from Hacker News

Nokia announces the Lumia 800, the 'first real Windows Phone'

by glymor on 10/26/11, 8:47 AM with 120 comments

  • by rdl on 10/26/11, 9:19 AM

    Wow. Part of me wants this to suck, just so there are only iPhone and Android to worry about ever developing for, but this actually looks good enough to consider.

    I looked at WP through BizSpark a little, and it looks easier to develop for than iOS or Android, at least for corporate apps. It's possible RIM will lose out in the "corporate owned/managed" market to WP, especially if they can build in equivalent or better security and management tools.

    If I were MS/Nokia, I'd heavily subsidize this in ways other than just reducing the retail price; maybe even go for a $799 retail MSRP but heavily discount through the carriers or through channels to $0-400. You want the price to make it seem premium (or at least as good as a high-end Android or iPhone 4S), but they're the new entrant, so using price to promote the product might be a win. Maybe something like "$400 credit for any smartphone trade-in" at retail. Or, bundle "we pay your phone bill for 3 months" or something.

  • by eis on 10/26/11, 11:50 AM

    I hope they rename it for the spanish market: http://www.wordmagicsoft.com/dictionary/es-en/lumia.php

  • by plq on 10/26/11, 12:01 PM

    Here's my dream scenario: Nokia offers the same hardware with two different OS selections and also has Qt working on both Meego and WP platforms.

    This would obviously be a win-win situation for both the developer and the user. But this would be beneficial for Nokia as well, because:

    1) It'd provide Nokia with hard data based on sales and user feedback on which platform performs better in real-world scenarios. Currently, the decision to drop Meego for WP platform is mostly based on "hopes and promises".

    2) Having both platforms compete on even terms would also improve the overall Nokia experience on both platforms as this open and fair competition would motivate both the Microsoft and the Meego teams to do better.

    So, why this wouldn't happen?

  • by nextparadigms on 10/26/11, 9:10 AM

    Ouch. Are they implying the other WP7 phones are just cheap fakes? The other OEM's must not be too happy about this today. Why do I get the feeling the other OEM's were just "used" to help WP7 survive for another year until the "real" WP7 manufacturer arrives?

  • by Jabbles on 10/26/11, 9:41 AM

    I hope this does well. As a customer in this market I think increased competition can only be a good thing. I'll need a new phone in a few weeks, and I'm now looking forward to comparing the 4S, Nexus and this.

  • by navs on 10/26/11, 9:58 AM

    I love the look of WP7 and this phone looks decent!

    I don't generally use apps, preferring webapps on the mobile browser. How does WP7's browser compare to Android or iOS? I've heard some say its good, others saying its terrible. Its hard to get an unbiased answer after years of thrashing desktop IE.

  • by TallTalesOrTrue on 10/26/11, 9:24 AM

    The 800 basically looks like N9 with Windows Phone OS on it. Hope the OS has met its match in this hardware. The pictures sure look stunning.

  • by saturdaysaint on 10/26/11, 2:17 PM

    The term "killer app" seems kind of outmoded, but I'm still waiting for WP7 to show me some really new functionality. I don't think we need something that can do the same stuff we've been doing for years on mobile phones, even if they've streamlined things here and there and have a pretty piece of hardware.

    Also, I honestly wonder if the dashboard-oriented UI makes it weak as an app platform. I have two friends who switched from iPhone to WP7 and they've both remarked how few apps they use/buy outside of the included ones. The big tiles are nice, but they also mean one's homescreen is likely to be completely dominated by basic functionality apps (e-mail, contacts, pictures, etc). I'm sure that this enhances those select home screen apps, but I think it discourages adding much. Knock the iPhone interface, but the screens pages of tiny colorful icons do seem to encourage people to collect apps like badges and actually use them more.

  • by potch on 10/26/11, 9:19 AM

    "No seriously this time you guys!"

  • by vegai on 10/26/11, 10:05 AM

    Is anyone doing high quality non-smart phones anymore? I'm looking for something that's small, sturdy with long battery life. Preferably with good music playing.

    I suppose Sony Ericssons's non-android phones are pretty good in that space, are there any others?

  • by cavalcade on 10/26/11, 10:06 AM

    just spent 2 weeks developing an MVP app for a photo sharing startup. passed to the store last night. :) Dev tools are smooth but the biggest issue is the lack of mature open source libraries (Oauth was buggy and i cant find a Tumblr, Blogger cross posting lib)

  • by aurynn on 10/27/11, 10:50 AM

    As an owner of an N9, this makes me kind of sad.

    I wrote a longer comment on another thread, but what this really makes me feel is that, instead of utilising a great design paired with WP7, there's just another indistinct me-too device to be drowned out by the iPhone.

    It's sad, because the people who were behind the N9 really seemed like they understood what Apple was on about, how and why the iPhone was like it was.

    Nokia may not have gotten all of it, but they were catching on, and with this release, I fear that spirit may have been lost.

  • by misterbwong on 10/26/11, 4:55 PM

    Looks like a solid product. Not quite the halo product I was looking for from Nokia but the challenge now with WP7 is getting users and apps for their ecosystem.

    Users won't come over until WP7 gets a feature that users can love and show off. Apple builds up a wow feature for pretty much every single iPhone launch: 2g: (revolutionary, at the time) iPhone OS, 3g/s: Apps, 4: Facetime, 4S: Siri. A fast and dedicated camera button (one of WP7's main selling points) doesn't cut it.

  • by juliano_q on 10/26/11, 11:55 AM

    I really like this device, but the prospect of using Internet Explorer again really turns me off. The black Lumia 800 with Android 4.0 would be perfect for me.

  • by seltzered_ on 10/26/11, 11:28 AM

    For t-mobile america users/cheapskates: it's quad-band 3G unlike the N9's penta-band 3G, so I don't see this phone selling on t-mobile at all.

    Too bad though, I've been wanting to replace my nexus one with a well-designed easily jailbreakable/sim-unlockable os.

  • by regularfry on 10/26/11, 10:26 AM

    Then there's that little voice in the back of my head saying "Cyanogenmod?"

  • by drodil on 10/26/11, 11:46 AM

  • by bhoflack on 10/26/11, 9:22 AM

    This phone looks ugly compared to their leaked prototypes.

  • by yread on 10/26/11, 9:30 AM

    Wow there's gonna be Nokia Windows Phones for 60 euros

  • by Shenglong on 10/26/11, 2:11 PM

    I'm so disappointed by the color choices, and the bevel on the screen (or what looks like a bevel). Don't people ever wonder why some of the most popular phones in history have been white/black/silver only?

    I feel like consumer demand for mobile devices isn't driven by aesthetic choice, more so than apparent popularity.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_mobile_pho...

    The numerous amount of buttons on the side also makes me angry. Honestly, I have two buttons on the side of my iPhone, and a flip switch which makes perfect sense. Is it really necessary to have four different -unmarked- buttons?

    </end_of_complaints>