Nokia and Microsoft unveil Windows Phone 8-based Lumia smartphones

Feature-packed Lumia 920 offers wireless charging, PureView camera and real-time, location-based information services

Nokia has unveiled its flagship Lumia 920 phone, based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system, and offering PureView camera technology built-in, wireless charging based on the Qi standard, a PureMotion HD+ screen that can adjust according to the brightness of the environment in which it is being used, and "City Lens", a service that can identify, and apply labels and information to elements on the screen in real-time.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop described it as "The world's most innovative smartphone", while Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said: "The Windows Phone is unlike any other phone on the market. It keeps you closest to the things and people that matter most."

He said that the focus on the new operating system would now be on developers, adding: "Make no mistake about it, this is the year for Windows – Windows Phone, Windows tablets and Windows PCs."

New Lumia unveiled
The new phone is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and has a 4.5-inch curved glass display with a pure-black screen that, Nokia says, will stay "crystal sharp", and which adjusts the brightness and tone to the environment. "You can even use it in the desert," said Jo Harlow, executive vice president of Nokia Smart Devices.

It also has a 2000mAh battery built in to maximise usage of the camera between charges – and charging can done via a standardised wireless charging system so that the camera need only be rested on a compatible plate.

Perhaps the most eye-catching feature is the integration of Nokia's PureView camera technology, which first debuted in the Nokia PureView 808 phone.

Although the camera in the new Lumia is eight mega-pixel, rather than the 41 mega-pixels of the Nokia 808, it offers what Nokia calls "floating lense technology", which "surpasses the image stab systems of most digital SLRs. It reacts with the movements of your hands to balance the lense," according to Harlow.

She claimed that it will provide clear images without flash, even indoors, and is good enough to replace even a high-definition camcorder. "It has better-than-HD resolution and a fast refresh rate that keeps moving content sharp and flicker-free," said Harlow.

In the Windows Phone 8 software, Microsoft has introduced the concept of lenses, enabling special effects and features to be applied when taking pictures. Developers can also devise and build their own "lenses" for download and, with "Smart Shoot", elements of pictures can even be selected and edited or removed after the picture has been taken. "It is the smartphone camera for taking pictures and videos for everyday use," added Harlow.

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Nokia and Microsoft unveil Windows Phone 8-based Lumia smartphones

Feature-packed Lumia 920 offers wireless charging, PureView camera and real-time, location-based information services

Google killer
On top of that, the device offers an integrated suite of location-based services, linking navigation, camera and online information with Nokia Maps, Drive and Transport. That means that a route can be worked out in Nokia Maps and transferred to Nokia Drive for turn-by-turn voice navigation.

The online services via City Lens enables information about landmarks that are being viewed via its camera lense to be overlaid on the screen of the phone. So, for example, if the phone's camera is pointed at a restaurant, it will provide the name, reviews, contact and other information about it with just a tap of the screen.

In the Windows Phone 8 operating system, Microsoft is offering greater customisation of start screens, so that people can pull the applications and features they want displayed and access to on their start screens. It also offers extra large tiles.

The operating system has backwards compatibility with applications developed for earlier Windows Phone 7 devices and, finally, has introduced the ability to take screen shots.

Microsoft also demonstrated how the phone can be used as a wireless media player, streaming music from the phone through NFC-enabled loudspeakers with just a tap of the phone on the speakers. This feature, though, originally debuted with the Nokia N9.

The same loudspeakers could also have a built-in wireless charger so that the phone can rest on the loudspeaker system, streaming music while it recharges without being physically connected to the system.

But such wireless connectivity will eliminate the kind of problem that Apple has experienced with the downsizing of its interface in the forthcoming iPhone 5.

Windows Phones will also require users to sign-in to the Microsoft cloud and integrate with the Xbox cloud. This brings the risk of valuable data being deleted if contraventions of Microsoft's terms and conditions are detected.

The case of the new Lumia 920 phone is made from scratch-proof polycarbonate that does not interfere with the phone's reception, unlike aluminium or other metal cases, said Elop, and is available in a number of colours, including yellow, "lipstick" red and grey.

A cut-down, budget version of the Lumia 920 was also released, called the Lumia 820. Although it lacks a PureView camera, it has Carl Zeis optics, a similar polycarbonate body, built-in near-field communication, Nokia location services, City Lens, and Nokia Music built-in, as well as wireless charging and the same image algorithms and digital lenses.

It will also come in seven colours.

Both handsets will support five 4G LTE bands - 800MHz, 900Mhz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz.

However, the phones will not be available until the end of October at the earliest and Nokia did not reveal prices or geographic availability.

The launch also blurred the distinction between Nokia's contribution to the new phone and Microsoft's. For example, it was hard to tell whether the lenses feature was developed by Microsoft or Nokia - or who owns the intellectual property behind it.

Also, no date has been put on the Windows Phone 8 development kit - just that it will be out "later this year". The software development kit will be essential the development of an apps eco-system around Windows Phone 8.

Interestingly, perhaps, Nokia's share price, which had been buoyant in advance of the launch over the past month, fell significantly during the course of the launch - some 12% from beginning to end.