Nokia has launched its latest effort to get back into your pocket with the release of the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 smart phones.
The colourful Lumia 800 Nokia is the first Nokia phone in a joint partnership with Microsoft and features an 8 mega pixel camera (just like the iPhone 4S) with Carl Zeiss optics and HD video, a 3.7 inch display, 16GB memory and Windows Mango 7.5 operating system.
The lower spec model, Lumia 710, has a 3.7 inch screen, a 1.4 GHz processor and comes in familiar iPhone shades of black or white. Nokia is also pitching colourful covers as a selling point, if that's important to you.
The Next Web reports that the estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately €270, so not a terribly low-priced option compared to the the low-end HTC Explorer, price TBC and out in November, or the £139 BlackBerry Curve , but lower than the iPhone 4S which costs £499 outright.
Both will be sold available from Vodafone and Three in the UK "soon", according to their spokespeople.
Mashable reports that the Nokia Lumia 710 will first become available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of 2011, and it’s coming to other markets in early 2012.
The Next Web describe Nokia's latest release as "first step on the road to recovery." for the company.
Mashable says the Lumia 800 could be "the best Windows phone yet".
Techcrunch says "The specs won’t exactly set anyone’s world on fire, but the design might: like the N9 before it, the Lumia 800 features a stunning unibody design that’s shaped out of a slab of durable polycarbonate material."
Want to upgrade to a smart phone? See our top five iPhone 4S alternatives.
Would you use one of the new Nokia models? Let us know in comments below.
How the Nokia Lumia 800 compares to the iPhone 4S:
Lumia 800
• Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) operating system
• 8MP camera with flash and Carl Zeiss optics
• 1.4GHz processor
• Dimensions: 61 x 116.5 x 12.1mm
• Micro SIM
iPhone 4S
• Apple IOS5 operating system
• 8MP front or back-facing camera with flash
• A5 dual-core processor
• Dimensions: 58.6 x 115.2 x 9.3mm
• Micro SIM