It was great to see, as Stephen Elop said during the event, the first working Windows Phone 8 product during the Nokia Press event in New York City this morning. I think he might have been taking a shot at Samsung who had their Windows Phone 8 announcement last week but no working model.
We saw lots of the two new devices but there was a lot of information missing such as carriers, pricing, etc. We already know the official Microsoft launch for Windows Phone 8 is scheduled for 29 October thanks to Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet but shouldn’t this info be coming out soon since launch is less than two months away?
Anyway, we heard much of what we expected based on all the leaks that have come out over the last couple of weeks about these two new handsets but there were some pretty neat features revealed for the first time today during the demos.
Most of the nearly 90 minute event was spent on the new Flagship Windows Phone the Nokia Lumia 920. For those of us who ventured forth to get the 900 when it hit the market earlier this year felt a sharp pain in our bodies when that was said. Time will heal all wounds though as I have no doubt that the 920 will be my next Windows Phone.
The main focus today was on the 920’s camera and the technological innovations on both the hardware and software side that appears to make it a much superior phone in the world of mobile phones.
Some of the highlighted features included:
- wireless charging
- floating lens that removes shakes and blurs; allows more light into the photo and therefore enhances night/dark pics
- HD+ Display
- Pureview camera
- screenshots built in (a feature I hope us old Lumia owners get to see in the Windows Phone 7.8 update)
- software lenses that interact with the camera to enhance your photos
Want to read more about the phones and see some hands on pics and videos then please check out these posts from around the Internet:
- On Demand replay of this mornings event – http://www.nokia.com/global/about-nokia/webcast/live/ (Nokia)
- VIDEO & PHOTOS- First look at the Nokia Lumia 820 & 920 (Microsoft)
- Windows Phone 8 SDK Preview opens for applications Sept. 12 (Microsoft)
- Announcing the Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 (Microsoft)
- Nokia Unveils New Windows 8 Phone Devices (Microsoft)
- Nokia unveils Windows Phone 8 devices (ZD Net)
- Nokia Lumia 920 hands-on preview, pictures and video (The Verge)
- Nokia’s new Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 with Windows Phone 8: the full story (The Verge)
- Nokia and Microsoft Announce New Lumia Smartphones (All Things D)
- Nokia Debuts Lumia 920 With Windows Phone 8, Wireless Charging (All Things D)
- Nokia Launches New Flagship Lumia 920 Phone With Windows 8 (Mashable)
- Elop: Lumia 920 Is the ‘Next Step’ in the Windows Phone Journey (Mashable)
- Specs: Nokia Lumia 920 (Wall Street Journal)
- Nokia Lumia 920 Hands On: You Really Want This Thing—But Enough to Switch? (Gizmodo)
- Nokia’s New Lumia 920 Could Raise Smartphone Bar with Windows Phone 8 (Read Write Web)
- FIRST PHOTOS: Check Out Nokia’s Stunningly Gorgeous Windows Phone, The Lumia 920 (Business Insider)
- Nokia Announces Two New Flagship Windows Phones – Here’s Our Minute-By-Minute Coverage (Business Insider)
- Nokia’s new smartphones offer more sensitive touch screens (cNet)
- Microsoft beefs up Windows Phone 8 camera phone features (cNet)
One last interesting note from the demos. When Joe Belfiore demoed the screenshot capability he sent a live tweet with the photousing the Windows Phone sharing feature. That tweet was very popular garnering nearly 1300 RT’s and marked as favorite by nearly 200 Twitter users in a very short period of time.
After the event Joe tweeted that the picture was so popular that it triggered SkyDrive’s bandwidth abuse filter and shut the picture down from being seen further. Apparently as the guy who runs the Windows Phone team at Microsoft he has some pull to get that remedied quite easily!
