Ben Aston | benaston.com

Nokia Lumia 800 review, originally uploaded by benaston.

Although in the pre-smart phone era, I’d always loved my Nokia phones, I’d become a bit disenchanted with them and was pretty firmly attached to my Android HTC Desire on Android. But seeing as Nokia gave me one of their shiny new Windows 7 phones, the Nokia Lumia 800, I thought I’d give them another try.

Nokia Lumia 800 – what’s good?

So after a month long road test, what’s good about the Nokia Lumia 800? From the outside, it’s pretty. In your hand it feels as solid as an old school 6310 – it’s got a cool curved with a unibody design – carved out of a single polycarbonate shell (so even when it’s scratched it’ll retain its colour). It feels robust, like you could drop it and it’d still work. What’s more, it’s got Gorilla Glass  which means is lightweight, and highly damage-resistant meaning you don’t have to stick any of those stupid screen protectors on your phone to keep it looking shiny and new.

And it’s pretty on the inside too. If you’re at all familiar with the Microsoft Windows 8 or Zune interfaces, you’ll immediately feel at home. The interactive experience is based around sliding screens which allows for lots of white space in design – it all looks very sleek compared to the Android platform and a lot more interesting than iOS. The boundaries between content and apps and contacts are blurred too, with the ability to ‘pin’ anything you want quick access to on your homescreen. Whether it’s a favourite picture, e-ticket or contact, you just pin it on the screen so it’s quick and easy to access.

From a user’s perspective, integration is great across your social and messaging platforms: messages and communication are centred around your contacts and groups of people, rather than through a specific programme. The Windows Mobile platform aggregates your messages, feeds and updates for you, so that you don’t have to delve into all your different apps to stay updated.

What’s more, Nokia have thrown in some good software too – their Nokia Drive app allows you to download maps of the entire planet to your phone, so that you don’t have to use data on the go, giving you sat nav wherever you are. And the Windows Skydrive gives you 25gb of cloud based free storage, so you can access all your important stuff on the move. You’ll find all the big apps that you’ll want have got Windows Mobile versions too  – Spotify, Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, Trip Advisor and yes, Angry Birds – it’s all there and it looks a lot prettier than it does on Android or iOS.

So what’s not so good? From an aesthetic design perspective, it’s all good – no complaints on that at all. But I’m not sure about the lack of certain features. In terms of storage, 16gb is good, as is a 25gb SkyDrive, but I’m not sure that it makes up for the lack of micro SD slot – it’s a major omission that reduces its ability to be your primary music playing device. And one thing I’ll miss on the Nokia Lumia 800 is the ability to swap batteries in and out when you’re running low on juice.

Nokia Lumia 800 – what’s bad?

On the inside, I’m not convinced about the Windows 8 homescreen tile design; it’s too restrictive, it seems they’ve elevated form too far above function. I can see how it would be great on a desktop or  tablet, but on a phone, the tiles (and the persistent clock) take up too much real estate; you find yourself having to do a lot of scrolling. The same goes for viewing all your apps, you have to do a lot of scrolling to get to the bottom of your alphabetically ordered apps; there’s no way to reorder them. Annoying.

I was also hoping for a bit more from the camera, with a Carl Zeiss lens, I was expecting some really sweet pictures – they’re ok, but just a bit average, especially when using the video camera. Hopefully though, with the almost weekly firmware updates this will soon get started. My final niggle is with the lack of Google integration – MSN, Facbook, Twitter etc are all integrated beautifully, but you can’t help but feel that they could have tried a bit harder by allowing Google Maps (and Latitude) and Flickr integration into the platform; those things work, it’s just all a bit awkward.

Verdict – Nokia Lumia 800

This is a good phone though, I like it. It feels like a significantly different from Android or iOS. From a software perspective, it’s got a bit of a way to go but with Nokia’s incessant software updates, I think this is going to get better and better. This is definitely more than just an also-ran platform, the Nokia Lumia 800 is in the major league.

7.5/10

The Little Printer is definitely on my Christmas list – a new, tiny, cloud based physical printer that prints ‘publications’ – your customised snippets of information on demand. You configure Little Printer from your phone, and already they’ve teamed up to get content from Arup, foursquare, Google, the Guardian, and Nike to supply content.

I love things which reconnect the digital and physical world; connecting products to the Web lets them become smarter and friendlier. Paper doesn’t run out of battery – you can stick to the fridge or tuck it in your wallet. You can scribble on it or tear it and give it to a friend.

Paperlicious.

The pitch for this film must have gone something like, “We want to make a comedy about the most un-funny thing ever; cancer!” And that’s exactly what they’ve done.

So oddly enough, this is a comedy about cancer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film quite like it before – it’s a 50:50 balance;  raw emotion and hard hitting deep stuff about cancer and relationships, but with a generous sprinkling of comic relief on top.

If you’re a fan, Seth Rogen is at his best in this film apparently inspired (never quite sure what that means) by a true story, about a young and healthy 27-year-old guy, Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who learns he’s got a rare form of spinal cancer. He’s given a 50:50 chance of survival and the film explores how his relationships with his friends, family and girlfriend change as he struggles to beat the disease.

Well worth a watch, it’s like a sweet & sour haribo.

Tangfastic.

When someone sent me this link I mistakenly thought it was a link to the R Kelly classic. Mercifully, it’s not. Instead, it’s a film by the kind of man I imagine myself to be. Maybe not now, but probably next year after I’ve gone to the gym a bit.

Sebastien Montaz-Rosset’s new film is a 40-minute documentary following skyliners – practitioners of an extreme sport that involves elements of mountain climbing, slacklining and base jumping. Filmed beautifully, it combines a delicious treat for the eyes with an epic quest of folle-francais.

Sweeeeeeeet.

Lytro camera is unveiled, originally uploaded by benaston.

After talking about themselves a lot for the last 6 months, today Lytro finally unveiled their radical new camera; the errm, Lytro. And I’ve got one.*

The camera’s been billed as a big deal because it gives you the ability to focus a picture after it’s taken, on the camera, on your computer or online using a special viewer by using a technology called light-field photography. Basically, it makes it impossible to take pictures that are out of focus. And lets you play around with the focus after you’ve taken the picture.

The design is a bit industrial and distinctly Apple iSight flavoured. The pocket-sized camera with its anodized aluminum body has just two buttons; power and shutter. There’s a touch sensitive zoom slider and rear display that lets you view and refocus your pictures directly on the camera. It comes in three colours and two models. The blue and graphite models have 8GB of storage and will cost $399, the red model is 16 GB and costs $499.

But I’m not really convinced. I’d want it if I could it have it as a lens for my DSLR. But in its current format, isn’t it just an expensive point and shoot for people who find it hard to take pictures in focus? And for the point and shoot type of pictures you flick through on facebook, I’m not entirely sure the pictures are really worth ‘exploring’ are they?

So if anyone wants my camera, let me know.

*Kind of. It’s reserved.