Nokia Lumia 900 review

  TechRadar rating

4/5

For

• Fantastic apps
• Gorgeous hardware
• Windows Phone 7.5

Against

• 16GB storage
• Mediocre camera
• Empty marketplace
• Limited push email
• Bloat ware

Nokia's Lumia 900 mostly delivers on the promise of Windows Phone as a viable third mobile platform.

The Nokia Lumia 900 enters the market as the latest flagship handset for the Finnish firm, sporting the look of a slightly super-sized Lumia 800.

We've written much about the Lumia 900, and virtually all of it praises the hardware. With good reason: Nokia has outdone itself with this stylish 127.8mm tall and 68.5mm wide slab, and at 11.5mm thick, it's one of the best-looking smartphones out there.

Available from £399 ($449.99) SIM free, and for free on 24 month contracts starting at £26 per month, the Lumia 900 finds itself rubbing shoulders with the high society of the mobile world, such as the iPhone 4S, Sony Xperia S and Samsung Galaxy S2.

The Lumia 900 features a classy, unibody frame made from polycarbonate. It's tough and feels absolutely wonderful when held in your hand; Nokia's industrial design work has clearly not been dulled by age.

However that unibody design comes at a cost, which in terms of the Lumia 900 is weight. It's a hefty old device tipping the scales at 160g – a full 16g heavier that the iPhone 4S and Xperia S and a huge 44g more than the Galaxy S2.

Nokia provides a range of three colours for the Lumia 900's chassis; black, white and a rather striking blue, which was certainly our favourite.

ClearBlack technology allows the 4.3-inch screen to be used outdoors (even with polarized sunglasses at any angle), while Corning Gorilla Glass protects a vivid AMOLED display.

The front of the Lumia 900 is primarily a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, matching the Galaxy S2.

The screen is raised slightly from the body, leaving a lip around its perimeter which gives the impression its popping out of the case – making it feel out of place on what is otherwise a very sleek phone.

A 1MP front-facing camera for video chat sits at upper left, while a very thin gap at top hides the earpiece; three capacitive Windows Phone buttons sit below the display for Back, Start and Search.

The left side is devoid of buttons, all of which reside on the right, with volume rocker at top, power/lock button at centre and a two-stage dedicated camera button below.

At first this arrangement seemed a strange choice, but when held with the left hand, our middle finger was conveniently aligned with the power/lock button.

However when held in the right hand, the power/lock key was simply to far down the side of the Lumia 900 for us to hit easily, which meant a lot of awkward shuffling in the hand just to lock the device.

Atop the Lumia 900 is a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port (for charging and data transfer) and micro-SIM card door, while a large speaker grille resides at the bottom on the handset.

There's a SIM door key included in the box, allowing you to pop the tray out, which is then pulled out completely to reveal the card slot.

It's a bit more flimsy and complicated than the microSIM card tray on the iPhone 4S, and we reckon this could easily be broken if treated without care.

Luckily the card itself is held in place quite well and it's realitivly easy to slide back into the Lumia 900, and then press down the flap to return the handset to its sleek and slender form. 

On the back of the Lumia 900 is an 8MP auto focus camera lens with Nokia's customary Carl Zeiss optics next to an unobtrusive dual LED flash.

While the silver band around the lens is a nice touch, we're concerned that over time it may attract scratches from without using a case – however, we prefer the look of this flush lens to the obtrusive lenses found of the likes of the HTC One S and Galaxy S2.

 

The Nokia Lumia 900 comes with a modest 16GB of storage, which will suffice for most needs, but those who consume large volumes of content will be disappointed to learn there is no way to expand on this.

The unibody frame means you can't open up the Nokia Lumia 900, meaning no access to the battery or hidden microSD card slot.