Holy Strategic Partnerships, Batman! A Brief History Of Nokia’s Batman Obsession

The Nokia Lumia 900 The Dark Knight Rises Edition handset has made its way on the interwebs recently and it’s nothing short of a beauty, with a black polycarbonate unibody frame and a laser-etched Batman logo across the back. Moreover, the phone — which is usually limited to either a black or white background and a handful of color themes like Nokia blue, teal, lime, mango, and pink — will also come with a black and grey theme.

Of course, plenty of Dark Knight Rises content will come pre-loaded as well, including a game called Claim Gotham City and the Dark Knight Rises app. We had gotten a glimpse of the phone in what appears to be official press shots (or renders) a few days ago, but the first hands-on photos of the phone have surfaced, courtesy of Phonerpt.

Take a look:

Now, the Lumia 900 Batphone is far from the first Batman/Nokia collaboration to date. After a little light research, I’ve learned that there are quite a few Nokia batphones out in the world.

Here’s a brief image-tastic history of Nokia’s obsession with Batman:

Nokia 5800 XpressMedia

In 2008, a now-incredibly famous movie hit the silver screen. You may have heard of it: The Dark Knight. It featured Heath Ledger as the Joker, who tragically died before the movie was ever released. But it also featured another shining star known as the Nokia 5800 XpressMedia. The phone appeared in the trailer for the movie and was then blogged by dozens of tech sites. It was the first touchscreen phone Nokia put on the market, complete with stylus and three home buttons. It was nicknamed the Tube, and ended up in a handful of music videos including Britney Spears’ “Womanizer”, Flo Rida’s “Right Round”, and Cobra Starship’s “Good Girls Go Bad”.

[Images via TrustedReviews and Phonerpt]

Nokia 6205 Dark Knight Edition

Then, in June of the same year, Nokia realized the potential of putting actual Batman imagery and design language on the phone itself, and came out with the Nokia 6205 Dark Knight edition. It was a basic flip phone, with a flash-enabled camera and tons of pre-loaded Batman content like ringtones and wallpapers. It had a Batman home screen background, along with a Batman icon along the back of the solid black (rather sleek) flip phone. Verizon sold the device, along with a white version for non-Batman fans.

[Images via Engadget]

Nokia Batman Concept Style N19

Also in 2008, a Finnish Nokia designer named Heikki Juvonen came up with this concept design, likely piggy backing off of the hype from the 5800′s cameo in The Dark Knight. It’s now known as the Nokia Batman Concept Style N19, and it’s said to have a “futuristically transparent” display. There’s no list price for it, nor is there any spec sheet. Essentially, it’s an awkwardly-designed feature phone inspired almost entirely by Batman, from the wing-esque keypad section to the black and goldish coloring.

[Images via ITechNews]

Nckla Batman/Spider-Man phone

About a year later, Shenzhen picked up on the trend. So, this isn’t necessarily Nokia’s obsession with Batman, but rather Nckla‘s (think Prado instead of Prada). This phone hit the web in June of 2009, and seemed to be the lovechild of a Spider-Man fan and a Batman fan. It came in both black versions, and white with red and blue trim. Along the back there is a large Batman symbol, which is a part of the loudspeaker, and the small speaker on the front is also emblazoned with a Batman icon. The phone also happens to light up in blue and red.

[Images via JustAmp]

Nokia Lumia 800 Dark Knight Rises

Fast forward a couple years, and you’ll find the Nokia Lumia 800 Dark Knight Rises smartphone. It’s nearly identical to the 900 Dark Knight Rises, but without the big brother’s LTE connectivity, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, and front-facing camera.

[Video via NokiaLumiaDownload]

[Images via PC Authority, ITechSources, and PocketLint]