Nokia pushes v2.0 of App Highlights out of beta for Lumia phones

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

The latest version of App Highlights from Nokia

It sure has been a busy lately for Nokia and their various Lumia apps and that trend continues today with App Highlights v2.0.

As far as we can tell, this has been in beta over at the Nokia Beta Labs (opens in new tab) for a few weeks but it has now gone to the masses, judging by our update notification. So what are the changes?

There’s no changelog but it is clear that the UI has been redesigned from the earlier v1.x with a more Tile-focused approach and panorama view. Launching the app we can see three rows of icons for ‘Highlights’. Further navigating to the right and we come to ‘Collections’, which include Nokia Exclusives, sales n deals, top new finds, hot apps this week and starter kit.

Further along we ‘New’ and ‘Search’ with the former highlighting 4 new apps that are getting some high ratings.

In addition there are filters for free, paid and even by ratings e.g. you can choose to only see apps and games with 5-star ratings.

We must say that this app is now a lot more useful than it was before with these added new features, including that ‘sales n deals’ area, which we plan to use on a regular basis.

Check out the other app updates from Nokia here in our Nokia Collection section.

Go pick up Nokia App Highlights here in the Nokia Collection. Thanks, Jnbs and David V., for the heads up

Related: See our earlier hands on with App Highlights v1.0 from 1 year ago

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

17 Comments
  • Great update, really like the look of the new UI and everything seems smooth and polished.
     
  • +1
  • +100
    best App selection available, updated and extremely useful to find best apps (100.000 are too much to browse :D)
  • Thats' more like it. Much better UI and works really smooth.
     
    Good work Nokia. 
  • Downloaded it.
  • app looks good.. plus paypal today.. wp8 x surface tablet will be crazy this fall.. and whether Nokia is catching up or not.. I'm excited to see them really push for Microsoft.. 
  • PayPal? Did I miss an announcement? I don't see it in Marketplace.
  • Right on our frontpage...like a few stories below this one http://www.wpcentral.com/official-paypal-app-windows-phone-now-available
  • What's funny is that all these apps coming out of beta prove that the Lumia 900 was the actual beta test
  • That makes no sense. App Highlights v1.x was available for months. This was a v2 overhaul and they beta tested it for a few weeks. Not all Nokia apps go through that process. I for one like companies who, I dunno, solicit user feedback on new app ideas? Sounds awesome to me...
  • +1 Daniel. I've been using the Nokia Beta Testing Labs since my Symbian days, I love the fact that Nokia give users the chance to try out apps then listen to their feedback before giving them a general release.
  • Man-o-man... Some may have questioned nokia's ability to differentiate itself from the other OEMs based on app exclusivity, but it's really difficult to overlook them when they keep offering so much bonus material.
  • Been using the beta version for well over a month now, far better than the previous version......my only issue has been with the 'top apps' category. Found it hard to believe they really were the top UK Apps......but, then again im no authority on what the public like and don't like. 99% of the people I know do own iPhones or Android phones after all.!!! :-P
  • I love the new Modern err. Metro UI!!
  • Thanks again to Nokia - a very nice app, and a big jump in design and useability from the previous verison!
    The only irony is that in perusing its "sales n deals" I found the app "AppDeals" :^)   Downloading that now - interesting idea that it has push notifications on new apps.   Need to read more...
    (but you still rock, nokia!)
  • Awesome app. Love the layout. Maybe Microsoft should take note and give the marketplace app a refresh. This app looks much cleaner. Well done Nokia.
  • This became so so much BETTER! :)