Nokia Lumia 505 launched in Mexico, gets a hands-on

Nokia has been making some carrier specific versions of their Lumia smartphones in the past few months. We have already seen the Lumia 810 for T-Mobile and the Lumia 822 for Verizon, both of which are variants of the international Lumia 820.

Nokia has now launched the Lumia 505 in Mexico, exclusively for the carrier Telcel. The device has a slightly modified design that appears to be similar to the older Lumia 800 but on the inside is seemingly based on the current Lumia 510, although the display is a 3.7-inch AMOLED compared to the 4.0-inch LCD on the 510. The 505 also runs on Windows Phone 7.8.

In the video below (don't bother adjusting volume, there is no sound), you get a good look at the 'new' phone, along with all the accessories that come within the package. The Lumia 505 is priced at 3,499 Mexican pesos, which is approximately $277.

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Nokia launches Lumia 920 and 820 in India, 620 coming in February

 

Nokia is launching its Lumia 920 flagship in India today alongside the Lumia 820. The phones will be available in brick and mortar stores as well as through Nokia's online store with free shipping starting tomorrow and will cost $697 and $504 (RS 38,199 and RS 27,599)respectively.

The budget Windows Phone 8 offering Lumia 620 will be available in India from February but the price and exact date aren't available just yet.

The Lumia 920 isn't exactly on the cheap side - you could get a Galaxy S III for less and a Galaxy Note II for about the same. The Lumia flagman is, however, cheaper than a brand new iPhone 5.

HTC's Windows Phone 8X and 8S, which are the other available WP8 smartphones in India are also priced lower, but that's to be expected given their more modest specs sheets.

To refresh your memory the Lumia 920 has a 4.5" ClearBlack IPS display on tap with the PureMotion HD+ technology, which ensures higher framerates for lower motion blur. There's an 8.7 MP snapper on the back with PureView technology for enhanced low-light performance and Carl Zeiss optics. The device is powered by a dual-core Snapdragon S4 with two 1.5 GHz Krait cores.

The Lumia 820 uses a lower-grade dual-core Krait chip, 8 MP camera with 1080p video recording and a 4.3" ClearBlack AMOLED display of WVGA (480 x 800) resolution.

Finally the Lumia 620 has a 3.8" WVGA screen (again ClearBlack technology), 5 MP camera and a dual-core 1 GHz Krait processor.

All three smartphones are running on the Windows Phone 8 platform.

Thanks, Aswin Bhojarajan for sending this in!

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Nokia beats expectations, sells 4.4 million Lumias in Q4

 

Nokia released a preliminary report on its performance in Q4 2012 and things are starting to look up. Nokia beat expectations with the non-IFRS operating margin expected to be between breakeven and 2%, while expectations were for negative 2-10%.

Nokia's Devices & Services department is reporting ?2.5 billion in net sales, nearly half of which (?1.2 billion) coming from Smart devices (note that Nokia is counting its Asha full touch phones as smarthpones). It helps that operating expenses were lower than expected too.

The company sold 79.6 million phones, including 9.3 million Ashas and 6.6 million proper smartphones. The breakdown is this - 4.4 million Lumia phones and 2.2 million Symbians.

Nokia is also getting a ?50 million sum from non-recurring IPR income (coincidentally, RIM recently had to pay Nokia ?50 million after a patent settlement).

Anyway, the Nokia Siemens networks also exceeded expectations and posted a profit for a third quarter in a row. The non-IFRS operating margin for this division in Q4 2012 is expected to be 13-15%.

While Nokia is ending 2012 on a positive note, the start of 2013 will be less rosy - the seasonally weak quarter will lead to a non-IFRS operating margin of negative 2% (+/- 4%).

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Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 will hit Germany on November 1

It appears that the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 duo of Windows Phone smartphones will descend upon Germany on November 1 - only a few days after Windows Phone 8 becomes officially available. The country's largest retailer MediaMarkt has listed the launch date on its pre-order page for both devices.

The Nokia Lumia 920 flagship is priced at the hefty ?649, while the mid-range Nokia Lumia 820 will set overly eager users back with a more bearable ?449. Both prices include the applicable taxes and will secure the buyer a handset with no contract commitment.

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AT&T to offer exclusive pink version of Nokia Lumia 900

Nokia has just announced a pink version of its (current) WP flagship Lumia 900. It joins the already available cyan, white and black editions.

AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 in pink

The pink Lumia 900 will be available exclusively on AT&T starting July 15. The deals will be the same as with the other color versions.

There is still no information whether the pink edition will later go global or not. You can find our review of Lumia 900 right here.

Thank you, Basil Raza, for the tip!

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Nokia has a backup plan if Windows Phone 8 fails

Nokia has been frantically rejecting the possibility of putting Android on its smartphones, but this might change if Windows Phone 8 fails to gain traction.

 

In an interview aired on a Finnish TV, Risto Siilasmaa, a member of the Nokia board of directors, said that Android is the company's "backup plan" if Windows Phone 8 fails.

However, Siilasmaa also added that he is happy with how things are currently shaping up for Windows Phone 8 and switching to plan B probably won't be required. Microsoft and Nokia are betting on more features and less bugs to turn things in their favor.

Many people are going to be quite happy if in fact Nokia joins the Android camp and starts manufacturing some truly high-end devices. However, such a turn of events seems unlikely as the contract between Nokia and Microsoft is said to contain clauses, which force the Finns to focus all their effort on WP.

Update: Nokia got in touch with us and it turns out the interview was wrongly interpreted. When asked what the company's backup plan was, Nokia's chairman hasn't explicitly stated that Android is in it. Here's the exact quote: "[...] like any responsible board, we must be prepared for alternatives, but that is not our focus today [...]".

However, we can't think of any other mobile OS, which can be a viable alternative to the Windows Phone strategy, other than Android.

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Nokia Belle Feature Pack 2 leaked video shows new features

A video of a pre-release Feature Pack 2 for Symbian Belle has leaked. Currently available on Nokia's RDA (Remote Device Access), which only Nokia registered developers have access to, allows for Symbian Belle FP2 to be tried out in an emulator.

As the final Symbian hurrah for Nokia, Feature Pack 2 is expected to bring quite a lot to Symbian Belle. The user interface will see most of the changes with a new swipe to unlock, camera UI, navigation bar, widgets and better transition effects.

As demonstrated on the demo video below, the keyboard is now predictive and offers word completion. Also updated are the web browser, gallery and image editor. The music player will now place its own controls in the notifications bar.

That's just some of the changes coming in Feature Pack 2, some of them you can see in action in the video below.

Currently, there's no established timeframe of the Feature Pack 2's release, but it's certain that the Nokia 808 PureView will be among the first to get it.

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Nokia says Google Nexus 7 tablet infringes its patents

It appears that the patent wars between smartphone manufacturers are far from over as virtually every new device is said to infringe on someone else's patents now. And it appears that we are going to have a new big player involved as Nokia just officially accused ASUS of using its patents with Google Nexus 7 tablet without license.

 

The patents in question refer to the IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard, which the Nexus 7 supports. Nokia said that it has licensed said patents to 40 licenses mobile device manufacturers, but neither Google nor ASUS are on the list.

However, Nokia won't have as aggressive approach as Apple and is unlikely to file a case against Asus. Instead, the company has kindly invited Asus and Google to sign up for a license.

We'll be following ASUS and Google's response and see if this could turn up to be the next big court case against the Nexus devices.

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PR1.3 update for Nokia N9 goes live in some regions

It looks like Nokia has released PR1.3 for the N9 without much fanfare. After the Finnish company laid off some 10,000 employees last month, it was rumored that any future MeeGo updates would also be scrapped, especially considering that the N9 is the only Nokia smartphone to run the OS.

It seems that despite all of the internal issues Nokia has, there are at least a few people left in the MeeGo department, at least for now. Rumor was that this update was in preparation for PR1.4, but all of that was before the layoffs.

The update version number is v40.2012.21-3.001.19 and comes in at 204.8 MB. Quite a lot of users have already reported having received the update, so it's global rollout should be complete soon.

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Nokia Lumia 900 review: Europass

It took the Nokia Lumia 900 just a few days to top the US sales charts and see delighted handshakes quickly turn into group hugs, as Nokia, Microsoft and AT&T, which carries it exclusively stateside, were busy celebrating the flagship's performance in recent months.

The Lumia 900 has finally made the trip across the pond but it's not the return home it must've dreamed of. Not quite the triumphant welcome from thousands flocking to retail outlets and carriers. Yes, there's a big question mark hanging over the global version of the Nokia Lumia 900. The news that Windows Phone 8 is out of reach has taken the shine off its appeal. But its character is intact - and the Lumia 900 has enough of that to spare.

Nokia Lumia 900 official photos

A big, quality screen, fluid and stylish OS and premium build are all sprinkled with Nokia's magic in a package that's made to impress. We've been there already - and we don't mean the review we have of the Lumia 900 for AT&T. After all, it's a Lumia 800 all over again, only the screen got bigger. And yet, we are delighted to meet this smartphone again - and we'll give it that, it looks stunning in white.

You'll also be happy to know that this time around we're putting the Lumia 900 to all our usual tests. AT&T's Lumia 900 was reviewed away from the office but this one will not simply walk in and out of our labs without getting a taste of our torture routine.

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE supportQuad-band 3G with 42 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support4.3" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 480 x 800 pixel resolutionScratch resistant Gorilla glass display with anti-glare polarizer8 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash, 720p@27fps video recording and fast f/2.2 lens1MP front camera Windows Phone 7.5 OS (Mango), upgradeable to WP 7.81.4GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset, 512MB of RAMWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/nNon-painted polycarbonate unibodyGPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigationDigital compass16GB of on-board storageActive noise cancellation with a dedicated micBuilt-in accelerometer and proximity sensorStandard 3.5 mm audio jack; FM Radio with RDSmicroUSB portBluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDRImpressively deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interfaceWon't get WP 8No USB mass storage (Zune only file management and sync)No native video callsNon-user-replaceable batteryNo memory card slot (and no 64GB version like the N9)microSIM card slotNo native DivX/XviD support, videos have to be transcoded by Zune

The newly announced Windows Phone 8 has given us plenty to look forward to, but a WP8 upgrade is not on the cards for the Nokia Lumia 900. WP 7.8 is coming later this year to all compatible single-core devices and it will be the last update they are about to get. Both Nokia and Microsoft promise to continue the support though they will most likely be focusing their efforts on multiple-core WP8 smartphones.

Nokia Lumia 900 live pictures

But don't close the page on the Lumia 900 just yet. The Windows Phone experience is impressive even on single-core chipsets and the OS is beautifully simple and charmingly social. The proprietary apps are a major lift too - Nokia Reading was recently added to the familiar Drive, Maps and Music.

It will be a while before the new WP8 devices start hitting the market, so the Nokia Lumia 900 will be the Windows Phone flagship for a good few months. With a shadow always looming over it, the Lumia 900 will stand tall or fall short. But it won't go unnoticed.

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Nokia 808 PureView in low-light: From dusk till dawn

The fact that Nokia 808 PureView is the best cameraphone money can buy is sure as shooting. This won't even pass for a pun. The 41 megapixel sensor and the tack-sharp optics deliver what no other smartphone can match and we even saw it successfully stand its ground against much heavier competition.

The Nokia 808 PureView is on its march to becoming iconic, trashing the Olympus PEN E-PL2 Micro Four Thirds camera in our blind test and then matching the Canon 5D Mark III for resolution in the process.

Yet, both of those (admittedly, impressive) achievements came in tests that really played to the PureView's strengths. Strong lighting is where the host of tiny pixels can get the upper hand over fewer, if larger, ones and all the samples we gave you so far were captured in perfect conditions.

It's far from certain whether the Nokia 808 will keep its perfect record once darkness falls and noise starts to show its ugly face. We are right there in the camp of the doubters too, so we had no other choice but put the PureView through a series of tests and see its true worth.

We've once again recruited a couple of elite rivals in the face of the Canon 550D and its APS-C sensor and the aforementioned Olympus E-PL2. The Galaxy S III is here too, to put the performance of the cameraphone in proper perspective.

Having mentioned the pixel size of the 808 PureView, we feel we need to make an important note here. Even though the 41MP sensor might lead you to believe otherwise, the size of individual pixels isn't any smaller than those of the Galaxy S III, or the iPhone 4S. Nokia have put a large (by cameraphone standards anyway) 1/1.2" sensor inside the PureView and there was no need to go to extremes to achieve the mind-blowing resolution.

It's only when you compare the pixel size of the Nokia 808 PureView sensor to those inside the DSLR and Micro Four Thirds cameras that you can call them small.

Now, let's cut to the chase and start with the shooting.

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Nokia 808 PureView review: Photo Finnish

The Nokia 808 PureView is the best cameraphone ever made. End of story. Now, how do you proceed from there? And why is this particular phone so hard to write about? How about because a picture is worth a thousand words and we just had a truckload of them in the mother of all shootouts? Or is it because 41 megapixels is more than five, eight, twelve, or the sum thereof, and there's no two ways about it?

Close, but no cigar. What could've easily been an ode to Finnish awesomeness may be no more than a flash in the dark for struggling Nokia and the still-standing-against-all-odds Symbian. That's what makes it hard and we've been there with the Nokia N9.

 
Nokia 808 PureView official photos

At different points in its history, Nokia has had the best-selling phone, the best business phone, the best gaming phone, the best cameraphone and the best smartphone. At one particular time, they even had all of the above in one go. Honest to god, if there ever was anything like the best are-you-kidding-me phone and the best gimme-a-break phone, they would've been runners-up at least. Yeah, they were that good.

And yes, the Nokia 808 PureView camera is that good. They wanted something to maybe, just maybe, match the most basic of compact digicams. And they did so well that it scared the living daylights (and the low light) out of a Micro Four Thirds.

There goes the Nokia 808 PureView.

38 megapixel autofocus camera with xenon flash and 1080p@30fps video recordingTwo capture modes: 38MP/34MP full-res and 3MP/5MP/8MP PureViewCamera features: giant 1/1.2" camera sensor, mechanical shutter, ND filter, geotagging, face detection, up to 4x lossless digital zoomQuad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE supportPenta-band 3G with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support4" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolutionNokia Belle OS with Feature Pack 1Single-core 1.3 GHz ARM 11 CPU and 512 MB RAMWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA and UPnPmicroHDMI port for HD TV-out functionalityGPS receiver with A-GPS support and free voice-guided navigationDigital compass16GB on-board storage, expandable up to 32GB through the microSD card slotActive noise cancellation with a dedicated micDivX and XviD video supportBuilt-in accelerometer and proximity sensorStandard 3.5 mm audio jackStereo FM Radio with RDS, FM transmittermicroUSB port with USB On-the-go supportStereo Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DPNFC supportSmart and voice dialingScratch resistant Gorilla glass displaySymbian ecosystem lags behind Android and iOSnHD resolution wears thin on the 4" screenThe phone is quite bulky and heavyRelatively limited 3rd party software availabilitymicroSIM support

The 808 PureView has no business with cameraphones as we know them. It can look down at any of the smartphone flagships of the competition and make fun of their so-called advanced camera tricks. But guess what - it doesn't. It's so much better than that.

And of course the flipside is that the smartphone is not of the same order as the cameraphone. The Symbian-powered Nokia 808 PureView knows darn well it cannot match the quad-cores, HD screens and the app stores of the competition.

 
Nokia 808 PureView in our office

So, what's it then? Sort of the fat kid, and not too bright? It may as well be - but hang on. You may have a use for a sharpshooter in your team. Stuff movies are made of. Grabs you by the heart.

The Nokia 808 PureView has a whole review ahead and we don't think it's going to try and impress anyone, or make them change their mind. But you'd do well to pay attention. This is a phone that knows what it's doing and does it well.

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Nokia AIR cloud service promo video leaks, shows cool devices

A promo video has leaked showing Nokia Air, the company's own cloud syncing solution.

 

Nokia Air is designed to sync apps, contacts, media across Nokia tablets and smartphones. By the looks of it, Symbian Belle is the OS destined to receive Nokia Air first.

Curiously, the video also showcases a couple of really cool looking devices: a Symbian-running tablet, smartphone and a mini-slider phone. They'll probably continue their lives as concepts, but if Nokia manages to actually deliver Air by the time Nokia World rolls around this Fall, it'll draw a breath of fresh air for Symbian Belle users.

Check out the promo video below. It looks a lot like Symbian Belle Feature Pack 2, don't you think?

So, is Nokia Air something to look forward to, or will it get lost amidst the sea of cloud storage services already on the market?

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Nokia 808 PureView gets its first firmware update

It's just been over a week since the Nokia 808 PureView went on sale and Nokia has already given the phones its first firmware upgrade.

Although an official change log is not available, but according to All About Symbian, the update brings with it improvement in scrolling performance, quicker saving of the 38 megapixel images, smoother auto-rotation and other performance enhancements and bug fixes.

The v112.020.0310 update is now available over-the-air and can be downloaded directly on to your phone, or you can download it by connecting your phone to Nokia Suite.

Click here to read the full review of the Nokia 808 PureView.

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Nokia 808 PureView now available for pre-order in the US

 

The Nokia 808 PureView has made the next step towards US availability - just a day after it was announced that the cameraphone monster would be sold stateside through Amazon, it's now available for pre-order.

As promised, the price is set at $699 SIM free. No carrier has stepped up to subsidize the 808 PureView yet, but the penta-band 3G support means the phone should work on both AT&T's and T-Mobile's networks. By the way, only the White color version is listed for now and it's not clear when the Red and Black variants will be available.

The actual shipping of the Nokia 808 PureView will begin on July 8, so it will be a while before US buyers will get to hold the phone in their hands. You can check out our blind test or see how the 808 stacks up against a Canon 5D Mark III to help pass the time.

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Nokia launching the 808 PureView in the US for $699

After initially dropping North America out of the list of countries getting the 808 PureView, then confirming that it will in fact be getting the phone, Nokia has now gone ahead and made the official launch announcement.

The 808 PureView will be sold through Amazon.com and will set you back by $699 without a contract. No proper release date has been mentioned but the pre-orders will begin later this week or you can also sign up to be notified when the device goes on sale.

To check out the performance of this 41 megapixel beast, check out our blind test here and a comparison against a proper DSLR camera here.

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Nokia launches the 41 megapixel 808 PureView in India

Nokia has finally launched the highly anticipated Nokia 808 PureView in India, which as we already know, will be one of the first markets in the world to get the phone.

The phone is priced at ?33,899, which is approximately ?484.5 / $607, making it one of the most expensive Nokia phones in history. Of course, this is the M.R.P. (maximum retail price) and actual price should be a bit less.

Just to recap some of the feature of the phone, the Nokia 808 PureView has a 41 megapixel camera that uses Nokia's PureView technology to combine multiple pixels to create high quality images. It also uses that tech to provide you with up to 3x lossless digital zoom. The camera also has a xenon flash and can record videos in 1080p resolution.

Other features include a 4.0-inch, 640 x 360 resolution AMOLED display, 16GB internal memory with microSD card slot, Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, USB On-the-Go, NFC, HDMI-out, DLNA, Nokia Maps software and Nokia Belle operating system.

Nokia selling Vertu to EQT VI, it's sad seeing it go

Today Nokia announced that EQT VI (an investment fund that's part of a private equity group in Northern Europe) is ready to acquire Vertu for unannounced amount.

Founded by Nokia in 1998 and headquartered in the UK, Vertu currently employs around 1,000 people worldwide. It has steadily seen constant growth these past years and it's the undisputed leader in the luxury phone segment.

EQT VI will actually be acquiring 90% of the company's stock, with the other 10% remaining Nokia's. The transaction will happen in the second half of the current year.



For us Vertu has always been an integral part of Nokia, with the company sharing some of Nokia's best technology, software and hardware know-how. We're sure part of Vertu's success was mainly due to it being an offshoot of Nokia's phone production.

Rumors of the acquisition have been floating around for quite some time but this is the real deal. Obviously, Nokia didn't see Vertu as helping in its Windows Phone plans.

Nokia Lumia 610 review: Basement window

According to recent estimates Nokia's smartphone sales could really use a boost. The Finns are putting most of their hopes on the WP flagship Lumia 900 and the Symbian 808 PureView cameraphone, but the one we're about to review might come in quite handy too.

 
Nokia Lumia 610 official pictures

The Nokia Lumia 610 is a simple phone with a simple goal: make the Windows Phone experience even more accessible. This basic smartphone is priced to not gather dust on the shelves and you can guess the features aren't exactly top notch. But this is where the Lumia 610 is perhaps more fortunate than its expensive siblings. It must be harder for the likes of the Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 to get away with some of the platform's limitations.

The Lumia 610 looks a lot like the 710 on the outside, but has less-capable hardware inside. Now, that means even tighter limits on what the phone can do but it's an entry-level smartphone after all. Focusing on what you get rather than on what's missing is the right attitude in this price range. And that's exactly what we're going to do in the following lists.
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE supportQuad-band 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support3.7" 65K-color LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, VGA video @30fps Windows Phone 7.5 OS (Refresh)800MHz ARM Cortex-A5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB of RAM, Qualcomm MSM7227A chipsetWi-Fi 802.11 b/g/nGPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigationDigital compass8GB on-board storageActive noise cancellation with a dedicated micBuilt-in accelerometer and proximity sensorStandard 3.5 mm audio jack; FM Radio with RDSmicroUSB portBluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDRDeep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interfaceSome apps are incompatible due to low RAM No Flash or Silverlight support in browserNo USB mass storage (Zune-only file management and sync)No video calls and no front-facing camera No memory card slotmicroSIM card slotNo native DivX/XviD support, videos have to be Zune-transcodedNo HD recording or playback, due to hardware limitationsWill probably be stuck on this Windows Phone version for good
The long list of cons might ring a lot of bells and, if you are familiar with the Windows Phone OS you already know most of them are platform-wide limitations. On the other hand, familiarity with the OS most probably takes you off the list of potential Lumia 610 targets. It's rather a beginner's smartphone, one that will introduce you to WP7 if you're ready to move on from feature phones.

Users with no smartphone experience are less likely to be concerned about the amount of RAM. In fact, people with some experience with older Symbian will see nothing wrong with 256MB. What it actually means is there's no HD video recording and playback. Some apps, like Skype and Angry Birds will not run due to insufficient memory, but you should be getting the same solid set of features for the most part.

Nokia to acquire Scalado's imaging technology and staff

After announcing that Vertu is ready to go, Nokia re-confirmed that they are staking a lot on mobile imaging and photography by announcing their planned acquisition of everything imaging technology Scalado had to offer.

Founded in 2000 and based in Sweden, Scalado has been a close partner of Nokia for quite some time. Scalado doesn't have many end user products, but it develops some fascinating imaging technologies for manufacturers, such as Nokia.



Some of the technologies they've developed for OEMs include Scalado Remove and Scalado Rewind, which we've covered before. Scalado Rewind has actually been integrated in the HTC One X.

Scalado have some end-user apps as well, including Photobeamer for iOS and Scalado Album for Android.

So unlike the news about Vertu leaving Nokia, this one's actually making us optimistic about the future of Nokia's imaging products. Scalado's HQ in Lund, Sweden, is expected to become one of Nokia's key smartphone imaging development centers, along with the existing ones in Espoo and Tampere, Finland.