Is Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone flagship?

The newly launched Nokia Lumia 800, their first Windows Phone.

Nokia launched their much anticipated Windows Phone device today, the Lumia 800. Unsurprisingly, it looks nearly identical to the Meego phone they launched some time back, the N9. The media has been looking forward the Lumia 800 assuming that will become the flagship for the Windows Phone ecosystem; like it's the nexus series of Windows Phone. But has it delivered? Is the device any better than other upcoming Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) devices? We try to find out, by comparing it with the Samsung Focus S.

Samsung Focus S, an upcoming Windows based Phone.

• Design and Looks - Nokia has a history of designing phone with a special eye towards design, and Lumia 800 shows that. Its has beautiful minimalist looks, and it is practically identical to N9 externally, it should be very well built. Samsung Focus S, on the other hand, has ordinary (read: drab) looks, and they are not known to build very solid feeling devices. That said, it has one ace up its sleeve, its very low thickness - 8.55mm vs Nokia's 12.1mm.
• Screen - Nokia has a 3.7" Clearblack AMOLED screen, compared to a 4.3" Super AMOLED Plus screen on the Samsung Focus S. Both screens have been seen on earlier devices (N9 and Samsung Galaxy S2), and it looks like its a dead heat when it comes to colour saturation, brightness and contrast between the two screens. Both have identical overall resolution. I think the larger size of the Samsung Focus S has the edge here.
• Camera - Both phones have an 8MP still camera, though the video capture resolution is different - 720p for Nokia vs 1080p on the Samsung. Nokia has a history of making great cameras, and they use their partnership with Carl Zeiss to put a branded lens on Nokia Lumia 800. Samsung's camera should be great too, as we've already seen spectacular performance from its Galaxy S2. Samsung also has a front camera, which the Nokia Lumia 800 lacks - this is potentially a significant advantage for those who make video calls, especially since Skype is promised on the Mango OS by Microsoft.
• Battery Life - Nokia has announced the specs for its battery at 1450mAh. Samsung has not released the specs, but we can assume its going to be upwards of 1700mAh (again, using the Galaxy S2 analogy). Both phones should be nearly identical in their battery consumptions as both use the same chip and run the same OS, with screen size being the major differentiator. I expect practical battery life to be similar on both devices.
• Software - Nokia has been able to add a few additions to the Windows Mango 7.5 OS, most significant of those being the Nokia Drive. It is Nokia's version of maps with turn by turn navigation. Nokia Maps also allows offline downloading of Maps Data. I use Android's turn by turn navigation many times on my Samsung Galaxy S2, and this gives a noticeable advantage to Nokia here (one advantage which it also has over the iPhone). Nokia also has its own music store. Samsung has no additions to the stock OS.

Going through the above comparison, it is no longer obvious that Nokia is in any way the flagship Windows Phone device. The biggest difference is its cute looks (including availability in 3 colours) and smaller screen size, which means women will probably choose this over the Samsung. But with the larger screen and front camera, there will be many who will prefer the Focus S.

Of course, they have to compete with iPhone and Android phones, both of which are now available in most stores. Microsoft went to great lengths to make Nokia their partner (allegedly even paying them $1 billion). But it doesn't look like Nokia has responded with a phone which might be worth that effort. That said, Nokia has some other advantages, like their enormous retail presence in Europe and Asia. In India, for example, Nokia is still the favoured brand of many who associate it with well built phones with great battery life, and despise Samsung for its cheap feeling phones. With proper marketing, Nokia might be able to sell their Windows Phone devices over not only Samsung and HTC Windows Phone devices, but even their Android ones. Who knows, this might have been the exact reason for their marriage.