Released in Europe and the UK late last year, the Nokia Lumia 800 is a solid Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) handset. Although only the unlocked version is available in the US, the Lumia 800 may give us good idea of what we’ll find inside the soon-to-be-released Lumia 900, which Nokia announced at CES 2012.

In this week’s episode of Cracking Open, I show you what’s inside the Lumia 800 and explain why prospective buyers (particularly in the U.S.) should skip it and wait for the Lumia 900.

The Lumia 800 has a single-core 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 processor (MSM8255T) with an Adreno 205 graphics processor. The handset also has 512 MB of RAM, 16 GB of flash storage, a 3.7″ AMOLED display (800 x 480), 802.11 b/g/n WLAN and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, and an 8 MP rear-facing camera. The Lumia 800 measures 116.5 mm (H) x 61.2 mm (W) x 12.1 mm (D) and weighs 142 grams.

Full teardown gallery: Cracking Open the Nokia Lumia 800

Cracking Open observations

• Single-piece polycarbonate case: Like the Nokia N9 and Lumia 900, the 800 has a single-piece polycarbonate case. The phone is slightly heavier than the Motorola Droid Razr and Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but has a solid, sturdy feel.
• Good build-quality, easy to open: The phone’s construction quality is good and opening the device was relatively easy–although popping off the display panel was a little nerve racking.
• Decent, but not cutting-edge, hardware: Like the Lumia 710, the 800 has a single-core, 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor with Adreno 205 graphics and 512 megabytes of RAM. But unlike the 710, it has twice as much storage, a better camera, and an AMOLED screen. In a world of dual- and quad-core mobile CPUs, I wonder if the the single-core Lumia will be able to keep up.
• Smaller battery than similar phones: The Lumia 800’s 1,440 mAh battery has less capacity than the Droid Razr (1,780 mAh) or Galaxy Nexus (1,750 mAh).

Internal hardware

Our Lumia 800 test unit has the following hardware:

• 1.4 GHz single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 (MSM8255T) processor (with Adreno 205 GPU)
• Elpida B4064B2PD-6D-F 2Gb LP DDR2 DRAM (512 MB)
• 16GB Hynix NAND flash chip (H26M52002CKR)
• 3.7″ AMOLED display (800 x 480)
• 8 MP rear-facing camera
• 3.8V, 1,450 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Atmel mXT224 touchscreen controller (MXT-N0K1 CCU-1R6 1G4456B)
• Broadcom BCM4329 Low-Power 802.11n with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and FM (BCM4329EKUBG)
• Qualcomm PM8058 power management IC
• Qualcomm QTR8200 RF Transceiver
• TriQuint TQM7M5013 Quad-Band GSM / GPRS / EDGE-Linear Power Amplifier Module
• AAC Technologies ELV1411A X Direction Linear Vibrator (vibratior motor)