Lumia 920 is official in India, updates from last night launch

Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 – official in India

As promised, NTB has got hands on review of the complete launch event of the Nokia Lumia 920 in Mumbai. The Lumia 920 event scheduled at ITC Maratha in Mumbai was more for the Nokia Vendor partners but that didn’t stop the representatives from Nokia India to showcase the full might of the company’s current flagship smartphone – Nokia Lumia 920.

Nokia India, last night, announced the arrival of both the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 for the Indian markets. According to them, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 will hit the Indian shelves from January 13, 2013 onwards. Both the Windows Phone 8 smartphones will be available in White, Black, Red and Yellow for now. Lumia 920 Cyan handset will be delayed and currently may be available only in some numbers. Though when asked about Lumia 920 price in India, the people at Nokia India were really tight lipped. But after probing further and being coerced by  vendor (thanks to Alfa in Mumbai), the company officials did hint that Lumia 920 will be in a price range of Rs. 36,000 – Rs. 38,000. Our sources said that the local vendors will retail the Lumia 920 for Rs. 35,500/- for the Indian markets.

Lumia 920 Launch Event

The Lumia 920 launch event started with the usual announcements about the company’s glorious past. Nokia India started the launch and have termed the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 launch in India as the Comeback Launch of the Brand globally as well as in domestic markets.

After the initial numbers were spoken of, which were quite interesting, as per a report by Nokia India – Windows Phone platform is the second most used platform in India ahead of Blackberry and Apple iOS which was a rather surprise to me. The numbers were followed with a Laser light show which was spectacularly amazing.

Lumia 920 launch – Laser Light Show

After the performance was done, the company moved on to the more important matters and revealed the life size models of the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. The company then moved on to showcase the might of the Lumia 920 by showcasing some of the cool features of the smartphone. Starting with the PureView Camera, PureView Motion+ HD Screen, Unibody Construction and then ending the hardware side with the Qi based Wireless charging.

Nokia showcasing Lumia 920 in terms of Hardware and Software

Nokia wasn’t done here and the company even showcased the software might of the Lumia 920. Obviously, the first thing they did was just showed how powerful the Lumia 920 Camera is even in low-light conditions. Then they showcased an aerial view from a helicopter about the video recording capabilities of the Lumia 920. And mind you, looking at these, our minds were really blown off seeing a smartphone perform like a DSLR. The company then moved on to some photo tricks of their own, and thanks to Cinemagraph – the Nokia Photo App, you will now be able to delete unwanted objects from your beautiful photographs. The company then showcased the most awesome feature in Windows Phone 8 smartphones – the Kids Corner and it actually works like a charm.

As told earlier, Nokia then stressed on the release and marketing schedule of the Lumia smartphones in India. Going by the numbers, there is going to be a similar blitzkrieg in marketing campaign of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, as done by Microsoft for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, for the coming months in India. There are going to be huge banners all across the advertising platforms, 4 hours of on-Air time in advertising slots,  POSMs across all malls and live demo units with the Wireless charging capabilities across all major vendors.

With all the announcements in place, the night came to an end with dinner, talks and fun.

Lumia 920 – My take

I must say the Lumia 920 is actually the most innovative smartphone. The Finnish giant has got an ace up their sleeve with the Lumia 920 and they are pulling out everything on their way to comeback. One of the most important factors, that would have determined the success of the Lumia 920 in India was the pricing. At Rs. 36,000, Nokia India has hit the nail hard and got the pricing right of the Lumia 920, at this price the Lumia 920 is in par with the likes of Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X+ and just recently announced Samsung Galaxy Note II. With these price range, what Nokia has done is that they have even got a smartphone which is priced lower than Apple iPhone 5 and has more features to boast off.

The Windows phone 8 platform is showing a lot of promise and with the inputs from the Finnish giant and people at Redmond working overtime to replenish their App repository, I see no problems in Windows Phone 8 becoming the third best platform. After last night, I personally would say for those who are bored with the usual Android and iOS and want to give a try to something new and refreshing its time to #SWITCH.

Official Page for Nokia Lumia 920