Nokia reveals new Lumia 900 smartphone

 

Nokia hopes new phone will crack US market.

Samsung and Motorola have revealed new smartphones for 2012, and now it’s time for Nokia to show its hand.

In a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the Finnish phone manufacturer revealed the Lumia 900 smartphone.

The new Lumia handset has a 4.3in AMOLED touchscreen and a scratch-resistant polycarbonate case, available in black or cyan. It looks like the phone could be a good choice for photography fans - on the back is a high-quality 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. There’s also a front-facing lens that’s designed for wide angle shots.

Inside the phone is a nippy 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor and 8GB of storage space. Nokia claims that the battery life should be much better than in previous models.

The phone also is also set up for 4G - the next generation of mobile internet, which offers speeds comparable to fixed broadband connections.

Nokia has put its full backing behind Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. However, while Nokia claims Windows phones have obtained “a beachhead” in the UK and Europe, the handsets haven’t seen a great deal of traction in the US - a critical market for phone manufacturers.

It’s rumoured that Nokia and Microsoft have allocated a marketing budget of over $100million (£65million) to drive sales to American consumers. The new Lumia 900 will no doubt play key role in that strategy.

No official release date for the phone has been set as yet, but Nokia says it will be out in “the next few months”. The company hasn’t announced a price, or even said whether it will launch outside the US. However, with Windows phones seeing more (relative) success in Europe than America, we’d be very surprised if the Lumia 900 didn’t make its way over here eventually.

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