News - Vodafone lands first with Nokia Lumia 800 pricing

[Noxvayl]

I clicked through that link and couldn't see a SIM Free, even tried the "SIM Free" section and no sign on the 800.

Something weird I've noticed about the 800 - I was in the local Sainsbury's yesterday and pretty much all of the "OK" type mags were carrying the 800 on the front cover. Does this make the 800 a fashionable device?

On that link if you look under Available Deals> View All Networks there is an option called "Filter". Click the drop down menu and you should find the following options: Pay monthly, Upgrade, Pay as you go, SIM Free. If you select SIM Free on that filter the price will be listed as £390 just below.

I think that observation says more about the marketing of the phone than it's fashionable nature.

[miniyazz]

Am I alone in buying phones unlocked and free of contracts?

I'd much rather pay £450 and get the phone and have the freedom to cancel my contract and move to another network if my situation changes or Vodafone make a change I dislike. I also prefer to use Pay As You Go(PAYG) SIM cards in other countries, partly because they are cheaper and partly to prevent being bothered by people I don't want to call me when I'm overseas.

12, 18 and 24 month contracts restrict me too much for my liking.

I used to do that but I'm pretty happy with my current contract (and knew I would be for some time when I got the contract), so currently I'm happy I made the right choice (it worked out cheaper to get the phone on contract than sim-free, by about £160) - and it doesn't stop me from upgrading my phone should I wish.

[crossy]

On that link if you look under Available Deals> View All Networks there is an option called "Filter". Click the drop down menu and you should find the following options: Pay monthly, Upgrade, Pay as you go, SIM Free. If you select SIM Free on that filter the price will be listed as £390 just below.

I think that observation says more about the marketing of the phone than it's fashionable nature.

Oops. You're right - still not sure I'd want to pay £390 for that, think I'd be more comfortable with nearer £300, seeing as it's not dual core etc. I was just looking on the CNet review (http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-pho...view-50005805/) and notice not only does it use a uSIM, not a "proper" one, but also:

On the downside, like the iPhone 4S, the Lumia 800 is a completely closed device. You can't remove the battery and you can't add any more memory to it, as there's no microSD card slot.

Non-removable battery = badly-wrong in my book, and for that price I'd really expect uSD. Was glancing through the fluff mags (OK etc) and the slant given seems to suggest that their marketing idea is to put it fairly and squarely up against the iPhone4S.

As an aside, it's been an interesting thread wrt the discussion of the merits of PAYG v's sim-free v's contract. Although my daughter's SIM free deal turned out to be excellent, I'd been pretty much hell-bent on replacing my current 24 month contract phone with another. Now I'm not so sure - and am coming around to thinking that maybe a 12 month SIM-only deal is the "sweet spot" as far as I'm concerned. Mainly because 12 month seems to give better deals than the 1 month rolling, but without the level of commitment needed for the usual 24 month deals. Especially as I'll be moving to a new phone brand and new carrier.

[TheAnimus]

Too expensive considering the hardware imo - lack of a metal chassis really puts it down when compared to HTC's best offering (titan), although it doesn look pretty.

Totally disagree.

The idea of going for polycarbon makes a lot of sense, scratches don't matter so much (wet dry em away with a nail file) its coloured all the way through, so scratches don't show as much.

But best of all its pratically invisible on the radio frequencies phones use.

In other words its well designed, unlike the iphone 4.

[semo]

Nokia spent way too much time not innovating and regurgitating the same old rubbish. They don't deserve yet another chance.

Do you remember those impractical fashion phones (lipstick and all the other rubbish). At one point they had dozens of different phones, all running pretty much the same OS.
This is not the only time when Nokia reluctantly released what the public was screaming for, for example, they were very late to the party with flip and slide phones.

[crossy]

Nokia spent way too much time not innovating and regurgitating the same old rubbish. They don't deserve yet another chance.
Do you remember those impractical fashion phones (lipstick and all the other rubbish). At one point they had dozens of different phones, all running pretty much the same OS.
This is not the only time when Nokia reluctantly released what the public was screaming for, for example, they were very late to the party with flip and slide phones.

So don't agree! Apart from anything else you can't really say that they weren't innovating and at the same time berate them for doing weird phones. And isn't the polycarb body at least one point at which they're being innovative?

I think most folks would agree that form factor choice was the least of their worries, and the blame for their poor performance in smartphones, (remember that Nokia continue to do fine in the "feature" phone - i.e. dumbphones - market), can be laid fairly and squarely at their decision to stick with Symbian long past the time when it was obvious to everyone that it was pushing up the daisies.

I bailed out from Nokia after the N95, and even that compared poorly in features and ease of use when compared to the contemporary iPhone. However, I'd still argue that Nokia's hardware was/is (?) better than Apple's.

And at the end of the day it'll be down to the market to decide whether they get that second chance or not - if the 720/800/etc are good, usable, price-competitive devices then Nokia will do well ... otherwise they won't, folks will continue to defect to iPhone and Android, and Nokia would probably end up being a "feature" phone only outfit.

[crossy]

If there's any Orange customers out there, then I've just found out that you can get a free XBox if you select the L800 as an upgrade, details are:

Xbox 360 Offer: If you’re an Orange pay monthly mobile customer on an existing 12, 18 or 24 month plan and you’re eligible to upgrade we’ll give you a free Xbox 360 if you upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 800 handset on an 18 or 24 month Animal plan. This offer opens on 16 November and closes on 30 November.

If you are eligible for this offer, you can pre-register your interest in the Nokia Lumia 800 on-line at www.orange.co.uk/nokia800, or pre-order it in an Orange store, from 26 October. When pre-ordering the handset, you’ll need to pay a £10 deposit. If you successfully pre-register your details, or pre-order a handset, we may reserve an Xbox 360 for you until 30 November. If you preregistered, you’ll need to upgrade online or in an Orange store; if you preorder you’ll need to upgrade in the same Orange store you paid your deposit in before 30 November, or any Xbox 360 we may have reserved for you may be offered to other customers.

Your Xbox 360 will be shipped within 30 days of upgrading. If you return your new Nokia Lumia 800 or exchange it for another handset you’ll also need to return the Xbox 360 in pristine condition. Our returns policy will apply, check it out orange.co.uk/terms.

(sorry for the long quote!)
Not that impressed with Orange - I was on their site because I got a heads up that they were doing the SE Xperia Ray that one of the relatives was looking for, clicked through the deal and the "recommended" talk plan was one with no data allowance - pretty darned stupid thing to push for a smartphone, and doubly so for an Android one. Hopefully if someone was to go for the upgrade deal detailed in the quote, then their recommended plan would be one with a data allowance.