First Impressions of Windows 8 Powered Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 396
Nerval's Lobster writes "Nokia CEO Stephen Elop first took to the stage at Center548 on New York City's West Side, where Microsoft had first unveiled Windows Phone 7 in late 2010, to claim that Nokia was becoming a 'more nimble competitor' thanks to several strategic decisions under his tenure, including the choice of Windows Phone as the company's primary smartphone platform. ... In terms of [the 920's hardware]: the battery is 2000 mAh; the processor is a dual-core Snapdragon S4, which was apparently selected for its energy efficiency; and the aforementioned wireless charging, based on the 'Qi' wireless charging standard. ... Despite the enthusiasm displayed onstage for Windows Phone 8, the new smartphone platform poses something of a conundrum for Nokia. The company invested heavily in Windows Phone 7, all but abandoning its homegrown operating systems — including Symbian, once a dominant player in the mobile arena — in favor of Microsoft’s platform. But those Windows Phone 7 smartphones won't upgrade to Windows Phone 8 software, and nor will they run Windows Phone 8 apps."
I can't wait for wireless charging. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Interesting, very interesting +1 (Score:2, Interesting)
Happy (Score:0, Interesting)
(Posting AC because I'm at work and I don't log in from work.)
Despite Nokia's many missteps (and goodness knows there have been many), I'm happy to see their new generation phone hit the market and I sincerely hope it succeeds. I say this as an unabashed Apple fanboy who will never buy a Nokia nor Windows phone. I say this because I want their to be more options that are successful. I want their to be different options that are successful. These options force companies, including Apple and Google (and their manufacturers) to improve their offerings.
And before anyone jumps in with an anti-Apple screed about how they'd prefer to litigate rather than innovate, stuff it. Samsung slavishly copied Apple and Nokia has clearly proven you can design a next-gen phone that looks nothing like the iPhone even though it's obviously influenced by the iPhone. If Nokia, a company who has been making enormous mistakes of late, can figure out how to design around Apple's design and utility patents, surely Samsung could have if they'd invested a smidge of effort into doing so.
Anyhow, I hope Nokia does very well with the phone and I look forward to checking it out.
Platform tweaks needed to the OS? (Score:4, Interesting)
From TFA:
Nokia’s PureMotion HD+ is the company’s name for its tweaks to the display, including blur-free scrolling.
Why isn't this not only standard, but the only acceptable state these days? When will people (Android, I'm looking at you here) figure out that getting the basics so completely solid that nobody thinks about them is the kind of work that people should expect from their OS/Environment provider? Watching a video talking about how many cores the latest whatever has with jittery scrolling is just embarrasing.
Re:Interesting, very interesting +1 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Does it run Linux? (Score:4, Interesting)
Meego would be nice. I wonder if any of the Nokia engineers have it working on the new hardware?
Very sad (Score:5, Interesting)
To think that Nokia's own Symbian had more than 50% smartphone market share only three years ago [wikipedia.org] and big plans [mynokiablog.com] for their Linux based highend OS, which was universally praised, and instead now going for an OS that not only locks the user down, but locks themselves in a position where they give away control of OS development, outsource all manufacturing (after shutting down most locations in Europe and firing loyal employees by the boatload) and need to contend with the likes of Samsung who do their own CPU, RAM, display etc. fabrication is just unfortunate. It's hard to not be cynical about this.
Microsoft obviously is pushing for positive publicity offering free samples to bloggers etc. but all the money in the world won't make the OS more attractive to the end-user, even with their new funky looking N9-like design. Functionality wise the it's lacking compared to Android and the restrictive Metro UI whether on your computer or on your phone is butt-ugly at worst and uninspiring at best.
On the other hand this might actually what MS alternatives have needed to become worth considering by more end users.
Re:Does it run Linux? (Score:3, Interesting)
How about some enthusiasm from a sub 100k ID then? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not in the 10k region but still - I appreciate the first post was a bit heavy on the enthusiasm - my guess is an enthusiastic MVP rather than anything more sinister..
A dual core CPU and a huge battery are pretty great hardware specs. Also a mechanically stabilized sensor mechanism could be very big news, especially if their software really does make innovative use of the available pixels. The point has been made recently that for PC usage (sharing on FB etc, 2MP is more than enough, for print 5MP is enough - IF THE QUALITY IS THERE.
I assume the stock has plummeted because until a few days ago everyone was hoping for a 20MP sensor and a new tablet to go with the phones. On the other hand - the markets are idiots - buy today, you'll be 10-15% richer by the end of the month if you sell at a time when they don't arbitrarily decide to mood swing again...
I am a bit disappointed that we loose the smaller screen model - the 820 doesn't really replace the 800, it's more of a slightly smaller variation on the 920 - which is a pity. I personally prefer to hold a smaller screen closer to my face... However, for the feature set that WP8 brings (NFC, more home/lock screen flexibility, better camera tech), I might just have to go larger.
Final comment as everyone takes a snipe at this. I have a lumia 800 and I'm looking forward to windows 7.8. I don't care that they're not giving me Windows 8 - the differences between 7.8 and 8 are the differences between the base specification of the current hardware and the next gen hardware (screen resolution, NFC etc). Microsoft are just being honest that their latest phones have features that their older phones don't support. Apple astroturf that fact and that causes heaps of faulty software that fails to cope well enough.
Love Windows Phone, like iPhone (though these days can't justify the cost), frustrated by having to sideload, hack and generally tweak Android whenever I use it.
WP7 Nokia 900 owner here. (Score:5, Interesting)
I know that I swim against the /. current here when it comes to Window Phone. I haven't drank of the MS or Apple or Linux koolaid. I use all three desktop OS flavors at work every week and they all have strengths and weaknesses. I never bought the first iPhone because of the soldered in battery. At the time I was using 2 batteries a day in the field. (not to mention the privacy concerns of not being able to REALLY turn off my phone). I had a miserable experience with the first Droid (randomly calling and texting). I went Blackberry for a while. Revisited iPhone, but the screen typing was horrid (large fingers). When it was time to upgrade in 2010 I went with the Samsung Focus and it just worked for me. I do like the Metro interface on the touchscreen, but always by-pass it when using Win8 on the desktop. Seems pretty useless on the desktop, but it would surely be useful on a tablet and possible a laptop with touchscreen.
The Nokia 900 WP7, had some advantages over the Samsung Focus S on the spec sheet. Bigger screen, bigger body (again... large hands), and the camera cmos appeared faster to me in the store. The other advantage is the Xbox Live connection. Love it! Games developed my interest in computers and I am a gamer at heart. My only complaint is that with the Case-Mate case I confuse the phone with my wallet when it's in my pocket sometimes, but I am working on the brain power required to recognize the difference.
I am only mildly concerned about not being able to upgrade to Windows Phone 8 with my Nokia 900. If I feel like I'm missing out on some must-have super app before my 2-year upgrade comes around, I will bite the bullet and pay the phone price.
I wonder how HTC Samsung etc. feel (Score:2, Interesting)
Repeated exhortations of how WP8 and the Lumia 920 were developed in conjunction. Wheeling out top Microsoft execs for every Lumia launch. Does any other WP8 really have a chance? Why do they even bother? There are several problems with Android, but Google has always gone to extreme lengths to make sure they didn't appear to favour an OEM, releasing flagship NExus devices with Motorola (when they were independent), Samsung, HTC, and Asus. That may of course change with Googorola. But right now, it seems Microsoft seems to feel that it won't hurt them at all if Nokia drives other OEMs out of the WP8 market. And you know what, I think they're right. With their insipid design and terrible software, I don't see Samsung and HTC competing with Nokia anyway. Maybe at the low end of the market. But when was the last time either of them released something as distinctive as the Nokia Lumia 920? Never.
Re:Speaking as a .NET developer, underwhelmed. (Score:5, Interesting)
Uh, the tile concept would be closer to Android than iOS.
Google did the "home screen" thing to avoid the "rounded rectangles with square grid of icons" patent on Android. So what happens when you unlock an Android phone? You see the home screen, which by default has a huge analog clock (only present on the lock screen on iOS, and it's digital there), and a bunch of frequently used apps (phone/messaging/browser), while the "grid of icons" is hidden by the "show all apps" button.
In its place, you can drop widgets to your heart's content on the home screen so you can see the weather at a glance as well when you unlock your phone, plus all your other social media things.
And judging by Android users, especially on /., they like the widget thing and seeing htat stuff.
Microsoft extended the concept with tiles - thus avoid any design issues with iOS and Android. The tiles are effectively widgets and you can see all your update stuff right there on your "home" screen (whatever it's called on WP8).
Why does "blocking innovation" mean "you must copy the UI"? Between Apple, Google and Microsoft experimenting with different UIs, I'd say it's far better they don't copy (Microsoft probably did LiveTiles to avoid anything Google might have.)
People want widgets - Microsoft extended Andorid's concept a bit further to explore stuff. iOS merely took popular widgets (weather and stocks) and tucked them away in a pull-down drawer (probably again to avoid anything Google might have), the concept of which well, came from Android (which would be hard for Apple to defend against if Google has patented that).
It's called innovation. Incremental at times, but worthy to test it out.
Re:Nokia stock price plummets (Score:5, Interesting)
he unified windows 8 product family was an opportunity for microsoft to really deliver a combined, integrated entertainment and productivity experience. And they didn't.
Not sure how exactly you can say this. I have Xbox, Windows 8 on a laptop, Windows 8 on a tablet, and Windows Phone 7. Music and videos are available across all devices. I can pause on one device and resume on another. For instance I can listen to music on my TV, pause it and continue listening in the car. Or I can watch a TV show on the TV, pause it and hop in bed, continuing it there.
My tablet or laptop (or soon phone) acts as a remote controller for my Xbox; I can browse for music or movies or do searches on the device in my hand and see the results on the screen. This is especially good when searching for music to play, which is much easier with a keyboard.
Documents I write on my desktop are available to all my other devices via SkyDrive, and pictures or movies I take on my phone are automatically synced with Skydrive. These are also synced wirelessly if I choose with my laptop, along with any music I download. Soon I'll be able to play a game on my phone, pause it, then resume it on my tablet or xbox.
Caendar, mail, contacts, messages, all sync between desktop, tablet, and phone. I can even turn my purely entertainment Windows 8 tablet into a fully functional productivity PC (capable of running all my current software including matlab, photoshop, and office) by plugging in a keyboard and mouse.
So please, I'd live you to point me to an ecosystem which can do all this as seamlessly.
Not universally praised (Score:4, Interesting)
big plans for their Linux based highend OS, which was universally praised
Not by developers it wasn't.
It might have been fine compared to how people used to develop apps for Nokia Phones, but the MeeGo stuff was awfully limited looking at it from an Android or iPhone developer standpoint.
The truth is that MeeGo was a good update for pre-iPhone OS's, but could not cut it in the new world which was why Nokia was forced to partner with MS. They just did not have the resources to bring it up to scratch in time.