Local Nokia fans won’t have to wait much longer to get their hands on the Finnish company’s flagship Windows Phone device. The Lumia 800 will go on sale in SA on 7 February, according to a post on Nokia’s Facebook page and revealed by the blog All About Nokia SA.

Though Nokia is yet to reveal local pricing for the Lumia 800 and on which cellular networks it will be available first, the company is holding a launch party for the device at Vodacom’s Midrand offices on 25 January at which all the launch details will be announced.

Plans to launch the Lumia 800 in SA come hard on the heels of news at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that Nokia will soon begin selling a new Windows Phone device in the US known as the Lumia 900. The 900 offers a larger, Amoled screen (4,3 inches versus the 3,7 inches on the 800), faster processor and support for long-term evolution networks.

Nokia’s decision to launch smartphones based on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform forms part of a strategic overhaul of the company led by Stephen Elop, a former Microsoft executive, meant to claw back market share lost to Apple and manufacturers building devices using Google’s Android software.

Nokia’s lower end and cheaper Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 device is expected to go on sale in SA in the second quarter of 2012. — Staff reporter, TechCentral