Nokia Lumia 810 hands-on review roundup

Nokia Lumia 810 hands-on review roundup

The Nokia Lumia 810 has been announced as coming to exclusive to T-Mobile in the coming weeks. Similar to the Nokia Lumia 820, we check out what the first Nokia Lumia 810 hands-on reviews have to say about this Windows Phone 8 smartphone.

T-Mobile used the Pepcom MobileFocus event at MobileCon 2012 in San Diego to allow people to get their first hands-on experience with the Nokia Lumia 810

The Nokia Lumia 810 takes the 4.3-inch of the Nokia Lumia 820 and the interchangeable shell design, so you can add extra features such as wireless charging, and the same feature-set inside. However, the big difference is a tweaked body shape with a more angular take on the Lumia design.

It’s coming exclusive to T-Mobile in the US in the coming weeks but let’s check out what the first journos to get their hands on this smartphone thought: 

The Verge

When T-Mobile announced that it had an “exclusive” on the Nokia Lumia 810, we found the differences between it and the Lumia 820 so minor that it was hard to take the exclusivity seriously. Nevertheless, when T-Mobile put a unit on the table at MobileCon we felt it our duty to take a look, even though it wouldn’t power on. The 810 is not a small phone by any stretch: the bezels are large, the corners much squarer, and the thickness is noticeable. It’s 11.2mm thick, according to T-Mobile, a full 1mm thicker than the 820. The reasoning is ostensibly that the back cover is removable and can be swapped for another color, each of which includes the necessary electronics for wireless charging. The thinner 820 has the same feature, however, and a higher level of build quality overall.

Techcrunch

The Lumia 810 from T-Mobile comes in both black and cyan variants, and will have a 4.3-inch OLEG WVGA screen that could be very good-looking in practice, one might imagine. There’s also Windows Phone 8, an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 1.2 megapixel front shooter for Skype and other communication apps, which could take very nice pictures, it’s reasonable to assume.

What we do know about the 810 is that it feels quite substantial compared to most contemporary smartphones, like in a way that actually isn’t altogether a good thing.

The Lumia 810 could easily use a diet, in fact, and there’s a lot of space taken up around the not-yet-active screen devoted to bezel. It’s a bold, aggressive design choice, and one that could result in a chunky chic appeal, but it could also backfire. In a world where thin and light are the name of the game, this is a phone that stands apart, as you can see by the side-by-side shots with it and the iPhone 5.

Engadget

Technically, the 810 is being dubbed a T-Mobile “exclusive” in the US, but that takes on very little meaning when given its use of a AWS-friendly HSPA+ 42Mbps radio. It bears some family resemblance in specs and looks to its cousin, the Lumia 820, but it still keeps to a distinct design; the 8MP rear camera panel is laid out vertically (see also: Lumia 800) rather than horizontally, the LED flash is off to its side, and the 1.2MP front-facing camera is on the opposite side of the earpiece. It’s still a little thicker and heavier than we’d like to see on a midrange device, which is mainly a result of the 810′s exchangeable wireless charging shells (it’s available in cyan and black).

The Lumia 810 also features a 4.3-inch OLED WVGA (800 x 480) ClearBlack display offering a pixel density of 217ppi. Naturally we’ll need to put this to the test once we’re allowed to turn it on, but we expect this to be roughly the same quality as the Lumia 900. We’ll let you know when more specs come our way, but in the meantime take a look at our hands-on images below.

Know Your Cell

T-Mobile will soon be offering the exciting Nokia Lumia 810 and we just had a chance to play with it at the MobileCon show. Unfortunately, this unit wasn’t powered on, so it’s tough to tell how well the screen will look. That’s kind of a shame too, as I’m sure that the 4.3-inch OLED WVGA display will be stunning.

The Nokia Lumia 810 will come in a variety of colors including the eye-catching cyan, which we were able to handle at the conference. It has a very nice feel to it with its polycarbonate body. The Lumia 810 also has some good heft to it: not too light but not too heavy. 

16GB of internal storage and it will be one of the showcase devices for Windows Phone 8. We’ll get our review of the Lumia 810 as soon as possible but check out these additional photos until then