Quickreviews: Canon S100 and Nokia Lumia 800
Canon S100 QuickReview 
Overview
The Canon S100 is a high-end compact designed for the enthusiast. Priced at over €500, it’s positioned to be as close to a DSLR as a compact can be and as such features some extremely impressive specs for such a portable camera.
Pros:
Extremely portable high-performance camera with serious spec.
Wide range of functionality
Special modes: Nostalgic – allows you to take photographs that have the same colour and grain as photos from different eras – (see above).
Adaptive ring at front of camera gives you quick and easy control of anything from ISO to focus to speed and aperture, which makes for quick adjusting to settings without fiddling through menus.
Manual Av and Tv settings with ISO that goes all the way to 6400, make this the next best thing to actually owning a DSLR
12MP lens of the highest quality that gives a great range of zoom (from wide-angle at fStop 2.0 24mm equiv to 5x OPTICAL zoom 120mm equiv).
Includes latest Canon noise and blur reduction technologies to give you sharpest images
GPS function allows you to geotag your photos automatically.
Autofocus tracking modes for video keep picture sharp without clumsy refocusing.
Cons:
The Video quality at full HD is very good, but could be better, recording at, say 30fps for a smoother picture as many rivals now do.
There may be only one other bad thing to say about the s100 and that’s that it’s not for the frugal. The s100 will set you back over €500
Nokia Lumia 800
Overview:
The Lumia 800 is the first Nokia phone loaded with Windows Phone 7. Like Google developed Android and Apple developed the IOS for their products, Windows phone 7 is a separate operating system for mobile products, produced by Microsoft.
Pros:
The whole design of Windows 7 is beautiful and floaty, a real pleasure to use. It takes a day or two to get used to, but works exactly how it should from my experience (there have been a few minor issues reported, but they are being dealt with in software updates).
The screen isn’t enormous or Hi-res, but it does provide great colour and the blacks stand out really well.
Smart integration with your social networks throughout the phone, including a stream of content from Twitter, Facebook, Email etc in one place, and a Photos app that allows you to access not just photos on the phone, but also any from your facebook or Flickr accounts seamlessly.
The physical form of the phone is well designed (if a little small) and the text interface is great to work with, unlike some Android phones I’ve used in the past.
Battery (after update) seems pretty solid compared to iPhone and other smartphones.
Nokia Drive includes downloaded maps which means you can use the GPS in any country without having to pay streaming fees, BIG plus.
Skydrive: Windows version of the Cloud allows you to upload any of your content on the phone so it can be accessed anywhere else, with auto syncing if your phone is charging and near wi-fi.
Cons:
Zune. The phone is a really impressive first attempt to rival the others in the market, but Zune, the accompanying software is a pain in the backside. Like Apple’s disastrous iTunes, Microsoft wants to control how you get your content and this ends up being the phone’s biggest flaw. For example, to transfer a picture, I had to install Zune which is 101 megabytes which then downloads updates to Zune. To get music or photos on to your phone, you have to install Zune on your pc, restart the pc, restart your phone, then install updates and then transfer your content across. You also need Zune installed on any pc you intend to use, rather than just providing a plug-n-play access to the photos folder as in all IOS and Android phones. Where I could ordinarily just drag and drop pictures, I now have to go through an exhaustive process unnecessarily.
The 8mp camera provides a good, but not great picture and video, certainly not cutting edge graphics or quality for 2012.
The number of Apps is limited and so for the foreseeable future you won’t find many well-known handy apps, like Dropbox, Readitlater, Tweetdeck or local content apps like the Irish Independent, AIB or Sky Go. Skype is apparently on the way.
Finally, It’s a little small for my liking, but bigger versions are on the way
Conclusion:
As Nokia’s first attempt at a Windows Phone, they’ve done an outstanding job. It creates one of the slickest experiences since the first iPhone and will have a big following from the outset, particularly from those who don’t want their phone to do much more than social media and entertainment. If Microsoft can only ease the restrictions on accessing content, this could rival anything out on the market. The phone will be available exclusively on 1st of February for Vodafone until March. Tariffs TBC