A Tale of Two Nokias

It’s in the public domain that Nokia, the company whose devices we have all loved at some point in our lives, unveiled what many industry insiders and analysts consider to be its “last straws”, the Lumia 920 and the Lumia 820.

To the eye, they are two beautiful pieces of hardware that would not have escaped my attention. In fact apart from the Samsung Unpacked event where the hot-selling Samsung Galaxy S III was unveiled, this was the third major international tech event that I made sure to catch the live stream online. The other event was Microsoft’s launch of the next version of Office (what is being touted as Office 2013 by almost everyone yet reportedly Microsoft employees are calling it simply the “new Office”). Probably the only other live stream I will be watching this year is the Apple event slated for September 12^th where they will unveil their next flagship smartphone (or so the rumour mill is saying), the iPhone 5 or maybe with a different name. I remember last year making an error (and many people made the same error) of pre-empting that they were to unveil the “iPhone 5” days after Steve Jobs’ death only for the iPhone 4S to be unveiled. The same happened early this year when Apple went ahead and trashed talks of an “iPad 3” or an “iPad HD” and simply launched “the new iPad”.

Back to Nokia. Why was the September 5^th event that important? For many reasons. The event was a statement to many quarters starting with the software supplier, Microsoft. The Lumia 820 and the Lumia 920 are the devices that the two companies (Microsoft and Nokia) hope will cement their partnership and scale the heights for Microsoft’s new Windows 8 platform. Running on the same kernel as the one that the PC and tablet Windows 8 will run, Windows Phone 8 should be by all means a true reflection of where Microsoft is going with its radical redesign of its iconic Windows operating system. Till the October release of Windows 8 on the PC and tablets and the first shipping of the Surface tablet, this is the first way that Redmond could test the waters. Of course according to me it is the best way since everything is mobile these days despite the fact that Microsoft’s strength has always majorly hinged on its PC offerings.

The other reason why that launch was important was because in recent times things have not been that rosy for the Finnish giant. The Lumia 920 and the Lumia 820 provide Nokia with an opportunity to scale the heights it used to rule not long ago once again. I remember reading Nokia CEO’s Elop’s letter sometimes back as it was reproduced on @tomiahonen’s blog about how the mobile device maker’s Symbian platform was like an oil rig that had been set on fire and that the people on the rig needed to take decisive steps. Either stay on the rig and burn completely or jump into the cold sea and peg hopes on survival however dim. It is clear what Nokia chose and this shows just how important Windows Phone 8 and the two devices are to it.

There are many factors as to how the September 5^th event could be a total turning point in the mobile phone world since it has the potential to establish Windows Phone  as a much more solid platform that is ready to not only take on but defeat iOS and my darling Android from the perch. I will leave out Research In Motion’s Blackberry OS since that in itself is a whole topic of discussion. Simply put, Windows Phone has a future. If we continue seeing devices as good as the Ativ S from Samsung, Lumia 920 and the Lumia 820 from Nokia, then the future is good.

Before the Lumia 820 and the Lumia 920, the only other Windows Phone that I had a lot of respect for was (and still is) the Lumia 900. With the impressive specs that the two new Nokia beasts pack, it seems that my list will soon grow. Before I forget, there’s that large Kodak too, the PureView 808; it’s a darling to me and my instagramming life.

Specifications

Here’s a quick rundown of the specs of the two Lumias.

Nokia Lumia 820

• An AMOLED ClearBlack display with a size of 4.3 inches, 800 X 400 pixels with a pixel density of 217 ppi
• Measures 123.8 X 68.5 X 9.9 mm and weighs just 160g
• NFC support
• Same processor as the Lumia 920. See below.
• Same RAM as the Lumia 920
• 8GB internal memory and 7 GB SkyDrive memory
• A BP-5T standard Li-Ion 1650mAh battery

More details on the specs of the Lumia 820 can be found here.

Missing in action in the Lumia 820: FM radio.

Nokia Lumia 920

It is what Nokia touts as “our flagship Lumia with PureView camera technology” and “the most innovative Lumia” and is what blew me away.

• Packs a screen size of 4.5 inches – 1280 X 768 pixels and a pixel density of 332 ppi
• Measures 130.3 X 70.8 X 10.7 mm and weighs just 185g
• Spots a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon™ S4 Dual-core processor
• Has NFC support
• (In Nokia terms) 1 GB internal memory and 32 & 7 GB SkyDrive Mass memory. (In common parlance, 1 GB RAM, 32 internal storage & 7 Gb SkyDrive storage)
• A BP-4GW standard Li-Ion 2000mAh non-removable battery
• PureView Camera technology. Nokia has released a PDF with more details about PureView. Get it here
• 8.7 MP back camera, 1.3 MP front camera
• PureMotion HD+ Display
• Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) technology
• Carl Zeiss optics
• Wireless charging

More about the Lumia 920’s specs can be found here.

Missing in action in the Lumia 920: MicroSD card slot, FM radio. This won’t resonate well with some users.

Other notable features found in the devices:

• Nokia Drive
• Nokia City Lens
• Nokia Maps

As much as the specifications in the later part of this post are objective, the earlier remarks on this post are subjective and open to deliberations and criticism(s).

Specs and images courtesy of Nokia