back to article Nokia sheds light on latest Lumia

CES 2012 Week Stephen Elop took the stage at CES last night to reveal the much-leaked Lumia 900, the next member of Nokia's Windows Phone range of handsets. While it bears a striking resemblance to its younger 800-branded sibling, the Lumia 800, the 900 bulks out the battery from 1450mAh to 1830mAh and ups the screen size …

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  1. Bob Vistakin
    FAIL

    And the tumbleweed rolls through its app store

    Because although desperate for developers, they deserted in droves - just like the .net mugs m$ is about to shaft.

    1. Jim Coleman
      WTF?

      I know, this is feeding the troll, but...

      2,500 apps per week are being submitted to the WP Marketplace. That's 130,000 per year for the hard of math. I hardly think that's "desperate for developers". Really.

  2. Thomas 4

    Wow, you've destroyed all my doubts Nokia!

    I was concerned that when Win Phone made it's grand appearence at Nokia, they would lose innovative and diverse range of design ideas that they had back in the days of Series 60. The Lumia 900 has assuaged my fears by being a completely new and bold reinvention of the phenomenally successful Lumia 800, rather than just being a carbon copy with all the charm and flair of a lump of granite.

    1. Jim Coleman
      Facepalm

      Ah well...

      Difficult to improve on perfection eh. The 800 wowed the press with its cool hardware design, so the 900 is perfectly entitled to give more of the same, methinks.

      Just like the Titan II looks almost identical to the yummy Titan (which I own). Just because it's similar in looks to a previous model is no reason to throw your toys out of the pram.

      The 900's 4.3 inch screen makes the iPhone look like a postage stamp. My Titan's 4.7" screen makes me want to reach for a magnifying glass whenever anyone tries to show me something on their iPhone.

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        is that a phone in your pocket....

        My phone with it's enormous screen has been struggling with the backpack I have to carry it in when everybody else is just slipping theirs into a pocket.

        I think I'll just give up on the phone and hump a laptop around.

        1. Jim Coleman
          Trollface

          Man you must have tiny pockets. Are you like 5 years old or sommat?

      2. Neil 7

        @Ah well...

        "Difficult to improve on perfection"

        Quite, and why Nokia should have stopped with the N9, as this is the origin of the Lumia 800/900 chassis design and a device that also runs an OS custom built for such a design.

        I've got both an N9 and Lumia 800, and hands down the N9 is the better product, with a perfect combination of software and hardware.

        But I won't expect you to agree with me Jim, considering you've probably never used an N9, and also that you appear to be a Microsoft shill.

    2. alexh2o
      Facepalm

      Apple releases iPhone 4S - looks the same as the iPhone 4 - people go nuts for it and it becomes the best selling phone model of its time.

      Nokia releases Lumia 900 - some pretty big change to the 800 but keeps similar design (that got praise) - people start criticising.

      Once you hate someone it doesnt really matter what they do, they can never win in your eyes... "Look at that woman over there, eating crackers like she owns the place!"

  3. DrXym

    Lumia impressions

    Got my Lumia 800 a few days ago (thanks Nokia!). In general the hardware is pretty decent with an amazing screen, and a solid industrial design. Major quibble is the charge port is under a hatch which strikes me as completely pointless given the device has to be charged every day.

    OS wise, Windows Phone 7.x has a very impressive and sleek UI but it's not hard to see the cracks after using it a bit. For some reason Microsoft has chosen to make all menus lower case which really looks stupid given that they're not even consistent in doing it, e.g. WiFi is capitalized and surrounded by other menus which are not. Apps and settings are also scattered around the UI so you actually have to leave an app in order to change the settings for the app which is plain dumb (Apple does this too). My biggest annoyance is if an app wants to download something (e.g. a 100MB map in Nokia Drive app) then you must endure the download because if you flip away the download is suspended. Its the most frustrating and silly flaw borne from a fundamentally broken single tasking interface.

    The market place is also afflicted by a dearth of decent apps, many of which cost more money than their Android / Apple equivalents. On the positive side, games are handled in a far more integrated way than Apple or Android with XBox Live being put to good use and offering trials for lots of games. I was surprised not to see Skype in the market place store.

    So in summary hardware good, software so-so. I can see users who are intimidated by Android might feel more comfortable with this OS, but really it doesn't offer any compelling features of its own. Given the price of the device I would not recommend this phone to someone who has a choice to get something running another OS.

    One thing it has piqued in me is a desire to get my existing Android code to run on it. Best as I can think I'll have to compile as much of the Java code with GWT and house the lot inside an HTML view or phonegap wrapper. Should be interesting to see what happens.

    1. Shaun 1

      Just a note about backround downloads

      The OS does now support background downloading, but that's down to the app devs to integrate it (Which I would have expected the Nokia apps to)

    2. mrweekender
      Facepalm

      So in summary...

      No background downloads? LOL.

      I keep hearing that iOS is just an app list but what else can it be? If you want degrees of separation from purchased apps and the actual OS, to ensure security and you want a consistent UI experience, how else do you create a user customisable UI that will allow instant access to those apps and not have some sort of list?

      Icon/list based navigation is the only way. Metro is essentially just the same thing but with a few live updating widgets, the so called customisation is at the expense of multiple levels of click throughs. This can only diminish productivity as more apps are loaded, after all there's only so many notifications you can have on a smart phone screen, at once.

      I've experienced the Metro interface on Xbox and in a word it's unsuitable. I and all of my friends have gone back to using the central button on the remote, to access the quick menus - essentially just lists - to navigate the system. Which further renforces my observations that Metro is just fairly useless eye candy, which is there to promote advertisements and ultimately reduces overall navigation speed. Yes, the apps are a welcome addition but access to the system has become less intuitive and therefore more frustrating - not a good sign.

      1. Jim Coleman
        FAIL

        @mrweekender: Just because one app hasn't been properly written to take advantage of WP's background task facility doesn't mean you should condemn the entire OS. But you're so keen to diss WP, you forget that. Your bad.

        I have several apps such as BBC News Mobile and Engadget which download their content in the background, updating my phone every half-hour.

        1. DrXym

          @Jim

          I think you're referring to background agents and there are severe limitations on the number you may install, the frequency they are called and the amount of time they can run for.

          I assume the BBC app is using a periodic agent since resource intensive agents don't even run unless the phone is plugged in. A periodic agent is restricted to running once every 30 mins for a maximum of 25 seconds. So if it can't download everything and update its database in that time it doesn't work at all.

          It's better than nothing I suppose and gives some semblance of multitasking but it is not multitasking. It discounts the ability to download arbitrary amounts of data, or to update data more frequently. e.g. I might quite like to be able to update my tweets every 5 mins but I can't on Windows Phone 7.

          It also rules out the possibility of Nokia Drive for example downloading a 100Mb map in the background. Maybe there is a discrete download service where an arbitrary url can be downloaded (like the BITS service in Win32) but it certainly isn't using it as far as I can tell.

    3. Adam13
      FAIL

      Re: Lumiaimpressions

      @DrXym: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are capitalized on the settings menu b/c they are trade names. The rest of the menu items are not. The menu system is quite consistent and looks very good. Luckily Microsoft put a lot more time into it than you did for your post. Not sure where your comment about app settings comes from given that just about every app has an in-app settings menu. General system settings that affect more than one app are found on the system settings screen (I know, complicated isn't it?)

      Background downloading (as mentioned by others) is supported and is up to the developer to implement.

      "The market place is also afflicted by a dearth of decent apps..." ?! Are you reading from a script here? Did you even bother to look?

      "...but really it doesn't offer any compelling features of its own." More from the script. Beautifully streamlined interface with extremely well integrated social features. XBOX live integration, office integration, live tiles...no nothing unique or compelling here.

      "I can see users who are intimidated by Android might feel more comfortable with this OS" Ah, another way of saying it's only good for the non tech savy. Why not put it this way: if you would like your phone to work for you instead of the other way around, if you would like to get things done with your phone instead of spending all day killing tasks, re-starting your phone, and endless re-charging then you should give Windows Phone a try.

      1. DrXym

        @Adam13

        I see the Windows Phone has a defence force of at least 1.

        a) Nokia Drive does not background download so the premium app in the flagship phone is broken right?

        b) Not all apps implement a settings in the app at all and splitting them out from the app they refer to is just confusing.

        c) I realise Wifi and Bluetooth are trademarks and it instantly introduces an inconsistency in the menu. And putting stuff in lower case just looks silly.

        d) The app store is a ghost town. Apps like Netflix and Skype (also trademarked) that one would expect to see (the former since Netflix just launched in the UK) simply aren't there. Others like YouTube player are just dumb HTML wrappers.

        e) I've rarely have to restart my Android phone and battery life is par for the course for smart phones. It's true some people use task managers but so what? The Lumia certainly doesn't win any awards in the power consumption department either, so far requiring charging every day and is pretty slow charging too.

        Sorry but while the experience is superficially pretty it simply doesn't compare to either iPhone or Android.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Got a free Lumia 800 from Nokia

      via the developer programme.

      Let me put it this way, hell will freeze over before it replaces my MeeGo-Harmattan N950 (also free from Nokia).

      I can't stand the text-heavy and graphics light Metro UI, the People Hub feed (particularly twitter) is a just a mess and very hard to follow without avatars, and since I don't have an Xbox or need to read/update Office documents on my phone these features are a complete waste on me.

      When WP7 has worked out whether it's aimed at gameheads or businessmen while appealing to neither, maybe it will have a chance of success to those who find Android "complicated".

      Ultimately though it brings very little that is new, and seems to try too hard to be different without being better - at least MeeGo-Harmattan achieved that.

  4. /\/\j17
    WTF?

    "but the addition of video-calling will be warmly welcomed"

    By whom exactly?

    Other than press shots for 3 back in 2003 or videos for Apple in 2011 who's ever seen someone making a video call on a mobile phone...?

    1. Shaun 1

      I made one a couple of years ago!

      But it was to someone in the same room as me to have a try of it

    2. David Hicks
      Meh

      I've made a few video calls from my phone

      But that's 'cos my Nokia N900 has integrated skype, and people occasionally call me from their PCs. It's a bit shit to be honest.

    3. Jim Coleman
      Trollface

      Point.

      Got Tango (the app) on my phone. Have made two video calls using it, to check it works, and since then.......nowt. Mind you, the FFC is a reasonable replacement for a mirror in a pinch.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      i do, quite regularly, its nice to be able to see my GF when i'm talking to her, when were not together....

    5. Darryl

      Saw someone using it just last night

      Well, sort of, it was in a Galaxy Nexus commercial. By the large smiles on the faces of the caller and callee(?), they must've really loved the feature.

  5. Shaun 1
    Thumb Up

    This is likely to be my next new phone.

    Due an upgrade from my Omnia 7 in May, hopefully this comes to TMO

  6. Roger Greenwood
    Pint

    Tellytubbies phone

    That is all.

  7. Mage Silver badge

    HSPA?

    It better have plain 3G, GSM and GSM's EDGE too for full coverage.

  8. Giles Jones Gold badge

    You would think that Nokia would have more time to think about hardware now that they don't write the software. But such minor spec bumps are laughable.

    There's two current Lumia handsets and a forthcoming upgrade when there could be just one handset. Not to mention all the different colours which are largely all hideous.

    1. Jim Coleman
      Happy

      You know so much more about making phones than Nokia. It's amazing. You must head up the world's biggest selling phone company. What's that? You don't? Whoda thunkit.

    2. foo_bar_baz

      @giles jones

      There are 3 Lumia phones. The third one is the 710. http://www.nokia.com/gb-en/products/phone/lumia710/
  9. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Jim Coleman
      FAIL

      @ Def: You forgot the big downer - the Xperia runs Android, lol. The latest customer satisfaction survey shows just 47% of Android users rate the OS highly, so the majority of users, er, don't. Both iOS and WP scored higher. I'll give Android it's due, though, it did beat RIM. Lol.

      1. Paul Shirley

        @Jim - you forget the market range covered

        Owners of cheap Android phones are:

        1: likely to be disappointed with the experience and blame Android, not the cheap hardware

        2: unlikely to switch to a substantially more expensive WP7,IOS or better Android phone

        47% aren't all looking for a better smartphone, many are looking for a better *cheap* phone, neither IOS or WP7 delivers that. Androids loss will be largely to feature phones and some of the cheapskates won't be happy whatever they buy. At the high end defections happen both directions, if WP7 ever launches a real high end phone they can join the 3 way traffic ;)

    2. Mark Honman

      Or there's the ZTE Skate

      Double-fail!

      ZTE Skate (aka Orange Monte Carlo) has a nice 4.3 inch screen with an even better (and more useful) resolution of 800x480. Not as fast, of course - but fast enough.

      Battery lasts 9 days with wi-fi off. very surprise to see some posters claiming that Android needs regular reboots, app killing, etc... all that is alien in my experience & that of the Mrs (who has a ZTE Blade). I guess that must be astroturfing?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great, just what the world needs.

    More WP7 landfill. :(

    1. Phoenix50
      FAIL

      There's no room left in the landfill sites- they're already full to bursting with trolls like you.

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Facepalm

      Exactly, and even if they could be made usable by reflashing with Android they still have that damn windows logo on it, so onlookers still think you're a loser whatever you do.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The world loves this phone. It will sell in the tens of millions. The majority of people are sick to death of Android and ready for a decent operating system like WinPhone.

  12. Magnus Ramage

    Seeing pictures of a Nokia phone running a Microsoft operating system is a bit like the LibDems sitting on the Tory front benches - good folks gone bad.

  13. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Coat

    Mango followed by Tango?

    Next up Quango!

  14. Tommy Pock

    It's such a shame

    My Pre³ and its WebOS beats the 900 on every single software and hardware level. It's just a shame nobody else bought one and now it's dead

  15. Dotter

    Ugly.

    Am I really the only one who finds the design of this phone and the 800 really ugly?

    Really?

  16. David Black
    FAIL

    Fugly

    Yep, it's not a looker.

    Sadly just gave up on my WinPho last week and after 4 years of total resistance swapped to an iPhone 4S. I hate Apple with every once of my flesh, but I hate a device that irritates the hell out of my daily life much more.

    I loved Nokia (owned 17 Nokia phones since my first in 1993) and even after the slightly harsh killing of Symbian, I gave WinPho a chance. Total failure. It's not good and every day you love it less and less :( I can't think that any sane WinPho user with more than 3 months experience of the device would be posting anything favourable on here... I'm very suspicious of the significant pro WinPho comments that appear from "device owners" that don't even make 1% market share.

    And in response to the earlier comments, the app store is truly pathetic (more apparent due tothe lack of flash in the browser) with even stuff like BBC iPlayer not there!!! Android has too much junk cluttering up the good but MS has only the junk.

    Farewell Nokia, I don't think we'll be seeing you round the land of smartphone again. Shame as the N8 I had still pisses all over the Lumia and makes my iPhone 4S look weak (god that N8 camera is to die for).

  17. Alex McKenna

    Nokia sales guess rather optimistic..

    Looking at the recent sales for a related Nokia in the UK, Engadget reported this tragic survey news:

    "Nokia Lumia 800 made up only 0.17 per cent of devices shipped.."

    WIth this in mind, I can hardly see any iPhone users switching, and the Apple percentage will carry on growing, while the generics fight amongst themselves for the rest.

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