Another day, another Nokia Lumia device unleashed on the Canadian market (whatever happened to HTC - guess they have the Radar, and Samsung??)
Anyhow, the Lumia device that is targeted at the low cost market is now available at KoodoMobile (probably soon to Telus as well)
Only black is available at this time but the white version is coming soon.
This has the 800Mhz processor and it is priced at $200 outright or $50 on tab.
Frankly, at $200, I'd get the Lumia 710 outright for $50 more. It would be a decent deal at $150 but Telus continues to price Lumia phones at funny price points (i.e. 800 is more expensive that the 900???)
Note that due to the lower processor speed and lower RAM built in, there are some apps (games most likely) that you will not be able to install on the Lumia 610.
If you still insists on this phone, there's currently a $25 VISA gift card if you order online from koodomobile.ca
Well, looks like Nokia is really putting in the effort to try to push the WP7 platform which is great news. I have recently upgraded to the Lumia 800 from my HTC Surround and so far, I am very impressed with Nokia's effort in comparison to HTC's subpar effort with their own OEM applications (only way - other then the hardware chassis, WP7 manufacturers can distinguish themselves from other WP7 manufacturers).
I'll post my review of the Lumia 800 in a little while (factory unlocked one btw so I get all the firmware first).
There are plenty of news from Nokia coming out from the CTIA conference being held this week. Exclusive apps, games are coming very soon to you (and me now). Not sure how many of them are Canada bound but I'll try to list out the exclusive apps that are coming soon if you are a Nokia Lumia owner.
Some are available now, the ones that are available now will have a link for your installation enjoyment
The Caddie + (no ads) - already available in the marketplace. It's not in the Nokia Collection listings yet but just search for it on your phone. or click here on your wp7 handset
The PGA Tour App
ESPN (I know there the ESPN Sports Centre app right now but this apparently is different) - still can't find it just yet
Rovio - Angry Birds Space (Guess they are both Finnish companies), plus they now have a dedicated team that will create more WP7 for the Lumia phones first
EA - FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Jam, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®, Mirror's Edge and Yahtzee.
Groupon - exclusive features for Nokia users for the first 6 months
Tripdots - Exclusive to Windows Phone customers for 3 months from launch Tripdots helps vehicle owners optimize their driving behaviors while connecting with other vehicle owners and sharing driving efficiency achievements via social networks. The app lets users monitor the operation of their vehicles to enable cost savings through better understanding fuel economy. Everyone can participate in the MPG Leader Board game, and information is only sent to drivers after their trip is complete.
PayPal app for Windows PhonePayPal and Nokia will work together to bring PayPal's secure, fast and easy payments capabilities to the Windows Phone platform and Nokia Lumia smartphones, globally. PayPal will leverage the power of Windows Phone Live Tiles to create a compelling user experience that provides users with the flexibility to pay on-the-go.
AOL Entertainment Hub - exclusive to Nokia Lumia for 6 months Available exclusively to Nokia Lumia users at launch, AOL is set to introduce the AOL Entertainment Hub, bringing together the best of AOL's content to deliver an immersive and inter-connected experience on Windows Phone. Whether you want to listen to one of 55,000 radio stations via SHOUTcast, stream free music albums with AOL's Listening Party or view Trailers and Movie listings, the AOL Entertainment Hub delivers everything you need.
Time Magazine app for Windows Phone Bringing the world's largest weekly circulation to mobile, TIME.com announces the forthcoming availability of TIME for Windows Phone. Utilizing the stunning Windows Phone UI, the app will enable users to view TIME.com content, receive breaking news alerts, watch rich media content including video and share stories via the Windows Phone People Hub, while delivering the latest news and stories to users first via Live Tiles.
Newsweek - The Daily Beast app for Windows Phone For a smart, speedy take on the news from around the world, combined with the depth and investigative power of Newsweek magazine, we are pleased to announce the availability of Newsweek's digital partner The Daily Beast on Windows Phone. The Daily Beast app delivers the latest content through Live Tiles and combines the unique style of The Daily Beast with the Windows Phone UI to deliver a stunning experience. For users who only have minutes to digest the latest news, the app also delivers The Cheat Sheet - your one stop must have reads from across the world - uniquely designed for Windows Phone.
Box app for Windows PhoneThe new Windows Phone app from Box, the company focused on providing workers with simple, secure sharing from anywhere, will be available to Nokia Lumia consumers this Summer. With support for nine languages, Box for Windows Phone will enable users across the globe to browse, search and share files from their account.
Honestly, I don't know what I would think if I still have an HTC/Samsung/LG handset. Hopefully, this would put them on notice and put more effort into their OEM apps because at least Nokia is trying to make it work. So far, after 1.5 week of Nokia Lumia 800 ownership, I am a bit glad I swtich to the Nokia camp. Stay tuned for my review on the Lumia 800 but so far, all I can that with the exception of the external speakers on my HTC Surround, I am glad I switched.
The long wait is finally over. The Nokia Lumia 900 is now available for order at Rogers.
Only the black one is currently available
Prices are as follows:
$99.99 - 3 year contract $424.99 - 2 year $474.99 - 1 year $524.99 - no term
There is also a "deal" where Rogers will give you a XBOX360 (4GB) with the Kinect Sensor valued at $299.99 if you activate 2 smartphones on any couples and family plans (*UPDATE* might want to check out the fine prints as per Lotos' comments below. Thanks Lotos!)
*UPDATE* - Nokia/Rogers is now going to give you $100 bill credit should you buy the Lumia 900 (on contract likely) This is due to a radio bug that is affecting some initial Lumia 900 handsets (patch is rolling out Apr 16 at least in the US). So if you get the Lumia 900 now (unsure when this offer ends), you can get it for free (likely on a 3 yr term).. now if they only release the Cyan version
If you were looking for Lumia 710, Lumia 800 on the Bestbuy website, chances, you have to search for it and sometimes searching for Lumia 710 gets you no result.
Well, looks like that's changing. The screen capture here is part of the welcome page at Bestbuy.ca and lo-and-behold, the awesomeness of the Nokia Lumia 900.
Nice to finally see the Lumia 900 finally getting some love from Bestbuy.ca
The product page at the time of this post contains no information on the release date but it appears to be very imminent (consider that the Lumia 710 is still no where to be found on Bestbuy.ca). The Lumia is getting some search love but only the black one is available from Bestbuy.ca
Over at MobileSyrup, they are reporting that the Nokia assault on Canada is continuing with the Nokia Lumia 710 making its way over to WIND. So this will be WIND's second WP7 phone besides the HTC Radar (tried it, liked it, very solid build - I am still holding for a Lumia 800 or 900)
The release date it claims should be sometime in April.
Would be interesting to see how this will be priced since the outright price at Rogers is $254.99. Will this force Rogers to finally release this phone on Fido?
All I know is that WIND needs some high end WP7 phones. How about some 800/900 love?
Competition is always good I guess.. now if they can just get some better phones... but it's a good start.
The Nokia Lumia 800 is now available over at Telus.
From the telus specs, looks like this will not work on WIND/Mobilicity.
Pricing:
$529.99 - no term
$479.99 - 1 year
$429.99 - 2 years
$49.99 - 3 years (so called promotional pricing as you will need a min $50 monthly plan)
Black, Cyan, and Magenta are the available colours over at TELUS. I would imagine that sometime in the future, the glossy white one could become available.
As some of you might know, MWC happens every year around this time where pretty much all the big mobile phones vendors (except Apple) gets together in Barcelona and have a great nerd off.
This year, I was looking forward to it as I personally am looking to replace my HTC Surround (still like it a lot) with likely a Nokia Lumia 800 or 900.
Nokia
We already know when the 800 is launching in Canada. We found out that Rogers is going to release the 900 sometime *soon* in CES 2012 in January but there was no date, nothing.
Well, looks like we can now narrow it down the a month. April is the month and over at the Rogers website you can also sign up for launch information.
The promotional blurp also states "When you pre-order a Lumia 900, Nokia and Rogers have a surprise for you. Hint: there's a hero rising out of the darkness" Likely this thing (the video is a Video of the Lumia 800 but you get the idea).
It's either this or Christian Bale deliveries your phone to you personally and then follow by punching you in the face. (The second option does sound interesting for some reason)
Lumia 610
Also new and it is unlikely to see here in Canada is the Lumia 610
This is significant as this is the first "Tango" phone which runs on lower spec hardware which means that it is going to be unleash in emerging markets
The Tango spec supports 800Mhz CPU + 256MB RAM in case you are interested
Given the low low price of the 710 right now, I don't think we'll be seeing this phone in Canada anytime soon
HTC
- HTC has announced that the HTC Titan II will be expanding to markets outside the United States. This LTE device will likely finally see the light in Canada sometime. No timeframe is given
- HTC has also announced that they will make a bigger splash in the WP handset when Windows Phone "Apollo" is released (Windows Phone 8.0)
Samsung
- I personally think Samsung is gone off the bonkers lately with the releases of the Samsung Note (Android in case you are wondering) - 5.3 inches!!!!
- no news on Samsung WP75 coming to Canada.
$49.99 with data plan looks to be a pretty great price considering the 3 year price for the original launch prices HTC Surround + LG Optimus 7 was $99.99 and $149.99
Rest of the prices are complete BS.
Probably will have official numbers from Telus this coming Friday.
Looks like the official Nokia assault on Canada is on and the rebirth of Windows Phone 7 in Canada has started.
For those of you who are curious as to whether or not you can buy this outright and take it to WIND or Mobilicity? According the the specs on the Rogers website, looks like it is running the UMTS bands only (850/1900/2100) so according to these specs, the answer is a BIG NO.
I will however continue searching on the Intertubes (or if you guys happen to know someone that tried and succeeded/failed) as to whether or not Rogers is just hiding the the 1700 band.
Before you all go crazy and claim that it runs on T-mobile so it must, let me remind you of the Dell Venue Pro where the model number is exactly the same but they actually do sell different phones on different network. Confusing as heck but that's they way things are I guess.
Another juicy rumour running around is that Rogers will likely pick up the Lumia 900 as well (which would explain why they are leaving the Lumia 800 to Telus. If this is the case, it will be interesting to see what Bell is going to do with the WP7 platform.. HTC Titan II?... Have they just given up?
*UPDATE* - was talking to the Costco reps yesterday and they claim they should be getting stock sometime this week. From what I can tell is that they are very willing to sell them off contract so if you are having problems with at the Rogers stores selling you one outright
Do keep in mind that one of our readers have pointed out that this is a different version they are selling at Rogers than the one for TMobile. So you are out of luck if you want to unlock it and use it on WIND/Mobilicity
If you do want to take it to Bell or Telus, a reminder that it does use microSIM so you will need to order a new microSIM card as well from your carrier of choice
From the good folks at MobileSyrup, they have uncovered what could the most awesome pricing for the Nokia Lumia 710 that is about to be released in February on Rogers.
Outright price is $254.99. Your read it, I read it, it's just a crazy price for a gen 2 WP7 device that's packed with Nokia Drive as well as other Nokia exclusive software that's coming down the pipeline.
$49.99 for on a 3 year plan but I can imagine that will get quickly dropped to $0 for a 3 year plan.
Looks like either Nokia and/or Microsoft are heavily subsidizing the Lumia devices (at least the 710 at this point if this memo is true - so far, MobileSyrup's track record as far as since I have followed them are pretty damn accurate). That would put some interesting price pressure on Telus who have not release pricing information on the Lumia 800.
On a side note, AT&T will be releasing the Lumia 900 with a 2 year contract price for, get this $99 around mid March. That's also a crazy pricing for the awesome Lumia 900 that on one in Canada has picked up (my bet is on Bell - my dream is for WIND as it looks to be a Pentaband phone).
Want to know where or when your country is getting Lumia devices? Nokia has release a pretty neat website (flash only) containing some information on the Lumia handsets.
Looks like the Lumia 710 will be making its debut in Feburary.
Hate Telus? Still want a Lumia 800? If you live close to the border and there's a Microsoft Store around (i.e. Bellevue Square for the Vancourites), Microsoft has announced that the Nokia Lumia 800 (unlocked) will be available in the Microsoft Store sometime in February. AT&T bands only for now so that means that it will work on Telus/Bell/Rogers/Fido 3G networks. All 3 colours will be available.
Looks like the long wait for the first Nokia WP7 phone will soon be over. According to an article over at MobileSyrup, the first Nokia phone that will be making their mark on Canadians will be the mid-ranged Nokia 710 (yay!.. with a bit a sarcasm of course). From the articles I have read over time at MobileSyrup, they are actually very accurate with a lot of their posts (unlike BGR and Gizmodo who like to pull a lot of BS out of their collective asses).
Their article goes on and read that the Nokia Ace (or the Lumia 900) will follow soon after the Nokia Lumia 710's debut with no mentioning of the Lumia 800 (which is a little bit disappointing)
The Lumia 710 have the following hardware spec (no pricing information yet)
Processor: 1.4 Ghz Single Core CPU
Screen Size: 3.7, LCD
Camera: 5MP
Front Camera: No
Weight: 126g
Battery - 1300 mAh
User memory - 8GB
The Lumia 900 (or Ace) have the following hardware rumoured spec (we will likely have more information on this next week at CES)
Processor: 1.4 Ghz Single Core CPU
Screen Size: 4.3, AMOLED
Camera: 8MP
Front Camera: Yes
Weight: 160g
Battery - uncertain but it's likely going bigger than the one found in the Lumia 800 (> 1450 mAh)
User memory - 16GB
Most interesting thing here: 3G Pentaband which means 850/900/1700/1900/2100
As some of you WP7 knuckle heads already know, T-Mobile is launching the Lumia 710 in the next couple of weeks in the US. Being on the TMobile USA network means that there is a big potential that we may finally see some WP7 love on the smaller national networks such as WIND and Mobilicity.
The news of the Lumia 900 having Pentabands also means that there could be a slim chance that the smaller national carriers may be able to use it as one of the flagship phones besides the Galaxy Nexus.
You now have a chance to win a Nokia Lumia 800. Not sure when the draw date is going to be but if you head over to the Nokia Facebook page, you can enter for a chance to win one.
I have scanned through the very tiny fine prints and it did not seem to contain any information as to which country is eligible (and which ones are not eligible). So head on over to the Nokia Facebook page and click "Like" and enter for a change to win!
One of the biggest news that was reported in Februrary was Nokia + Microsoft getting together in the smartphone OS fight against the likes of iOS and Android. Many WP7 users (and even more potential users now that a lot them are actually just waiting for the first Nokia WP7 handsets) before finally taking the plunge.
So what does this holy matromony (or unholy if you are an Symbian fanboy) brings to the WP7 ecosystem? On one hand, we know that Nokia is getting 1 billion dollars over the next 5 years from Microsoft for this "deal". Microsoft is getting a big player fully behind WP7, but what about other Nokia goodies?
In case you don't know but Microsoft and Nokia got together this past week and finally signed this agreement. Now, more information are coming to light from the Nokia front. There are some good news for the army of Symbian developers as well.
Can't really say I am surprised at this morning's development at Nokia + Microsoft. In case you haven't heard, the big news this morning (the day before MWC next week - or the business day before MWC...) is that Nokia + Microsoft have signed an agreement to join forces to battle the likes of Apple and Google.
Nokia efforts at that POC "MeeGo" wasn't getting them anywhere. It looks old and crappy (I am looking at you Blackberry OS 6) before it ever came out on the market. Nokia did the right thing in killing off MeeGo. Unfortunately, this sounds like a big layoff is coming soon at Nokia.
Even though Nokia is losing market share to the likes of Apple and Google, they are still "massive" in terms of market share worldwide in terms of dumb phones and is still a "brand name of choice" in many countries. So what does this marriage brings to the table?
