Microsoft reportedly charged licensing fees of up to $15 per handset, where the testing required to use Google’s GMS - the library of services like Maps and Gmail that sits on top of the open source Android kernel - might be less than a dollar per phone. In what might have been one of Microsoft’s key mistakes, though, the company didn’t exactly make it easy for manufacturers to justify supporting a system without a huge existing fanbase. In 2010, the year before, we saw Windows Phone 7 handsets from Dell, HTC, LG and Samsung. However, the Lumia 800 was not the first to use this swanky version of Windows. Windows Phone 7 was a slick operating system with a tile-based home screen that moved more fluidly than Android, and it had an excellent virtual keyboard. Windows Phone 7’s job was to turn a fusty old system made for PDAs, personal digital assistants, into something to rival Apple’s iOS. In 2021, it’s easy to forget that versions of Windows on phones and mobile devices had been around since 2000. The hardware was made to create an impact, but its true importance was its place as the flagship Windows Phone 7 mobile. Its shell was polycarbonate, with colorful finishes whose color wasn’t just a paint layer you could chip off to reveal the cheap white plastic underneath. This was the phone that pulled off a minor miracle of making plastic seem cool.

Ever the European, Nokia initially released the phone to UK and EU markets, at £399 - roughly $625 in the exchange rate of the time.

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