With the launch of the first wave of Windows Phone 8 devices, Lumia devices are turning up on every major US carrier (except Sprint). The Nokia Lumia 810 is a T-Mobile device which comes with a 4.3 inch WVGA ClearBlack display and a dual core Snapdragon S4 processor and an 8 MP camera. While Windows Phone 8 devices may not have the same wide range of apps that Android phones or iPhones currently have, they still serve as excellent alternatives with their own set of impressive features including remarkable battery life, affordable price range and superior mapping and navigation technology (when it comes to Nokia Lumia devices). For a limited time, select online retailers are offering a $35 activation credit when you purchase the Nokia Lumia 810.
Samsung has also released the Galaxy Note II, a successor to the unexpectedly well received Galaxy Note. The Galaxy Note II’s most notable and distinct features are its large 5.5 inch screen with a HD resolution in full Super AMOLED HD glory. No doubt helping matters are a beefy battery and a quad-core processor. At $300 on a two year contract, the ‘phablet’ is certainly not cheap, but is certainly well priced considering the premium screen real estate and features on offer. The Note II runs on the latest Android release, Jellybean, including a feature called Google Now: a specialized feature which intelligently mines information from its user and accordingly displays related data and updates to the user.
The Note II is pencil-thin with a sleek plastic and a hard Gorilla Glass screen ensuring that users with butterfingers have little reason to worry. Another special feature is Samsung’s handwriting recognition technology called S-Note, which records your handwriting over the screen with the stylus and instantly translates it to text once it has established your handwriting patterns. While the software takes some time to match handwriting with text, it learns quickly and makes texting a very fluid and very unique experience.
Both the Galaxy Note II and Windows Phone are still nascent devices/platforms; the Note is a category of smartphones which lies between regular phones and tablets. Though the original Note was extremely successful, as the Note II will undoubtedly be, the market for such supersized smartphones is still not fully developed. Most other manufacturers have stayed away from this niche until a specific demand for such devices can be ascertained. Similarly, Windows Phone is still a fledgling platform with barely 4% market share. Though initial response to the OS has been positive, consumers are still waiting to see whether Microsoft will be able to come up with a great selection of applications before they switch over.
