The invitation for the Nigerian Lumia 920 launch event said to “come and be blown away”. I’m however glad to announce that I managed to get away with all my body parts intact. Having already launched in six other markets, in addition to extensive media publicity since the device’s official release, I experienced no heightened sense of excitement to speak of — just the usual levels of blogger’s curiousity. This was supposed to be Nokia’s big comeback afterall, and Nigeria had been chosen as one of the markets in which to stage it.
So long as they remained tethered to their security restraints, we were allowed to ogle and fondle the new smartphones for a while — devices, because I found that the Lumia 820 was also making its debut, albeit in the shadow of the superior 920. Then we were ushered into another room in which a number of Nokia execs took turns to regale us with Lumia 920 feature highlights, all the while describing the device in vivid superlatives. In fact, the whole thing mostly came off as a series of odes to the world’s most innovative phone, an honorific the Finnish company has unilaterally seen fit to bestow on its latest creation.
I paid some attention to the virtual tear-down of the hardware that was projected onto the stage, even if I didn’t learn anything that I didn’t already know from internet reviews. Under the Lumia 920’s hood is Nokia’s trademark Pureview technology in an 8 megapixel camera, developed with floating lens technology which makes for advanced optical image stabilisation and incredible low light mobile photography, as well as a couple of Lumia-specific software enhancements like Lenses, Smartshoot and Cinemagraph. It’s got a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1280 x 768 resolution and boasts of a super sensitive IPS LCD display that responds to even manicured fingernails and gloves. There’s 32 gigabytes of internal storage, 1 of RAM and a Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon processor that clocks out at 1.5Ghz. Wireless inductive charging isn’t left out. All of this tech wizardry (and much more that I can’t get into) lives in a scratch-proof polycarbonate unibody housing.
While I mostly zoned out as they eagerly described all the gizmos and doohickeys they’d managed to cram into the 920, I couldn’t escape a nostalgic reminder that Nokia remains a leader in local, both in thought and in deed. For instance, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Nokia City Lens, an augmented reality app that uses the Lumia’s camera to reveal geographic points of interest nearby, works better than one would expect in this environment. I was later told that the app had been pre-populated with over 50,000 points of interest, most of which I assume Nokia has been collecting for years on its acclaimed maps service. I’m also aware that the Nigerian sales package for the 920 includes a power capsule that stores extra energy for those times when you just can’t find a power outlet nearby. While I can’t confirm that till I can crack an actual sales package open, I find that really thoughtful on Nokia’s part, considering Nigeria’s peculiar power issues. But again, that is to be expected from a company that pays attention to seemingly minor details — like ensuring that the live tiles on their promo banners have Nigerian names on them.
As interesting as all of these were, I wished they would just skip to the part I was most interested in already — the question of how much the Lumia 920 would cost in Nigeria. When they did get to that part, it was great to finally know that earlier speculation in some quarters which had pegged the number between N150k – 170k were totally unfounded, missing the mark by a laughably wide margin. In Nigeria, the Nokia Lumia 920 is priced at N105,000, while it’s 820 sibling will retail at N82,000.
They won’t arrive the general market until maybe January next year, but both devices are already available via pre-order. Buyers who take advantage of the pre-order option will get their devices by the middle of December, along with 6 months worth of free internet access, made possible by an exclusive deal with MTN.
A few observations.
My limited interaction with the Lumia 920 confirmed what I already knew to be true. Windows Phone 8 looks and feels great. Nokia killed it in the hardware department, with a few conspicuous software enhancements. Between those two, the Lumia 920 is obviously the best Windows Phone experience on the market right now, none of the rest can touch it.
As more Samsung Galaxy’s, BlackBerrys and iPhones begin to appear on desks at executive meetings and in swanky clubs, their “swag” value goes down. And because it’s so refreshingly different, the Lumia is guaranteed to stand out wherever it goes. Considering our notorious aspirational affinity (of which the Blackberry’s Nigerian success is evidence), Nokia is counting on style conscious Nigerians to start viewing the Lumia as the latest way to make a statement. There are few devices, if any, that make a more compelling business and fashion case at the same time. With its extensive enterprise capabilities, coupled with a bold, daring aesthetic, the Lumia range is in a class of its own.
However, there’s still that niggling Windows Phone apps deficiency problem which might discourage quite a few potential takers who are used to having lots of apps. Nokia however makes up for this with a home-grown bundle of signature Nokia experience software as well as Lumia exclusive app deals with big name developers that help to mitigate the sense of lack.
At just over a hundred thousand Naira, the Lumia 920 is priced higher than some of the biggest smartphone contenders out there. Frankly, I was kind of surprised that it wasn’t priced higher, but even so, the Lumia/ WindowsPhone combo haven’t earned the kind of cult status that the iPhone, Samsung’s SIII or even Google’s latest Nexus currently enjoy. Some people will balk at the thought of forking over that much for a Lumia.
While I still harbour a good deal of healthy skepticism about whether Nokia can reclaim some of the territory its given up to the competition in the past eighteen months, not to mention some concern about the effects of the Microsoft affiliation on its brand going forward, there is a lot to like about Nokia’s latest effort. We won’t know anything for sure until we’re a bit further down into the sales cycle. All that remains to be said right now is — good luck with the sales, Nokia.
So who’s gonna order a Lumia 920?
