I spent almost $1,000 NZD (after tax and import duty) ordering a Nokia Lumia 800 pre-Christmas from the UK.

Since owning the Lumia it has become the greatest device I’ve ever owned (including my iPod touch, Kindle Fire and other Windows Phones) and I’ll get into the why very shortly.

The great news is that if you pre-register with Telecom NZ before the 22nd Feb you can get one of the awesome Nokia Lumia 800’s for $799 NZD on open term (that’s $230 less than the iPhone 4S)!

This phone replaced a lot of devices for me.

#1 In Car Navigation

The Nokia Drive app is beyond awesome. You can download maps and voices (with local points of interest) for offline 3D turn by turn navigation for whatever country you travel to for free! The app has been brilliant this week during our South Island trip as we explored a bunch of spots that we hadn’t visited before.

In comparison the TomTom New Zealand only app costs $95 on the iPhone and a Navman will set you back about $300.

#2 The Camera

The Nokia Lumia 800 comes with a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and a 8 megapixel camera. I can finally say that the quality is good enough at both photos and video that I can leave my Panasonic Lumix at home!

The Lumia introduced a marco lens to Windows Phone (which is awesome). There was a problem with the default settings that Macro is turned on by default but a recent fix to the OS has fixed this.

Top Camera Tips:

• Change the ISO to “200” and Contrast to “High” and save these as the default for the camera for best results.
• Tap the screen to focus on an object in the scene and take the photo rather than using the camera button on the side of the device.
• Use the Thumba Photo Editor app to apply colourization (Colour Selection),  Vignette, HDR, Tilt-Shift effects.
• Use the Pano app.

Here is a collection of photos I have taken with my Lumia.

#3 The Video

As long as you have steady hands the HD video recording on the phone is 2nd to none that I’ve seen.

The NZ app ecosystem for Windows Phone is very healthy and live tile enabled local apps like Weather NZ, Auckland Traffic, Menu Mania and My Trips make it a pleasure to glance and get on with whatever you were doing beside what is faster than a Windows Phone :)

Nokia Amazing Everyday!