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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.
So they come up with a device that doesn't meet the hype they're pushing it with which will drive down Nokia's share price making them easier for Microsoft to one day acquire. It's gonna happen, they'll sell off all the parts except the patent portfolio and the Brand.
Goodbye iphone and android!
What? You dual wield two phones at once? Go-go phone ninja!
Curious: do you plan to dual wield 2 Win-Phones now?
I think you were in cryogenic stasis since ~2007, which is ironically the last time Nokia made a phone worth owning.
I am the proud owner of a Nokia N900 (which is very much worth owning) since end of 2010, which is well after 2007.
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.
hey!
Yep, the N900 is still the best phone out of Nokia, I am afraid that it may one day break and I will be forced to look for an alternative.
From experience: "good"/"great" even "better than the competition" is not enough.
It must be better by a huge margin (or have a "killer app") for the phone to be adopted at this late of a stage. Android had the edge of being "free", so it was "easy" to ship with. I am curious how successful the platform will be (and will be watching from the sidelines), but at this point I do not think it will change the mobile market.
That's sort of the point of the reviews. For the price (and that does count a lot) the Lumia 900 is a decent phone. It struggles to compete with dual core phones which are much more expensive, which is a problem for the windows brand, since the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4s are powerful flagship devices, but as a Nokia Phone that isn't going to just be sold to rich people who can afford 500+ dollar phones it's pretty good overall (where I am the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4s run 575 and 650 dollars respectively, where the Lumia 900 is about 450).
Now, overall, given the circumstances I don't think that makes it a great launch. Nokia, or one of the WP7.5 launch partners should have a quad core phone out the door nowish (but then I figured the playstation vita should be a phone as well), and the lumia 900 could be a mid range device. There's a big gap in the user experience between iphone and android in terms of software updates, and it's an area on the PC that MS does surprisingly well at in terms of how updates are delivered and what works/doesn't on them. But MS doesn't seem to have delivered very well, and that's not good for anyone, least of all nokia employees and shareholders.
Curious: do you plan to dual wield 2 Win-Phones now?
That's obviously a win-win situation.
I believe it was because they did not want to become just another Android maker having to compete with Samsung, LG, Huawei, ZTE and other brands with nothing but hardware to set them apart. So instead they chose WP7 and ended up competing with Samsung, LG, Huawei, ZTE and other brands...
First.
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".
Second.
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.
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.
(disclosure: I'm a devoted Lumia 800 and previously Samsung Omnia 7 owner)
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.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Nokia's Linux N9 has a front facing camera and an option for 64 (not 16) gigabytes. Plus the swipe keyboard is the bomb. Check out the video, 2nd thumbnail from the left, on the bottom of this page:
http://swipe.nokia.com/
It is a breeze for me to SSH to it, when I need a real keyboard, like to enter serious passwords, (hopefully rarely).
Those are the main advantages the Linux N9 has over the Lumia 900, its WP7 polycarbonite twin.
I still don't trust Microsoft in the mobile world. They've shown too many times that they're willing to shut down projects (Kin anybody?). Like Apple in the datacenter, I question how much effort they're willing to expend to stay in an already saturated market.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
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.
It runs Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango). A step up from 7.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
Quick summary:
It looks okay. Wifi and 3g battery life is poor, but 4g is good. Java script performance is unimpressive. Camera is good, but white balance is poor and a faster CPU would help post processing. There wasn't nothing to complain about on the display. No 5Ghz wifi, but bandwidth and such is good. Speaker quality is good. And that's about it.
Their biggest complaint seems to be that the phone lacks a dual core CPU. They are apparently coming and will let the phone record video at 1024p, over 720p, and perhaps take better photos.
Other than that, it's a normal Windows 7.5 phone.
Yes, it's a pity that Microsoft killed the Pocket PC in the Windows Mobile 6 era. So if you want more battery life for the phone, you'll probably have to do without Windows Phone. Buy and carry both a cheap flip phone and an Android-powered PDA such as a Samsung Galaxy Player. The PDA gets service wherever there's Wi-Fi, and in this car culture, if you don't have Wi-Fi, you're probably already busy driving a vehicle.
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.
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
Are there any good phones with a real physical 5-row QWERTY slider keyboard anymore?
I bought three N900 phones until now (one for wife, one for a friend), two of them were second hand, none of them broke. And they've been constantly abused by my two toddlers, fell down from tables and into puddles god knows how many times. Recently I tried to smash mine against a wall (was having a rage episode), threw it directly at the wall two times with all my might. It's still working, apart from the camera function, and I'm still using it. I also constantly overclock it from 600 to 1150 MHz.
I'm not such a gadget enthusiast, but I've read some criticism against N900, which focused on screen/keyboard, but never heard about resiliency. My wife also recently bought an Asus Transformer Prime. Screen? I can read from N900 in broad daylight but it's impossible with the transformer. Keyboard? Mechanical keyboards are still better than on-screen ones as a matter of fact.
What else? I love being able to run the same programs on my desktop PC and my mobile tablet. I love being able to carry one in my back pocket. If you have a better solution for this than the N900, I'd probably be inclined to buy one.
They certainly seem to be all in on this plan
Indeed they do. Too soon to know whether it works or not. But it's all upside for Microsoft. They don't need for people to like it on the desktop. As we've seen with Vista - people get (and pay for) it whether they like it or not. And if they put up a big enough stink, they can pay extra not to get it. In the meantime, Microsoft gets a fully funded project to develop a tablet OS that might possibly be able to leverage MSOffice compatibility into a winning formula. Nice what a monopoly or two can do...
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/3/2921472/lumia-900-review
It seems reviewers are anxious for a third ecosystem to emerge so the keep making light of the shortcomings. This is ~2010 era HW power, with an OS that was aimed at the original iOS and hasn't caught up to the competition. People need to stop making excuses for the Weak HW, and weak SW. Microsoft/Nokia, need to seriously revamp the OS and release a real flagship if they want to be anything but irrelevant.
Verge Excerpt(on the software itself):
Let me just put this bluntly: I think it's time to stop giving Windows Phone a pass. I think it's time to stop talking about how beautifully designed it is, and what a departure it's been for Microsoft, and how hard the company is working to add features. I am very aware of the hard work and dedication Microsoft has put into this platform, but at the end of the day, Windows Phone is just not as competitive with iOS and Android as it should be right now.
The problems with Windows Phone are myriad, many small. But it's a death by a thousand cuts. And all those little problems were once again immediately apparent to me the moment I started using the Lumia 900.
The most glaring issues also happen to be some of the oldest issues — things you think at this point would have been dealt with. Scrolling in third party apps, for instance, is still completely erratic. I would blame this on developers, but given that this platform has been around for nearly two years, I think that's a cop out. In new Twitter apps like Carbon, lists of messages will sometimes disappear or skip weirdly when scrolling. I first complained about this in version 1 of Windows Phone, and I thought it had been squashed — it has not.
Elsewhere there are missteps. Though Microsoft has added some form of multitasking to the OS, there is nearly never a feeling that apps in the "background" are actually still waiting for you. In fact, many apps still deliver a splash screen to you when you reenter them — if this is a developer issue, then I guess most of the hardworking coders on this platform never got the memo. In short, it kind of sucks to use. Where iOS and Android at least feel responsive in packing and unpacking background apps, Windows Phone often comes across as broken and limp. ....
Interesting how Apple cannot shake its image as a pricy, too-expensive-for-the-hardware manufacturer, even when that's not always true.
In the US, you can get an ATT iPhone 4, which everyone agrees basically is not that much worse than their flagship 4S, for $99. For that price you get 960x640 resolution at high pixel density and a motherlode of apps, plus a device that when jailbroken is an absolute joy to use. This is for the same exact price as the N900, yet N900 comes off as a cheapo phone that's a bargain and the iPhone gets off as some kind of luxury item.
Same for the 8-core Mac Pro. My supposedly economical cluster blade vendor is sending me quotes for 8-core Nehalem blades that are the same price as the 8-core Mac Pro... WTF? Oh yeah, an 8+ core Mac Pro is actually very competitively priced compared to anything other than build your own.
So yeah, apple will rob you blind if you're trying to buy a charger, but just remember, there are some prices that aren't ripoffs, OK?
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.
I can post photos later on of the second N900 she used, with most of the keyboards plastic covering rubbed off through normal usage.
Dude, buy your poor lady a dildo!
She does use it a lot tho.
Maybe you should spare some time for her in bed...
I can't see what others see in it.
They see a phone which is at the same time a pocket Linux computer. For other purposes, there are sausages, cucumbers and bananas.