Will the new Lumia 920 save Nokia?

The Finnish handset maker has a lot riding on the next-generation Windows Phone announced Wednesday — and the jury is definitely out

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (left) and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (right)
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Techies were all ears Wednesday morning when Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop shared a stage to unveil the impressive new Nokia Lumia 920, the first phone to run on Microsoft's dazzingly new mobile platform Windows Phone 8. The handset boasts some serious hardware specs — a high-definition 4.5-inch touchscreen on par with Apple's Retina display, Nokia's top-ranked PureView camera technology, and a snappy 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor. The phone gives the profits-challenged Finnish manufacturer its best shot in years to recapture market share gobbled up by key rivals HTC and Samsung. While the 920's predecessor, the Lumia 900, was "only a marginal success," says Roger Cheng at CNET, the new Lumia (and its budget version, the Lumia 820) will get a marketing boost as Microsoft pushes hard for Windows Phone 8 to be a true alternative to iOS and Android. Although pricing and availability haven't yet been revealed, can the new Lumia help reverse Nokia's dwindling fortunes?

It has a lot of magic: Most new flagship phones are "95 percent boring stuff and 5 percent actually interesting stuff," says Dan Nosowitz at Popular Science. But the Lumia 920 has a lot of "unexpected" features to drive optimism: It comes with a groundbreaking wireless charger onto which you can just plop the phone. The screen automatically adjusts for color and brightness, depending on sunlight. And its touchscreen even works when you're wearing gloves. Plus, the phone just "looks awesome."

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