At its launch, Nokia’s CEO called the Nokia Lumia 800 “the first real Windows phone device – no small boast since its operating system, Windows Phone, has been on the market since late 2010 in other smartphones. But it’s easy to see why he made that claim – the Nokia Lumia 800 has got the whole tech world talking. Created by a crack team of industrial design and user experience experts from both Nokia and Microsoft, the Nokia Lumia 800 represents a renaissance for Nokia, who were so keen to produce a smartphone that they were proud of that they turned the new phone around in just six months. But a short production time has not compromised the product one bit.

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Nokia Lumia 800’s design has a lot in common with the Nokia 9, but on closer inspection there are many differences. The most striking thing about the Nokia Lumia 800 is the sleek lines of the curved chassis, which measures 116.5mm long by 61.2mm and just 12.1mm thick. These curves which extend to the screen, where they encourage the natural sweep of the thumb as you use the phone. The Nokia Lumia 800’s slightly convex 93.9mm (3.7”) touchscreen also reaches all the way across the phone’s body, creating a “popping” effect that makes the screen graphics really stand out. Weighing in at a light 142g, it’s made from a tough polycarbonate that feels rock-solid, is hard to damage and, apparently, is coloured all the way through – a nice touch. Its attractive matte finish doesn’t attract fingerprints the way glossy shells do, so it stays looking clean and new. The Lumia 800’s snappy design further breaks away from traditional black and white smartphone colour combinations, and it’s available not only in black, but in hot pink and an eye-popping peacock blue. On the back you’ll find a high quality 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, HD video capability, a dedicated capture button and dual LED flash.

When you pick up the Nokia Lumia 800 and dive in, you’ll be up and running in no time, aided by the speedy 1.4Ghz processor and 3D graphics hardware accelerator. The Lumia 800 has some unexpected features – for instance, the lack of traditional address book, which is replaced by the nifty People application which pulls in contact details from Hotmail, Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like, and incorporates email, chat and SMS too. There are, of course, also apps to import contacts from your old phone, smoothly and easily.

The Windows Phone operating system is easy to use – a speedy flick of the fingers transfers you between the handy Live Tiles interface (the colours matching your phone’s shell exactly – a stylish touch!) and your downloaded applications. You’ll pick it up in a trice and will soon be making the most of your Nokia Lumia 800’s internet and WiFi capabilities, enjoying Internet Explorer 9, Bing searches and the Facebook app anywhere and everywhere. The battery life will keep you going for ages – up to 335 hours standby time, 9.5 hours 3G talktime, 7 hours video playback time and a whopping 55 hours music playback time. When it finally runs out of steam, recharge is by micro-USB from the mains or from another USB device.

There are apps galore to enjoy, to be downloaded from the Windows Phone Marketplace, but the Nokia Lumia 800 comes with plenty to entertain you right out of the box. Included bundled in the Nokia Lumia 800 is Nokia Drive, the first free satnav service on any Windows Phone device. Music lovers will enjoy Nokia Music, a free app which includes access to the exclusive MixRadio, with genre-dedicated radio stations – you can stream music from them or save for offline listening. Bluetooth connectivity allows you to listen wirelessly with Bluetooth-enabled devices. Plus the generous 16GB of internal memory (with a 512MB RAM) gives you plenty of space for hundreds of songs, which can be downloaded from Nokia’s 15m track collection and transferred from other devices. Still not enough memory for you? Nokia Lumia 800 owners can sign up for a SkyDrive account, a free online backup storage solution which gives you access to 25GB more of online storage.

A new smartphone that can stand up for itself amongst the big players, the Nokia Lumia 800 is something of which the Nokia and Microsoft teams can be proud.