Nokia Lumia 920 now official

Today was clearly a big day for Nokia, for whom this announcement marks its big comeback into the smartphone race dominated by the likes of Apple and Samsung, among others. Leading to this day, there have been a range of leaks surrounding the upcoming smartphones to be released by Nokia.

Nokia, at the outset was believed to be the first manufacturer to bring out smartphones running the Windows Phone 8 OS. However, South Korean giant Samsung Electronics surprised everybody at the recently concluded IFA 2012 event by introducing its first Windows Phone 8 smartphone called the  ATIV S.

Nokia recently released a short teaser video clip showcasing a girl on a bicycle hinting towards the company’s PureView technology. The company first introduced its PureView technology with the 808 PureView.

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Nokia took the wraps off their Lumia 920 at the Nokia World 2012 event in NYC. The Nokia Lumia 920 will pack in a Snapdragon S4 and a PureView sensor. It also comes with the Blink app, which is the smartphone’s Burst mode. The smartphone will feature an LCD display, which is a little higher than the HD displays available now. WIth a polycarbonate body the phone will be available in many colours - yellow and red being two of them.

City Lens, an app which is to be one of the exclusive apps for Lumia 920 gives information about restaurants and stores on the phone, while looking at the world through the camera.

Microsoft collaborated with Rovio for Angry Birds Roost, which is a portal for all things Angry Birds, including the latest games, news feeds and ringtones and videos**.**

New “lenses” feature in the camera allows you to edit the photo as you’re taking it. Photosynth lens allows 360 degree panorama photos. The PureView captures between 5 and 10 times the light compared to other smartphone cameras and the floating lens technology is for night shots to balance the lens and stabalize it for images and video.

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The Nokia Lumia 920 comes with Nokia Drive, which offers free turn-by-turn voice navigation out of the box. It also includes indoor maps in train stations and bus terminals. What is also included is City Lens that provides an “intuitive” way to explore a city. Nokia Maps has augmented reality. Once you have set a route on Nokia Maps, you can look at the street through the phone and get directions.

The Lumia 920 packs in a new PureMotion HD+ screen with a fast refresh rate. It comes with ClearBlack screen that automatically adjusts colour tone and brightness of the screen. The phone comes with a 2000 mAh battery - the biggest one that Nokia has ever made. The Lumia 920 will come with 7GB free SkyDrive storage.

Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft, Joe Belifiore revealed that Windows Phone 8 supports pinch to zoom in the camera. It supports screenshots by holding start button and pressing power button. “Me” tile lets you quickly post updates to social networking. Users will be able to make ‘bookmark” tiles for important contacts. Windows phone 7 apps work out of the box with Windows phone 8. Nokia has released a video that shows off the Lumia 920.

Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the Nokia Lumia 920:

• 4.5 inch PureMotion HD+ LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels
• 3G, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, NFC
• Bluetooth v 3.1 with A2DP
• GPS with A-GPS and Nokia Maps Suite
• 8.7 megapixel camera with  1080p HD video recording and a 1.2 megapixel front facing camera with 720p video recording
• 32GB internal memory