Telstra announces Nokia’s first Windows Phone – the Nokia Lumia 800
Filed under: consumer, gadgets and gizmos, Nokia, Windows Phone 7
Nokia’s first Windows® Phone 7.5 smartphone is coming to the Telstra Mobile Network, Australia’s largest and fastest mobile network, from 13 March.
Personally I couldn’t be more excited. The Nokia Lumia 800 is our second, second generation Windows Phone after the release of the Samsung Omnia W earlier this year.
And I can say first hand it’s a ripper!
The Lumia 800 has all the good looks and quality appeal of the N9 which I recently called ‘possibly the sexiest mobile phone ever created‘. Maybe a slight exaggeration I admit but building on that now, this surely must be the best looking phone in the Universe. In white, it is a truly a very attractive handset.
Couple that with the innovative and super-fast OS that is Windows 7.5 (Mango) on our Next G network and you have got a blazing-fast white-hot smartphone experience comparable with the best on offer today.
An awesome partnership between Micorsoft/Nokia and Telstra, the Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone comes packed with all the good stuff including People Hub (very cool integration of feeds from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter) plus Nokia Drive (intelligent sat nav system featuring voice-guidance) and of course Xbox Live. Did I forget to mention the brilliant Carl Zeiss 8mp camera…
Here’s the pricing, availability and important bits you want to know.
Pricing and availability:
The Nokia Lumia 800 will be available from metropolitan Telstra Stores from Tuesday 13 March, with regional Stores and partners receiving stock progressively after this date.
Consumer customers can purchase the Nokia Lumia 800 for $0 upfront on the $59 Freedom® Connect Plan (after using an included MRO Bonus for eligible customers), with $550 worth of included calls and MMS, unlimited SMS and 1.5GB of data, all to standard Australian numbers (excludes use overseas) each month. Min cost over 24 months is $1,416. Outright RRP of $672
Business customers can purchase the Nokia Lumia 800 for $0 upfront on the $70 Business Mobile Advantage Member plan (after using their MRO bonus), with unlimited standard national SMS and free national voice calls in Australia to eligible mobiles on the same account as well as 1GB of data to use in Australia each month that can be shared between eligible mobiles on the same account while in Australia. Min cost over 24 months is $1680.
Nokia Lumia 800 is available in black (from launch) and in white (from Tuesday 20 March).
And $672 outright price right?
Yup, that is correct Sheeds. I have updated the blog post since publishing.
Cheers & woohoo for more second gen WP7 handsets!
Will it have the blue tick for being suitable handheld use in a regional city?
I’m not sure at this point, but I have asked the questions.
+1 Need to know this.
Will there be any additional monthly mobile repayments? You only mention ‘$0 upfront.’
Will it be available outright, i.e. no contract?
Yes the zero up front plans are exactly that – monthly plans.
There is now a confirmed outright price with Telstra of $672.
Excellent, It seems like I have been waiting for this announcement for months. I am keen to get one as soon as they are out. Is there any chance you have any more info about the release stores?
I am in Newcastle NSW and would love to get my hands on one of these on the 13th. Hopefully there is something closeby. I know there are quite a few telstra shops in the area.
My iphone 3gs has just about had it.
Any additional info would be greatly appreciated
Thanks for finally getting the announcement up (even though we all knew
)
Good news for Telstra fans! Really hope this phone get’s the Advertising it’s due!
What about cyan and magenta??
About time!
Love to have one . Always been Nokia fan. Had my Nokia phone 6 years.
Hey Dan,
How about a comp to give away a Lumia 800 like what was done with HTC Velocity?
Also do you know if Telstra will be stocking any of the Nokia Bluetooth Accessories, like the Play 360 speaker, BT headset or BT headphones?
Yes it would be good to know what is in the box, and availabilitity of Nokia accessories!!
Not good enough Telstra. Where is the 900?
Um… you do know that the 900 isn’t out ANYWHERE don’t you? Why would Telstra be the first world wide to get it given that we are getting the 80 6 months after launch?
Any idea when the cyan and magenta colours will be available?
Awesome…I’ve been looking forward to this phone and my contract ends soon.
Just wondering if anyone knows if it has WiFi tethering yet (Wireless hotspot/internet sharing), because without it, it’s pretty useless to me as a business phone…
Not at the moment. Though there is a software update “coming soon” that will give it to the 800 tethering support. From the sounds of it though this is a porting of the software from the 900 so its unlikely to be out before it is, at least before it is in the US which is rumored will be on the 8th of April
I have put in my request for the Nokia Lumia 800 to my local store. They hope to ring me on Tuesday to say I can pick it up!!
I hope the 900 is not out soon, because that is my preferred model.
As others have asked above: what about cyan and magenta? I have zero interest in this trend to white mobiles and tablets
Telstra Lumia 800 has 4G feature?
Hi. Im keen on the 900 too, for the record. As my Omnia 7 will not longer have data on Telstra soon, it’d be great to swap to the Nokia 900 before the 3g data gets switched off.
Keen on the 900 for the front facing camera.
Cheers.
No wonder Dan is not answering questions about the colour. Just visited my local Telstra shop where I was told that they only have white – and they are expecting some resistance because as she said “white is the new pink” so she recommended I leave it a month or two to see if some good colours become available.
I need a new phone now, but as we are talking 2 year contracts I dont want to lock into the “old” Telstra network, and so will wait for a 4G LTE mobile.
I have always had Nokia (my wife got an HTC 6 months ago and its aweful – so they are out), hence will only get a Lumia 900 4g LTE or even an 800 4g LTE if one existed.
Otherwise its an N9 stop gap not on contract, as you can now buy that outright for $379 and falling ! If you can you match that Telstra I will have one ?
Folks. Telstra Lumia 800 IS Blue Ticked:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=7ae1bf21f6270b89&resid=7AE1BF21F6270B89!894&parid=7AE1BF21F6270B89!597&authkey=!AGwa3h_9TFgXSTY&Bsrc=TWITRAPXX&Bpub=SN.Notifications
Completely awesome hey Sheeds? I can’t wait till mine lands at my desk….:P
Dan, all good things come to those that wait ;P
Can you confirm that WHITE Lumia 800′s should be in-stock at Telstra by Monday week?
Cheers.
Sheeds.
Does anyone know if this phone has an external antenna conection? I work in a very remote location and the only way to get service is via an external connection.
Have you sorted this Mark, I have the same issue.
Glad to see it available and lue-ticked very disappointing though black only (& white later) The cyan & magenta look awesome…please get these colours then count me in. It’s more of an issue with these phones as you can’t change case yourself.
Howdy, any update on ETA of the white lumia 800′s? I went to a few Melb stores today and they had no idea and were quick to blame Nokia for the delay! I Need to port-out from my current provider, hanging out for a white lumia!
Ditto. I’ve really been hanging out for a White Lumia too. Word on the street is that it will be next tuesday, but I’m stuck with an old 3G iPhone and I really don’t want to wait that long. Are you able to shed some light on the situation?
Hi all
I can confirm that unfortunately the shipment to Telstra was delayed.
We now expect stock to be available next Tuesday. We apologise for any inconvenience.
is it a standard or a micro sim like the n9 was
Hi Rachael – the Lumia 800 is a micro sim.
I’m pretty sure it will be a microsim too. The only difference between the lumia and the n9 is the operating system and a few extra buttons
Cheers for the update Dan, much appreciated mate.
+1. Thanks for the update Dan, appreciate it.
Looking forward to getting my hands on one!
Cheers
Stephen
Dan can you find out why Telstra does not support Messagebank Plus (Visual Voicemail) on Windows Phone Mango (WP7) devices?
From what I have read WP7 and iPhone use the same technology for visual voicemail and the only thing that is required by carriers to support visual voicemail is to update thier VM servers so that they can identify the WP7 devces in the same way in which they currently identify the iPhone. Considering there are only 3 current WP7 devices available through Telstra (possible a few more over the next year) I wouldnt think this would be a hard task.
Even though the Windows Phone user base is quite tiny in comparision to the iPhone the revenue potential of $60 per year/per user should easily outway the minimum investment $’s required by Telstra to update thier voicemail servers to support WP7
Any movement yet on the tethering? Have been using the Lumina 800 for a while now and loving it though the lack of tethering is pretty annoying.
Curtis,
given it’s only weeks away (eta mid/late June) from when pundits expect the Tanfo update to be released by MS for current devices, it stands to reason that carriers/telcos worldwide won’t want to do 2 lots of updates on Lumia’s – one for tethering, the other for Tango.
Expect them bundled in around 3-6 weeks time is my bet.
Sheeds.
I got a Lumina 800 and had nothing but trouble with it. No reception, even when all around me had 5 bars, wouldn’t hold charge, intermittent software issues. I complained after 1 day and after 4 phone calls managed to get a N9 which is wonderful. Now I just have to sort out the issue of Telstra charging me $600 + for returning the lemon before the contract finished even though the whole thing was documented on my account and the fee is supposed to be getting waived!
With the release of the Nokia Lumia 900 in the UK – is there any news for an Australian release date yet? The 900 appears to be far superior to the 800…
It has been announced. Its going to Optus without the 4G compatibility, though I don’t know the date.
And I don’t know about “far superior”. It has a front facing camera and a bigger screen. FFCs have been around on phones for over 10 years and i don’t know anyone who has actually used them. The bigger screen just makes the whole phone much bulkier while still having the same resolution, so if anything I would say that was a negative. Plus the screen doesn’t blend into the body in the same way as the 800 so it lacks the same level polish. At least in my opinion.
But anyway. Announced. Optus. No 4G.
Interesting your reception issue, I’ve purchased 2x lumia 800s and live in the sticks, both have excellent reception, better than most phones. However there is a non-nextg model which will be terrible on Telstra, maybe they had wrong one
No was the correct model, just a lemon.
About time Telstra updated their Lumia 800 to the latest operating system from Nokia. Some significant enhancements including WFI tehtering. It’s been released and available on other carriers for a while – but Telstra seem to be dragging thier heels
Why wont Telstra give us a date for the Tango update?I’ I love the phone but without tethering its not as useful as most other phones!
WP7 Tango update got applied to my Nokia 800 today, and brought with it the long-awaited internet tethering.