January 25, 2012
By Donovan Jackson

It’s probably the most important product range Nokia has launched this side of the millennium. That’s because the Lumia range, represented by two new handsets, is the first results of the relationship between industry powerhouses Nokia and Microsoft. When software leadership is combined with cutting edge handset design, the result is smartphones designed for the social generation which will push the boundaries of possibility ever further.

As of 7 February 2012, you can get a Lumia 800 from Vodacom and see what the fuss is all about. Even better, one lucky Twitter user will receive the opportunity to be the first to review the Lumia 800.  Read on to find out how.

Global interest in the two new handsets is substantial, especially in the higher-end Lumia 800. That’s confirmed by Vice President for Nokia in South and East Africa Gerard Brandjes, who points to critical acclaim and consumer excitement the Lumia range has achieved across Europe, Asia and the US. By now, you should be quite familiar with the specifications of this handset and its little brother, the Lumia 710 (available in the second quarter of 2012).

These handsets are designed with social and the cloud in mind; not only do they deliver a full and familiar range of integrated social services (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), they also introduce the concept of storage in the cloud with SkyDrive – essentially providing limitless capacity (and substantially better security) for your content. Actually, there’s a whack of awesome new features to look forward to.

Browsing gets a boost with Internet Explorer 9, while the integration between the Windows 7.5 Mango operating system and the hardware (including the 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor) is super-slick and delivers the sort of full multitasking associated with a PC. Using a Lumia is described as delivering Nokia’s best social and Internet performance with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts and integrated communication threads.

Probably best of all, at this stage, is the pricing of packages that will put these handsets in, well, your hands. The Lumia 800 starts on a Vodacom Business Call contract (with 100MB data per month) at just R279 per month on a two year contract.

How can you get the Lumia 800 for a review (note that we unfortunately can’t let you keep the handset)? Easy. Just let us know on Twitter why you should be selected to evaluate the phone. Use the #hashtag #Lumia. Good luck!

This competition is now closed. Congratulations to Hans Haupt, who has won the Lumia 800 review competition! We will be contacting you shortly.

Terms and conditions for the Lumia 800 consumer review

-To enter the consumer review program you are required to tweet your motivation to @NokiaRSA including the hashtag #Lumia, indicating why you  should be selected as a reviewer.

- The selection of the reviewer will be made at Nokia’s sole discretion, no coorespondence will be entered into

-The reviewers will be contacted via a DM message, therefore you are required to follow the @NokiaRSA Twitter account to be eligible for the review.

-Only one tweet per person will be considered in the motivations for entries. The competition is open to everyone living in South Africa and over the age of 16 except employees and immediate family members of Nokia and its agencies. You must be in possession of a valid South African ID or a valid residence / work permit. A copy of this must be made available before the review unit will be made available to the reviewer.

-Device reviewers will be personally responsible and liable for the Nokia Lumia 800 while the phone is in their possession

-If you are a winner on the Nokia Ringaz Blog you may not be eligible to win another Nokia competition for a period of 3 months.

-The winner will be selected by the judges, no correspondence will be entered into.

-The reviewer will be announced on the 3rd February 2012

-Entry into this competition constitutes acceptance of the above rules