Tag: Nokia

Nokia Lumia 730, Lumia 830 Pureview and Flagship Lumia 930 Pureview Launched to enlighten your Diwali

October 1, 2014, Nokia India launched three new Lumia’s to Indian market which would be available for purchase post October 15, 2014. Nokia Lumia 730 for affordable smartphone category at a price point of 15,299/-, Nokia Lumia 830 with a Carl Zeiss Pureview camera at a price point of 28, 000/- around and flagship Nokia Lumia 930 Pureview with metallic bezel at price point of 38,000/- around which would be available later.

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With flood of phones in the market on almost weekly basis, it’s getting hard to differentiate for a brand. Brands have to re-think each time that which features they need to highlight for selling the new range of phones. This time, Nokia has branded their affordable Nokia Lumia 730 as Selfie phone.

Why Selfie?

Photography has came a long way ahead since the time when Nokia introduced the first camera phone to the world. The kind of challenges and requirements with camera phones kept on changing over time and so were the phone.

First it was about having easy access to a camera which is always with you to take a snap than dedicated camera, then the challenge moved ahead to compete with digital cameras and focus moved to quality of pictures along with the ease of use, then we moved ahead to cope with DSLR Cameras along with ease of use. At many occasions, people find that its good to use a smartphone to take pictures than a dedicated camera or DSLR considering the ease of use, easy to snap, easy to edit on the go and easy to share with the dedicated connectivity. What else one would be need from a photography solution?

But soon the next generations found the answer for “what else?” and the answer was “Selfie”. This always been a common complaint of many who love taking snaps that at the end of day, they find that though they might have taken thousands of snaps in a day, there are a few pictures in those including themselves as it’s not that convenient to give your phone to others and asking them to take the perfect pictures like you or of your choice. So answer was, why not take pictures of self? The use case became mainstream with usable resolution front cameras which started coming with new age smartphones as timer option was just not cutting it and taking a snap via back camera by guess work wasn’t giving perfect results every time.

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Capable wide angle camera means one can take snaps of self and even of a big group including himself in it.

Nokia Lumia 730 : Polycarbonate Unibody build carries the legacy

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Its hard to keep a differentiator about your phones when it comes to build due to rush of similar looking phones in the market and one should give full credit to Lumia series that they kept their designs unique through entire range. Not only design but material and durability also to go along.

Even though it might be at a lower price point with similar kind of base specs as Moto G next gen might have but the dual SIM offering of Nokia at affordable smartphone segment doesn’t looses its punch with 720p 4.7” CBD display along with ultrathin Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The camera might be of 6.7MP, but it Carl Zeiss optics which been known for being kind of best out there. While front and back both cameras can record at 1080p  resolution, the battery at 2200mAh promises 22h of talktime and 600h of standby time.

Sure enough punches for the price point for the users which are not dedicatedly Android.

Nokia Lumia 830 : The first Pureview Phone without the camera bump

Even though the original Pureview definition of having a Super pixel created by heavy resolution camera compressed to few has changed over time, Pureview still stands for Carl Zeiss and quality pictures with it even though it wasn’t able to make phones very slimmer. Not any more.

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Nokia Lumia 830 is just 8.5mm thick phone with 5” 720p IPS LCD screen weighing just 150g.. apparently the thinnest and lightest Lumia till date. A polycarbonate back along with metallic bezel for a phone which not only takes great night, low light pictures but also takes great wide angle selfies with 28mm front camera of 5MP capability.

The other differentiator with the phone was “Live Images”, which is a term for Nokia’s answer to HTC’s “zoe”. A photo which keeps moments in it like videos. I don’t really know how the describe it other way around.

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If something was awkward with the phone then it would be the back cover which facilitates Wireless charging and all while made of polycarbonate material, it remains a pain in ass in case one needs to remove it for accessing battery/ storage / SIM etc.

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The speaker continues to remain on the backside and single.

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The no-bump Pureview camera on the back. The new about the camera is introduction of 3-Microphone system which claims to record true 5.1 Surround sound.

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When it comes to Lumia series then apart from Windows Phone OS, the other differentiators are services, which Microsoft trying to push towards the end of spectrum till the lowest price points and the big step towards that this time is introductory offer of 1Tb Cloud Storage for six months and then on a cost of Rs150/- per month later on. The same cloud storage supposed to be available with any the new phones from now on.

This is definitely a Lumia which I would like to talk about more when it pays me a longer visit.

Nokia Lumia 930 : The flagship Pureview smartphone of Nokia talking metal

This was a surprise launch which wasn’t given hint about before the launch. The highest priced phone of the spectrum comes with the topmost of specs in entire range along with metallic build quality (reminding of iPhone 4S like bezel).

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The specs include:

  • Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400, Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800, Adreno 330, LTE CAT4 Support
  • 137 x 71 x 9.8 mm, 167g
  • A 1080p 5” display competing the best of displays in the market with ~441 ppi pixel density, which is CBD AMOLED along with Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
  • Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound
  • 20 MP Carl Zeiss Optics with Dual LED Pureview Camera with Optical Image Stabilization. 1.2 MP front camera @720p though.
  • Wireless Charging Plate DT-900 included in retail package

I didn’t had much hands on over the phone, so can’t say more..

Layman’s Take on Nokia Lumia 520–Most Affordable Windows Phone?

It took a little longer but there been too many requests to be ignored and here I am back with Layman’s Take on another Nokia Lumia. Its been some time since Nokia Lumia 520 been into the market enjoying the cheapest Windows Phone tag and it’s the time when I would be looking that how does it fare against its price. We have already talked about Windows Phone 8 in the last post on Nokia Lumia 820, so here I would be jumping to unboxing part straight away.

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Continue reading “Layman’s Take on Nokia Lumia 520–Most Affordable Windows Phone?” →

Layman’s Take on Nokia Lumia 820–Steady and Tall

I remember the day when I was invited in one of the Nokia workshop in Delhi to sneak through a glimpse about the new generation of their Phone OS, which was about to unveil at the same day. I was also given glimpses of the upcoming marvels Nokia Lumia 820 and Nokia Lumia 920 at the same day even though wasn’t allowed to operate it myself. Even though Nokia Lumia 920 was a show stopper, Lumia 820 found many a people staring over it more (including myself) considering the size and build quality.  It took a little long to come to me, but finally its here and finally its time to write Layman’s Take after a real real long while (Being a Daddy at home and a manager at office taking big time toll over me).

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Windows Phone 8: The background

First Generation of Nokia Lumia Series had entered into the already crowded phone market as a fresh breath of air due to the fact that they took many of the basics right. But due to changed dynamics of the market, when this all moved to the second generation of Lumia Series, then there was a lot on stake and huge expectations coming from users spoiled with changed smartphone habits.

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Windows Phone has gone through something game changing beneath the surface, so that Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 may share a lot of code and even kernel with each other. Its game changing because Microsoft would be the first one to have their phones, tablets and workstations all sharing same code base & hence less trouble for developers and users as well. Helps in mobilizing developers and also in making a coherent ecosystem as well.

In all, I did appreciated what Microsoft did or what they intend to do and actually can vouch that they doing a brave and right thing but at the same time being an active user/ analyst about other platforms, I also see that how hard it is to lure the users from other platforms if you ask users to do things differently. Let’s see where it leads to.

Continue reading “Layman’s Take on Nokia Lumia 820–Steady and Tall” →

Nokia Drive at the lowest price point-Nokia Lumia 510

I have talked lengths about Windows Phones earlier as well and in particular about Nokia Lumia 510 too. This time, I wanted to take the space for the favorite feature of mine in Windows Phones: Nokia Drive. I warn you, this wont be a conventional Layman’s take post but the one shot written rumbling of the man Nitish Kumar. So be ready to take it that way.

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Before starting about Nokia Drive, let me tell you that I am very bad with routes, which some of you already have gotten a clue about, since I am stressing about Nokia Drive here. I have had bad moments due to guess works about the routes and started relying over maps even when I wasn’t travelling by car and had a Nokia N70 with me.

Continue reading “Nokia Drive at the lowest price point-Nokia Lumia 510” →

Layman’s Take on Nokia Monster Purity WH-920

One of the first reaction of mine about Nokia Monster Purity WH-920 was, what a big impressive name it is and what superb premium looking packaging it got. Then the pricing under Rs. 5000/- was meant to tell me that those who like good audio but don’t want to overboard with pricing can sure opt for it if decent.

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If going by looks, then from a distance the headset looks something like other headsets which get supplied with some of your premium level phones (I can remember the headset of Nokia N8). So, it was very much needed to make it appear different than normal headsets out there in market while keeping the inherent simplicity and sophistication. Marketing is always a way to do such a thing and here we see that in packaging of this product.

Continue reading “Layman’s Take on Nokia Monster Purity WH-920” →

Nokia Lumia 510-Short hands on & first impressions

It doesn’t happen always that I might be writing about a product before spending a sufficient time with it unless I genuinely feel interested about it. Nokia Lumia 510 is definitely one of the product that actually surprised me.

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It was one of those events, when we were already informed about the product in well advanced and that too for certain. Thanks to Facebook Status of Nokia India saying 610 – 100 = …. The thing that was surprising about the event, was Diana Penty launching Nokia Lumia 610.

Continue reading “Nokia Lumia 510-Short hands on & first impressions” →

Layman’s Take on Nokia Lumia 900–Bigger sibling or a new character?

A little bit late than rest of the world but finally Nokia Lumia 900 is introduced to Indian Market in a rather silent way than Nokia India had launched other Lumia siblings in past. A bit less buzz about this handset might be due to proximity of Nokia Lumia 820/920 around the corner. When it paid a visit to Layman’s Take, then there were some harsh questions to be asked.

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While it was the most prettiest Nokia handset ever that would have came to my hands, the questions were still fierce:

  1. Is Nokia Lumia 900 is just an enlarged Nokia Lumia 800?
  2. Does the biggest screen from Nokia till date makes it hard to handle?
  3. How the different build feels better than Nokia Lumia 800 or Nokia N8 likes?
  4. The new display in Lumia 900 any different than Lumia 800? For good or for bad?
  5. Is it worth to buy Nokia Lumia 900 when you can get a Lumia 800 for cheap?
  6. Is it worth to buy a high end Nokia Lumia 900 when Nokia Lumia 820/920?

So, let’s read ahead to know that how I found out this beautiful Nokia Lumia 900?

Continue reading “Layman’s Take on Nokia Lumia 900–Bigger sibling or a new character?” →