back to article Nokia primes Lumias for Windows Phone 8 push

Nokia hopes to make a splash in the Windows Phone 8 pool when its Lumia 920 and 820 hits shelves later this week. The hotly anticipated Lumia 920 takes Nokia's PureView photography tech into the WinPho arena with an 8.7Mp sensor and f/2.0 aperture. Nokia Lumia 920 The results - unlikely to be as impressive as the fake …

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  1. Spearchucker Jones

    Later this week?!?

    Balls. For the 920, at least.

    EE will only start selling it next week. Phones4U (checked on Oxford Street and in Hampstead) have no idea when they're getting stock, but the sales guys in both shops said they think middle of November.

    At least Phones4U will sell the 920 SIM-free (£430 -odd). http://www.digital-phone.co.uk/product/nokia-lumia-920-yellow.aspx are selling it for £470, and the site says they'll have stock on Monday.

    1. Dave's Jubblies
      Thumb Up

      Re: Later this week?!?

      How do you know P4U will sell it sim free and at that price? Can't find it listed anywhere...?

      1. Caleb Cox (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: Re: Later this week?!?

        http://shop.ee.co.uk/nokia-lumia-920-black/pay-monthly/details/

        There's ya pricing.. P4U has the exclusive for retail outlets I believe.

        1. Dave's Jubblies

          Re: Later this week?!?

          Seen that Caleb. But I live in the middle of no where, not a chance I'm going to pay for 4g when I can barely get 3g. I want it sim free or on a normal network at normal prices!

      2. Spearchucker Jones

        Re: Later this week?!? (@Dave's Jubblies)

        When I asked if I could have one, the sales chick, erm, I mean the retail engineer in the Oxford Street P4U asked if I wanted SIM free or contract, before realizing they don't have stock. They have those pseudo-dummy versions of the 920 on display in the Oxford Street P4U shop. The price/spec sheet below it says SIM free, and the price (£430 and change). P4U definitely sell the 920 off-contract, when it becomes available.

      3. Dave's Jubblies
        Facepalm

        Re: Later this week?!?

        LOL... gotta love fanboi's... mark me down for asking where I can buy it, and someone else for telling me where!

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Paris Hilton

      "unlikely to be as impressive as the fake footage used in Nokia's advertisements"

      Nor greeted as enthusiastically as the fake fanbois rumbled in the queue for surface:

      http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/10/microsoft-fakes-excitement-its-surface-tablet-launch/58417/

      Paris, for even she could spot the obvious pattern here:

      1. RICHTO
        Mushroom

        Re: "unlikely to be as impressive as the fake footage used in Nokia's advertisements"

        That article is tenuous speculation. There is no evidence at all of 'fake fanbois'

    3. Pie

      Re: Later this week?!?

      Twitter had a promoted post saying 02/11/12 release date for the 920

  2. Stuart Ball

    According to the Nokia Press release from yesterday:

    http://press.nokia.com/2012/10/29/nokia-lumia-920-and-nokia-lumia-820-now-shipping/

    They are in the "Channel" so it will be down to internal P4U supply chain on when they hit the shelves I would guess.

    I want a 920 in Tweetie Pie yellow.....sad, i know.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

    The lack of apps, 2010 specs and premium pricetag are enough to put me off, let alone Windows Phone miserable track record.

    I see the LG Nexus 4 is out. Sounds like a much better prospect to me....

    1. isatsuma

      Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

      Windows Phone 8 has 120,000 apps available and 46/50 of the most popular apps on iOS/Android

      Yeah dual-core krait, 4.5" screen, image optical stabilisation, wireless charging, capacitive touch you can use with gloves, etc is soooo 2010 isn't it?

      On the pricing I do agree somewhat; the EE tariffs/prices are horrendous.

      Currently the best WP8 device is available in the UK only on a 4G tariff, only on one network and in black and white colours rather than the bright ones Nokia was so keen to promote.

      If I can the canary yellow sim free somewhere without too extortionate a price, I might just pull the trigger.

      1. tirk

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        To be fair the Palm Pre had wireless charging in 2009.

        (Though I've never seen how hard it is to plug a cable in, TBH)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

          It did, but it was proprietary. The 920 uses the QI standard which nobody else has seemingly managed to build into their phone.

          Wireless charging alone is hard to cram in, Samsung didn't manage it. But to fit in a large optically stabilised camera too is impressive.

        2. Lusty

          Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

          can we stop calling this wireless? I can see the wire from here! There is no PLUG but there is most definitely a wire so this is no different to a normal charging dock apart from the fact that it will be less efficient.

          1. UJSTech
            Facepalm

            Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

            I know right!?!

            And while we're at it, I tink they need to stop calling wireless phones... "Wireless phones" I mean, I've put those on their base stations and there are CLEARLY wires.

            Same goes for cell phones. I've seen cables coming out of Cell towers

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

            It will charge with quite a considerable amount of air between the two devices and if you build it into a set of speakers, table or otherwise then it will seem "wireless".

            The correct term of course is inductive, but that's harder to remember.

            Guess what? I use wireless networking at home and my wireless router has wires hanging out of it, is that not a wireless router then?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        Didn't want it in Clementine Orange then...?

      3. fishman

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        <<Windows Phone 8 has 120,000 apps available and 46/50 of the most popular apps on iOS/Android>>

        Of course, those are WP7 apps that are at the single fixed WP7 screen resolution, and not taking advantage of the newer phones higher resolution screen.

        1. RICHTO
          Mushroom

          Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

          Just like all the ipad and iphone apps that were designed for 1024x768 you mean?

      4. RICHTO
        Mushroom

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        I was offered the Lumia 920 for free @ £36 a month with unlimited voice / texts and 1GB of Data on Orange.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

      2010 specs?

      Name me the phone from 2010 with these features:

      Optical image stabilising.

      QI Wireless charging.

      Ultrasensitive screen.

      Photo comparison:

      http://www.noknok.tv/2012/10/29/nokia-lumia-920-vs-samsung-galaxy-siii-htc-one-x-low-light-photo-test/

      Video comparison:

      http://wpsuperfanboy.com/news.php?post_id=662

      Mobile phones don't need quad core processors unless the OS is bloated and slow. Compilers from Microsoft and Intel generally generate faster code which is why open source web browsers tend to run faster and smoother on Windows as the code generated by GCC is slower.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

          Intel used to produce ARM chips.

          ARM have a compiler anyway.

      2. Bob Vistakin
        Holmes

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        Perhaps that's why these phones are bright yellow as favoured by simpletons - to wake you up after yawning at their specs?

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        > Compilers from Microsoft <snip> generally generate faster code

        Have you ever actually _looked_ at the code the VS compiler produces? Intel's compiler - OK, it's pretty good - but the MS compiler is pretty poor.

        From a linguistic point of view it still doesn't support C99 properly, and contains lots of non-standard Microsoftisms despite their now being standardized methods of doing so (which they don't support). It's one the last legacies of MSs embrace and extend mantra to try and generate lockin.

        > which is why open source web browsers tend to run faster and smoother on Windows as the code generated by GCC is slower

        I'm fairly sure that most of the open source browsers are compiled using GCC for Windows, although I welcome being corrected on that because I'm not 100% sure on that point.

        1. h4rm0ny

          Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

          "I'm fairly sure that most of the open source browsers are compiled using GCC for Windows, although I welcome being corrected on that because I'm not 100% sure on that point."

          I've just looked at the compiler information for Firefox running on my Windows 7 box (you can get this from Help->Troubleshooting information and rooting around), and it looks like Visual Studo was used to me. Also searching for compile instructions for Firefox all returns Visual Studio. I can't check Chrome directly as I don't have it installed on this machine, but the build instructions at chromium.org are for Visual Studio. Am not a Windows programmer so don't know whether to be surprised by this or not. If I'd had to guess without looking I probably would have said GCC just because...well, Open Source.

      4. RICHTO
        Mushroom

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        Don't forget that IE10 is also faster than any other browser anyway....

      5. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Meh - 2010 specs - no thanks.

        I see they continently didn't include the Xperia with the backlit CCD in the low light camera test comparisons... I wonder why...

        I think you have been fooled by the usual Microsoft trick of cherrypicking what they compare against.

        Also all those features are available in other phones for ages..

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I've never felt so annoyed at a company that I've considered writing to them before now. But I think Ballmer and Elop need to realise that exclusivity deals just piss off the consumer, piss off the other networks, piss off the other stores and ultimately piss off the competition regulators.

    Apple may have gone for exclusivity with the iPhone 1 but they didn't know if it was going to be a success and they didn't have the experience needed in that market so a business partner was useful.

    Nokia have been around since the ark, so don't need to do such bullshit deals.

    1. Dave Fox
      FAIL

      Got to agree here!

      Nokia need to win the hearts and minds of consumers, and making their flagship device a network exclusive is not the way to do it.

      Hint for you Nokia - most people don't choose their network based on the phones they carry! They choose their network mostly on price (including allowances), coverage and network reliability (not necessarily in that order!). Orange/TMo/EE fail on 2 of the 3 criteria for me (Price/allowances and coverage) so there's no way I will move to them.

      1. Matt_payne666

        Bingo, my Iphone 4 came off contract in August and Ive been waiting to get the 920... the lack of teasers, etc has almost had me reaching for the Iphone5 on several occasions... (im an iphoneite since the 3s came out)

        I live out in the sticks and am quite happy with a 3g connection, my provider 3 gives me a great deal for and I don't feel the need to move - but I just want the yellow 920! now Ive been railroaded into one provider, through one store... its almost enough for me to laugh it all off. Especially as none of the monkies wants to give any indication as to availability of the damn thing...

        Nokia should have just opened up the phone to everyone, its got some great selling points and they do kinda need the money!

    2. James 47

      Re:exclusivity deals

      The man on the street isn't Nokia's customer and never has been. When they refer to 'customer' they mean networks operators.

      1. Richard Altmann
        Thumb Down

        Re: Re:exclusivity deals

        get out of your mother´s basement and walk the streets of Nairobi, Kampala, Sao Paulo ... and what you will find there: Nokia. Crawl back under your stone, if you left it.

  5. squilookle
    FAIL

    Oh dear

    The phone looks good, but restricting it to one network and one shop? Are people going to stray from their usual network/shop just for this phone when the competition is so strong?

    I think they've blown it, but i wish them luck.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh dear

      Two sites I've emailed say they're getting some.

      Digital Phone and Unlocked Mobiles. Clove said it's looking unlikely but they are waiting to see.

  6. Lutin

    Palm Pre

    Didn't Palm have an exclusivity deal?

    Didn't work out too well in such a competitive market.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Tempted...

    ...to get one, but I need to know that these new Nokia's have the same critical function that my old Nokia E72 and C7 possess, that's the LED torch light that is so important for when I need to go for a pee in the night without putting the main light on and waking everyone up! Does anyone know if they have a physical slider or button to allow this function?

    1. Dave's Jubblies
      Thumb Up

      Re: Tempted...

      No physical button, but... theres an app for that...

      I use it myself, for erm, similar reasons :)

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Stuart Ball
    Unhappy

    At least I am not the only one wanting the Tweetie Pie Yellow one. I too am on Three, and it's galling I cannot have what I want on a contract with my preferred provider.

  9. john devoy

    No orange?

    I was hoping for a super bright dayglo orange.

  10. Stuart Ball

    HTC comes in Orange is thats any help...

  11. Carl Williams
    FAIL

    Still feel it's an epic failure

    if manufacturers don't put removable storage capability in their top end device, Samsung do, Motorola do, Sony do, so why oh why do Nokia think people don't want it? For me it was essential and why only phones from the above 3 made my shortlist.

    1. RICHTO
      Mushroom

      Re: Still feel it's an epic failure

      Because Windows Phone 8 includes cloud synchronisation and a years free streaming music from Pandora. You would never need more than 32GB. I have a WP7 device with 8GB and have never come close to filling it.

  12. Paul Manzotti

    EE == 3G & 4G

    EE will be selling it on their 3G networks too, so you don't have to go for a 4G plan if you don't want to. I certainly have no intention of paying what they want for 4G, and I'm in a 4G launch city!

  13. Waspy
    FAIL

    Unlike many people I think Steven Elop had some tough decisions to make in his new appointment (see the Reg's article on the Meego/Symbian debacle). And unlike many people, I happen to think that Nokia Windows Phones are very good - nice, easy to use software (although a bit restricted for me) and rock-solid hardware. This latest crop of WP8 handsets look even better, and they seem to have generated a bit of consumer and media interest for the first time in ages (although WP8 wasn't quite the great leap forward I thought it would be, but I digress).

    Why the hell then have Nokia restricted themselves to just EE and one shop? I've no idea what kind of market data Nokia have access to but I am pretty sure most people upgrade through their carriers; anecdotally, almost everyone I know has done this. The next place people may go is Carphone Warehouse. I have never heard of anyone actually putting up with the garish decor and clueless staff to buy a high end handset in P4U.

    I find the whole thing amazing, Nokia even have a great price point (£20 3G is an incredible price). NO ONE IS GOING TO SEE IT BECAUSE NO ONE GOES IN PHONES4SHITTYU

    I fear Nokia are finished. Or they won't be finnish for much longer, ha ha. A real, real shame.

    1. RICHTO

      It is only a short term exclusivity agreement (6 months) - and only for the 920. The others can sell the 820 and any other models that Nokia come out with...

      This has a lot in common with other markets such as the US and Canada - and is a way of getting the carriers / resellers to lump a lot of the promotion costs - and to get them to promote the Nokia units over other options.

  14. Jess

    Seems to be little to distinguish them from other WP8 devices.

    So they will be sharing the WP8 market with Samsung, HTC etc.

    So if WP8 manages to get to 20% of the market and Nokia get a third of that, they will still only have half the market they had when killed Symbian.

    And of course the others have decent slices of the Android market, (and haven't Samsung started looking at Meego, too?)

    I still cannot see how this could be better than sticking with Symbian and migrating to Meego.

    For Nokia to recover lost ground, WP8 would need to nealy wipe Android out.

    1. RICHTO
      Mushroom

      Re: Seems to be little to distinguish them from other WP8 devices.

      Nokia will easily get 50%+ of the WP market. The US market - whilst not being anything like as significant as Europe - is also new to Nokia, so they have growth opportunities.

      They are still #2 global mobile phone manufacturer don't forget - and their devices are also likely to sell well in the massive markets of India, China, etc.

  15. Dave 15

    Pureview?

    Really?

    Pureview was a series of ideas for things like zoom and low light behaviour that sprung from the fact the sensor was 42mpix (41 available in the picture after you've cropped it to size). The sensors they are talking about here are not nearly the same. I think they are just cheating the customer on that. The camera might be good but it isn't the same technology

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