SUNNYVALE, CA, United States – The Nokia Lumia 900 is headed for stores this coming weekend, and the media reviews from the United States sure do make us smile.
We always look forward to what the reviewers have to say, because they tell us how our phones are going down in the real world – and give us feedback on what we can improve. In essence, it’s a reality check.
So we’re happy to see that overall members of the press are loving the Lumia 900. Let’s dig in and see what the experts have to say:
Kevin C. Tofel of GigaOm loves the Lumia 900’s hardware, saying that even though it features a huge 4.3″ screen, the Lumia 900 is surprisingly thin and remarkably pocket-able. Kevin remarks about the construction specifically:
I’ve often said that Nokia’s problem was never hardware; the company always built great devices. And the Lumia 900 is no exception. The 4.3-inch display is crisp, bright and clear; even outdoors. The polycarbonate body — available first in cyan and black, later in glossy white — is light but solid and any scratches will be somewhat hidden since the color is the same throughout the inside of the body.
Over at BusinessWeek, Rich Jaroslovsky speaks of the Lumia 900’s value, priced at $99.99 and how the Lumia 900 packs a lot of bang for the buck. Speaking specifically to the ease of use of Windows Phone 7.5 running on the Lumia 900, Rich says:
I’m a fan of Windows Phone 7, whose user-friendly interface features large, colorful tiles that display continuously updated data about people, messages and other things important to you.
Seattle times columnist Brier Dudley talks about the Lumia 900’s ability to hop between AT&T’s amazingly fast LTE network and the 3G network where LTE isn’t available. Also, he likes that the Lumia 900 comes with a built-in mobile hotspot:
In areas where LTE is not available yet, the Lumia 900 can use AT&T’s HSPA+ network, on which the phone is capable of downloads up to 21 Mbps.
The Lumia 900 also works as a mobile hotspot, so you can use it to connect five wireless devices to AT&T.
In the Lumia 900, we’ve added software titles that are useful and practical. Matt Miller of ZDNet appreciated using Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive amongst other apps and how they complement the Windows Phone experience:
Nokia provides Nokia Drive (voice guided navigation solution), Nokia Maps (GPS mapping program that includes offline mapping), and Nokia Transit (slick mass transit app). I enjoyed using Nokia Transit with my local commuter train and bus routes.
Like all Windows Phone devices, the UI is slick and fast. You can easily customize your Lumia 900 with Live Tiles, themes, and ringtone. The Nokia Blue theme is loaded by default and there are several others to try in Windows Phone.
It’s not all sweetness and light, of course. Despite an overall positive rating, The Verge’s Johua Topolsky finishes with a complaint about the screen resolution and colors:
On the other hand, I’m disappointed by the display on the Lumia. Besides being lower in resolution than competitive devices (new Android phones at 1280 x 720 and the iPhone at 960 x 640), I felt colors were far too saturated.
There are also some features of the operating system that haven’t yet improved enough for Joshua.
Lastly, Mashable talks about the Lumia 900’s speed and efficiency with speed and battery life – and how the phone gives Windows Phone a great fluidity.
Here’s where the Lumia 900′s 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor shines. It’s only a single-core design (Microsoft doesn’t yet allow multi-core chips on Windows Phones), but it was more than enough to keep up as I pushed and pulled menus with my fingers. The whole interface feels alive as you touch it.
Besides the great UI, Nokia offers up some special apps to Lumia owners. Probably most useful is Nokia Drive, a free turn-by-turn navigation service that works with Nokia Maps (not Bing Maps, which are also pretty).
If all of that doesn’t get you ready for opening weekend, I don’t know what will. After reading the reviews, we’ll want to know what you think of the Lumia 900.
Photo credit: macinate