Lumia 800 Review

[AkiraNakayama]

So I've had a few days to play with my Lumia 800 and thought I'd post up my thoughts. I came from the iPhone 4S initially to a Lumia 900 but eventually returned the 900 to the Microsoft Store and bought an 800 off eBay.

You can see my rambling thoughts about the 900 here.

Basically, I exchanged the 900 for the 800 because they are largely the same phone. The differences between the two were not enough to make me stick with the 900 which was way too big and was locked to AT&T. LTE is not available in my area so even that wasn't a selling point for me. Some people really like the bigger display but it doesn't give you more pixels since all WPs are mandated to be a certain resolution. The 800's curved screen is something the 900 should have retained. Both the 800 and 900 cameras leave a lot to be desired.

I generally really enjoy the 800. It's a sleek, standout design and I like how it feels in my hands. However, here are some gripes:

- Battery life is pretty poor. I can't get a full day's use out of it without going into battery saver mode. I've heard of others having this issue while some report the opposite. Either way, it's inconsistent.

- Battery takes FOREVER to charge. I am used to the iPhone 4S charging super quickly.

- Pentile display is a bit odd. That's the one thing about the 900 which I liked--- lack of Pentile. However, both the 800's and 900's screen are sorely lacking in detail, nuance, and color accuracy.

- Flimsy, fragile usb port cover. I understand they wanted to keep the design of the exterior smooth and with minimal interruptions. But it makes using the phone such a tense affair when you have it on charge--- the plastic cover all exposed like that. H ell, If you're not careful flipping open the cover it could get bent out of shape. This design also precludes the phone having any sort of docking accessory. I, for one, would love to be able to place it in its own cradle at night to use as a nightstand clock.

- Lastly, this might be a software/firmware issue, but I'm definitely experiencing the scrolling/touch issues some users have reported. Namely, the screen will register a tap when I am actually, blatantly scrolling/swiping. It will also zoom in or out when I'm scrolling. I'm not even using two fingers! Just one finger and it seems to think I'm pinching in or out. Very frustrating.

If I was present in the design finalization meeting for the 800 I would have presented this list:

- Needs better battery life. Need to implement a quick-charge solution.
- Revisit placement of USB port, get rid of that prone-to-breaking cover.
- Use different screen tech. None of this Pentile crap. Needs better accuracy for screen color and contrast, shadow detail.
- Get that LTE radio in there!

Personally, if I was designing the 900, I'd just update the 800 with the above list and call it good. I understand that people want bigger and all that. But that's not necessarily better! The 800 already has a great form factor just stick with it and address the weaknesses, I say. The 900 improved on some things, namely the usb port placement (although it still precludes docking), the non-Pentile display (although the display is still lacking) and the addition of LTE, but I think it is an inferior phone in terms of user connection (how it feels in the hand) and aesthetics.

 

[Jrexxx]

Regarding the battery issues, did you update the phone to 12070?
Did you notice any difference between the 900 and 800s camera?

 

[ivanhorv]

I bought my Lumia 800 which was already updated to the latest version. Still, if I'm on 3G all the time, the battery lasts approximately 10 hours which I find quite reasonable.
As for the USB port cover, it a real annoyance to look out for.
There's one more thing. I find Lumia 800 to be quite a silent phone. Not really too silent, but you know, not as loud as it should be. Besides that, I'm perfectly happy with it.

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

 

[AkiraNakayama]

Regarding the battery issues, did you update the phone to 12070?
Did you notice any difference between the 900 and 800s camera?

I have updated the firmware to 12070 and the battery life is better now. However, I still think it is pretty poor. By late afternoon, it has drained to about 25%. I can't tell yet if it's something I'm doing that is out-of-the-ordinary or if it's still a firmware/hardware problem.

The camera on the 800 seems to be about the same as the 900. That is to say, "piss poor". For as much as Nokia flaunted the Zeiss optics, they really bungled the sensor and firmware.

UPDATE: Battery life is really poor still. Don't know what to do about this. But I will be sending the phone in for a warranty repair for the screen issue. Hopefully Nokia can replace the battery while they're at it.

 

[Cocolino]

Akira darling, you are way too mild and nice!
See my review for a change of mood!

I received it as a Christmas gift from someone who knew I was a Nokia fan (not any more after Nokia Lumia 800 user experience!!).
Disappointed on soooo many levels.
Where do I start? Very briefly:
1. The interface is absolute crap, extremely basic (not to say rudimentary) and does hardly allow any customisation. The flexibility around organising and editing your tiles (yes, I don't like their standard size and shape!!), content, the poor and unimaginative way they built the user interface are most annoying.
2. The awful battery life has already gained a bad fame for most (if not all!) users, so need to comment on that.
3. Adobe Flash Player not working on this phone is a huge drawback! What is the point of advertising it as an ultimate multimedia phone, if (one of) the most common audio-video software is not supported?!?
4. Lack of options around messaging (such as... a Draft folder, which is sooo basic!) or sound volume!! So, if I want to listen to music or radio at a higher volume, I MUST suffer the 'punishment' of being deafened by the volume intensity when receiving a mail/ message notification or phone call! Crap.
5. Annoying back button for Net surfing. Always have to go to Settings to close tabs etc. etc. No shortcuts or keys combinations available for such menial tasks!
And I could go on with listing MANY OTHER FLAWS AND UNNECESSARY COMPLICATIONS concerning the poor interface design and built of Nokia Lumia..., doubled by the inherent limitations of Windows!
6. The constant upgrades they HAD TO come with to 'sweeten the pill' for the unhappy users just go to prove that this phone launch was rushed, whilst the phone concept was not thought through. In three words, whatta botch job!!!
Doh... sorry, Nokia, no longer a fan!

 

[freestaterocker]

Akira darling, you are way too mild and nice!
See my review for a change of mood!

I received it as a Christmas gift from someone who knew I was a Nokia fan (not any more after Nokia Lumia 800 user experience!!).
Disappointed on soooo many levels.
Where do I start? Very briefly:
1. The interface is absolute crap, extremely basic (not to say rudimentary) and does hardly allow any customisation. The flexibility around organising and editing your tiles (yes, I don't like their standard size and shape!!), content, the poor and unimaginative way they built the user interface are most annoying.
2. The awful battery life has already gained a bad fame for most (if not all!) users, so need to comment on that.
3. Adobe Flash Player not working on this phone is a huge drawback! What is the point of advertising it as an ultimate multimedia phone, if (one of) the most common audio-video software is not supported?!?
4. Lack of options around messaging (such as... a Draft folder, which is sooo basic!) or sound volume!! So, if I want to listen to music or radio at a higher volume, I MUST suffer the 'punishment' of being deafened by the volume intensity when receiving a mail/ message notification or phone call! Crap.
5. Annoying back button for Net surfing. Always have to go to Settings to close tabs etc. etc. No shortcuts or keys combinations available for such menial tasks!
And I could go on with listing MANY OTHER FLAWS AND UNNECESSARY COMPLICATIONS concerning the poor interface design and built of Nokia Lumia..., doubled by the inherent limitations of Windows!
6. The constant upgrades they HAD TO come with to 'sweeten the pill' for the unhappy users just go to prove that this phone launch was rushed, whilst the phone concept was not thought through. In three words, whatta botch job!!!
Doh... sorry, Nokia, no longer a fan!

1. So rows of static, lifeless icons just like the competitors would be more "imaginitive"?

2. Not everyone is having the same experience. Maybe Nokia has a bad batch of SoCs or battery connectors or something. It's unfortunate you had that experience and Nokia is absolutely to blame on that one.

3. As of right now Flash only works on Android. And not very well. And Adobe is no longer supporting/updating flash mobile.

4. Ok I'm bored of this game...

No mobile phone is perfect. As far as battery life, get an Android, watch a bunch of flash videos, and plug the phone back in at noon. Yes the phone was rushed, but at least Nokia is supporting it. Buy a Samsung or HTC and you're on your own.

 

[AkiraNakayama]

Akira darling, you are way too mild and nice!
See my review for a change of mood!

I received it as a Christmas gift from someone who knew I was a Nokia fan (not any more after Nokia Lumia 800 user experience!!).
Disappointed on soooo many levels.
Where do I start? Very briefly:
1. The interface is absolute crap, extremely basic (not to say rudimentary) and does hardly allow any customisation. The flexibility around organising and editing your tiles (yes, I don't like their standard size and shape!!), content, the poor and unimaginative way they built the user interface are most annoying.
2. The awful battery life has already gained a bad fame for most (if not all!) users, so need to comment on that.
3. Adobe Flash Player not working on this phone is a huge drawback! What is the point of advertising it as an ultimate multimedia phone, if (one of) the most common audio-video software is not supported?!?
4. Lack of options around messaging (such as... a Draft folder, which is sooo basic!) or sound volume!! So, if I want to listen to music or radio at a higher volume, I MUST suffer the 'punishment' of being deafened by the volume intensity when receiving a mail/ message notification or phone call! Crap.
5. Annoying back button for Net surfing. Always have to go to Settings to close tabs etc. etc. No shortcuts or keys combinations available for such menial tasks!
And I could go on with listing MANY OTHER FLAWS AND UNNECESSARY COMPLICATIONS concerning the poor interface design and built of Nokia Lumia..., doubled by the inherent limitations of Windows!
6. The constant upgrades they HAD TO come with to 'sweeten the pill' for the unhappy users just go to prove that this phone launch was rushed, whilst the phone concept was not thought through. In three words, whatta botch job!!!
Doh... sorry, Nokia, no longer a fan!

Cocolino,

Your criticisms are two-pronged here. Out of the six problems you listed about the Lumia, only two of them are about the actual phone; the other four are about the Windows Phone OS itself which Nokia doesn't have much control over with maybe the exception of part two of 4 (which seems to be two different complaints rolled into one).

Nokia got a lot of things right, but yeah, they also got a lot of things wrong. I agree with both (or all three, depending) of your critiques of the phone itself. Your complaints of the OS are also well-founded, but I am tired of people conflating shortcomings/flaws of Windows Phone OS as something that the manufacturers of the devices have any sort of control over.

So in short, your gripes seem to be more with Windows Phone as an OS with a few (though admittedly critical) gripes with the actual phone itself. Nokia has made a great phone, but yes, the execution does fall short of the promise and concept. Add to that some of the inherent shortcomings of Windows Phone OS and the picture does get a bit worse. But let's all be clear-headed about what exactly we're speaking about when we're critiquing these devices.

 

[Cocolino]

1. So rows of static, lifeless icons just like the competitors would be more "imaginitive"?

2. Not everyone is having the same experience. Maybe Nokia has a bad batch of SoCs or battery connectors or something. It's unfortunate you had that experience and Nokia is absolutely to blame on that one.

3. As of right now Flash only works on Android. And not very well. And Adobe is no longer supporting/updating flash mobile.

4. Ok I'm bored of this game...

No mobile phone is perfect. As far as battery life, get an Android, watch a bunch of flash videos, and plug the phone back in at noon. Yes the phone was rushed, but at least Nokia is supporting it. Buy a Samsung or HTC and you're on your own.

Dear Freestaterocker,
Thank U for your reply.
1. Erm... Yes, instead of the lack of option around my privacy that the 'live tiles' bring with them, I'd rather have 'static, lifeless' tiles. What I mean is I don't necessarily like that on my mobile home page, everyone can see my Contacts/ People' pictures! On a humorous note, you can no longer hide a lover! It has to bloody show in your Contacts live tiles, and I have no option to protect MY and THEIR privacy! Moreover, given that this is a Windows phone, I would at least have expected to be able to 'arrange', organise and group the content in folders etc., without having to scroll up& down an endless list of apps etc. within each alphabet letter! This, provided that I memorise exactly each app's name, otherwise I'll need to scroll from A to Z!
2. Not everyone is having a bad battery experience with Nokia Lumia 800????
Man, you're the first I hear saying it! I doubt it's only a batch that has this issue! Unless they made a big enough (and faulty) batch to cover all Europe's sales!
3. Yes, I know Adobe plan to take the plug off any future development for Flash mobile... Well, let's hope html5 will revive the user experience soon enough!
As for the Flash Player on Android, I beg to differ, my experience was/ is very good on my oldish Android mobile. But perhaps I got a lucky batch with that one? ;-)
4. Yes, I agree. Everyone to their taste. I miss my Android, and no, if I watched a few flashy videos, I won't need to charge it after a few hours. My good old Andro would go for days on... Battery life exceptional! Eehee... happy times.

 

[troykm]

seriously, turn off all feedback! it makes the biggest difference to the battery life. my phone never drops below 40% now after a day of my normal usage. before i turned off feedback the battery went from 100% to 40% overnight while in standby.

 

[Cocolino]

Cocolino,

Your criticisms are two-pronged here. Out of the six problems you listed about the Lumia, only two of them are about the actual phone; the other four are about the Windows Phone OS itself which Nokia doesn't have much control over with maybe the exception of part two of 4 (which seems to be two different complaints rolled into one).

Nokia got a lot of things right, but yeah, they also got a lot of things wrong. I agree with both (or all three, depending) of your critiques of the phone itself. Your complaints of the OS are also well-founded, but I am tired of people conflating shortcomings/flaws of Windows Phone OS as something that the manufacturers of the devices have any sort of control over.

So in short, your gripes seem to be more with Windows Phone as an OS with a few (though admittedly critical) gripes with the actual phone itself. Nokia has made a great phone, but yes, the execution does fall short of the promise and concept. Add to that some of the inherent shortcomings of Windows Phone OS and the picture does get a bit worse. But let's all be clear-headed about what exactly we're speaking about when we're critiquing these devices.

Akira, thank U for taking time to reply. Just a brief note to say that yes, I'm perfectly aware I mixed the shortcomings of OS with manufacturer's uninspired choices of features etc. But how else can I judge this unhappy marriage between Nokia and Windows? I have to assess it as a whole. It was Nokia's choice to go with Windows, they should've thought twice and, since they decided to embark on this daring (not to say risky) 'journey', they should have made provisions and thought through the whole process. I cannot pat Nokia on the back saying yeah, pity you hooked with the limited, poor Windows, otherwise this would've been a marriage made in heaven!!
As an end user, I can only judge a product in its entirety... Details and family's "complications" should not be my concern.

 

[Heron_Kusanagi]

Well, I feel bad for your bad experience with the L800, Cocolino. But let me reply to your points.

1. The interface is absolute crap, extremely basic (not to say rudimentary) and does hardly allow any customisation. The flexibility around organising and editing your tiles (yes, I don't like their standard size and shape!!), content, the poor and unimaginative way they built the user interface are most annoying.

I was worried personally that I will have a similar problem with you, but no, I like how it just works, and I don't need a high level of customization. Now I did wish sometimes were more customizable, but I am happy as it is and anything more is just icing on the cake.

2. The awful battery life has already gained a bad fame for most (if not all!) users, so need to comment on that.

Seeing that you got it around Christmas, sad. I got it on March, and I am happy to say that battery issues are resolved, and even as a heavy user of browsing on cellular data, I can last from 9am-6pm usually.

3. Adobe Flash Player not working on this phone is a huge drawback! What is the point of advertising it as an ultimate multimedia phone, if (one of) the most common audio-video software is not supported?!?

I do miss this. But so long as Youtube is supported, and the sites I go to dun use flash a lot, so I am not missing much.

4. Lack of options around messaging (such as... a Draft folder, which is sooo basic!) or sound volume!! So, if I want to listen to music or radio at a higher volume, I MUST suffer the 'punishment' of being deafened by the volume intensity when receiving a mail/ message notification or phone call! Crap.

5. Annoying back button for Net surfing. Always have to go to Settings to close tabs etc. etc. No shortcuts or keys combinations available for such menial tasks!
And I could go on with listing MANY OTHER FLAWS AND UNNECESSARY COMPLICATIONS concerning the poor interface design and built of Nokia Lumia..., doubled by the inherent limitations of Windows!


Problems inherent to the WP OS. I knew what I was getting into. Of course it would be nice to have some of these issues resolved. But its no deal breaker as you made out.

6. The constant upgrades they HAD TO come with to 'sweeten the pill' for the unhappy users just go to prove that this phone launch was rushed, whilst the phone concept was not thought through. In three words, whatta botch job!!!
Doh... sorry, Nokia, no longer a fan!

Still a Nokia fan. And that's because of the upgrades. They had many upgrades for my E63, and I prefer it this way for the L800.

Of course, being that I brought my device in March, I avoided much of the early-adopter issues others, including you, had with the phone. So I am a happy user. Feel sorry for you that you felt the need to 'un-fan' Nokia. But to each his own and it is a classical 'Your Mileage May Vary' scenario, especially when Metro UI is concerned.

 

[mprice86]

As others have said, many of the issues contained here are to do with the OS, rather than with the phone so I'm not going to bother addressing them (it's been done to death on these boards).

Regarding the battery life, with data off and WiFi on (like if I'm going to be in the house all day) I get 2 days+ out of the battery, with moderate use.

With 3G on and consistent reception I'll get a day or so (17-20 hours) depending on if my usage is light or moderate.

Also from 20% to 100% takes my phone about 3 hours to charge, which I think is pretty good, but I understand that that is not as fast as a 4S which has some kind of fast charge feature.

If you get bad reception, you're going to have bad battery life, the same is true of any phone that is constantly having to change connection or reconnect all the time. Incidentally the same applies to leaving WiFi on when you're out and about as every time you use your phone it will be searching for and trying to connect to WiFi connections. That said there are a number of things you can do to improve things:

• Get Toggle - free on marketplace - shortcuts for your homescreen to quickly enable/disable wifi/3g/bluetooth
• Turn OFF "Synchronise game requests" in Games > Settings - Weird one this but seems to do a lot for battery life.
• Set screen brightness to Auto - this was improved in the last update to react faster
• Turn off feedback - both sound and vibrations - if you use the phone a lot this could save you a bunch

A lot of people swear by the method of reducing the frequency with which your accounts update as well but I prefer just to leave them push enabled, I don't get a lot of email but I like to get them right away when they do come.

It's also become clear that even when in the house people like to leave 3G on so they get emails, this can be remedied simply by plugging the phone in if you're going to be stationary for a while, as WiFi remains on when the phone is charging.

Regarding the touch detection, I've seen other people say this but can honestly say that I've never had this problem.

Regarding the screen itself, if I take my glasses off and hold the phone about 3 inches from my eyes, I can see the pentile thing. But, other than that I've found the screen to be excellent, especially for colour reproduction and depth in DSLR images.

Granted, you're coming from a 4S so the pixel density is somewhat lower on the 800. This seems to be a common problem with people coming from iPhone 4/4S who are used to more compact and dense screen.

That's all I've got for now, I'm supposed to be writing an assignment here :blush: