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h3>Nokia's Lumia 900 pairs out of this world hardware with elegant Windows Phone Mango release 2 software in a bid to become AT&T's next darling. But is it hot or not?
Among the very first, and certainly most comprehensive, Nokia Lumia 900 reviews comes our way courtesy of WPCentral's Daniel Rubino, and not surprisingly, he finds a lot of Windows Phone to love.
For $99 on contract, the Lumia 900 is one of the nicest Windows Phone on the market today and for the foreseeing future all at a great price. It has solid hardware including super-fast 4G LTE and the latest version of Windows Phone Mango ensuring a great experience for new users and veterans looking for an upgrade. Plus the device oozes with Nokia's quality craftsmanship making it a device many will want to talk about. With all the hype around this phone, this could be the next "it" device for the summer.
I had a chance to accompany Daniel to his Windows Phone and Nokia interview at CES 2012, and spent a few minutes playing with the Lumia 900. It's build quality is fantastic, using a metal-feeling plastic that I'm not convinced actually comes from this planet. It meshes beautifully with Microsoft's latest release of Windows Phone Mango, which adds an LTE radio stack to the Metro-based user experience. Judging by the reaction of the typically jaded gadget bloggers at the show, it was the first phone since the iPhone, with possible exceptions of the Palm Pre and Nexus One, to really get design-centric attention.
Still, they made the screen bigger without making it denser, which in the age of Retina displays makes for an overly pixelated experience. Doesn't sound like the typical AMOLED color saturation problems help out much there either. Branding also remains an issue, with Windows Phone not being anywhere near as sexy or enticing as something like Xphone. (Slap that label on it, put out a Halo special edition, and just try to keep it on the shelves.) It's also a big phone, like recent Android devices, using size to fit in the current generation of LTE chips and the batteries that go with them. And while apps are getting better all the time, they haven't gotten anywhere near what the iPhone has to offer.
There have been rumors AT&T would make this their most marketed phone ever, even more so than the iPhone. That's believable only insofar as Apple marketed the iPhone so well there really wasn't that much for AT&T to do but slap their logo at the end of Apple-made ads and count their money at the end of each quarter.
It's nice to see Nokia back in the game, though, and who would have thought Microsoft would be blazing the elegant UI trail? I don't think many perspective iPhone buyers will be tempted to jump ship (the iPhone still reportedly outsells all other AT&T phones combined), but I do think the race for "not iPhone" just got far more interesting.
And that's good for everyone.
Check out WPCentral's complete Nokia Lumia 900 review and then come back here and let us know what you think. Will the Nokai Lumia 900 cause any problems for the iPhone on AT&T?
