Nokia Lumia 820

Available now
5th September 2012

The Nokia Lumia 820 is a midrange Windows Phone 8 smartphone that joins the high-end Lumia 920, both of which are slated to come to market before the end of the year.

Where the Lumia 920 can sell itself on features that no other smartphone has, much of the hardware on the Lumia 820 is rather more modest, although underneath both Lumia devices share the same core of the Windows 8 operating system running on a dual-core 1.5GHz processor with 1GB of RAM.

On the front of the Lumia 820 is a relatively large (but somewhat low resolution) 4.3" 480 x 800 pixel ClearBlack touchscreen panel similar to that found in the Lumia 900. One unusual feature on these new Lumia devices is that they can be operated with a glove as well as a finger, which many customers will find very useful.

One the back is an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture at 30 fps, and on the front is a 0.3 megapixel video calling camera. One key difference between the 820 and the 920 is that this cheaper phone lacks the advanced optical stablisation features of the flagship Lumia 920 device.

The Lumia 820 supports wireless charging through an optional charging shell, so you can pop the handset into a compatible dock or on top of a charging plate and keep the 1650 mAh battery topped up easily. It might seem like a gimmick, but we've seen quite a few tatty looking microUSB charging ports on phones recently and this looks like an improvement.

This is an HSPA+ capable device with maximum download speeds of up to 42 Mbps, and there is also an LTE version than can support downloads of up to 100 Mbps. It supports 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi standards and also Bluetooth and NFC communications, in exactly the same way as the more expensive Lumia 920.

Windows Phone 8 has all the features that every other smartphone has, plus some interesting applications such as Smart Shoot and City Lens that are also found on the 920. In fact, the 820 can do almost everything that the 920 can do except in the display and imaging departments.

Internal memory is just 8GB, but inside is a microSD slot for adding more. The battery is quoted as giving up to up to 8 hours talktime on 3G and 13 days standby time. The Lumia 820 measures 124 x 69 x 9.9mm and weighs 160 grams. It will be available in red, yellow, grey, cyan, purple, white and black colours and because the covers are interchangeable then you can always change the colour at a later date.

We don't know exactly when the Nokia Lumia 820 will launch or how much it will cost. The Lumia 820 doesn't really have the compelling appeal of the 920 either, but if you're looking for an attractive and capable mid-market device that isn't an Android or iPhone then this might make a good alternative.