A gorgeous phone at a great price April 9, 2012

Reviewer:  Zillonian 

The industrial design and craftsmanship of this phone are outstanding--Nokia has built a phone that can only be rivaled by Apple. Combined with the fact that this phone has true 4G LTE (not the slower "faux-G" in the iPhone 4S), a pretty screen, and a good camera, you're getting a lot of value for your money. The Windows Phone operating system is beautiful as well and very easy to use (I say this as someone who previously owned an iPhone).

The main drawback of Windows Phone is that there aren't as many apps as on iPhone/Android. Most top-tier apps are available (Facebook, Yelp, New York Times, CNN, WhatsApp, Epicurious, ESPN ScoreCenter, Flixster, MyFitnessPal, Netflix, and more are present and accounted for), and great third-party alternatives are available for some of the missing apps (for instance, check out PrimeTube if you're looking for a good YouTube app, or MetroRadio if you want a good Pandora app). However, there are a few important apps that just aren't available, such as Draw Something and Words With Friends. If these missing apps are deal-breakers for you, you may want to look elsewhere--but if you can live without them, you won't find a better smartphone for this price than the Nokia 900.

Fantastic Phone April 9, 2012

Reviewer:  Dan 

I switched from Sprint to AT&T to get this phone, and I couldn't be happier. AT&T coverage and speed have been much better at my house than Sprint was (LTE is insanely fast), and the phone itself is outstanding. The screen is gorgeous and the perfect size for me, and the Windows Phone OS is stable (never crashes or needs to be rebooted), smooth and easy to use. The hotspot functionality has been great, too. The camera isn't perfect, but it's better than most other phone cameras I've used. The battery lasts about a day and a half for me. I bought the Cyan model and it came with a special Nokia Blue theme which matches the color and gives the phone a "complete" feeling. Highly recommended!

Good phone so far April 9, 2012

Reviewer:  Ghost 

This is an objective review. I have owned all four major operating systems (blackberry, iOS, android, and now, windows phone) so I am drawing from that experience.

Pros:
-first off, price point is a steal. $100 for a new phone is almost unheard of
-call quality is nice, clear and loud
-the screen, although low resolution, is very colorful and nice to look at
-the OS seems fluid. Setup was definitely easy.
-having a dedicated camera button is nice.
-comes with office but.....(see below)
-build quality of the phone is nice and solid. Don't think I will need a case
-the Facebook and twitter integration are well done. It makes it seamless to do a quick update on your status.
-4g is really fast

Cons
-app market Most that I use are there but a few are missing
-battery life. I have noticed my battery does not make it through a whole day with just moderate use. This is my first 4g phone so I will have to make sure I have a charger nearby.
-The power button is on the side of the phone. I have already hit it a couple times accidentally while making calls. I wish it were placed on the top of the phone.
-....Windows phone 7 office is not compatible with all versions of desktop office. For example, I cannot edit a word document that was saved as an Office 2003 word doc.
-the touchscreen is really prone to fingerprints. More so than any other android or iOS device I have owned.
-there is a small gap around the touchscreen that will no doubt collect with debris (like lint from your pocket). I foresee it driving me crazy when it needs cleaned.

I may add more as I continue to test the phone. These are initial observations as I have only used the phone for two days.

Update 5/26: after over a month of use, I still like the phone and can recommend it. I will add a couple more pros and cons below.

Pros- I retract my battery life statement. After a couple charging cycles (and an update) the battery lasts all day.
Con-pictures in emails have a hard time downloading. Usually says "download error".
Pro-love the offline GPS functionality. There are lots of offline mapping apps available.
Con-the marketplace is still anemic. I visit it about once every 3 days and sometimes find that nothing changed.

The PERFECT PHONE. June 11, 2012

Reviewer:  dan 

I've had my Nokia 900 for a few months now and this is an update to another review I did giving it 5 stars then. Since then it's a perfect 5 stars and this review also speaks of the huge gain in apps at Marketplace. The apps are so beautiful and so much thought of quality I must give Nokia and Microsoft a thumbs up on keeping such a high standard. If you move from Apple or Android, you will be shocked how beautiful the apps are on the Nokia. Nokia has their own section in Marketplace and you will be very happy with the apps there. I love the Nokia Pulse app through NokiaBetaLabs, that is like a private social media for family and friends and you can add pictures as well to send to each other. Everything about this phone is easy, beautiful and quality. Nokia is also adding more apps and those are especially apps to grab. If you have apps on iphones or android you like, those may appear on better different apps at the Marketplace. BUY THIS PHONE....YOU'LL LUV IT. This is the best smartphone ever.

Outstanding phone May 22, 2012

Reviewer:  Daniel Garcia Hidalgo "Daniel"  (USA) -

For the price sale, its simply one of the best smartphones out there, super fast, decent battery life, Windows phone 7 has really changed the way microsoft used to be, I don't believe this is a Microsoft product, I can easily say that this is even more beautiful and user friendly that iOS and it has some customization as android does. I loved the way it is integrated with facebook. Best phone hands down!!

Best Phone Ever! May 15, 2012

Reviewer:  Dontbe Misled 

Okay, my wife and I moved into the latest smartphone by getting me this phone and her an IPhone4S. We have shared phone and talked about our overall favorite.

The winner is the Nokia Lumia 900, hands down. Screen size, camera, WindowsMobile all are awesome. I love customizing my tiles and am surprised that there is always an app when I am looking for one. The new look for windows apps is very nice and uses space well.

The only con is that because it is larger and I have a case-mate shell on it, I can't seem to find a leather case for my belt. I called the ATT store and they said they may have one thaat fits it with the case on.

I have had it almost a month and it has never slowed down, crashed, etc. Do yourself a favor and get this phone!

Just A Great Experience May 11, 2012

Reviewer:  RavenAussie "John T."  (Baltimore, Md USA) -

The thing that struck me about the Nokia Lumia 900 was how solid it feels in your hand. A real quality product, weighty but not so heavy that it's fatiguing. It just looks great and not cookie cutter like the others. I have had no experience with Windows Phone before so I was a little nervous but once again, i am gobsmacked at how silky smooth, how intuitive and convenient the whole OS works. I am not constantly burying my head looking at apps to give me the information I want. Everything is right there in front of me and it's almost lifelike as the tiles seemingly move on their own. Also, battery life? No contest I can go a couple of days on the same charge. Definitely can last me a whole day. I couldn't say that about my Samsung Captivate.
I guess in short the whole user experience with the Nokia has been a real joy. Excellent job Nokia, you keep producing great products like this and i will definitely come back. But not until i get my fill of the Lumia 900...love this thing!

This is a very nice phone. April 23, 2012

Reviewer:  Jackie W. Mullins "kb5ynf"  (Arkansas) -

The phone is solid and apparently very well made; which is what I'd expect from Nokia. This is the first Nokia phone I've had in probably 10 years; but my prior experience with them was that they made excellent phones and this one doesn't disappoint. The only thing about the physical phone that I'm not overly fond of is the power button placement. It doesn't cause me too much grief but because it is in the middle of the phone on the right side, I have accidentally pressed it a few times when picking up the phone and while using it. With that said, it's not a problem, just something I would change if I were the designer. Also, as with many of the phones I've used over the last several years, the in-call audio could be louder. I don't have a real problem hearing but if the audio were any lower, I definitely would have a problem; whereas, if it were louder, I could turn it down if needed. I switched to the Lumia 900 from a Motorola Atrix (which is an excellent phone) because I've been looking for an opportunity to try out Windows Phone (by the way, the audio level on my Atrix is close to perfect). So far, I like the Nokia very much. As a phone, it is pretty good. The signal strength on my Motorola is slightly better than the Nokia but other than a few times when my data signal has been flaky in places where I normally would have a better signal with my Motorola, that hasn't been much of an issue (I haven't had any missed or dropped calls; just intermittent data connectivity a few times and in this case, that's more of an AT&T issue than the phone because I'm on the borderline between Edge and 3G where this happens). The external speaker on this phone is excellent. I don't buy a phone for the camera but the camera works well enough for me. I wish the phone had a LED indicator to alert for events such as missed calls, new messages, etc. My Atrix has this feature and it's pretty nice. The battery life has been acceptable. It lasts all day for me and I charge it every night, just like I do with all my smart phones. The Atrix battery is excellent, better than any smart phone I've ever used (and I've used a lot of them), so I am somewhat spoiled to that but I haven't had any problems with the Nokia running out of juice prematurely. The screen is bright, responsive and performs well. I leave the brightness on auto adjust and it works well; I've had some phones where I had to control the brightness manually because the auto adjust didn't work well in bright light. All in all, the Lumia 900 is an excellent device which is why I gave it 5 stars.

<The rest of this review is about the Windows Phone OS which runs this phone - not specifically the Nokia Lumia 900>
I fully expected to miss my Android phone more than I have because the Android phone is more like Windows Mobile used to be. But so far, the Nokia hasn't let me down. I do like the ability to highly customize the user interface that you get with Android but the Metro interface is not really designed for that; it's a new approach to the mobile UI and it does what it does very well. It actually took me two to three days to get used to using Metro over the desktop icon look and feel of Android but I seem to have acclimated to Metro fairly well. The live tiles are very nice once you get them arranged the way you want. It's like any major change in life, it takes a little while to adjust. With some changes, that adjustment never really pays off but the Metro interface is a nice and unique way to work. There are some things that could be better and are in other OSes and at the same time there are things that Windows Phone does better than others; that is common when comparing competing software of any sort and to be expected. So far, I haven't run into any show stoppers on Windows Phone.

I use my smart phones to stay current with my e-mail, to make calls and for general internet access. I do also use 3rd party apps but I'm probably not as demanding in this area as some. I like to have a few games to pass the time when I'm stuck in limbo for whatever reason (Doctor's office, airport, etc...). I like to have a good weather radar, GPS navigation, Amazon shopping, book reader, common information search tools, and a few utilities for my job as IT Manager. Windows Phone Marketplace has apps for all these things. In some cases, the apps are not the ones I used on Android but in most cases they work about as well and in some cases they're better. There were three or four apps that I had on Android that I didn't find an alternative to but they weren't apps that I use very often and they aren't anything I can't live without.

I'm a technical person and I generally like to have more control over settings and such than Windows Phone provides (it's a lot more like iOS than Android in that regard) but I've been using it now for a few weeks and I'm not having withdrawals or anything. That's probably because in the last two years, I've gotten in the habit of using a tablet (Android) for things I used to use my smart phone for. Consequently, I don't spend as much time on my phone as I used to in the past for things like internet browsing and e-mail; the phone is more like a backup mobile device for me now days, as opposed to being my primary mobile device. On the other hand, it is the only mobile device I have with me at all times; so, it has to be highly functional.

One thing I don't like about Windows Phone is the requirement to connect to the PC using Zune for some things; e.g. loading some updates, music and the like. In this regard, I prefer to get all my updates over the air and as for music files, I prefer the device act like a USB thumb drive when plugged in; you shouldn't have to depend on a separate application for managing files. But, that's more a pet peeve of mine than a real problem. This was also a point of complaint against Apple products by many users as well because of the iTunes requirement; recently Apple began relaxing some of that, hopefully Microsoft will too.

The bottom line is that Windows Phone is a solid OS with a lot going for it. It's fast and has everything that most people require. For the more advanced user, there is still room for improvement; but at this point, I think the only major feature it's missing that I need is VPN. I expect VPN will eventually be added in a future release. For now, I can work around that requirement. Also, the reason I didn't give Windows Phone a try earlier is that I absolutely need the tethering feature and that wasn't available initially. So far, I'm liking my new phone very much.

Love it more and more April 20, 2012

Reviewer:  comb 

I got the phone from Amazon wireless 1 week ago and I like it more and more.

Pros:
1. Solid build (totally Nokia style)
2. Nice interface, at least I feel happy when using it.
3. Fast speed. Very smooth when opening apps and browsing webpage.
4. A lot of free apps. I downloaded 30+ useful apps, all free. And the built-in Nokia drive and transit are very useful to me.
5. Satisfactory battery life (1-2 days normal use).
6. Price (really, Nokia gave me money for having it).

Cons:
1. Apps are a bit less. I know Windows Phone has 80k+ apps in total. But still, popular apps like Paypal and Draw Something etc. are missing. I really hope I can have those popular apps on my phone.

Overall I think it is a great phone. And I am impressed by the good faith from Nokia/Microsoft. Get one when it is still cheap :D

Simple, Fast, and GPS April 20, 2012

Reviewer:  C. Hung  (camp hill, pa United States) -

been an iphone user since first iphone came out. after playing with 1/2 millions apps, after paying $99 bucks for Tomtom apps. I found Nokia 900 pretty easy to use, simple layout, free GPS, awesome speed. it is very hard to beat the fact that this phone is actually free when i placed my order.

Solid hardware and software April 17, 2012

Reviewer:  C. B. Smith  (Hawaii) -

Full disclosure: I did not buy this phone through Amazon. I am a long time AT&T customer and picked it up at one of their stores while the phone was essentially free with the Nokia rebate. Also, if you check you'll see this is not my first Amazon review, I've been a regular for quite a while. On to the phone...

I upgraded to the Lumia 900 from an HTC Surround running Mango, primarily because the Nokia deal was just too good to pass up. In the deal I got nicer hardware, with the unibody construction, and a smoother experience with the upgraded processor. I've also noticed that reception is better, I'm getting an extra bar in my home office, and the battery lasts much longer. The display is stunning and more usable in sunlight, and of course it's larger so it's a bit easier to type on. There are far more apps than I know what to do with, and I especially like the Netflix and the Kindle apps. Although the screen is too small for extended movie streaming the quality is excellent and I was able to watch part of a movie on WiFi while enjoying a fast food burger. With the Kindle app I was able to download a library book through my Amazon account and again, while smaller than something like the Kindle Fire, the reading experience was still pleasant.

This is a an excellent phone/movie streamer/Zune player/GPS/etc., etc., and I highly recommend it. How can you go wrong at this price?

Unjustified bad rap, much better than what I had before April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  roosterly9 

I had a lot of doubt about picking my next phone coming out of Black berry. I finally bought the Lumia 900 from Amazon, great service by the way; when I received the phone it was a struggle to activate it from ATT, not fault of the phone, but ATT help desk were not trained well. I finally got the voice going, but no internet connection, called Amazon they told me to take it to ATT store to download software to fix the problem. I called ATT help line, woman had no idea what I was talking about, even I was more in tunned listening to news than her, well I hang up and called again, I wanted to make sure ATT would fix something that I had bought at Amazon, this time I got a technician that new what he was doing, he told me that I had not been activated properly by prior technician, after about 10 minutes my internet and everything else was working fine. By the way,the instructions do not say that you need to call ATT to be activated, and then ATT technicians don't know what they are doing. Bottom line, this is a great phone, but ATT and the instructions are to blame for the bad rap, at least that was the situation in my case. I am delighted with the phone, by far better than black berry, and I think the Iphone; I think it would have been perfect if it had better resolution, but that is not too bad, but not great. I think window phone is going to win the day at the end. Now after few days of use,I love and I mean I love this phone, Iphone seems antiuqe compared to this.

Fanstasic Phone and Service April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  Jack M  (San Francisco, CA, US) -

The phone itself is absolutely amazing. It's sturdy, just the right weight, comfortable grip, and best of all, killer OS with great social media integration. The phone OS itself is extremely stable and reliable.

Being a previous Verizon customer, I will say that the 4G LTE service (limited to big cities), worked flawlessly and the reception is just as good as Verizon. Hopefully the roll out to the whole nation will pickup speed.

Don't let the number of processors fool you. I've used other phones with dual core, the Operating system is the most important. Over bloated OS are slow and inefficient. Single processor is the key and also save power. The Lumia 900 lasts all day with multiple email accounts and live updates running. Enjoy.

Great phone for a great price! April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  ZirconiumPants 

I love this phone! The UI is very cool and easy to use. Office apps are included and super useful. You can get all your Facebook and Twitter info right into the phone easily. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the apps. Not as many as iPhone, BUT they have all the major ones and some pretty cool exclusives besides. Not to mention the price, which is super low for what you get. Overall, a way better experience than iPhone or Android!

Just love it April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  alahiry 

Killer phone! works great.
WP7 has almost all the apps u need, if not offical u always have a 3rd party version that works great. Only issue the metal behind the phone gets scratched easily , otherwise awesome design.

Excellent Phone!!! April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  C. Erklin "Bella"  (Chicago, IL) -

I've had a Windows phone for a little over a year now. I started with the Samsung Focus, but recently upgraded to the Nokia Lumia 900 and absolutely love it!

very very nice April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  S.D.A  (NY) -

upgraded on AT&T from a Samsung Focus so I won't need to get into the Windows interface because i obviously like it. This is a great phone. Looks and feels expensive unlike some of the other WP7 phones out there. Definitely deserves full credit. On top of that Nokia is now issuing the credit which will make it free for me!

I love this phone April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  P. Koehler "professionalhealer.com"  (Oakland, CA) -

Besides being an amazing bargain, this is a really cool phone ease of use and features are very well conceived.

Great device and steal at this price April 12, 2012

Reviewer:  jb8967 

Although I just got the phone this past Monday, I am completely impressed with the premium design and feel of the device. It's extremely fluid to use and the screen is simply beautiful. The blacks are pure black...not a dark shade of grey...and this screen really works in direct sunlight. The front camera is cool with wide angle lens and the rear 8MP shooter takes excellent shots. My first Windows phone and I must say, it's been enjoyable. I got the cyan/blue model for a nice change...always had black or silver phones in the past, but this color is very nice IMO.

As for any memory glitch...no issue for me to date...but I'll take the extra 100 bucks just the same!!!! That makes this a zero dollar purchase with a 2 year contract. Not bad.

Nokia Lumia 900 April 10, 2012

Reviewer:  bookreader 

Great phone! Haven't had a good experience with a phone for a while. I couldn't have asked for a better software and design.