Tag / Lumia

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Argos pricing incompetence leads to “bargain” Nokia Lumia 800 disappointment

Remember the HP TouchPad? When it was discontinued, it received a massive price cut that crashed sites all around the world, including that of Argos. Today, a similar, albeit unintentional, price cut occurred but this time for a device that has been well-received. Completely out of the blue, an online only deal popped up that included an unlocked Nokia Lumia 800, our favourite thing of 2011, priced at just £119.99. Bewildered consumers flocked to mop these up and sites such as The Verge seemed to have confirmation from the company that this was indeed a real offer.

But no, it seems that Argos in fact made a ‘pricing error’ and that the offer was not legitimate. Customers received emails telling them that there had been a mistake coinciding with the launch of their latest catalogue and that the orders would be cancelled with money refunded within 7 days. This hasn’t been the first time that this kind of thing has happened at Argos, and, as I write this, the “deal” is still online, over 14 hours after the supposed sell-out. Maybe it’s time for Argos to get their act together.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

CES time!

The annual Consumer Electronics show, or CES, takes place this week in Las Vegas and we will have daily roundups of the new products announced at the show. We sadly won’t be there this year but we will still get you all the news. Expect to see:

  • Nokia Lumia 900
  • Victorinox 1TB USB flash drive
  • HP Envy 14 Spectre
  • Ultrabooks
  • Tablets
  • Smartphones
  • Stupid high-resolution TVs
  • More…

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Enjoy the articles coming up,

Xavier

by Henry Hunt

Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T confirmed by New York Times

The New York Times has quoted sources that confirm that the Nokia Lumia 900 is to be officially announced at CES on Monday. Apparently AT&T will be carrying the phone in America but there is no news about anywhere else in the world, except for an earlier tweet from 3 and an O2 representative telling us that he does not expect the 900 to be stocked there as they already have the 800. There has been no confirmation on the specs but what we [sort of] know is that it will have a 4.3 inch WVGA screen with 512MB of RAM, LTE in eligible territories and an 8MP rear and front-facing camera. All in all, we at the Digixav team are very excited for Monday.

Bring on CES!

 

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

The incompetence in tech retail

Let’s face it. We all buy technology of one form or another. Many of us buy our gadgets online for savings and sheer convenience, but sometimes you need to actually try something before you buy. High street stores are everywhere these days, complete with friendly and ‘knowledgable’ salespeople to guide you to the right products and decisions, but not all is as it seems.

Circulating around Digixav are numerous stories of employees at leading British retailers not having a clue about the products and services that they are trying to sell to the public. Here I have compiled a list of some of the worst of our experiences for your entertainment and warning. Remember that all of these stories are true and have been witnessed by the Digixav team.

  • A hand scribbled description note for the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc in a Carphone Warehouse store stated that the phone was sporting an ‘8.1 mega pixle’ rear camera.
  • Advertising material in a Carphone Warehouse store shows BlackBerry Curve specifications with a dummy model of an HTC Salsa, thus confusing two smartphones that could hardly be more different.20120107-213406.jpg
  • After his chain had been featured in an advert for the new Motorola RAZR, a Phones4U employee had no knowledge of the device other than its name despite the fact that people had come in requesting it.
  • A label for a Lenovo desktop PC in Currys states that its 2nd generation Intel Core i3 CPU is 2.7x faster than your old PC. This is very misleading as the i3 chip is in fact slower than many processors that have been available for a number of years.20120107-213452.jpg
  • The entire sales team of one Currys store had no idea of how the Kindle 4 lighted covers worked as the contact points had changed from those of the Kindle Keyboard. How can they try and sell a case for £50 if they have no idea how it works?
  • A dummy Samsung Wave II is on display in the Carphone Warehouse with no explanation as to what it was.
  • A Currys employee was left confused as he had no knowledge of what a flash drive was. He had to be reminded that it was the correct term for a memory stick.
  • Another upside-down price tag in Currys. I see these whenever I visit my local branch.
  • In December 2011, a Carphone Warehouse employee said that he did not expect the Lumia 900 to launch in the UK as, in his words, ‘it has been out in America for ages’. I played along with this, and he stated that it was just the 800 with a ‘4G’ LTE radio inside and at the exact same size of 3.7″. This is clearly incorrect as Nokia and AT&T are set to unveil this device at CES at Las Vegas on Monday. Another Carphone Warehouse employee since informed us that the database confirmed an 8MP rear shooter, a 4.3″ screen and 512MB RAM, but we cannot be certain if these specifications are genuine.

In conclusion, don’t believe everything you hear in tech shops. If you are in such an emporium and you hear an incompetent buffoon misleading a fellow consumer, don’t be afraid to butt in and steer them on the right path. Not all salespeople are terrible but the retail industry lacks people with a passion for technology and this is a sorry state for it.

If you have your own high street tale of woe, leave it in the comments or email it to us here.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Exclusive: Three confirm Nokia Lumia 900, no plans to stock device

A representative from Three UK has confirmed to Digixav that the network are not planning to carry the Nokia Lumia 900, a rumoured device that is expected to be announced next week at CES in Las Vegas. When we asked on Twitter about the carrier’s upcoming release of the mid-range Lumia 710, no new details were available. When we enquired about the prospects of the leaked 900 however, the representative appeared to confirm that the device is real and that the network have passed on the opportunity to stock it. This news, along with a similar Twitter leak by Swisscom late last year seem to provide strong evidence that the 900 is right around the corner.

See Three’s leak below or on Twitter.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

The Poll: What is the best smartphone at the moment?

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Nokia Lumia: Meet the new king of smartphones

The Nokia Lumia range was launched on Wednesday morning at the annual Nokia World event in London. Along with the Asha range of budget Series 40 phones for the next billion internet users, Stephen Elop’s company unveiled the Lumia 710 and the flagship 800. This announcement would be the most important event in the history of Nokia. Symbian was seen by many as a disaster (THE FONT!) and MeeGo only appeared on one device before becoming Tizen. For Microsoft it was important as well. Windows Phone 7 has been well received, but has failed to gain traction in the overcrowded (by Android) smartphone market. Together they could rejuvenate both their brands with affordable, premium devices, full support, backing and promotion from networks and a multi-million pound ad campaign everywhere you look.

And that’s exactly what they’ve done.

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by Henry Hunt

Nokia Lumia first impressions

The two new Lumia phones both look very good. The Nokia Lumia 800 for a start looks fantastic. With a 3.7 inch AMOLED display, a huge 1.4GHz single core Snapdragon processor and 16GB of internal storage (along with the 25GB of free cloud storage that comes with all WP7 phones via SkyDrive) it can compete with most other smartphones. It also has a 1GB RAM and a wonderful 8 megapixel camera with 720p HD recording and Carl Zeiss optics. The Lumia 800 is looking to be a great phone.

The Lumia 710 is the mid range Nokia WP7 device but in spite of this it still seems to have impressive internal hardware. With the same display as the 800. The camera is a decent 5 megapixel, and it also has the same 1.4 GHz procesor. However from the pictures we have seen the 710 looks quite cheap and tacky compared to the sleek look of the 800. However the idea of the swappable covers is good and the fact that Nokia are making them the same colours as the tiles on the home screen for Windows Phone is pretty good too.

Both Lumia phones look to be successful in my opinion.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Nokia World keynote liveblog

Tomorrow morning at 9am, the ExCeL centre in London will open its doors and play host to Nokia World. We know from Microsoft’s Andy Lees that Nokia’s long awaited Windows Phone handsets (plural!) will be unveiled. We have seen the teasers showing an N9 body, multicoloured tiles and a Windows soft key. We have seen leaks of the Sea Ray and Sabre. Hell, today we even saw more of these devices with the names Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 and maybe even 900. The Mangoes are coming, and Henry and I am liveblogging here so click past the break to see the fruits of Elop’s labour.

P.S. There might also be some QWERTY Symbian action, so it might not all be good!

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