Nokia unveils Lumia 800: The ‘first real’ Windows Phone

Finnish communications giant Nokia has unveiled what it calls the “first real” Windows phone. The Lumia 800, it says, is designed entirely around the Windows Phone operating system.

Addressing the audience at Nokia World 2011, currently underway in London, Nokia’s Kevin Shields called the phone “a beauty on the outside and beast on the inside”.

The Lumia 800 borrows heavily from the design of the Nokia N9. Its insides are held together by a single piece, injection moulded polycarbonate shell, which the company claims allows for “outstanding antennae performance”.

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop elaborated on the phone’s form, calling it “simply elegant”.

He also noted how speaker hole on the Lumia 800 is individually milled.

Shields said that Nokia’s ambition with the Lumia 800 is to “surprise you at every turn”.

In terms of hardware, the phone boasts Carl Zeiss optics and an “optimised” LED flash. It reportedly weighs 142g, comes 512mb of RAM and will provide 390 hours of power in idle mode (which goes down to 380 hours on 3G). Those using 3G can expect five hours of talk time, or 50 hours of music playback.

Shields was at pains, however, to demonstrate how the phone makes full use of the tiled homescreen on Windows Phone.

In particular, he stressed the “People hub”, which brings together all your contacts “across all your services”. The hub, Nokia claims allows you access to Facebook chat and Windows Live chat from right within the hub.

Shields went on to demonstrate how the phone handles the demands of the smartphone user, claiming that it shifts seamlessly between work and play.

In order to illustrate this, he showed off the phone’s integration with Microsoft Office and Xbox Live.

The phone boasts mobile versions of the full suite of Microsoft Office products. From the phone, it can connect with Microsoft Sharepoint.

The phone also comes with 25 gigs of free online storage on Microsoft’s Skydrive.

In gaming mode, meanwhile, the phone allows you to connect with your Xbox live account. Any achievements you unlock while playing the 3D accelerated games supported by the phone will also appear when you connect using an Xbox console.

The phone’s native Internet Explorer browser is reportedly forged from the desktop version and features “robust html 5 support”.

Some of the additional features he highlighted included the “Mix Radio” feature, which allows you to play already set up length mixes of Nokia music, Nokia drive — a free built-in navigation app which is a first for any Windows phone.

Nokia also unveiled the Lumia 710, a “little brother” to the 800.

Also packing the Windows Phone OS, it comes with a 3.7″ “ClearBlack” display and replaceable covers that match the tile colours on Windows phone.

“Lumia is light, it is a new dawn for Nokia”, said Elop as he and Shields held the phones on stage.

According to Elop, the Lumia 800 is available for pre-order from Nokia.com and will be ship to most markets in early 2012.