As we count the days until the Nokia Lumia 800 goes on sale on the 16th November, we’ve been taking a look at the great hardware that drives it. We’ll soon be getting up close with the Lumia 800’s stunning 8-Megapixel camera, but today we’ve been looking at all the other hardware that makes this great Windows Phone tick.
With its impressive specification, affordable price and stunning marriage of hardware and software, the Nokia Lumia 800 is by far the best Windows Phone you can buy. Packing everything you could possible need into its gorgeously designed chassis it marks one of Nokia’s best handsets yet.
But what is the hardware running behind the scenes of the Lumia 9800? With its Windows Phone 7.5 OS running so smoothly and with its stunning screen bringing photos and videos to vibrant life, we thought we’d take a look behind the scenes to see just what drives this market-leading Windows Phone.
Starting with the grogeous screen, the 3.7-inch display is built from a piece of 2.5D curved-glass, which has been seamlessly integrated into the unibody chassis. The AMOLED display has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, offers 16-bits of colour depth and uses ClearBlack technology to reduce reflections.
On the right-hand side of the Lumia 800’s 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1mm chassis are four hardware buttons. As well as the power button and two volume buttons, there is a button for controlling the rear-facing 8-Megapixel camera.
What really drive the Nokia Lumia 800, though, are its fast 1.4GHz processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset, 512MB of memory and 3D graphics hardware accelerator. Combining to provide great processing and 3D power, the Lumia 800 is one of the fastest Windows Phones we’ve used.
In terms of storage, the Lumia 800 packs 16GB of internal storage for holding your music, photos, videos and office files. Not only that, but you also get 25GB of online Windows Live SkyDrive storage for free, letting you store your files in the cloud and giving the handset a total of 41GB of available storage.
When making calls sending texts and connecting to the internet, the Lumia 800 can access GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GSM 850, GSM 900, WCDMA Band I (2100), WCDMA Band II (1900) and WCDMA Band VIII (900) frequency bands, with Dual Transfer Mode (MSC 32), EDGE Class B, GPRS Class B, HSDPA Cat10 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA Cat6 5.76 Mbps and WCDMA connectivity.
Built-in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi lets you connect to local wireless hotspots, while Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR allows you to wirelessly connect to peripherals such as hands-free headsets and audio speakers. And for making fixed connections to your laptop or PC, a Micro USB port and USB 2.0 cable are in place, as well as a 3.5mm jack for plugging in a set of headphones.
Extra hardware features include an accelerometer, for automatically orienting the screen as you turn the Lumia 800; assisted-GPS (A-GPS) and a compass for delivering full satellite navigation via the pre-installed Nokia Drive and Maps software; and an ambient light sensor for automatically adjusting the screen’s brightness, based on the lighting in your current surroundings.
And finally, powering it all is a non-removable BV-5JW 3.7V 1450mAh battery, offering a GSM talk time of up to 13.0 hours; WCDMA talk time of up to 9.5 hours; GSM Standby Time of up to 265.0 hours; WCDMA Standby Time of up to 335.0 hours; and Music Playback Time of up to 55.0 hours. And to charge the battery, the supplied power cable connects to the handset’s USB port, or you can connect it to your laptop or PC to charge via USB.
Packing such an impressive specification, it’s hard to believe that the Nokia Lumia 800 handset will be available free on contract for around £25 per month or can be picked up SIM-free for just £399. The Lumia 800 is available to pre-order now, prior to its release on the 16th November.
So, what do you think of the Nokia Lumia 800’s hardware? Does it offer all that you hoped it would and will you be placing an order straight away? Let us know in the Comments below.