What are the Microsoft Ireland Partners saying about the Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone?

Nokia Lumia 800 Microsoft Ireland partner reviews

Sean Brady, Adaptive Business Communications LTD trading as Webtastic
Social Media Solutions for Business

We were lucky to be the winner of the Nokia Lumia 800 windows phone at the Microsoft Partner event in Limerick in Nov 2011 so when Aoibheann Gleeson asked us to provide a review of the phone then how could we refuse. So here goes...

The 3.7" ClearBlack screen quality is just superb and Windows 7.5 ("Mango") OS is very responsive and the internet browsing is noticeable faster with Internet 9 browser with full support for HTML5. Coming from an Android phone myself, the transition to the Windows phone was seamless however some of my favorite apps are still not available on the Windows OS such as Catch however I have converted back to Microsoft OneNote which is the Windows equivalent to Catch and I was impressed with it's latest features on OneNote for Mobile.

We have just migrated our office over to Office 365 under the Microsoft Partner Cloud Essentials program and are now utilising Microsoft Skydrive for the first time to access MS documents on the phone which works perfectly. Up to this point, we were using Dropbox for our cloud storage. I have actually given MS Powerpoint presentations to clients using this phone albeit to one client at a time and all the Powerpoint animation features were supported.

The Social Media apps are well integrated through Nokia People and the Microsoft Me tile along with other 3rd party apps such as Social which makes Social Networking more user friendly especially for non-technical people. As Social Media Engineers ourselves, we welcome more phones like the Nokia Lumia 800 as we see increasing demand for Social Networking on Mobile devices as more businesses adopt this new customer engagement opportunity. Simple things like Message threads and Linked inboxes makes multiple Social networks more manageable. The voice recognition feature on the phone is quite impressive and amazingly accurate making it ideal for searching on Bing or scripting a text message on handsfree. It would be great if you could use this feature to post comments on Facebook from the Windows phone but I expect that this is something that we will see in time on Windows Mobile.

The things that we are looking forward to on the Windows Phone OS in the next release is Internet Sharing ( using the phone as a wireless hub ). We are not convinced that Nokia Maps are up-to-date for Ireland so would welcome some improvement with this. We have yet to review the Microsoft Dynamics CRM client on the Windows Phone but were delighted to see this app on this phone as most of our clients are currently evaluating CRMs as a means to strengthen their Social Media campaigns.

For the more technically minded, we are looking at Microsoft Visual Studio to develop apps on the Windows phone which appears more straight forward than other phone app development platforms like Apple and supports good multi-tasking APIs which is essential for app performance. For those of a gaming inclination, we did not try the XBOX Live feature otherwise we would not get any work done in the office but who can resist Anger Birds.

There is no memory expansion and limited RAM ( 512Mb ) on this phone however this is not a problem at the moment but I expect that as we use more Office 365 apps on the phone then it's installed 16Gb memory may be an issue when it comes to storing large files offline such as Powerpoint, databases and video but we will wait and see on this.

The one major failing of the Nokia Lumia 800 that we can see is the battery life especially if you are using GPS, Bluetooth and 3G data connections however this appears to be a common issue with most smartphones these days irrespective of what OS is running. Our advice - Get a car charger!

In summary, if you or your clients are considering a Office 365 migration, this phone makes an excellent addition to any proposal.

Regards,

Sean Brady.

Niall Folan, Computer Troubleshooters

After hearing many things about Microsoft Windows phone software I was very happy when I was lucky enough to win a Nokia Lumina 800 running Mango from Microsoft Ireland.

Having been a first generation iphone and android user I was looking forward to seeing what Microsoft had to offer.Was I impressed? I certainly was. As have most people who I have shown the phone off to. 

The home screen is so nice and smooth. I love the live tiles as well as the simple flicking over when I choose an application.Mail and the usual are good to use. What has been great though to use has been the linking up of Microsoft’s Office 365 which we have just setup for ourselves in our small office. The setup onto the phone was so easy comparing to setting it up on my colleagues’ android and apple devices. I know some of the guys here are looking to switch to Windows Phone now.

The phone itself I’m very happy with.Lovely piece of design. Simple and easy to use. I was initially worried about the lack of front facing camera, but in reality I need not worry. How often do we actually use a front facing camera!!

All in all I’ve very happy with new Windows Phone. I’m always happy to show it off to people which has to be a good sign!!! I’ll certainly be recommending it to my customers.

Niall Folan