T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 810 unboxing and video tour

Hey, look at that! The Nokia Lumia 810 exclusively for T-Mobile showed up on our doorstep and we decided to film us opening her up.

Now although Mobile Nations guru Phil Nickinson played with a dummy Lumia 810, yours truly has not had a chance to even touch one—so this will be my first “hands on” with T-Mobile’s new device. Off the cuff? The screen, even at 4.3” and 800x480 is really bold, bright and eye popping, due in part to some ClearBlack and an OLED display. It also blends seamlessly with that soft-touch black body, which feels quite nice to hold...

The device feels quite light compared to its heavier brother, the Lumia 920 and is in many ways similar in size. If you’re wondering about quality, it still has Nokia’s signature level of craftsmanship but it is certainly a step below the 920’s curved polycarbonate shell, make no mistake. Oh and that camera? Surprisingly it does have an auto-focus assist lamp, which is a nice touch but the lack of PureView for low-light shots is quite obvious.

The device does hum along nicely with a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and although it took about 5 minutes to install all the software, you do get Nokia’s full stable of apps (City Lens, Maps, Music, Transit and Drive) all installed in one shot. In addition, T-Mobile has their exclusive apps including 411 & More, Bonus Apps catalog, CallerTunes (music while people wait for you to answer), Slacker Radio and Zynga Games. That later one brings you to the Windows Phone where you get the ad-free versions of Draw Something and Words with Friends for $0 (savings of $6), which is a great sell actually for you young folks.

Look, we’re not going to beat around the bush:  this is no Lumia 920, so don’t get your hopes up. But this is a Nokia Windows Phone and for what it is, it’s kind of nifty. If we had to call one feature out on the phone it’d be the display: it’s super intense and will keep your eyeballs happy. Just look at those photos...it's really that powerful!

We’ll have more on this phone in the coming days. For now, you can sound off in comments. The T-Mobile Lumia 810 from Nokia is expected to go on sale this Wednesday, November 14th for $99.99 on a Value Plan and $149.99 on a Classic Plan.

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the 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 watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. 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.