further folders, making it sometimes difficult to find something in particular. This is rectified in both Windows Phone and MeeGo, with everything available almost immediately – although once again Windows Phone has the edge because it not only categorises alphabetically, it has multiple ways to find an app quickly.

Conclusions

It’s difficult to pick a winner out of the two devices. Both phones are stunning to look at, but they are different under the hoods. The N9 has a front-facing camera and charging light, but the Lumia 800 has a faster processor. In actual usage, the Lumia 800 is much more fluid while the N9 stutters in places, but the N9 offers more flexibility – it supports almost all media formats, allows Bluetooth transfers, can be used as mass storage for dragging and dropping of content from computer to the device, the multitasking is second to none as it behaves like a computer in that it keeps things open until they are closed.

At the end of my time with it, my opinion is the N9 is the experience that all phones should have, as it is so intuitive. It’s not until using it that it can be realised how obvious it is that a swipe to exit an application is a better option than adjusting your hand position to hit a button. Similarly, swiping to see the open applications and even closing them by swiping from top to bottom of the screen. Swiping from bottom to top will show a dock similar to iOS, with phone, messaging, camera and web; in other words, the most commonly used applications so the user can access them quickly without swiping to the homescreen then swiping to find them. The N9 is unlocked by double tapping the screen, and having got used to this I found myself repeatedly tapping on the Lumia’s screen to unlock it – which isn’t implemented, but hopefully will be in the future.

Despite that, the Lumia 800 is the device I found myself reaching for most of the time and the one I would say is the better overall. In general usage, it is more fluid and feels more polished, complete and often more intuitive.

However, it seems so obvious that there needs to be a merging of features. As Nokia’s agreement with Microsoft allows them to make adjustments to the software, it would be a huge benefit to Nokia and Windows Phone as an ecosystem to implement things from MeeGo, namely double tap to unlock and swipe to exit applications. As Windows Phone is centered around swiping to get things done, it’s an addition that is begging to be included – and Stephen Elop has stated MeeGo’s swipe will live on in future Nokia devices, so perhaps this will happen.

A third screen displaying the events view would also be welcome. This would mean Windows Phone would have its tiled start screen and app screen like it does right now, but a further screen with weather, centralized notifications and feeds from Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Both phones are extremely capable and worthy of anyone’s money, but for those lamenting the discontinuation of MeeGo, certain additions to Windows Phone will certainly help it regain control of its dwindling market share.

Overall: stunning hardware, fresh software

The design of the N9 was a major hit with reviewers, offering a sleek unibody exterior with no joins or seams to be found anywhere. The screen is slightly convex, providing improved viewing angles, and the Clear Back Display displays colours brilliantly even in direct sunlight.

The N9 is slightly more striking than the Lumia 800 because it lacks any buttons on the front at all, whereas the Lumia has the obligatory three Windows Phone buttons, albeit capacitive: back, home and search. The N9 also boasts a front facing camera and a charging light, both of which would be welcome on the Lumia 800.

Both devices could be heralded as the devices Nokia fans have long been wanting. The N9’s MeeGo is completely new and fresh, but still has hints of the N900’s Maemo 5. Boot-up time for the Lumia is mere seconds, and miles faster than the N9. Both Windows Phone and MeeGo are departures from Symbian, with streamlined and easy to understand menus and a noticeable lack of lag. In day-to-day usage, though, the Lumia 800 has the edge: in my time with it there has been no lag whatsoever, despite a populated home screen and lots of installed applications. In contrast, the N9 is prone to stutter when scrolling the list of apps even without having anything new installed. It’s still a very quick device, especially when playing games, but it isn’t the faultlessly smooth scrolling experience that is offered on iOS and Windows Phone.

SMS inbox now a communication hub

With Maemo 5, Nokia introduced a true communication hub by having online conversations (such as MSN Messenger and Facebook Chat) stored in the inbox alongside SMS conversations. The N9 continues this as does Windows Phone, but the latter takes it a step further by storing all communication with a particular contact in one thread. This means you can be talking to your friend Joe on Facebook and when he goes offline you can continue the conversation through text messaging, and it all shows up seamlessly in one thread.

It’s a simple touch, but it’s one that makes us wonder why it hasn’t been implemented before. As phones are communication devices, it’s a touch of brilliance to offer such a simple and obvious improvement over the competition.

Nokia N9 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Browsing and email

. The N9 isn’t quite so advanced, but it’s easily on par with others. It is quick, both to render and for navigation, streamlined and tapping the address bar will bring a list of your most-visited sites as well as letting you enter an address or search the web.

The Windows Phone keyboard is a joy to use, and the Lumia 800 is probably the first phone without a hardware keyboard that I enjoy typing on. As with the browser, credit for this must go to Microsoft and not Nokia. The keyboard is uniquely designed in that it predicts what letter you will type next and slightly enlarge it, making typing more accurate than it can be on other devices. It has an excellent auto-correct that is only rarely wrong, and unlike the iPhone it offers more than word when it makes suggestions – the bolded one is what it will correct to, while the others can be selected manually.

The N9 keyboard is comparatively weak. Oddly, it takes up a minor amount of screen estate, which is good for composing long messages in a text field but can make typing difficult. It has auto-correct off by default, and when first used out of the box is cumbersome and difficult. After a few seconds in the settings menu and a few tweaks, though, it becomes much more manageable and it becomes easier to type quickly. The main drawback, however, is that the space key is narrow, meaning the full-stop button is often pressed instead.

Conclusion

At the end of my time with it, my opinion is the N9 is the experience that all phones should have, as it is so intuitive. It’s not until using it that it can be realised how obvious it is that a swipe to exit an application is a better option than adjusting your hand position to hit a button. Similarly, swiping to see the open applications and even closing them by swiping from top to bottom of the screen. Swiping from bottom to top will show a dock similar to iOS, with phone, messaging, camera and web; in other words, the most commonly used applications so the user can access them quickly without swiping to the homescreen then swiping to find them. The N9 is unlocked by double tapping the screen, and having got used to this I found myself repeatedly tapping on the Lumia’s screen to unlock it – which isn’t implemented, but hopefully will be in the future.

CES 2012 is here and Booredatwork will be there to give you full coverage of the whole show starting from CES unveiled on Sun Jan 8th at 4pm PST, till the last day of the Show on  Friday Jan 13th. We also will be covering the press conferences on Monday Jan 9th , we will try to give you as much coverage of all the press conferences. But we will be liveblogging 4 major press conferences listed below -

Liveblogs Jam 9th

LG-                     8pm PST or 11am EST   Link Here

Samsung –      2pm PST or 5pm EST     Link Here

Nokia-               3pm PST or 6pm EST    Link Here

Sony-                  5pm PST or 8pm EST    Link Here

Throughout the week check the site on the CES 2012 segment for updates on the show. Be sure to follows on Twitter and YouTube. as this wil be the fastest mediums for distributing content to you

Twitter- @booredatwork

YouTube

CES starts in about a week. We will be at the show covering everything we can , and on Jan 9th Nokia is having a Press event at 3pm PST which is 6pm for all you east coast folks. So don’t forget to bookmark this page or set your reminder to come back here for our Coverage of Nokia’s Press conference with our liveblog. We should see the Nokia ACE and something for Version Wireless. Maybe the Nokia Lumia 610 goes to Sprint and hopefully a faster HSPA+ device coming to T-Mobile, and a few other devices. In all stay tuned bookmark this page and set your reminder for Jan 9th 3pm PST or 6PM EST for our liveblog of Nokia CES 2012 Press event

Pocketnow has a better render pic of the Nokia Ace coming to AT&T, though the devices, looks like a larger Lumia 800. Pocketnow is confirming that the ACE is indeed the Lumia 900 and will be a global phone but Know as the ACE on AT&T, The device is also said to ship with mango build of WP7 and not Tango as previously rumored. So it is on clear if the device is 4G capable( Though the size of the battery may indicate otherwise). Specs are as follow, 4.3 Super AMOLED Clearblack display WVGA, 1.4Ghz Qualcomm processor, 512MB of Ram, an 8 Megapixel camera, an1830mAh battery. It also house T-Mobile 3G spectrum chip of 17ooMHZ, weighing in at 160gram.  The wait should be long as we will l find out full details at CES 2012

The Verge is reporting that the Nokia Ace aka the rumor Nokia 900 will be coming to AT&T on March 18th.  That is a very specific date, but indications from Nokia points to an early US release for devices , with the pending launch of the Lumia 710 on T-Mobile. That the company is primed on releasing their Windows Phones stateside soon. The Nokia Ace will launch with OS Tango which is said to have LTE support.  The ACE is said to feature a 4.3-inch display, LTE and a 1.4 Ghz processor.

For Verizon fans, fear not, it seems the company will be get a Nokia device, though not what you were expecting, theverge is reporting that Verizon will be getting an LTE version of the Lumia 710, same device coming to T-Mobile on jan 11th.  it seems all hopes have been dashed for  the rumored 900 coming to VZW. We have to wait to CES and will find out more on what Nokia has in store

Nokia N9 is Nokia’s first and last MeeGo capable device. It is from here a lot of the design features found in the Lumia 800 are derived. This is what I call a well crafted device. First off it, its Sports a 3.6-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels, Gorilla Glass and anti-glare polarizer. an 8 megapixel camera that records at 720p and a front facing camera for video chat. . 16GB/64GB of internal storage no MicroSD bay. It runs MeeGo OS, v1.2 Harmattan with a 1Ghz TI OMAP 3630 Cortex A8 processor and 1GB of ram for some serious smoothness; with Bluetooth V2.1, Wi-Fi N and NFC support. It also does TV out through the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Hardware wise, the Nokia N(9is a well crafted piece of work, with the lack of physical button on the front of the device that  doesn’t take away from the beauty and practicality, to its smooth curves on its 3.9-inch AMOLED display and the back of the device. The Nokia N9 feels solid and well placed when holding in your hand. MeeGo is also an interesting breathe of fresh air, though we only used it for a few minutes with the unboxing. I can tell you it runs smooth and easy to navigate, with accessing apps and the idea of using three home screens, with on for all your apps, one for multitask and one for notifications, is very appealing and works. We are going to spend some time with the Nokia N9, play with camera, and put the device and OS through its paces. Till then enjoy our unboxing and first impressions below.

Nokia N9 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

***Update***

So we just got updated that the mystery device from Nokia., are just programmable badges that staffers can were. So it pretty much is a expensive I.D Badge. Sorry guys.

We almost forgot about  this little device. At the Nokia/T-Mobile Press event for the Lumia 710 we got a  brief sneak peek at a little 3-inch Nokia Windows phone pocket tablet like device. It got 3-inch display, with no apparent physical button. No idea on specs or what the device truly is as we only saw it briefly, but it is a Windows phone based device and any indication from the Nokia CES 2012 Press event this device could show up. We will keep you posted

The Nokia Lumia 800 is Nokia’s Flagship and first entry device into the Windows Phone arena. Nokia has brought with it to Windows Phone its award winning design,. The Lumia 800 sports a lovely 3.7-inch curved ClearBlack AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass with a resolution of 800×400. Powered by a 1.4Ghz Qualcomm chip. In the Rear its got an 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash ( records at 720p @ 30fps). 16GB of internal storage , no microsd slot. Wifi b/g/n. It is also a quadband device with HSPA+ speeds of 14.4Mbps,; while using a micro sim. All this running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

I can’t over emphasis the use of design here by Nokia. The Lumia 800 is a well built and styled device, with Design intricacies like a pop-up button to expose the micro USB slot and a slide out bay that releases the micro-sim slot. The devices has some good weight to it but it does feel heavy but balanced. On The OS side, yes it is running Windows Phone 7.5, but Nokia has added a few features like Nokia Drive which is a free turn by turn GPS Map system, as well a contact transfer app which helps your transfer your contacts more effectively. Also the Nokia Lumia 800 is the first windows phone camera I have used  that support side screen shots.

Battery life is an amazing thing on windows phone, with up to 6days on use and standby. Windows phone and Nokia Lumia 800. This is something you don’t usually see on smartphones. Sound quality is also very good on the Lumia 800 both on the built in speakers or  via the 3.5mm drive. So what makes the Lumia 800 stand out from other Windows Phone devices. For Nokia the differentiation comes via software. WE have seen and know how well Nokia builds  hardware. But on the software side the Nokia Lumia 800 packs something no other Windows Phone device carries. Nokia Drive, a full turn by turn GPS for up to 130 countries. So where ever you are in the world with the Nokia Lumia 800 you have a navigation system with you.

Nokia Drive is simple and easy to use.  When you open up the applications, it search for a GPS signal and connects to your location. the main screen shows you drive speed, and distance with a menu option button. Which reveals your navigation options; here you can switch from 2D to 3D maps, set destination, leave feedback , learn more on Nokia Drive and get deeper in the settings. with the settings, you can change Maps from Night and day colors, Show Landmarks, mange your own Maps, choose navigation voice, Change unit distance, Clear history and turn on or off location(GPS). For more on Nokia Drive Navigation. Check out our video test here

Nokia Lumia 800 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Conclusion

The Nokia Lumia 800 is a bold and brave step by the Finnish Giant. Moving to Windows Phone was a step many though would be an utter disaster for Nokia; which the  company has used to create a success with the LUmia 800. With it lovely Super AMOLED Clearblack display, great battery life and overall Nokia quality build and feel.  Also  the addition of Nokia Drive navigation software clearly helps to set the Lumia 800 away from the pack of windows phones.  Also the camera on the Lumia 800 is superb, with crystal clear photos  and smooth silk videos shot at 720p. Its not all rosy with the Lumia 800, it lacks a front facing camera, No NFC and uses a micro-sim.

Still those minor details are not enough to take away the beauty that is the Nokia Lumia 800.