After using the Lumia 800, I was looking forward to the review of the Lumia 900. The Lumia 900 is the latest phone from Nokia running on the Windows Phone platform. I used the phone for a week and this is what I found….
First impressions
My initial thoughts on the phone after receiving it with was that it was bigger (127.8 x 68.5 x 11.5 mm) and heavier than the Lumia 800 (116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm), but for some people I would imagine the bigger screen would be important for browsing, picture and video viewing, but for a business device I would imagine the smaller Lumia 800 would be more comfortable to use.
I’m not going to cover the features that are the same as the Lumia 800, you can read that review should you wish to know more about the features of the Lumia range. To me this is not a matter of comparing the phone to everything else out there, but more so whether it is better than the 800.
The flimsy flap that covered the charger/USB port on the 800 has been removed and charger/USB port is open and always available, I think a great improvement as the flap was an irritation.
The power button/standby button is still not labelled a simple power symbol on the button would help first-time users. However after your initial discovery of the power button, there’s no need as you should remember where the button is located.
Videos and pictures
As with the Lumia 800 the camera is rather good with the eight megapixel Carl Zeiss lens camera, however the new 900 also has a forward facing one megapixel camera for video conferencing and social applications like Skype. The screen size is large, 4.3 inches versus 3.7 inches on the 800, also the screen is a Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) whereas the 800 as the standard AMOLED screen. The super AMOLED gives you a more vivid display.
The 900 has Video Stabalising and Continuous Auto Focus – which I would imagine being a great help with video recording.
Speed
The phone is that it is very responsive. All the reviews I read mentioned that the phone is so close to the performance of the 800 that it is not worth comparing.
Music
The sound from the phone is very good and even though I have no facts to prove it, I think the sound is slightly better than the 800.
Telephone
The telephone sound was good; the dialling buttons on the touch screen were practical and finding people on your contact list is simple.
Battery
With the location service on (used for GPS directions, finding places of interest close to you and giving you measurements on a golf course) the phone does not last a full day, and I am no power cell phone user. Switch this off and the phone will last a longer. I was expecting to find the battery life on this device better than the 800, but it seems the size of screen seems to sap more power and the battery life is worse than that on the 800. All the reviews and stats that I found supported my findings.
Contacts
Simple and easy to use, the contacts are known as the “People” in the Windows phone operating system, again it is great to see all the social networks being used to gather information on your friends.
Communication
I linked the email and calendar with my Google account – no issues at all. I would imagine the experience linking to MS Exchange would be even better. (Same as 800)
Office Tools
Microsoft Windows Phone, Microsoft SkyDrive and Microsoft Office. And now with the pending Office 2013, the integration and sharing with mobile devices or in fact any devices connected to the Internet, will see more and more people making use of the Office application on the Windows phones.
Summary
As I said at the beginning of this review, I was really looking forward to the enhancements with the Lumia 900, however I was a little disappointed that it has not that much improved on the Lumia 800. If I had to choose between the 800 and 900, I would opt for the Lumia 800 due to the size of the device also be slightly longer battery life. If you want to check the difference between the specification of the two Nokia phones, use the Nokia Phone Compare system on their website.
I would use this phone is my personal device.
