Nokia Lumia Range: Windows Phone Innovations & Overviews

• Nokia Lumia smartphones are the only smartphones that offer “offline” turn by turn navigation
• With Nokia Music, best quality and biggest library of over 22 Million songs a click away
• The only smartphones with built in wireless charging technology
• Nokia Lumia smartphones are the first to bring the optical image stabilization

The global Smartphone ‘war’ has made mobile devices one of the most rapidly-changing industries in the world in the past few years, with technological innovations, pricing and marketing strategies playing a part in a fiercely contested arena involving a small handful of industry players and their respective operating systems. As the competition continues to heat up, companies are working harder at finding product differentiators to stand out from their competitive set.

Nokia revolutionized the industry when it launched its ‘Lumia’ range of Smartphones that runs Windows 8 Operating System from Microsoft in 2012. The range has allowed Nokia to showcase its product differentiators ranging from its industry-leading imaging and navigation technology to its sleek design and user-friendly functionality. And to keep innovating, Nokia lately introduced the Nokia Lumia 925, the device which comes in a metal design and showcases the latest PureView camera innovation, new features and third party applications coming to the Nokia Lumia range.

The Nokia Lumia 925 includes the most advanced lens technology and next generation imaging software to capture clearer, sharper pictures and video, including the best low light images. The Nokia Lumia 925 also introduces the new Nokia Smart Camera mode, coming as an update to all Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Nokia Smart Camera offers an easy way to capture ten images at once and edit the pictures with options like Best Shot, Action Shot, and Motion Focus for creating the perfect high quality image. Below are some of the Smartphone’s features that make Nokia Lumia the leading innovator in today’s Smartphone industry:

Navigation
Geographic navigation is among the most important applications for Smartphone users. A survey carried out by IDG shows that 80% of smartphone users use navigation apps on their phones, making it an important feature for them and turning their phones from tools to make and receive phone calls to smart devices that provide a host of useful services for users during movement. Among these services are maps based on GPS technology, which show the user a map their current location and are automatically updated as the user heads to any destination

Nokia develops “HERE” map content by gathering complex data at a rate of 1.3 million points per second. Special cars roam the streets and commercial locations specifically for that purpose, in cooperation with 80 thousand data sources (such as governments and experts). Four out of five cars around the world (which support navigation systems) use the “HERE” map content provided by Nokia. The companies which partnered with Nokia to provide these maps are: BMW, Porsche, Microsoft, Yahoo, Garmin, MapQuest, OnStar, and T-Mobile.

HERE Drive
With Nokia “HERE” Drive, which gives directions while driving on Lumia smartphones, it is easy to display 3D or 2D maps as desired, change map colors in accordance with time (night or day), display key locations on the map, inform users about speed limits, and change units (metric, British or American systems), as well as a digital compass, zooming and displaying details around the user. The app provides audio direction in 104 countries, using more than 50 languages.

Nokia “HERE” Transit
Nokia “HERE” Transit helps users plan for their journey by using metro stations in countries that provide this means (Dubai is one of those more than 500 cities), by entering a starting point and end point. The app then displays a plan including the trains that the user should ride, as well as their arrival and departure times. The app tells the user the time and distance needed on foot to arrive at the station, duration of the journey, how to get to the next stop and take another bus until arrival at the desired stop, and the overall duration of the journey.

Map Applications
Users can choose their destination and ask for directions from the mapping system integrated in their phone, as well as choose the means of transport, whether on foot or by car, or even by metro in countries providing this means of transport. The system then calculates the easiest and fastest routes in mere seconds, and begins showing the directions and voicing them out if the user chose that feature. The user can benefit from these maps to discover cities worldwide and get to know the vacation destination beforehand, as well as save the places they want to visit on their phone.

“HERE” City Lens
Nokia fitted its new phones with “HERE” City Lens, an app that provides intuitive interaction with the world around the user, made possible by pointing the phone’s camera at any zone in the city and a list of the restaurants, shops, and other landmarks is shown directly above the roof of the building on the screen. By simple pointing of the camera and finding the nearest restaurant, the user can tap on the restaurant’s name to know more about it. If the user liked the restaurant, they can simply contact it from the details menu to make a reservation before visiting.

Nokia Music
Nokia’s free music streaming service allows consumers to enjoy latest curated playlists from more than 22 million tracks. Nokia Music enables Nokia Lumia owners to freely discover and enjoy offline music in a simple and delightful way.

Completely advertisement-free, and requiring no registration or subscription, Nokia Music lets consumers immerse themselves in the dulcet tones of their favorite artists without being disrupted. For maximum convenience, Nokia Music playlists can also be enjoyed offline so consumers can listen to their favorite playlists anytime, anywhere – perfect for a long flight, journey to work or even during a metro train ride in Dubai.
Nokia Lumia owners can download the Nokia Music app for free from the Windows Phone Store and can also buy their favorite music from the Nokia Music Ala Carte store, where they can get the freshest music, best quality and biggest library of over 22 Million tracks for local and international music.

Consumers can stream music from a suite of over 150 exclusive playlists that are curated and kept up-to-date. The playlists span a wide spectrum of musical genres from Khaleeji, Arabic, Bollywood and International. Partnering labels include a variety of international renowned names such as Universal, Sony and EMI. The Nokia Music service also includes many local Arabic labels such as Meloday, Mazzika and Qanawat along with Bollywood’s T-series, Yash Raj, and Eros.
Consumers can also create their own personal soundtrack by selecting the Nokia Music ‘Create’ function that generates a playlist based on, and inspired by, the artists they love. Consumers in the UAE can enjoy Nokia Music artists’ ranging from the legendary Mohamed Abdo, Rashed Al Majed, Abdul Majeed Abdullah, Nancy Ajram, Myriam Fares, George Wassouf and many more.

Imaging
The Lumia range has some of the most developed Smartphone technologies in imaging, utilizing Nokia’s innovative PureView technology to offer the clearest images a smartphone can deliver. These options are not only restricted to the top-of the-range Nokia Lumia 920 either. The recently-launched Nokia Lumia 720 delivers a high end camera performance at a mid-range price point. A large f/1.9 aperture and exclusive Carl Zeiss optics are designed to deliver bright, clear pictures day and night, while the HD-quality, wide-angle front-facing camera makes taking pictures with friends and video calling more enjoyable. The Lumia 720 also packs Nokia’s best front-facing camera, which is sure to be popular for the region’s growing phenomenon of self-portraits.

Low Light Photography
Using advanced floating lens technology, the flagship Nokia Lumia 920 is able to take in five times more light than competing smartphones without using flash, making it possible to capture clear, bright pictures and video indoors as well as night time shots.
How does this work? The advanced floating lens technology reacts to the minute movements in your hand to balance the lens, so the shutter can stay open longer, and more light means brighter, clearer images without flash. Nokia has also adopted a massive f/2.0 aperture – in layman’s terms, it lets in more light from the start when you’re using it indoors. Both these measures mean a lower sensor size is needed in order to get great results when you’re working in low light.

Smart Shoot
Using innovations from Nokia’s photography wizards, Smart Shoot lens allows users to do two key functions – change faces and remove unwanted objects. There’s nothing worse than taking a group photo with friends and realizing that out of the three people in the frame, one had their eyes shut when the camera snapped the photo or that one person was looking slightly off to the left. When you take a photo using Smart Shoot, you’re actually taking a sequence of photos.

Smart Shoot also allows you to take away moving, un-wanted objects in your photos such as a passerby or person on the perimeter of the shot that spoils the photo. With this object removal feature, you can select the best shot and precise moment from a range of alternatives. Smart Shoot automatically suggests objects to be removed from the image and all you need to do is confirm the removal to create the perfect shot.

Cinemagraph
Animated photos – a single photo that has motion and can show a sequence of photos in succession are interesting and generally found on the Internet. These are often developed by creative graphic designers. With the Cinemagraph lens Lumia owners can now create a magical blend of photo and movie-like animation, creating photos that are alive with feeling through imagery.

Once selected from the camera menu, Cinemagraph lets users snap a photo and generate 15 frame-per-second file. The Cinemagraph gives on-screen step-by-step instructions to get one started and even allows the users to fine tune and optimize your photo – such as choosing which parts of the photo one wants to be animated.

You can also use the Panorama Lens and Creative Studio to add your professional effects by easy and versatile editing of your pictures, add effects to pictures or use filters to make them look visually stunning and improve the quality of the image by letting you adjust color, brightness, vibrancy and detail. It also helps you remove red-eyes, crop and rotate pictures.

Blink
BLINK is designed to snap photos both before and after the user has started shooting, ensuring that the user does not miss important moments, and that the wanted shot is among snapped photos. Blink comes with advanced image stabilization technology aimed at removing camera shake so that users could focus on the part of the scene that interests them the most