The first new Lumia smartphone is the 720, a budget-friendly Windows Phone 8 device that will hit stores in Q2 for €249. The 4.3-inch Lumia 720 retains the classic curved body and full-glass front we saw on the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, but thankfully the heft and size are reminiscent of the Lumia 820’s well-weighted design, rather than  the Lumia 920’s bulky, incredibly cumbersome build. 

                           It feels great in the hand; just the right size to comfortably operate one-handed. We immediately drooled all over the colour-rich screen, which at first play seems to be just as sharp and vibrant as the Lumia 820’s. It’s a ClearBlack display, which means blacks look truly black,  rather than a dark shade of grey. It also allegedly gives great visibility in the sun, and we certainly  had no trouble reading text under the intense  MWC lighting. 

                   The Lumia 720’s 1GHz dual-core processor keeps things running smoothly, so zipping around Windows Phone 8 is a satisfying experience. Nokia’s excellent ‘Here’ suite is present as always, so you get the brilliant Music, Maps (now with augmented reality support, which throws places onto the screen as you wave the phone around, so you know exactly which direction to head in), Drive and Transit apps. 

                   Another highlight is the 6.7-megapixel camera rocking a Carl Zeiss lens. The f1.9 aperture is one of the largest found on any smartphone, which means the Lumia 720 pulls in plenty of light for shots in gloomy conditions. It seemed to do an admirable job at the Nokia stand, but we’ll need to find a dingy pub to properly test this out. 

                          The front-facing camera has a wide-angle lens which makes it easier to capture group shots. Rounding off the Lumia 720 features are 8GB of storage and a memory card slot, plus NFC support. You can also charge the Lumia 720 wirelessly, and Nokia launched a new wireless car dock that charges your phone as you use the Drive app.

Is it a phone? Is it a tablet? Who knows, but it’s very nice

SamSung’S galaxy notes have caused many arguments in the Mobile Choice lair. While the original 5.3-inch galaxy note was a beast, it could just about get away with its mobile phone credentials.  Those arguments are going to get bloody now that Samsung has unleashed its mighty galaxy note 8.0, which as the name suggests is an eight-inch slab of beauty.

                           It has a Sim card slot (sadly only 3g is supported, so no speedy 4g web browsing yet), but holding the galaxy note 8.0 in one hand is a tough task, and speaking into it as you walk down the street will (rightly) generate ridicule. We’re thinking a Bluetooth headset might be the way forward. 

                             Still, as a tablet, the galaxy note 8.0 is just as user-friendly as the rest of the range. The excellent S-Pen stylus can be slipped from a rear corner and used to scribble on the screen, proving as responsive as usual to every poke and swish, and Samsung has included classic galaxy note software such as S Planner and S note to maximise your use of the S-Pen. 

                                      The display itself is typically bright and vibrant, but we were surprised to see Samsung went with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, the same used by budget rivals such as amazon’s Kindle Fire, and less sharp than the nook HD tablet’s seven-inch screen. Despite this, the photos we checked out were still crisply reproduced and there were some lovely rich colours on the android 4.1 desktop (overlaid with Samsung’s custom interface). 

                       The overall build is similar to the iPad mini; impressively slender and also pleasingly light. The glossy body feels good in the hand, although we wouldn’t want to drop it on a hard surface for fear of it splintering  into pieces. as usual, you can multi task  to a ridiculous degree, opening  all kinds of email, browser and  app windows side-by-side. The  eight-inch screen makes it easy  to do this, so you won’t have to resort to squinting.  as for specs, the note 8.0 packs a 1.6gHz quad-core processor, ably backed up by 2gB of Ram. 

                      You get either 16gB or 32gB of storage for your media and apps, while the mighty 4600mah battery should keep it going for a good few hours. Camera enthusiasts get a fivemegapixel snapper on the back, as  well as a 1.3-megapixel front-facer.  Samsung’s galaxy note 8.0  should hit uK stores before summer, but pricing is yet to be  revealed.