Back in April, Nokia launched the Asha 210 with a QWERTY keypad and a dedicated WhatsApp key. The device has finally hit online retail stores in India and is available for Rs 3,999.

To recap on the specifications, the Asha 210 available on the e-commerce sites is the dual-SIM variant and sports a 2.4-inch QVGA (320×240 pixels) display. You also get a 2-megapixel rear camera with a dedicated physical key, 64MB of flash memory which can be expanded to up to 32GB using a microSD card, FM Radio, a 1,200mAH battery that Nokia claims will last for up to 24 days and connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth.

On the software front, the phone features a Series 40 Asha UI, free WhatsApp messenger app, Nokia Xpress browser, Facebook Messenger, Twitter and a Social phonebook integration that allows users to launch WhatsApp directly from contact cards in the Phonebook.

We have reached out to Nokia for confirmation on the availability and are awaiting their reply.

Nokia has released an update for its Here maps that adds LiveSight augmented reality feature to the navigation service. Lumia smartphone users can now get more information about places and points of interests near them by simply pointing their phone’s camera towards the relevant direction.

Those who have used Nokia’s City Lens app will easily be able to connect to this new LiveSight recognition technology integrated to Here maps. So basically all you need to do is to open the LiveSight feature and flash the camera of your phone at any surrounding place to want to know more about, and the app will bring information on nearby places, shops, restaurants, their addresses and more, and mark favorite places as virtual signs on buildings displayed on the screen of user’s phone. These virtual icons on the display will represent different places like a shopping cart for shops, cutlery for restaurants and more, and come with ratings. When chosen, an icon will flash all the relevant information including address, phone numbers, directions and more about the respective place.

The sight recognition feature as seen in the City Lens app will simply help user to discover, identify and explore known or unknown surroundings using augmented reality, which bridges the virtual and real worlds. And the interesting part is that the app will work in offline mode as well.

The feature is compatible with phones running Windows Phone 8 for now and can be downloaded from here.

For some time we have been hearing whispers about the Nokia EOS which is expected to be the first Windows Phone smartphone to come with the magical 41-megapixel PureView camera seen in the Symbian powered PureView 808. A report by WMPowerUser claims that it received a tip from a person claiming that the device was actually a mashup of the Lumia 920 and PureView 808.

Reportedly, the device is approximately the same size as the Lumia 920 and has a similar polycarbonate shell but is much lighter; however it has a similar camera hump as the PureView 808, which flattens out at the edges.

There is also an automatic lens cover that opens to reveal a round lens, but this one is smaller than the PureView 808. This actually sounds somewhat similar to the Lumia 925 which also has a round lens in the back.

The phone will also have a Xenon flash with two LEDs again smaller than the PureView 808. One will be white for videos and the other will be red for AF. The PureView 808 has a similar arrangement.

It appears that the device will ship will a special app called Nokia Pro Camera that will provide a lot of manual control something what the stock Windows Phone camera app does not provide. It will also enable manual focus, something photographers have long asked for ever since the Lumia 920.  Most probably, this app will be a camera lens like the Smart camera lens on the Lumia 925.

Display wise, it is expected to have the same 4.5-inch AMOLED WXGA panel as the Lumia 925 and the Lumia 928.

Previously, there have been reports that have suggested that Nokia could launch the phone by July, but we will need to wait and watch, to be sure.

Note: The above image is a mock up of the phone created by GSMArena.

Research firm IDC has posted its quarterly report on the smartphone market which suggests that Windows Phone devices have finally overtaken BlackBerry smartphones in terms of shipments. This also means that devices running Microsoft’s OS take third spot in terms of smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013.  According to the report, Windows Phone devices accounted for 3.2 percent of total shipments while BlackBerry devices fell to 2.9 percent from 3.2 percent in the previous quarter.

It’s also worth noting that Nokia has expanded its Windows Phone portfolio to lower price points with devices like the Lumia 720, Lumia 620 and the Lumia 520. In fact, the Lumia 520 costs less than Rs 10,499, so it makes sense that the shipments are increasing. On the other hand, BlackBerry only launched its new BB10 based Z10 in January and its QWERTY Q10, which happens to be its bread in butter device has not launched in many parts of the world including India. Plus, its Q5 smartphone was only announced two days ago, and will not arrive before June. In fact, if anything can say that the growth in Windows Phone shipments is still slow.

Android and iOS seem to be in league of their own with 92.3 percent smartphone shipments being shared between both the platforms. Actually, it is Android, which is really running away with the market share. Yesterday, Google announced that there had been 900 million Android activations which was up from 500 million activations a year before. Additionally, 75 percent of the total smartphones shipped in Q1 were based on Android.

While, Apple managed 17.3 percent, it should also noted that it shipped 37.3 million iPhones in Q1 in the wake of the iPhone 5, and this was its best best quarter ever.

IDC posits that 162.1 million Android smartphones were shipped in Q1, an increase of 71.8 million units from 90.3 in 2012.

Android is on a roll, and if Windows Phone and BlackBerry want to make a fist of it, then both the operating systems need to eke out market share from Android. Windows Phone seems to be in the right direction, as devices like the Lumia 520, Lumia 620 and the Lumia 720  are selling quite well in emerging markets like India.

On the face of it, the Nokia Lumia 925 looks like a thinner variant of the Lumia 920 and it is not until you hold the phone in your hand that you realize how different it actually is. The Lumia 925 is thin, beautiful and takes care of most of the things that many found lacking in the Lumia 920. It is 8.5mm thin, is relatively very light and gets a more premium finish thanks to the metal frame.

In terms of design, what I like the most about the Lumia 925 is you get the feeling of sturdiness thanks to the metallic parts while getting the familiarity of polycarbonate plastic on the back, which is durable and resistive to getting scratched or dented.

While the Lumia 925 retains most of the specs of the Lumia 920, there are a few key improvements especially when it comes to the camera, which surprisingly Nokia didn’t talk a lot about during the unveiling.

The Lumia 925′s camera has six lens elements rather than 5, which makes it according to the company, the most advanced camera on a smartphone. A lot of tweaks have gone behind the scenes to improve the sharpness and overall photo quality in both daylight and low light photos. If you may recall, the Lumia 920′s daylight photography skills weren’t really worth writing home about.

I tried shooting with both the HTC One and the Lumia 925 in auto settings and photographs were certainly much better on the Lumia 925 under both low light and daylight conditions. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to transfer photos from the Lumia 925 but the difference was drastic enough to come to the conclusion.

Even Nokia Smart Camera software is pretty intuitive and is similar to the editing features available on the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and HTC One.

Nokia has managed to get most of the things right and filled the holes left with the Lumia 920. However, it still faces the challenge of selling it in the market and getting it into people’s hands. It has got the pricing right too, approximately Rs 33,400 before taxes and subsidies. The Lumia 920 was the best Windows Phone smartphone and the Lumia 925 clearly topples it. Now it remains to be seen if users feel the innovation and are willing to swap sides and move to Windows Phone.

Disclosure: Nokia sponsored our travel and stay to attend the press conference.

Windows Phone users have long complained about the absence of the Instagram app on Windows Phone 8, but today Nokia went a long way in mitigating the issue. While it did not announce an official Instagram app, it announced Hipstamatic Oggl which allows users to add beautiful filters to images and directly share images to Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram.

This is a neat way of sidestepping Instagram which is yet to release an official app for the Windows Phone platform. A few months ago Nokia tried to woo Instagram by launching its very own app called #2InstaWithLove.

Hipstamatic Oggl is an official app and also brings a beautiful camera UI to the table, so those who are bored of the spartan Windows Phone 8 camera UI can rejoice as now they can share their images on Instagram, apply filters and use a creative camera interface.

Apart from announcing the Lumia 925 smartphone, Nokia has announced an update for its Lumia line of smartphones codenamed ‘Amber’. The update will unlock FM radio capabilities in the Lumia 920, Lumia 820, Lumia 720 and the Lumia 520.

Additionally, the update will include camera improvements and will add a double tap to wake feature. Previously, the double tap to wake feature was seen in the MeeGo powered N9 and the Asha 501, but now it looks like this feature is also coming to Nokia Windows Phones. Perhaps this is an example of Nokia benefiting from its partnership with Microsoft for Windows Phone.

Microsoft had shipped Windows Phone 8 without FM radio capabilities but Windows Phone 7 had the feature. Microsoft was intending to add the feature as a part of the GDR2 update for the OS. Nokia has said that the ‘Amber’ update will be part of the GDR2 release.

Nokia today has released the Lumia 925 but alongside this it has debuted  the new Nokia Smart Camera mode. This feature comes with a number of options that deliver unique results with better and improved image quality.

Nokia Smart Camera shoots at a 5-megapixel throughout and takes 10 shots in a burst mode at one click. One can select, edit, and do more with any of these ten shots. The application further features five interesting editing tools and effects including Best Shot, Action Shot and Motion Focus. Some of these tools help in selecting the best shot out of the ten shots taken, make changes in the shot depicting an action, or simply focus on an object in motion and fading out the rest in the background.

There also are some other technical improvements in the Lumia 925 camera which will result in better images even in the daylight or in the low light conditions.

Nokia has also said that it will make the Smart Camera app available to all Lumia smartphone users and it will not be exclusive to the Lumia 925.

As expected, Nokia today announced the Lumia 925, which carries along the same PureView camera technology that was earlier seen in the Lumia 920 but in a much thinner frame. The Lumia 925 is also the first device in the series to ditch an all polycarbonate plastic body for a metallic frame that comes with a polycarbonate plastic back. Unlike the Lumia 928, however, the Lumia 925 does not sport a Xenon flash and comes with a dual-LED flash like the Lumia 920.

On the specifications front, not much has changed between the Lumia 920 and the Lumia 925. It still sport a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 1GB of RAM, a 8.7-megapixel PureView camera with OIS, an 4.5-inch AMOLED Clear Black Display and 16GB of internal storage. In order to maintain the slimness, the Lumia 925 ditches built-in wireless charging and comes with optional wireless charging covers. The Lumia 925 will be available in white, black and grey colors while the wireless charging covers will be available in white, black, red and yellow.

Nokia is making a big deal about the Carl Zeiss lens in the Lumia 925 and it claims that there are 6 elements in the lens assembly, which is a first for a smartphone. Previously, Apple made a big deal with the 5 element lens in the iPhone 4S, which was further carried over in the iPhone 5.

Nokia today also introduced a Smart Camera mode that clicks ten images at once and edit the pictures with options like Best Shot, Action Shot, and Motion Focus, features that have been recently introduced in the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One. It will first be offered in the Lumia 925 and will be available to other Lumia smartphones via an update.

The Lumia 925 will be available in select markets in June for Euro 469 (approximately Rs 33,400) before local subsidies and taxes. India is not a part of the first wave of launch countries. Watch this space for our hands-on and first impressions of the Lumia 925.

Photographs: Rajat Agrawal

In just under an hour, Nokia will be launching a new Lumia device which in all likelihood will be the Lumia 925. As we have previously reported, the Lumia 925 is essentially the international version of the recently announced Lumia 928, with the main difference being the metallic body instead of the polycarbonate one.

Talking of specifications, the Lumia 925 is expected to feature a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Plus processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8.7-megapixel rear PureView camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 2,000mAh battery, wireless charging, a large speakerphone and three high amplitude microphones for impressive sound recording capabilities.

On the software front, the Lumia 925 will run on Windows Phone 8 and will also have NFC capabilities. According the photos leaked yesterday, the device looks to sport a metallic chassis and is much thinner than the Nokia Lumia 920 which was criticized for its heft and weight.

To those of you who aren’t in London attending the event, you can watch the live webcast streaming on Nokia’s Press page.

With the highly anticipated Superman flick, Man of Steel, about to release exactly a month from now, Warner Bros. and Nokia have collaborated to launch the official Man of Steel app. The app is exclusively available on Nokia Lumia devices running Windows Phone 8.

The official app offers a gamut of movie related stuff like wallpapers, character information, movie trailers and actor biographies. There’s also a counter counting down to the release date.

In addition to the above, the app also offers the users nearly 40 challenges, which has them using the phone’s camera to click a photo and super-impose the Man of Steel on them or destroy objects with Superman’s powers, again in an augmented reality view. On completing the challenges, users will unlock exclusive rewards like DC comics, ringtones and special wallpapers.

If you have a Lumia with Windows Phone 8 running, head over to the Windows Phone Store to download the official Man of Steel app for free.

Previously, Nokia partnered with Warner Bros. before the launch of Dark Knight Rises for an exclusive version of the Lumia 800 and this looks like the continuation of the same partnership.

A couple of days ago US carrier Verizon announced the Nokia Lumia 928, which is an upgraded version of the Nokia Lumia 920. Many expected it to be the rumored ‘Catwalk’ smartphone, but as earlier rumors indicated, we were expecting an aluminium chassis and today Nokia delivered a teaser of PureView camera equipped device that had a metallic chassis. Now @evleaks has posted images of what he claims to be the Nokia Lumia 925, which essentially is the international version of the Lumia 928 with the main difference being the aluminium body instead of the polycarbonate one.

Specs wise, it is expected to have a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Plus processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8.7-megapixel rear PureView camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a Xenon flash like the Lumia 928, an 2,000 mAh battery, wireless charging, a large speakerphone and three high amplitude microphones for impressive sound recording capabilities.

As all Nokia smartphones it will run on Windows Phone 8 and will also have NFC capabilities and will be much thinner than the Nokia Lumia 920 which was criticised for its heft and weight. While all this is still strictly conjecture, a new Lumia smartphone is scheduled to be launched tomorrow in London and in all likely hood it will be the Lumia 925.

Only a few days ago Nokia announced its new US flagship the Lumia 928. This new device is slimmer than the Lumia 920 and features high amplitude microphones, a larger speaker and a Xenon flash, but design wise it retains a polycarbonate body. But as we postulated this may not be the rumoured ‘Catwalk’ device on Saturday, Nokia has just posted a teaser video for its next Lumia device that is scheduled to be launched on Tuesday in London, which looks different from the Lumia 928.

The video depicts a metal chassis and larger lens and a Xenon flash and going by the teaser video we think it looks quite similar to leaked Catwalk images that we saw a few months ago. Of course, there are still no details on internal specs, but we can expect something similar to the Lumia 928 and we don’t expect it to be the rumoured EOS device with the 41-megapixel PureView camera which is rumoured to launch in July.

Either ways, Nokia’s event is just a day away and all will be revealed very soon. Stay tuned, we will be reporting live from London.

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In what is the first of its kind app, Jet Airways in association with Nokia launched its official mobile app for the Windows Phone platform. The app essentially allows users to books tickets, check flight status, and also manage their JetPrivilege account on their smartphones.

Users can book tickets on the app using their credit cards and can register for flight status updates, after which the app will keep users up-to-date on their flight through timely notifications. In addition to the above, users can pin their booked tickets on the phone’s homescreen using Live Tiles. Jet Airways also adds that it will notify users of any available offers or deals through the app.

The app is currently compatible Windows Phone 7.5, Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8 and you can download the app for free from the Windows Phone Store.

After a slew of leaked ads and images, Nokia has officially announced the Lumia 928 for the US market that will run on the Verizon network. The company is expected to unveil the international version of the same device on May 14. Essentially, this represents a minor upgrade to the Lumia 920, which was criticised for being overly bulky and the new smartphone brings aboard a more slimmer, lighter and attractive design that still retains an unibody polycarbonate chassis.

While the name of final spec of the international version of the device is still unknown, one does not expect any major changes from what the US market is getting except for LTE support. Nokia makes a big deal of what it calls the ‘Infinity Display’ which is basically jargon for an edge-to-edge almost bezel-less AMOLED panel on the device. Actually, use of AMOLED technology for the display is one of the changes from the Lumia 920 design as this device uses a 4.5-inch 720p AMOLED display instead of a ClearBlack HD+ IPS panel.

Internally though, it retains the same components which include the dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Plus processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory and a 2,000 mAh battery that also supports wireless charging through the Qi standard.

Nokia retains the 8.7-megapixel PureView camera with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and a f/2.0 aperture, but it has now added a more powerful Xenon flash which replaces the LED flash found in the Lumia 920.

To demonstrate the prowess of its camera Nokia has posted a couple of videos that compare the camera performance with the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Apple iPhone 5. In one scenario it has the Lumia 928 on a rollercoaster in a low light scenario where the video is not only much more stable that its rivals, but when the frame is frozen for a still the focus is tighter and colour reproduction is much better.

Another video shows the 928 on a remote controlled octa-copter shooting video. Nokia again tries to showcase that the OIS is dampening the vibrations on the video caused by the eight rotors of the copter. The finnish handset manufacturer emphasises that these videos have been taken from the device its self and not a DSLR as a promotional video of the Lumia 920 was found out be using a DSLR camera and caused a lot of embarrassment for the company. Hopefully, this time around the videos are not faked.

Lastly, the Lumia 928 also incorporates three high-audio-amplitude-capture-microphones to capture distortion free audio while shooting video. Nokia used something similar in the Symbian based PureView 808 smartphone.

While we expect Nokia to properly showcase the device at the May 14 event, we might be in for some surprises. For instance, earlier reports had indicated that there would be an aluminium version of the Lumia 920 called Catwalk. Perhaps, the Lumia 928 is the rumored Catwalk device or maybe its international variant could have something slightly different. Additionally, the Lumia smartphone with a 41-megapixel PureView camera is also expected be launched by July, so Nokia might give a sneak peak into that device at the event. Whatever may be the case we will be reporting live from London on May 14.