Clearly, Nokia's getting a lot of attention at CES this year, and for good reason: the Lumia 900 is in the first batch of LTE-enabled Windows Phones and the Lumia 710 launched on T-Mobile just this week, marking the company's reentrance into the hardscrabble US market. That puts Chris Weber, president of Nokia's US business, in the hot seat - and we sat down with him this week to get his thoughts on the prospects for success.
Microsoft's Joe Belfiore, VP for Windows Phone, dropped by our CES HQ this week to discuss Microsoft's mobile future. He was classically reluctant to reveal the specifics of that future, though he did say that the words Tango and Apollo "sound nice." He did share his thoughts on how Windows Phone differs from iOS and Android, positioning it as the happy balance between the two leaders in mobile software. You get the greater variety of Android with the reassurance of tighter quality control that Apple offers. Quality, in fact, was the overriding theme of what Joe had to say. According to him, having a better user experience is what will diffe …
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Nokia's official US Twitter stream and our own photos have confirmed a commonly held suspicion: the Lumia 900 doesn't have a Pentile Matrix subpixel layout. Unlike the Lumia 800, its AMOLED display has its subpixels in an RGB arrangement instead of RGBG. The effect of this change is that you'll get better fine-grain detail on the 900 while also avoiding the subtle color-fringing that the Lumia 800 exhibits on high-contrast edges (such as between black and white). Nokia has been somewhat evasive about this issue up until that tweet, perhaps in an effort not to diminish its other AMOLED displays. Still, we'd say this is easily the best undocum …
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At its final CES keynote, Microsoft has announced that the Nokia Lumia 800 is finally heading to the US. There's no carrier support - you'll be buying an unlocked handset - but it'll be available from Microsoft's stores in the coming months. This word comes straight from CEO Steve Ballmer, who also noted that the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 will be heading to Canada with Rogers.
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We had to take a long elevator up to the Playboy Club at The Palms to find it, but after some searching we got our hands on a lone black Lumia 900. Nokia touted the 900's solid construction at its press conference earlier today, and we can't argue - the thing feels very solid in the hands at first blush, and the screen is vibrant and colorful. Unfortunately we weren't granted access past Windows Phone 7's lock screen, but we hope to get some more hands-on photos tomorrow when the Lumia 900 is unveiled on the CES floor.
Update: We just spent some more time with Nokia's latest, and while the phone was running a test software build that prevente …
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Nokia's Lumia 900 LTE Windows Phone is official. We've witnessed speculation and leaks over the past few weeks, but Nokia CEO Stephen Elop unveiled the device on stage at CES 2012 today. Nokia's latest and greatest handset includes a 1.4GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, an 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss f2.2/28mm rear camera, and a 4.3-inch AMOLED display - an improvement over the Lumia 800 screen. Nokia has also added a 1-megapixel front-facing camera with an f2.4 lens, to enable video conferencing with the built-in Tango application. The most important advancement here is the introduction of LTE support on AT&T, a new offering for Windows Phone users.
The Lumia 9 …
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We're hours away from Nokia's press conference at CES 2012 today, and fresh images appear to have leaked of the Lumia 900. Nokia is believed to be introducing the 4G "Ace" LTE Windows Phone this afternoon, but PocketNow appears to have secured some marketing images. They don't demonstrate anything wildly new, but do seem similar to previous leaks of this AT&T handset.
Samsung and HTC are also expected to unveil LTE-equipped Windows Phone devices today, both running on a pre-tango operating system update. Nokia's rolling thunder US marketing push looks set to execute today, so keep your eyes on our live blog from Nokia's CES 2012 press confere …
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