Nokia announces Windows Phone 7 devices, low-end Symbian handsets

Nokia Lumia 800

We haven’t seen much from Nokia that looked like it could take the world by storm, but with an announcement made by the Finnish giant this week, the company might well and truly be “back”.

Announced at Nokia World in London this week, Nokia has unveiled two devices under the “Lumia” branding, each running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 operating system. The two new Windows Phone handsets have similar technology inside, but carry different exteriors.

Under the hood, Nokia has equipped both devices with a single-core 1.4GHz CPU designed to provide solid performance and long battery life, as well as two microphones – one for voice and the other for noise cancellation.

Nokia's Lumia 710 handset

“We’re driving innovation throughout our entire portfolio, from new smartphone experiences to ever smarter mobile phones,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia’s CEO and President. “I’m incredibly proud of these new devices – and the people of Nokia who have made this happen.”

For the premium Lumia 800 handset, Nokia has taken the immaculate design of the recently released N9, keeping with the one-piece unibody chassis made from the same material used in ice hockey helmets. An eight megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics has been added, along with a 3.7 inch AMOLED touchscreen, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, HSDPA 14.4Mbps download over 3G, Bluetooth 2.1, microUSB, and 16GB of storage.

The Lumia 800 handset looks similar to the Nokia N9, but features Windows Phone instead of MeeGo.

Coming in at a slightly lower price point, the Nokia Lumia 710 ditches the unibody design for one that will come with exchangeable back covers, covering the four main colours seen in CMYK – cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black. As we said before, the technology is similar to the Lumia 800, with Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, HSDPA 14.4Mbps download, microUSB, 8GB storage, a 5 megapixel camera, and a 3.7 inch touchscreen.

Both handsets will features Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango”, supporting Office applications, Xbox Live integration, Microsoft’s own mobile app store, and support for the Zune Music Pass announced yesterday.