Nokia Lumia 820 Apps

The Nokia Lumia 820 is one of Nokia’s new breed of mobile phones that operates on the Windows Phone 8 operating system and there is a wide range of mobile phone deals that will suit any type of user.

Here we ignore the spec sheet and take a look at the Lumia 820’s built-in apps to give a better feel to whether mobile phone deals with this smartphone will suit you.

Windows Phone 8

I am not going to discuss here anything about the Windows Phone 8 operating system other than to say that the live tiles on the home screen are vibrant and engaging, whereas the tiles on the larger Nokia Lumia 920 are mono-coloured and a little depressing!

Nokia City Lens

This app is for anyone and useful in many situations. By using you location, pinpointed with the built-in GPS, the City Lens will display what amenities are close by including shops, famous landmarks, hotels, bars, cafes and restaurants. Our test run of this app confirmed that it was indeed very accurate and the directions combined with the online compass were perfect for on-foot navigation.

Nokia Drive

This brings us neatly on to the Nokia Drive app. Users will find this app highlighted on the home screen, although you have to tap and download the software on first use. Again this navigation based app was accurate and it even calculated our driving speed and advised us about upcoming speed cameras. The only downside to this app is that destinations cannot be changed using voice recognition, so you will need to pull over should you wish to change your ultimate destination whilst on the move.

Nokia Music

This Nokia app brings together all the music features into one place. You may download or upload music tracks and with Nokia’s Mix Radio all the latest hits are at hand. Browse through tracks by categories and this includes a wide range of genres from pop to country and from blues to musicals.

This app also includes a treat for those who love live music. The Gigs feature pinpoints your location via GPS and then this mobile phone will advise you of artists appearing locally, where to buy tickets and a little about the artist. A wide range of well-known and unknown artists were featured so this really is a credit to Nokia.

The App Store

Undoubtedly when looking for mobile phone deals you will want to consider what the app store has to offer and as Windows is a recent addition in the operating systems of mobile phones we decided to check it out. We were actually surprised at the range of new apps available for download and these included our favourites such as Facebook, SkyScanner, Trainline, the Met Office and Twitter. On all occasions when we couldn’t find the exact app we were looking for we were prompted with an alternative so we think you can settle any concerns here.

The Nokia Lumia 820 smartphone also organised the apps well into categories. These included apps for kids, travel kit, eco apps and for music lovers.

Rating

Our overall rating for the Nokia Lumia 820 is 4 out of 5 stars when we take into consideration its build quality, battery performance and camera & video features. As Windows 8 computers and laptops become commonplace we think the Windows based phones will start to fly out and would be a great choice for first adopters.

This hands-on test was completed by the Mobile Phone team at Mobilephones.com