TECH SPOTLIGHT

Together Nokia, Microsoft cook up a serviceable little smart phone

The Nokia Lumia 822 smart phone uses the new Windows Phone 8 operating system, which features “live tiles” that provide customized information at a glance.
The Nokia Lumia 822 smart phone uses the new Windows Phone 8 operating system, which features “live tiles” that provide customized information at a glance.

— A new year means new beginnings for some, and two companies are taking that to heart with a new gadget.

Two familiar names from gadgets past have combined their efforts to create a buzz in the mobile market - Nokia, once a top seller of mobile phones, and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Phone, now transformed into Windows Phone 8. The two have come together in the Nokia Lumia 822 smart phone.

The Lumia 822 is a nice size, close to that of the popular Samsung Galaxy S III phone. I found it easy to hold, even with my small hands.

The phone itself is a basic design. It includes an 8-megapixel camera that does well in good light, but only so-so on indoor and low-light shots. I like the camera button on the side, which pulls the camera app up immediately and can double as a shutter. The other buttons are for volume and power. Navigation “buttons” are actually symbols on the bottom of the front screen.

The screen is lovely, with good color and decent sharpness. It’s a nice size, too, making it easy to see text and watch videos. The speaker leaves much to be desired. The sound quality, frankly, is awful. Thank goodness it has a headphone jack.

Perhaps other phones have spoiled me, but the Lumia 822 feels cheap thanks to the plastic exterior. Granted, it’s a good plastic that seems scratch resistant, but it’s still a plastic. For a phone that retails for $450 without a contract, “cheap” is the last thing I want to feel while holding it.

The feature that makes the Lumia stand out is the use of Windows Phone 8, a much-updated version of the old Windows Mobile Phone system.

I’m going to be honest, I hated the old Windows Mobile system. It was clunky, it was hard to navigate, it lacked several features found in other mobile operating systems and it had far fewer apps available than Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.

Still, I’d heard good things about Windows 8 and the new Windows Phone 8 system. I was willing to give it a second chance.

It’s still not perfect, but I definitely see improvements.

The operating system features “live tiles,” or squares on the front screen that display information and flip over as they update. The tiles include calendar events, weather, news, social media updates and photos taken with the phone. The tiles can be customized, so if you’d rather see a quick link to your voice mail or updates to your apps, you can delete the tiles you don’t want and add the tiles you want.

If you want to leave the tiles and get to the rest of the apps, you simply swipe your finger to the left. Like the Android and iOS systems, the Windows system scrolls sideways. Unlike the other systems, it scrolls up and down as well. This is good, because it allows for bigger tiles and text. However, it can get confusing to navigate sometimes.

The operating system moves far faster than it used to do. It has some great advantages. Microsoft Office documents work perfectly on the phone, and if you’re going from a Windows computer to the phone, you can drag and drop items easily.

There are far more apps available for the new Windows Phone 8 than before, but it’s still far behind the iOS and Android app counts. The way Windows Phone 8 handles the apps is interesting. Many of the apps are specially adapted to look like the rest of the operating system, rather than having their own look. This has good and bad implications. It meant moving some features in apps with which I was familiar, making it more difficult to navigate the apps and work with them.

The operating system is improved, but it still has a ways to go. Navigation is smoother, but at the expense of some features within the apps.

I can see this phone working well in business, especially with the native use of Microsoft Office and the ability to exchange files easily with other Windows devices. But as a stand-alone smart phone, it seems far outpaced by some of its Android and iOS counterparts.

I do see far more potential here than I have in the past few years, both from Windows Phone and Nokia. I’m eager to see what else they have. I’m sure the new year will bring new offerings from these old favorites.

Melissa L. Jones can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

Business, Pages 19 on 01/14/2013

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