Nokia Lumia 900 Reviews

MrSeb, zachareye, and others wrote in with several reviews of the Nokia Lumia 900. Starting things off, Extreme Tech asks if the Lumia redefines the smartphone; BGR chimes in declaring the phone "terrific". Ars Technica, on the other hand, isn't quite so enthusiastic, especially about the camera optics. Anandtech joins Ars in not being particularly enthused. It looks like most reviewers are happy with the UI, but not so enthused about the hardware (low display resolution for one). Signs point to an OK handset, but nothing spectacular.

Comments

Hope MS does well with this phone

[MoronGames]

We need more competition in the mobile phone market. BlackBerry is pretty much dead, WebOS is dead, Symbian is dead. It would be really nice to see Microsoft grab a significant portion of the market away from Android, which will push Google into making their OS better.

Re:Hope MS does well with this phone

[Zouden]

I would think Google are trying their hardest to improve Android to compete with iOS. Another smartphone maker doesn't really change that does it?

Re:Hope MS does well with this phone

[Kenja]

The problem is that Microsoft seems to have no idea why people should use their phones. Apple claims better screen, face time, etc. Google claims open system, low cost app development and a wide range of hardware options. Microsoft claims you can get to the camera app real fast. Its just not a convincing argument.

Re:Hope MS does well with this phone

[Artraze]

I rather disagree.

Apple phones pretty much define the high end, and so even if they're very shiny you have to pay for that. Also, they lock you into the Apple experience, which isn't necessarily the best one.

Android is an open system, with low cost phones available, but at the same time it's plagued by bloatware and inconsistent user experience. Honestly, I don't know how people put up with it... Well, without installing Cyanogenmod like I did. I know someone with a Galaxy S II (IIRC) and the thing has ~30 apps on it that cannot be uninstalled (and are useless, of course). They'll always be there, with permissions you didn't approve, potentially running in the background wasting your resources and causing problems. (On that note, I know a different someone who's phone is actually rendered unstable due to a preinstalled app.) Sure, you can kind of hide them, but they'll be there when you look through the app drawer or add a shortcut or do a general action (e.g. "Share photo" via Picasa, Facebook, Twitter, arg where's MMS?)

If Microsoft can actually deliver a streamlined no-nonsense interface and solidly hit the midrange price point I think they'll find buyers. It's true that people don't care _that_ much, but at the same time I think there's a lot of frustration building up over Apple's walled garden and Android's bloatware/platform issues. They may not be all 'wow I can shave 100ms of my time-to-pic', but when they go to buy their next phone they'll remember Microsoft advertising a snappy simple interface and their problems with their old phone and be willing to give it a try.

Re:Duh

[Penguinisto]

You expected any other reason for ex-Microsoftie Stephen Elop to suddenly show up as CEO of Nokia?

Not sure what Microsoft would do with it beyond the patent portfolio, though. the brand is a perishable item, and by the time the company well and truly dies, it may well have about the same reputation as the AOL or Tandy brand. :/

As for the patents, I'm not really sure what they expect to get from those, other than income off the Android OEMs.

Re:Duh

[poetmatt]

Look. They're late to the game, they're trying to mimic the apple hype and simultaneously deliver while not putting enough effort into making a competitive device to actually deliver. They're praying that being able to be around long enough off android revenue (before B&N/antitrust cut that to zero) will be enough for people to consider it a competitive device.

Microsoft is just following standard protocol with Nokia. What makes you think the business model has *ever* changed? Why? Well look no further than:

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. where are we at with Nokia again? What always comes first?

New Class? BS!

[whoever57]

Thatâ(TM)s the key point here: The Lumia 900 isnâ(TM)t targeting iPhone or Galaxy users; itâ(TM)s targeting the 41% of the US public who still own a feature phone. If youâ(TM)re already firmly set on getting an iPhone, the Lumia wonâ(TM)t stop you â" but for walk-in customers, the $200 price difference is really quite significant.

A quick glance on Amazon shows new android phones at less than $300 without a contract. T-Mobile has lots of Android phones available at $0 + plus a contract. Those current feature phone owners will find that more attractive than $450 for the Lumia 900, or about the same as $0 to $99 with a contract. It's not a new class.

Re:Goodbye iphone and android!

[Sir_Sri]

Billions? They've been at this a while. Kin was dead out the door, they knew it, you knew it, I knew it. Everyone knew it. But contracts must be honoured.

That doesn't mean they'll ever make any money however, it could be billions invested for nothing. The windows 8 strategy of unifying all the device OS's is actually a good idea. A decent phone these days is basically a half speed laptop (with a dual core 1.x GHz processor and a gig or so of ram that's like half a laptop), which means you really can run the same OS on everything. If you try out the windows 8 preview it seems more like it's for phones than desktops, so this might be shooting themselves in the foot with a rocket launcher overall, but we'll see. They certainly seem to be all in on this plan.

Re:Why Nokia hate android?

[Relayman]

Every OEM is using it expect Nokia and Apple

And the Android phones are having trouble standing out in a crowded market.

There are a lot of people out there waiting for new Windows phones.

Re:WP7's two biggest problems...

[c.r.o.c.o]

The iPhone revolutionised the mobile phone market, essentially turning smartphones that had limited use and poor experience into things that are quick and reliable. Now we're tweaking and improving, it's hard for anyone to carve a niche. WP7's niche is that it totally integrates your contacts. If you know the same person in twitter, linkedin, your email db, facebook and more, WP7 seamlessly integrates them into the one person they are. That's it's killer app. The problem is that it takes more than a one-day test to really see this benefit so reviews are never going to "get it".

The Nokia N9 and the Nokia N900 had this integration feature for years. It's nice to have, but it was not and will never be a killer app. Otherwise you'd see the Maemo/Meego being the third ecosystem as MS likes to brand itself.

There are no killer apps anymore. Apple has amazing, yet closed hardware that is closely tied into their App Store with millions of apps and into iTunes with millions of songs and movies. So they appeal to fashionistas and people who just want something that works even if overpriced.

Google has shitty or amazing, but open hardware that is tied into their Google Play with hundreds of thousands of apps, and is an open development platform where anyone can cook a ROM, tweak it, etc. So they appeal to poor people, regular people, geeks and everybody else. At the same time Google Play seems to be making a run for iTunes.

What does MS bring to the table? They have sub par, closed hardware (sorry, but the beautiful design of the Lumia 900 does not compensate for the crappy specs), and they have few apps. Given the fiascos that were every single MS foray into digital media distribution, an iTunes style store is pretty much dead in the water.

Maybe future revisions of Windows Mobile will address some of the issues. But do you think Apple, Google and even RIM are sitting around twiddling thumbs? How long did it take MS to implement copypasta? Nokia learned this lesson the hard way. Maemo 5 on the N900 was MILES ahead of Android or iOS. But they sat on it for a couple of years, and by the time Maemo 6 came out, it was outdated. I should know this, because I have both Maemo 6 and ICS in front of me.

MS are keen not to make the mistake Android is making (or that they made in the PCmarket). They want to standardise the platform. This is easy for Apple/iPhone, they're the only ones making one. Not so easy keeping HTC, Samsung, Nokia and others to stick to one design. There's nothing for them to distinguish themselves in the market.

This approach only ever worked for Apple, since they are a vertically integrated company. They differentiate based on hardware specs, design and OS all at once. But if you take away the OS and hardware specs as you propose with a standard Windows platform, that means design is the only thing left. Samsung, Nokia, HTC, LG, etc will become little more than custom case designers.

Nokia took the bait, but it will be a cold day in hell before Samsung drops even their struggling Bada platform in favour of Windows.

Really, tell me how will the hardware manufacturers differentiate themselves when they ALL have to have the exact same OS and hardware specs, and they ALL have access to the same apps, etc.

Roll on Windows 8 and tablets - then iPhone will be under serious threat. For most consumers, the tablet - if properly conceived and integrated - is a far better computer experience than the PC/Laptop.

Define properly conceived and integrated. That's such a platitude, I have a feeling you threw it in there because you were itching to click Submit. Tablets DEFINITELY have a place, but it's a niche. I tried iOS, Android and Windows 7 slate PCs. Yes, the most useful by far was the Samsung Series 7. But you know what? Even though it was a full fledged PC, with decent touch input, it was still limited. No keyboard meant I had to bring an external one.

Re:WP7's two biggest problems...

[randallman]

Ditto. Another N900 owner here. I'm amazed when new phones don't do this when my relatively old N900 has always had really good contact account integration. Also, Skype and SIP are well integrated into the phone app and all messaging including SMS is integrated. Without looking at an indicator icon, you may not know whether you're using SMS or an IM protocol. Or you may now know if you're receiving a cell call or a Skype call.

It's funny that MS is advertising features from the platform they're trying to kill.

Re:Duh

[tripleevenfall]

Nokia's problem with all their Windows phones (and MSFT's problem with Windows Phone in general) is that they can't get retailers to push the phones.

Nobody comes into a store wanting to look at a Windows phone, so immediately the hurdle is that you've got to change their minds about what they want. Some articles posted here have even said that salespeople are not willing to push it because the return rate on Windows Phones had been high, and they lose their time for zero commission, when they could be across the room selling someone an iPhone and being safe with their commission.

Re:Can I hear you now?

[Grishnakh]

Honestly, when was the last time you tried a phone and found it to have poor sound quality for just talking? You sound like someone who shops for a new car and asks if it's hard to change the points or adjust the carburetor.

Re:WP7's two biggest problems...

[sootman]

If he's rewriting history, you're completely forgetting it. The killer app of the iPhone (before it had 3rd-party apps) was it was the FREAKING INTERNET IN YOUR POCKET. (OK, the WWW, technically, plus email.) Did you ever use a WAP browser on an early PDA, or even a more modern browser on an Axim or iPaq? They SUCKED. Horribly. And they depended on WiFi or, if you had a smartphone, on exorbitant data plans. The iPhone came with a really great web browser that showed real pages--just shrunken, but easily panned and zoomed--at a reasonable cost. PLUS it had a built-in iPod AND a great video player, Maps like had never been seen before on a mobile device, and plenty of other good things.