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Nokia Lumia 820 hands-on

Nokia’s Lumia 920 might steal the limelight with its looks and its fancy PureView camera, but its smaller sibling; the Nokia Lumia 820 is certainly no slouch and will likely appear to a wider array of consumers interested in dipping their toes into the newly launch Windows Phone 8 ecosystem.

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As you may be able to tell from the image and from what we said earlier. The Lumia 820 may not have the looks of the 920, but the feature set on offer, including some unique skills prove that it can hold its own amongst the four other Windows Phone 8 handsets new heading to the UK. We were lucky enough to get up close and personal with the Lumia 820 at the Windows Phone 8 launch event in central London on Monday to understand what makes Nokia’s second WP8 tick.

Adaptability looks to be the 820’s strength. The range of glossy, polycarbonate shells on offer give this Lumia the appeal of shiny hard candy and the fact that they’re shells and not just different handset colours is important too. No other Windows Phone 8 handset currently announced will be able to offer consumers changeable shells, which not only allow for different colour options, but as you can see in the image below, can even bestow the Lumia 820 with the wireless charging functionality of its larger sibling. It’s worth noting, that following a meeting with Nokia’s Connor Pierce, VP for the UK & Ireland, he confirmed to us that every Nokia Lumia 820 sold in the UK will feature a wireless charging shell out of the box, to encourage users to make use of this key new feature.

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The large 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display might not pack quite as much visual punch as the PureMotion+ HD display in the Lumia 920, but on its own merits visuals are clear and crisp and blacks, as you’d expect from an AMOLED are spot on. The 8-megapixel shooter also appeared to be considerably more competent than last year’s Lumias and naturally Nokia have included all of their new Lens applications, which should entertain and inform users when they hit.

The Nokia Lumia 820 will make it to retail starting from November and will even feature on EE’s 4G network, an accolade shared exclusively with its bigger brother, the Nokia Lumia 920.

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