The year started with a bang – most people still had their Christmas decorations up when the Nokia Lumia 900 was unveiled in early January.
Such was the excitement around this device that there was even a concert in Times Square with Nicki Minaj to announce its arrival in the USA.
The Lumia 900’s reputation was also given a hammering (but in a good way) when a video emerged of someone trying to put some nails through its screen. Not just a great smartphone, but a tough one too.
Two other Lumia 900 highlights on Nokia Conversations was an interview with designer Stefan Pannenbecker and a look at how engineers gave the Lumia 900 its terrific audio performance.
How many megapixels!?
If it’s February then it must be the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. In 2012, Nokia announced a couple of smartphones in the Spanish city.
The Nokia Lumia 610 gave teenagers on a budget the chance to get the full Windows Phone experience with social networking, music, Web browsing, gaming and apps.
However, the star of the show was undoubtedly the Nokia 808 PureView with its revolutionary imaging technology and headline-grabbing 41-megapixel sensor.
This amazing device picked up awards throughout the year and critics were quick to herald a new camera phone revolution.
It was so good that many people (not just me) were comparing it favourably with compact digital cameras and one man even set up a website devoted to it.
It wouldn’t be the last time we heard about PureView technology in 2012.
A new generation
Another highlight of the year was the unveiling in early September of Nokia’s first Windows Phone 8 devices in New York.
The Nokia Lumia 920 came with a raft of technological innovations and its gorgeous industrial design quickly won a host of admirers.
As well as wireless charging, the Lumia 920 introduced everyone to PureMotion HD+, which meant it had the fastest and most sensitive smartphone touchscreen coupled with good sunlight readability.
Not to mention, of course, the latest evolution of PureView technology with its low-light capability and optical image stabilisation.
The Nokia Lumia 820 also featured wireless charging, with the help of its exchangeable wireless charging shells, and in my humble opinion was the best looking phone of 2012.
A lot of the credit for that must go to Nicola Ralston and her team at Nokia’s Colour and Material Design Team. She told Conversations about their design approach to these stunning smartphones.
The following months saw several variants of the Lumia 820 launching in the USA, such as the Lumia 810 and Lumia 822. They were all similar and yet somehow different, but still, essentially, fantastic smartphones.
Lumia for the masses
The end of October saw the launch of Nokia’s most affordable Lumia yet – the Lumia 510.
This entry-level smartphone still packed in plenty of features despite its great low price. It sported a 4-inch display, 5-megapixel autofocus camera and came in five eye-catching colours: red, yellow, cyan, white and black.
This was quickly followed by the Nokia Lumia 620, which like the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, was powered by Windows Phone 8.
The Lumia 620 also has exchangeable shells, and is made with a ‘Dual Shot’ technique, which gives its body a unique depth and translucency to its colour – of which there is a variety to choose from.
It is already becoming apparent that the Lumia 620 will be appealing to a wide spectrum of people – from teenagers all the way to business professionals.
By my count, that’s over half a dozen smartphones in the space of a year. I’m hoping that 2013 will be just as busy!
