Gadgetory

the Nokia Lumia 810 is t-mobile USA's exclusive take on the mid-range Lumia 820 does it bring enough heat to stand on the same footing as its stock 820 companion more importantly is it worth the price that t-mobile is asking I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our full review of the Nokia Lumia 810 the Nokia Lumia 810 doesn't really differ much from its 820 progenitor in its internals we're looking at the same dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 running at 1.5 gigahertz backed up by a gig of ram and 8 gigs of storage with expansion possible up to an additional 64 gigs via microSD the battery is an 1800 milliamp hour unit offering 360 hours of 3G standby time according to Nokia this being a t-mobile device there's no LTE onboard as there is on Verizon's variant the 822 but the a10 does include support for HSPA+ up to 42 megabits down if t-mobile's network offers it in your area the primary shooter is an 8 megapixel unit with carl zeiss optics and a dual LED flash capable of recording 1080p video the display is an 800 by 480 AMOLED panel that will be familiar to anyone who's used the lumia 900 it's got Nokia's clear black technology to keep the blacks deep and the color saturation is very high as is typical of OLED technology nokia has brought the user controllable super sensitive touch technology to the 810 allowing you to use the device with thin gloves on the displays low resolution might bother folks who demand the sharpest text or the cleanest video and it's going to look very dated after a two-year contract expires but today it's a fair panel and it's high saturation makes Windows Phone 8 really really pop in the hand the Lumia 810 is a strange device it's comfortable to hold and it's neither too heavy nor too light at 145 grams but it's the Box iasts smartphone we've laid our hands on it nearly 11 mm thick it's not felt at all and that feeling is amplified by the strange plums sides and awkward chine around the backside of the battery cover that actually makes it comfortable to use as a camera especially with this super clicky shutter button but it's bulky in a pocket it's soft touch back feels good on the skin but there's nothing aside from the camera lens to spruce up the back it's even got a pretty bland face looking a lot like the early Windows Phone 7 generic hardware renders the available cyan battery cover might do something to spruce it up but unless you're a fan of minimalism taken to an extreme there's not a lot to praise about the 8 tends aesthetics on the plus side that means it's not a phone you're going to worry about damaging the 810 feels like a tank and between the soft touch paint job on the back and the Gorilla Glass to display protection it can probably hold up to a fair bit of abuse the Lumia 810 runs Windows Phone 8 which our own Adam Lane covered in an extensive review a few weeks ago so we'll just touch on the essentials here a Windows Phone has never required blockbuster hardware to run smoothly and that holds true for version 8 honey I 10 responsiveness is smooth as silk smoother than almost anything else on the market in most instances now we've said it before and it holds true today this is not a power users OS or a platform for customization fanatics you can change Windows Phones accent color and now you can of course resize your live tiles but that's about it the social media integration is better than on other platforms you just jump into the people hub to see what your friends on Facebook and Twitter are doing and you can view all your interactions with one person by looking at their contact info which is tremendously useful but know even a little outside the parameter of what Windows Phone thinks you should be doing there's no support there is no way to like a comment someone leaves on your facebook status there's no autocomplete for usernames or hashtags and no multiple user support and Twitter that may seem trivial but for a platform that prides itself on its social integration it's not it's a big oversight one of the things you pay extra for when you buy a Nokia Lumia device over say an HTC Windows Phone is the special apps that Nokia includes as value adds on top of the stock Windows Phone experience while Nokia's efforts to improve on Bing Maps only met with limited success it's still far inferior to Google Maps in features and functionality its efforts on other apps shine Nokia transit doesn't have many options but it's a beautiful app that will tell you what buses or trains are nearby and it'll even let you plan a trip based on those arrival times Nokia Drive gave us voice-guided turn-by-turn directions on an 80-mile day trip and stuck with us even through a few wrong turns since it hosts the maps locally on the device it's not affected by local network conditions which is good Nokia music served well as our replacement for Spotify and Pandora as we wait for those apps to make the leap over to Windows Phone 8 and it did a pretty good job you can't stream specific songs but there are a multitude of stations available to choose from and you can buy specific tracks if you want the Nokia software suite does a good job of patching up some holes left open by Windows Phone 8 and it's still-growing third-party ecosystem Nokia's offerings still have some growing up to do but they're much better than nothing and people who want that added functionality probably won't have a problem paying extra for a Nokia phone over a competitor's offering we tested the Lumia 810 in and around the Greater Boston area New York City and the Northeast Corridor joining the to our experience wasn't great t-mobile USA was the carrier that kicked off the trend of branding HSPA coverage as 4G which is ironic considering we never broke eight megabit download speeds in our time with the 810 on t-mobile's network most of the time we averaged around half that speed and that's when we could get a signal at all t-mobile's coverage was substantially inferior to its competitors in our area and indoor coverage was subpar almost everywhere we went your mileage will of course vary based on where you live and work when we could make them voice calls were clear for what that's worth both on the earpiece and via the speakerphone as for optics despite not being blessed with the PureView branding of the 920 the Lumia 810 s 8 megapixel camera delivers good performance images come out a little warmer than the 920 s PureView shots and they lose some of their sharpness in maximum zoom video quality is quite good with quick white balance correction and good clear audio though continuous autofocus is slow and inconsistent time overall the Lumia 810 pax one of the better mid-range smartphone cameras we've seen the a-10 handled gaming and other processor intensive activities well and if you haven't played Microsoft's rise of glory yet you should it's awesome when not engaged in these battery draining diversions the device features very respectable endurance we are routinely able to get a full day's use out of the device with moderate to heavy use at the end of the day the Nokia Lumia 810 delivers on its promise of being a solid mid-range Windows Phone 8 device from a manufacturer with a good reputation its hardware is capable and even goes the extra mile in some respects like the camera and battery life but it's low resolution display and ho-hum construction aren't going to turn many heads Windows Phone 8 has inherited its predecessors beautiful design unique features and buttery smooth UI but also it's sometimes Spartan lack of features the nokia software suite goes a long way toward filling this gap but the one $49.99 contract price or $99.99 on a value plan seems a little steep to us especially considering that the far superior Lumia 920 can be had over at AT&T for the same price we give the Nokia Lumia 810 a 7 out of 10 folks that's going to do it for the full review of the Nokia Lumia 810 if you have something to say you leave a 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