The Finnish maker of handset has finally joined the race for specs earlier this week when it made official its newest lineup of Lumia devices, two of which (Lumia 1520 and Lumia 2520) offer support for full HD display resolutions and quad core processors.
While Nokia actually started releasing Windows Phone powered handsets in late 2011, the Lumia handsets up until now have always featured last generation system-on-chips and screens.
And now the company has explained the delay in launching full HD and quad core CPUs, and why it did not have the need to launch cutting edge hardware as its immediate mobile competitors do.
Obviously, first and foremost, the company needed the participation from Microsoft — the Windows Phone operating system was lacking the support for 1080p display resolutions and quad-core processors up until the recently released Update 3.
But while the company admitted it was a generation (and a half) behind in brining full HD screens to its handsets, it would still not have opted for quad core chips last year due to unimpressive performance gains and poor battery life.
Only the newly released (and utterly imposing) Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip was enough to convince Nokia to make the jump to four cores.
It is an interesting insight into the hardware choices Nokia has made over the last couple of years. While purists would say that most Lumia handsets did not really have the need for four core CPUs, considering just how optimized the Windows Phone platform is, the display part at least needed enrichment.
But now with these limitations behind, Nokia and other Windows Phone partners can now continue churning out some shiny and impressive hardware in the years to come.
All Comments
They needed them before. Simple as that. The only reason to have them now is because everyone else does.
Kind of like what they should have done with the web site for the new Obama care.