Nokia will be keeping wraps on its SIM-free stock of Nokia Lumia 800 until January of next year. The two month delay was reported to the Gadget Helpline by online retailer Clove and brings somewhat of a standstill to Nokia’s current charge with it new top of the range smartphone, which was only just outted last week. This news does not affect the release of the contract model which will go ahead as planned on November 16th.
The reason for the temporary absence of the SIM-free Lumia 800 is most likely that Nokia’s latest has been very well received and demand has been unexpected higher than predicted, this has lead Nokia to allocate more stock than was estimated to the networks. Carphone Warehouse had previously reported that there would be no SIM-free or PAYG stock. However, networks including Three and Orange, then said that – yes, the handset will be up for grabs on PAYG costing £399 when it arrives – specifying that this would be on release date. The news today from Clove contradicts that claims once again.
The information received by the Gadget Helpline from Clove reads:
“We have now heard that the Nokia Lumia 800 UK SIM-free stock will not be available to us until January 2012. This is very frustrating as we were expecting the Lumia to be released much sooner, but will now have to wait until the New Year. We are aware that the Lumia will still be launched in the UK this month, but will only be available with a contract from selected stores.”
The Nokia Lumia 800, formerly known as the Sea Ray, features a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED screen, 1.4GHz processor with 512MB of RAM and 16GB storage – and because it’s a Microsoft Windows Phone packing latest ‘Mango’ update the smartphone can connect to Skydrive for 25GBs of ‘floating’ storage. Buyers can also enjoy the 5-megapixel camera and HD video recording when the first Nokia gadget featuring Windows Phone 7.5 drops on November 16th – for now, contract-only.
As an incentive for contract upgraders, the Orange network is offering up a free Microsoft Xbox 360 with every purchase of a Nokia Lumia 800. Check out the Gadget Helpline’s coverage of this story – Here.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.