Lumia 820 and 920: Nokia’s New Windows Phones
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Nokia/Microsoft(NEW YORK) — Ten years ago, Nokia was a household name. It sold a majority of the world’s cellphones and didn’t have to worry about rivals, like Apple or Google. Today, Nokia holds less than 10 percent of smartphone market share.
In 2011, the company announced that it was betting the house on Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system. Today it is announcing new handsets — the Lumia 820 and 920 — which it hopes are its ticket back to the top.
“It was in February of 2011 where we began our strategic shift at Nokia, and we announced our partnership with Microsoft,” Nokia CEO, Steven Elop, told ABC News in an interview.
“What today represents is the next big step in that journey, because we’re introducing the next generation of Windows Phone devices from Nokia, and, of course, those are using the Windows Phone 8 platform, which will be coming into the market in the quarter ahead.”
Nokia is one of many phone makers planning to release handsets that run Microsoft’s new operating system, but Elop said he and his team have worked hard to make sure their phones stick out.
Nokia is using a similar hardware design to its Lumia 900. It doesn’t look like any other type of phone on the market. The polycarbonate glossy back, which comes in red, yellow, and gray, has curved edges and the screens are bright. The 920 has a large ClearBlack 4.5-inch screen and the 820 has a 4.3-inch screen. Both phones have high end specs, too — a dual-core processor, new Synaptic touch screens that are ultra-responsive even when you have gloves on, Near Field Communication (NFC), and expandable storage slots.
But there’s also some secret sauce inside the hardware that makes the phone stick out. The first has to do with camera technology. Nokia has brought over its PureView camera technology to this new line, and while the phones have fairly average 8-megapixel cameras, the secret is in the software.
“This particular camera lens on the 920 is actually floating inside that case. And what that means is as I hold this up to take a picture, and my hand may be shaking or I may be on a bicycle or in a car, but the lens automatically balances for that,” Elop said as he demonstrated.
The new phones also have wireless charging capabilities. Inside the backs of both phones are plates that will allow you charge them simply by dropping the phone on a charging accessory; no need to plug it in.
Nokia isn’t announcing the price of the phones today or what carriers will sell them; they will be available in the U.S. before the end of the year, though.
“Within Nokia we talk a lot about a particular attitude, and that is the challenger mindset,” Elop said. “We’re still a very large company with a very large position in many markets around the world, and yet we have to operate like challengers and fight our way back every step of the way, and that’s what we’re doing. Today is an important step in that journey.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio