Tricky GuRi

By now you know most of the details about Nokia’s new Windows 8 phones, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, but to hear Nokia CEO Stephen Elop talk about them is to have them reduced to their essence. He distills the two phones down to the enhancements and new features that will matter most to consumers.

It was Elop who made the big bet on the Windows Phone platform last year, jettisoning not one but two mobile platforms in favor of Microsoft’s mobile reboot. Earlier this year, the partnership resulted in a couple of Nokia handsets, with the large and some would say beautiful Lumia 900 sitting atop the pack.

Today’s new Lumia handsets, Elop told Mashable, “are the next step in that journey.”

Of the two devices, the larger Lumia 920 is most recognizable and is the true successor to the 900. Not only is it running Windows Phone 8 (the 900 will get an update to Windows Phone 7.5, but cannot handle the more powerful Windows Phone 8), but it gets the lion’s share of built-in feature updates.

In what some might count as a forgivable moment of extreme hyperbole, Elop effused “I dare say the Lumia 920 is the world’s most innovative smart phone.”

What makes the 920 so special? According to Elop, it boils down to a handful of key components.

First of all there’s the PureView camera system. No, this is not the same PureView found in the Symbian-based 808. There’s no 41 megapixel sensor in here. Elop explained that PureView is an umbrella “to describe great photographic experiences.” In the case of the Lumia 920, it describes the floating camera and sensor; a mechanical image stabilization system in a camera phone. It may be a first. If not, it’s certainly unusual. Elop told us the benefits are better light collection in poor lighting situations and the counteraction of your own and movements in normal and more difficult shots like holding the phone above your head at concert.

The 920 also features built-in NFC and, more interestingly, wireless charging. For now, the phone will work with its own charging base, but Elop hopes the industry eventually adopts the standard they’re using: Qi. “That’s what’s we want to encourage is a broader ecosystem. It’s to everyone’s benefit to have some commonality there.”

Other highlights include a hyper-sensitive touch screen. Elop showed the Lumia 920’s capacitive touch recognizing not only finger touches, but fingernails, and even elbows. When we asked about how this would work inside someone’s pocket (too much sensitivity could be a bad thing), Elop showed off the hardware-based screen lock. Elop also touted the WXGA screen that, he said, you can view with ease in direct sunlight.

In addition to new Windows 8 Phone experience, Nokia will also include its own bit of software magic: Nokia City Lens. Point the Nokia Lumia 920 at a New York City Street and the software will overlay the live camera view with location restaurants, hotels and hotspots based on your search criteria. It’s a little bit Yelp and a little bit Google Goggles. Elop, however, insists that it’s more, “Nokia has been investing for many years through our Navteq acquisition in a very strong, underlying location-based platform.”

The Nokia Lumia 820 looks like and is a less impressive phone. Elop called it the 920’s “mid-range partner.” Its most notable feature may be its removable plastic cover, which not only offers the phone a variety of body color options, but one can add in the wireless charging capability it’s missing.