Key difference: One of the first smartphones under the brand is the Nokia Lumia 820. The Nokia Lumia 820 was first of the first phones to be developed running on Windows Phone 8. It was launched in November 2012, as a slightly cheaper alternative to the Nokia 920. Asus has announced the launch of newest phablet, the Asus Fonepad. The Fonepad is a 7-inch Android tablet that allows users to also make phone calls by placing the device on their ear.

Nokia is a multinational communications and information technology corporation based in Helsinki, Finland. Nokia’s phones have been famously known as being simple and durable. In 2012, it was the world’s second largest mobile phone maker by unit sales, following Samsung. However, the sales of Nokia have been decreasing as more and more of the market shifts towards smartphones such as iPhones and Androids. In an attempt to offset their decreasing sales, Nokia tied up with Microsoft to release its own line of smartphones, the Nokia Lumia running on Windows Phone Operating Software.

One of the first smartphones under the brand is the Nokia Lumia 820. The Nokia Lumia 820 was first of the first phones to be developed running on Windows Phone 8. It was launched in November 2012, as a slightly cheaper alternative to the Nokia Lumia 920. It has a 4.3 inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. It is powered by a Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor and a 1 GB RAM. The phone has 8 GB internal memory and an external memory expandable up to 64 GB.

Nokia Lumia 820 features an 8 MP primary camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash, as well as Carl Zeiss optics. It also has a VGA secondary front-facing camera for self photo shots and video calling. The phone is available in a variety of bright colors, such as black, gray, red, yellow, white, blue, and violet. In fact, the phone comes with back panels in these colors allowing the user to change the phone’s color every few days.

The newest and most distinguishing feature of the Lumia 820 is that the phone is capable of wireless charging. However, the wireless charging mat is not included with the phone and has to be purchased separately.

However, the phone has been criticized as being chunky and heavy. Another issue with the phone, in fact all the Windows phones, is that it comes with the Internet Explorer browser built-in, which can be quite lagging at times, and the phones do not support any other browsers. Furthermore, the collection of apps available on Windows is quite limited, especially as compared to the apps available for Android and Apple.

Asus has announced the launch of newest phablet, the Asus Fonepad. The company states that the purpose of launching this phone is to bridge the gap between the phone and the tablet, eliminating the need for the carrying to separate devices. The Asus Fonepad is practically a tablet that has phone call making capabilities. The Fonepad is a 7-inch Android tablet that allows users to also make phone calls by placing the device on their ear. Some people may find it silly to place such a huge device on their ear to make calls; for those people the tablet does allow connectivity with a Bluetooth device.

The Asus Fonepad has borrowed a bunch of features from the Nexus 7, which was also created under Google and Asus collaboration. The weight, dimension and the display are all similar to the Nexus 7; however, the company has replaced the back. The plastic-leather back of the Nexus 7 has been replaced with a slick, steel casing. The device is available in titanium gray and champagne gold colors. The phablet sports a 7-inch IPS LED backlit touch screen that allowed multitouch capability for up to 10 people. The screen has a resolution of 1280 x 800, which provides approximately 216 ppi density, a decent enough resolution. Under the hood, the phablet runs on 1.2 GHz single-core Intel Atom processor, making it pretty fast for multi-tasking, along with playing some high-res games. The device has 1 GB RAM.

There will be two versions of the tablet, one for Europe, the other for Asia. The launch regarding rest of the World has yet to be revealed. The European variant will have 16 GB internal storage capacity, with no rear camera. However, the Asian variant will 8 GB internal storage capacity and will house a 3.2 MP rear camera. Both the variants will house 1.2 MP front camera for video conferencing. The phablet will not support 4G capabilities. The phablet will be available with preloaded Android v4.1 Jelly Bean, with no announcements yet regarding if it is upgradeable to the newest version. The internal storage capacity can expanded up to 32 GB using a MicroSD. One of the most prominent features of the phablet is the massive battery that has been mounted on the device. The non-removable Li-Ion 4270 mAh battery allows the phone to support 32.5 hours of talktime on 3G and 751 hours of standby time. There is no proper release date for the phone, with the expected release to be around April or May 2013.

The information for the detailed table about the two phones has been taken from the Nokia website, cnet.co.uk, the Asus website, trustedreviews.com, pcworld.idg.com.au and GSMArena.com.

Image Courtesy: nokia.com, asus.com