Nokia Lumia 800 lights up our video review

With everyone constantly harping on about Apple and Android, you could well be forgiven for thinking Nokia had fallen off the face of the Earth in recent years -- but as Rich Trenholm discovers in this video review of the new Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone, everyone's favourite Finnish phone manufacturer is back.

The Lumia 800 is available in stores from this week, but before it was launched at Nokia World 2011 back in October, the industry was on the edge of their seats, nervous to see whether Nokia could finally produce a winning smart phone formula.

Luckily, it did. We'd rather suspected Nokia had been hiding its light under a bushel, and we breathed a huge sigh of relief when that light turned out to be the Lumia 800 -- the company's best, most innovative smart phone to date.

As Rich demonstrates in the video, Microsoft's Windows Phone software looks stunning on the phone's glossy AMOLED screen. The colourful tiles perform little pirouettes to inform you of the latest updates, and despite the menus and home screen being highly customisable, the interface remains simple and fun to use.

While it's still early days for Windows Phone, we believe it's got the potential to compete with heavyweights Android and iOS. It's incredibly slick and once it catches up app-wise they'll be nothing holding it back from smart phone domination.

The sturdy but stylish one-piece design of the Lumia 800 has been lifted from a previous Nokia model, the N9 -- a gorgeous handset that we unfortunately had to discard to the mobile phone graveyard due to its running the blighted MeeGo operating system. It's a wise move by Nokia to recycle the N9's minimalist chassis here though -- it would have been a crying shame to let this beautiful design go to waste.

As Rich points out in the video, if you buy a Nokia Lumia 800 SIM-free, you'll require a micro SIM. To avoid a charge from your network provider, follow the steps in our cheeky DIY guide to trim your current SIM to size.

Nokia may conjure warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia and memories of whole evenings playing snake on our 3330s -- but the Lumia 800 marks the beginning of a bright new chapter in the company's fascinating and obscure history.

With promises of a Windows 8 tablet coming in June next year, we can't help but be excited to discover exactly what else Nokia may have in the pipeline.

Have you got your hands on Lumia 800 yet, or are you hoping to soon? Let us know what you think of Nokia's latest effort in the comments below or on our Facebook page.