One of the big changes for Nokia is that the new Nokia Windows Phones lack a front facing camera which places them on the back foot to start with when compared with the HTC Titan and HTC Radar and other non-WP7 devices.

This move came as a surprise as Nokia devices have long had front facing cameras with the similarly packaged Nokia N9 having one in the bottom corner.

This is exacerbated by the recent acquisition of Skype by Microsoft providing an even stronger link to video calling.

The Nokia response with respect to the lack of the front facing camera is that the production turnaround time for the initial Nokia WP7 devices meant that they needed to have their functionality focused on their intended user-base, and those using video chat make a very small portion of the market. As the range expands these kinds of features are sure to return at some point.

The rear camera on the Nokia Lumia 800 sports the same specification as that on the HTC Titan with a 8MPix f/2.2 camera lens and Dual-LED flash, capable of up to 720p HD video recording.

It's a step forward when compared with Nokia's Symbian phones, as there's a touch-based method of focussing and capture feature like that offered on the iPhone enabling better control on the subject focus on photographs.

The Camera app comes with the standard settings to control Scenes (default: Auto), White Balance (default: Auto), Exposure Value (default: 0), ISO(default: Auto), Effects (default: Normal), Contrast (default: Normal),Saturation (default: Normal), Focus Mode (default: (Macro) and Resolution(default: 8MP 4:3) as well as a new Metering Mode (default: Centre Weighted) which controls how the camera manages exposure based on the light conditions across the photograph.

A nice touch on the Nokia Lumia 800 Camera app is that you are able to transition directly between the Camera and the Captured Shots and Videos by tapping the soft arrow icon or swiping towards the WP7 hard button bar, returning to the Camera by swiping away from the hard button bar again. This kind of seamless integration shows this is a next generation phone.

Once in the image viewer, there are options to share on Facebook, use as wallpaper, delete, add to favourites or auto-fix. Having played with auto-fix, it does a good job, with the only pity being that it does not remove red-eye, so you'll need a third party app for this.

Also when you select to share to Facebook, auto face recognition kicks in if you tap the tag icon on the upload screen, enable the naming of the image and tagging of anyone in it prior to uploading.

DAYTIME: This was taken with default settings

TAP FOCUS & CAPTURE - CLOSE: This was taken with tap to focus and capture with a near field subject.

TAP FOCUS & CAPTURE - DISTANT: This was taken with tap to focus and capture with a distant subject.

MAXIMUM ZOOM: Maximum zoom provides good resolution and colours.

RED-EYES: Night Mode with flash provides a good colours, but there is no red-eye flash.

FIREWORKS: Night Mode with no flash provide a good colour and contrast of fireworks display.

Nokia Lumia 800 review: Video

When it comes to Video capture on the Nokia Lumia 800 we were quite disappointed, since it's not possible to change zoom while recording, which seems mad.

To make things worse, continued press zooming is achieved by step changes between six levels, which feels very clunky.

Video quality in daylight provides good colour depth and sound, but the speed of response to changes in brightness and focal range is very poor. Although the image quality improves as expected when switching from VGA to 720p, the speed of response remains poor.

In low light, the Nokia Lumia 800 struggles to focus even more. The dual LED flash can be turned on permanently while videoing, enabling focus and colour settings to achieve closer to daylight quality.

Music

Music playback on the Nokia Lumia 800 is to Nokia's usual standard through headphones, but the speaker playback is disappointingly tinny when compared to that of previous Nokia models like the Nokia N8.

A nice touch is that music playback creates an overlay bar that slides down over all apps when the volume keys are pressed to provide play/pause fast-forward and rewind functionality when tapped, no matter where you are in the phone.

When it comes to selecting what to listen to the Nokia Lumia 800 provides Nokia Music and the Music and Video default group.

Nokia Music opens to show the number of tracks saved on the phone. A quick tap then opens an A-Z list via either Artist, Album, Song, Genre or Playlist.

Tapping on your selection from the list opens functions differently depending on the filter being used. The Genre, Artist and Album tabs start instant playback is the right hand play symbol or album art is tapped, but open a lower level selection screen if the text is tapped which is a nice touch, missing from the Symbian music player.

A swipe to the left from the main Nokia Music screen provides access to the Mix Radio which is a streaming service transmitted through the data connection so WiFi is strongly recommended as most mobile data contracts aren't unlimited.

The good news is that the playlists are refreshed each week and there's a choice of genres to pick from and when the full production version releases you will be able to download to your device to listen to offline.

However, we were promised that we could cache these lists when out of signal range, but despite the updated software, we found no such functionality on offer.

And overall, we're mixed in our feelings over Mix Radio. Sure, we like having genre-based playlists to pop on in the background, but for some people they'll have to sit through hours of songs they don't like over a month of listening.

Also, we found that when the screen mis-read our scrolls for taps, it would open up another playlist. It's easy to duck back out of it, but then you'll find you can't skip tracks any more as your allocation has been 'used up'.

Another swipe displays the Mp3 Store providing the ability to purchase music and a final swipe transitions to a local gigs list which is nice if you fancy seeing an artist live.

Moving on to Music and Videos, this app grouping is the standard Windows Phone option, lumping in Music, Videos, Podcasts, Radio and items from the Marketplace. From this screen you can swipe left, transitioning to playback history, New media, applications (which lists Nokia Music) and back to the initial screen.

Tapping on Music opens a similar interface to that presented in the Nokia Music app other than that the Zune Smart DJ feature is available which finds similar artists and creates a playlist of similar music. It's easy to use and songs open quickly, with the aforementioned quality of audio impressing.

Tapping on Podcasts opens a swipeable screen displaying a list of either audio or video podcasts which performs the same as the album and artists lists for music with a tap on the left hand image starting playback and tapping the name opening a list of all podcasts on that feed.

Tapping on Radio opens a standard FM radio which requires headphones to work as the radio antenna and thus does not playback though the phone speaker. The simple radio is FM only and supports station favourites.

Finally, tapping on Marketplace opens the Marketplace which provides access to purchase additional music for your personal collection from the Microsoft store.

Pictures

The Nokia Lumia 800 uses a Pictures (gallery) app which show images from the Camera roll (showing captured images and video) and Albums (displaying images from the Camera Roll and personal SkyDrive and Facebook pictures).

It also provides a view sorted by date and a view showing your favourite images. Finally two left hand swipes transitions to a What's New screen showing recent image posts from all social accounts set-up on the phone.

Video

Video playback on the Nokia Lumia 800 is accessed through the same group as Music, displaying a list of all videos with the ability to swipe to lists in television shows, music videos, films and personal videos (captured on the device).

The media select interface works in the same way as the music interface as they are parts of the same app.

Playback is limited to landscape phone orientation and is an enjoyable experience due to the high quality screen providing excellent contrast ratios and the simplistic interface with a transparent controls overlay sliding off the bottom of the screen after a few second delay.

There's also a fit to screen option which maintains the aspect ratio, but expands the image to fit the screen whist cropping where necessary.