Nokia Lumia 800
Nokia Lumia 800 Nokia

Nokia, on Thursday, released its first software update for its Lumia 800 smartphone, which is the fruit of its partnership with Microsoft, whose Windows Phone 7 operating system powers the device.

The phone features a 3.7 inch AMOLED display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design and a 1.4 GHz processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on leading Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music.

However, Nokia is not alone in the market. Apart from the iPhone 4S, the Lumia 800 will face tough competition from Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S2, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and other phones from Motorola and HTC.

Among the Android smartphones, the Galaxy S2 is still topping the charts with excellent specs and positive customer feedback. The device, which runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, comes in three variants - on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, whose version is called Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch. Both the T-Mobile and Sprint versions of Galaxy S2 have 4.52-inch display screens whereas the AT&T version retains the 4.3-inch screen of the versions sold worldwide.

All versions of the Galaxy S2 will get the 4G treatment, offering data speed up to four times faster than Apple's iPhone 4.

The Galaxy S2 features an 8 megapixel camera with flash and can record HD video in 1080p. The phone also has a front-facing 2 megapixel camera for video chat.

Let us see how the Lumia 800 fares against one of the best-selling Android phones - the Samsung Galaxy S2:

Display: Lumia 800 sports a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at 252 pixels per inch (ppi) density, while Galaxy S2 comes with a 4.3-inch WVGA SUPER AMOLED Plus display with resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at 217 ppi.

Size: Lumia 800 weighs 142 grams and has a dimension of 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm, while Galaxy S2 is comparatively thin weighing 116 grams and has a dimension of 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm

Operating System: Lumia 800 runs on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, while Galaxy S2 has Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Meanwhile, Galaxy S2 would get an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012.

Processor: Lumia 800 packs a 1.4GHz Qualcomm chip with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. On the other hand, the Sprint and AT&T variant of the Galaxy S2 is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Mali-400MP GPU Orion chipset, while the T-Mobile variant is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm APQ8060 processor.

Camera: Both phones have an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. But Galaxy S2 has an edge over Lumia 800 in the video department as it can take videos at 1080 pixels at 30 frames per second (fps).Lumia 800, which does not have a front camera, captures videos at 720 pixels at the same 30 fps. Galaxy S2 has a 2 megapixel camera on the front for video calling.

Connectivity: Lumia 800 comes with support of HSDPA CAT 10 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA CAT 6 5.76 Mbps. On the other hand, the T-Mobile Galaxy S2 version has HSDPA 42 Mbps support while the AT&T version has HSDPA 21 Mbps support. And Epic 4G Touch has Rev. A up to 3.1 Mbps.

Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/USB: Lumia 800 supports WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g/n with 2.4 GHz. It also comes with Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, EDR and microUSB v2.0.

Galaxy S2 has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n DLNA support and an added Wi-Fi Direct feature. Samsung's phone uses 3.0+HS version Bluetooth with A2DP and EDR along with MHL microUSB version 2.0 for HDMI support.

Storage: Lumia 800 comes with 16GB internal memory and lacks external memory slot. Galaxy S2 boasts of 16/32GB internal storage and via a microSD card slot it can be expandable up to 32GB.

Battery: Lumia 800 has a 1450 mAh BV-5JW Battery which is expected to give talk time of up to 13 hours and 9.5 hours on GSM and CDMA networks, respectively. It gives a standby time of up to 265 hours and 335 hours on GSM and CDMA networks, respectively.

Meanwhile, Samsung Epic Touch 4G has Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery support, which will offer more than 10 hours of talk time while AT&T versions retain Li-Ion 1650 mAh battery found in original Galaxy S2. The T-Mobile variant of Galaxy S2 has Li-Ion 1850 mAh battery support.

Pricing: The estimated retail price for Nokia Lumia 800 will be about $595, excluding taxes and subsidies. Galaxy S2 is priced at $199.99 with a two-year contract both on Sprint and AT&T while the T-Mobile variant is priced at $229.99.

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