Verizon Wireless's new Nokia 822 is the first phone Nokia has done for the carrier in three years, and it's chock-full of goodies: Nokia's turn-by-turn driving and transit directions, cool camera apps and Data Sense, Microsoft's data management and compression app. At $99 with contract, it offers a heck of a lot for the money. I got a little time with one at the Windows Phone 8 launch.
The Lumia 822's body is the one thing I'm not a fan of, and I don't see why Nokia had to change it from other Lumia models. The bold, removable, colorful covers are gone: instead you get a phone with a removable back, but fixed black or white edges. The all-black front with a hint of color has not become a duller, more conventional rounded front with a bit of a chin. It's thicker, too. While the material is solid, the shape says midrange, not high-end, and it's definitely outclassed by the HTC 8X.
I've been handling the 8X and the Nokia Lumia 920 a lot, and they both feel like something special. Most importantly, they don't feel like Android phones. The Samsung Ativ feels a little more generic. So does the 822.
Where the Nokia 822 beats the HTC 8X so far is on software. Call it bloatware if you like, but Nokia's list of exclusives contains a lot of useful stuff. Windows Phone needs Nokia Drive for turn-by-turn directions and Nokia Transit for transit directions. Nokia's camera apps let you make instant animated GIF-like images and combine photos of groups of people to eliminate shots where people's eyes are closed.
Microsoft's new Data Sense is exclusive to Verizon phones, and that's also a big deal. Like our Editors' Choice Onavo Extend, Data Sense monitors the data you're using app by app, and compresses data on its way to and from your phone. According to Microsoft, you can surf 45 percent more on the same data plan with Data Sense than without. That can help Verizon users shift down to lower data plans, and it'll help.
Otherwise, the Lumia 822's specs are similar to T-Mobile's Lumia 810 and AT&T's Lumia 820: a 4.3-inch, 800-by-480 ClearBlack OLED screen, 16GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera and a 1.5-Ghz Qualcomm S4 processor.
Verizon will have three Windows Phones: the $99 Lumia 822, the $199 Windows Phone 8X and the mysterious Samsung Ativ Odyssey, which we know relatively little about. The 8X has a much more premium-feeling body, a higher-resolution screen and Beats Audio. The 822 has Nokia Drive. Both have Data Sense. It'll be interesting to see whether a lower price and GPS software win out over industrial design here.