Nokia Lumia 900 Reviews 195
MrSeb, zachareye, and others wrote in with several reviews of the Nokia Lumia 900. Starting things off, Extreme Tech asks if the Lumia redefines the smartphone; BGR chimes in declaring the phone "terrific". Ars Technica, on the other hand, isn't quite so enthusiastic, especially about the camera optics. Anandtech joins Ars in not being particularly enthused. It looks like most reviewers are happy with the UI, but not so enthused about the hardware (low display resolution for one). Signs point to an OK handset, but nothing spectacular.
Duh (Score:2, Interesting)
So they come up with a device that doesn't meet the hype they're pushing it with which will drive down Nokia's share price making them easier for Microsoft to one day acquire. It's gonna happen, they'll sell off all the parts except the patent portfolio and the Brand.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
You expected any other reason for ex-Microsoftie Stephen Elop to suddenly show up as CEO of Nokia?
Not sure what Microsoft would do with it beyond the patent portfolio, though. the brand is a perishable item, and by the time the company well and truly dies, it may well have about the same reputation as the AOL or Tandy brand. :/
As for the patents, I'm not really sure what they expect to get from those, other than income off the Android OEMs.
Re:Duh (Score:4, Funny)
Not sure what Microsoft would do with it beyond the patent portfolio
Give us all a good laugh when they release the Zunegage?
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The n-gage was actually a very good phone! I mean, a very good console! I mean .. oh wait..
Ignoring the strange "calling position" http://stiffopposition.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/ngage.jpg [wordpress.com], the n-gage was actually very well built for the time. It survived a bunch of drops and it was also very comfortable to type in. Also, I never understood why but everytime I had it inside my pocket girls always asked me if I was that happy to see them.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
Look. They're late to the game, they're trying to mimic the apple hype and simultaneously deliver while not putting enough effort into making a competitive device to actually deliver. They're praying that being able to be around long enough off android revenue (before B&N/antitrust cut that to zero) will be enough for people to consider it a competitive device.
Microsoft is just following standard protocol with Nokia. What makes you think the business model has *ever* changed? Why? Well look no further than:
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. where are we at with Nokia again? What always comes first?
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Oh really now? Hi microsoft shill, let's call you on your lies.
http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20120209222500188 [groklaw.net]
Also new evidence to substantiate B&N's claims seem to be showing up every day:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9225831/Why_tech_vendors_fund_patent_trolls_?taxonomyId=214 [computerworld.com] being *EXACTLY* what B&N have claimed.
I love how you act like it's over just because rejected a single complaint. I guess you were so quick to troll and hide information you couldn't even get your spe
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Microsoft is just following standard protocol with Nokia. What makes you think the business model has *ever* changed? Why? Well look no further than:
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. where are we at with Nokia again? What always comes first?
You think they're trying to embrace, extend and extinguish Nokia? What would be the point of that?
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Re:Duh (Score:5, Informative)
Actually if you look, the summary is wrong, it's only the ars review of the ones listed that doesn't have a generally very positive set of things to say about the phone, and the ars review is comparing it to a galaxy nexus and iphone 4s (which are 200 dollars more expensive, but much better hardware phones).
They're building up hype because they've made a pretty good mid range product, whether or not it gets any traction with consumers or AT&T retail monkeys (who then convince consumers to buy it ) who knows. They're not aiming for the 600 dollar phone market, stupidly, there should be a flagship device positioned there. But for what it is price wise, it's pretty good overall.
Re:Duh (Score:5, Insightful)
Nokia's problem with all their Windows phones (and MSFT's problem with Windows Phone in general) is that they can't get retailers to push the phones.
Nobody comes into a store wanting to look at a Windows phone, so immediately the hurdle is that you've got to change their minds about what they want. Some articles posted here have even said that salespeople are not willing to push it because the return rate on Windows Phones had been high, and they lose their time for zero commission, when they could be across the room selling someone an iPhone and being safe with their commission.
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Right, which is why they have the retail arrangement with AT&T, all the floor staff were given windows 7 phones, in the hopes that would encourage their enthusiasm.
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Very true. I'm not in the US so I'm not sure how the market plays out there to individual users. Do they care more about upfront cost, where a 'free on a new plan' is a lot more appealing than a 200 iPhone 4S new plan or the longer term quality of the phone? I'm not even sure what happens to the monthly rate.
And again, the lumia 900 is positioned as a mid range phone, it is, on price competing with an iPhone 3Gs or an iPhone 4. Which is a really stupid place to try and position yourself in the market, b
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So I ask, where are the battery life comparison/benchmarks from these sites that don't seem to be "enthusiastic" about the phone's performance?
Hope MS does well with this phone (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Hope MS does well with this phone (Score:5, Insightful)
I would think Google are trying their hardest to improve Android to compete with iOS. Another smartphone maker doesn't really change that does it?
Re:Hope MS does well with this phone (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hope MS does well with this phone (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft claims you can get to the camera app real fast.
Its just not a convincing argument.
The new crop of android phones are android phones are in a serious pissing match over this very stat. I will say that i will be weighing this in my decision. my phone is my primary camera and I have missed several camera worthy moment by phone lag of getting to the camera (yes I have set the camera to be able to launch from lock )
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Hell, the iPhone is also in on it, back when Jobs was alive it was something he remarked upon in iOS - getting to the camera and snapping a photo was to be much quicker. (Leading t
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Hell, the iPhone is also in on it
In fact the iphone unlock to camera copied the way windows phone unlocks (slide the lock screen out of the way), they even copied the 'hint' about how to do it (hit the camera icon and the lockscreen 'bumps' up and down a bit to indicate that you need to slide it up).
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It was for me. The dedicated camera button is actually very useful. As I'm taking my phone out of my pocket, it's easy to hold the camera button down and have it ready to take pictures by the time it comes out. That's actually a fair bit faster than turning on and pressing a button on the lock screen. I've used both, and the camera button is simply better.
Re:Hope MS does well with this phone (Score:5, Insightful)
I rather disagree.
Apple phones pretty much define the high end, and so even if they're very shiny you have to pay for that. Also, they lock you into the Apple experience, which isn't necessarily the best one.
Android is an open system, with low cost phones available, but at the same time it's plagued by bloatware and inconsistent user experience. Honestly, I don't know how people put up with it... Well, without installing Cyanogenmod like I did. I know someone with a Galaxy S II (IIRC) and the thing has ~30 apps on it that cannot be uninstalled (and are useless, of course). They'll always be there, with permissions you didn't approve, potentially running in the background wasting your resources and causing problems. (On that note, I know a different someone who's phone is actually rendered unstable due to a preinstalled app.) Sure, you can kind of hide them, but they'll be there when you look through the app drawer or add a shortcut or do a general action (e.g. "Share photo" via Picasa, Facebook, Twitter, arg where's MMS?)
If Microsoft can actually deliver a streamlined no-nonsense interface and solidly hit the midrange price point I think they'll find buyers. It's true that people don't care _that_ much, but at the same time I think there's a lot of frustration building up over Apple's walled garden and Android's bloatware/platform issues. They may not be all 'wow I can shave 100ms of my time-to-pic', but when they go to buy their next phone they'll remember Microsoft advertising a snappy simple interface and their problems with their old phone and be willing to give it a try.
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If Microsoft can actually deliver a streamlined no-nonsense interface and solidly hit the midrange price point I think they'll find buyers. It's true that people don't care _that_ much, but at the same time I think there's a lot of frustration building up over Apple's walled garden and Android's bloatware/platform issues. They may not be all 'wow I can shave 100ms of my time-to-pic', but when they go to buy their next phone they'll remember Microsoft advertising a snappy simple interface and their problems with their old phone and be willing to give it a try.
This. It's pretty much a phone for grown-ups who don't go "ooh, it has four cores, imagine a Beowulf cluster of these", but who choose a device that is usable for their daily needs, and is perhaps good enough for their casual needs.
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If Microsoft can actually deliver a streamlined no-nonsense interface and solidly hit the midrange price point I think they'll find buyers.
And there is a good size of the market to be had in this space. I've had a iPhone and gave up on it, now have SGS2 and like it a lot, but still get a bit frustrated with unpolished nature of it (ie pretty much like Linux in general). I want a phone that has a solid user interface, but still a little bit of flexibility with hardware and what I'm allowed to do with it. It's just like the PC battle all over again. Apple are too locked in, Linux/Android too loose and fragmented, MS can come in with the closest
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seconded... but part of their value prop is that they give strong security to corp IT. if this was just an app on another os, they may not be able to engender the same level of trust. (yes they could just encrypt the damn contents and offer short term keys over the network)
the other problem bb has is that they had a long time to 'perfect' their phones. before the smart phone explosion, bb came out w/ a new phone every 9 mths or so that was a bit better than the last. with no competition they had time to
Good or Great is not enough (Score:2)
From experience: "good"/"great" even "better than the competition" is not enough.
It must be better by a huge margin (or have a "killer app") for the phone to be adopted at this late of a stage. Android had the edge of being "free", so it was "easy" to ship with. I am curious how successful the platform will be (and will be watching from the sidelines), but at this point I do not think it will change the mobile market.
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It's killer app is fully integrated contacts and social media. It's a hard one to understand though it's great when you've set it up and use it.
Takeaway from the Ars review... (Score:2, Informative)
The brand new Lumia 900 comes out somewhat comparable to the two year old iPhone 4.
Pass.
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...well, when you consider that it's about the same price as the two year old iPhone 4 ($99 w/a 2 year contract), it's not so bad.
WP7's two biggest problems... (Score:5, Informative)
First.
The iPhone revolutionised the mobile phone market, essentially turning smartphones that had limited use and poor experience into things that are quick and reliable. Now we're tweaking and improving, it's hard for anyone to carve a niche. WP7's niche is that it totally integrates your contacts. If you know the same person in twitter, linkedin, your email db, facebook and more, WP7 seamlessly integrates them into the one person they are. That's it's killer app. The problem is that it takes more than a one-day test to really see this benefit so reviews are never going to "get it".
Second.
MS are keen not to make the mistake Android is making (or that they made in the PCmarket). They want to standardise the platform. This is easy for Apple/iPhone, they're the only ones making one. Not so easy keeping HTC, Samsung, Nokia and others to stick to one design. There's nothing for them to distinguish themselves in the market.
Roll on Windows 8 and tablets - then iPhone will be under serious threat. For most consumers, the tablet - if properly conceived and integrated - is a far better computer experience than the PC/Laptop.
(disclosure: I'm a devoted Lumia 800 and previously Samsung Omnia 7 owner)
Re:WP7's two biggest problems... (Score:5, Informative)
My N900 has been doing that for some time now, as well as integrating skype messages and calls into the normal call and SMS systems.
You mean other phones can't/don't do this?
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Re:WP7's two biggest problems... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ditto. Another N900 owner here. I'm amazed when new phones don't do this when my relatively old N900 has always had really good contact account integration. Also, Skype and SIP are well integrated into the phone app and all messaging including SMS is integrated. Without looking at an indicator icon, you may not know whether you're using SMS or an IM protocol. Or you may now know if you're receiving a cell call or a Skype call.
It's funny that MS is advertising features from the platform they're trying to kill.
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WP7's niche is that it totally integrates your contacts. If you know the same person in twitter, linkedin, your email db, facebook and more, WP7 seamlessly integrates them into the one person they are. That's it's killer app. The problem is that it takes more than a one-day test to really see this benefit so reviews are never going to "get it"."
I'm trying to figure out what the advantage of this is. I already have a tool that integrates multiple modes of communication into one one view of a person, it's called my brain. I know that the joe375@hotmail that i email with is the same WittyNickname that i have on my twitter feed and the same as the OlderNickname that i have in my LJ friends. How does Microsoft "seamlessly integrating" them make things better?
Although perhaps the fact that i have two distinct twitter accounts and two LJ accounts and
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I'm trying to figure out what the advantage of this is. I already have a tool that integrates multiple modes of communication into one one view of a person, it's called my brain.
Why even bother with a phonebook? Just use your brain to remember the phone number and associate a name with it.
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Seriously?
No, obviously (well i suppose not obvious enough to you) not.
But even so i have learned probably well over a thousand names for well over a hundred different people. First names, last names, occasionally middle names, nicknames, email names, LJ names, twitter names, etc.
And it's far far easier to just remember their name and have every other contact method associated with that - heard of a rolodex? - hence the reason just about every phone does this and has done for many many years.
Re:WP7's two biggest problems... (Score:5, Insightful)
The Nokia N9 and the Nokia N900 had this integration feature for years. It's nice to have, but it was not and will never be a killer app. Otherwise you'd see the Maemo/Meego being the third ecosystem as MS likes to brand itself.
There are no killer apps anymore. Apple has amazing, yet closed hardware that is closely tied into their App Store with millions of apps and into iTunes with millions of songs and movies. So they appeal to fashionistas and people who just want something that works even if overpriced.
Google has shitty or amazing, but open hardware that is tied into their Google Play with hundreds of thousands of apps, and is an open development platform where anyone can cook a ROM, tweak it, etc. So they appeal to poor people, regular people, geeks and everybody else. At the same time Google Play seems to be making a run for iTunes.
What does MS bring to the table? They have sub par, closed hardware (sorry, but the beautiful design of the Lumia 900 does not compensate for the crappy specs), and they have few apps. Given the fiascos that were every single MS foray into digital media distribution, an iTunes style store is pretty much dead in the water.
Maybe future revisions of Windows Mobile will address some of the issues. But do you think Apple, Google and even RIM are sitting around twiddling thumbs? How long did it take MS to implement copypasta? Nokia learned this lesson the hard way. Maemo 5 on the N900 was MILES ahead of Android or iOS. But they sat on it for a couple of years, and by the time Maemo 6 came out, it was outdated. I should know this, because I have both Maemo 6 and ICS in front of me.
This approach only ever worked for Apple, since they are a vertically integrated company. They differentiate based on hardware specs, design and OS all at once. But if you take away the OS and hardware specs as you propose with a standard Windows platform, that means design is the only thing left. Samsung, Nokia, HTC, LG, etc will become little more than custom case designers.
Nokia took the bait, but it will be a cold day in hell before Samsung drops even their struggling Bada platform in favour of Windows.
Really, tell me how will the hardware manufacturers differentiate themselves when they ALL have to have the exact same OS and hardware specs, and they ALL have access to the same apps, etc.
Define properly conceived and integrated. That's such a platitude, I have a feeling you threw it in there because you were itching to click Submit. Tablets DEFINITELY have a place, but it's a niche. I tried iOS, Android and Windows 7 slate PCs. Yes, the most useful by far was the Samsung Series 7. But you know what? Even though it was a full fledged PC, with decent touch input, it was still limited. No keyboard meant I had to bring an external one.
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I know next to nothing about the N900 but killer apps need an ecosystem in which to exist. You can't just have one thing right and miss out on the other important stuff. Metro is an innovative UI that works really well. The marketplace has 50,000 apps. Who cares how many cores it has, the UI is responsive, properly written apps are fast
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There is a lot of rewriting history here. There were plenty of quick and reliable phones before the iPhone, which is no quicker or more reliable than any of its predecessors. The way it revolutionised the mobile phone market was to turn something as mundane as a phone into an expensive must-have fashion icon. The only original feature was the "Visual Voicemail". The contact integration (email/fb/phone/etc) is not some new killer app of WP7, Blackberry has been doing it for years.
MS is similar to Android in
Re:WP7's two biggest problems... (Score:4, Insightful)
If he's rewriting history, you're completely forgetting it. The killer app of the iPhone (before it had 3rd-party apps) was it was the FREAKING INTERNET IN YOUR POCKET. (OK, the WWW, technically, plus email.) Did you ever use a WAP browser on an early PDA, or even a more modern browser on an Axim or iPaq? They SUCKED. [slashdot.org] Horribly. And they depended on WiFi or, if you had a smartphone, on exorbitant data plans. The iPhone came with a really great web browser that showed real pages--just shrunken, but easily panned and zoomed--at a reasonable cost. PLUS it had a built-in iPod AND a great video player, Maps like had never been seen before on a mobile device, and plenty of other good things.
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And you are rewriting history as well.
Opera Mobile was a decent browser on Windows Mobile. It worked well on my XDA2 and even better on my Universal. There were much better navigation application than iPhone had for a long time (in fact, most big brand navigation software started on Windows CE/Mobile). And iPhone had a low resolution screen and wasn't able to run third party applications for a long while. It was a fashion toy compared to Windows Mobile back then, admittedly got better later.
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Opera on WM 6.5 was truly legendary. Though generally Safari on iOS equalled it, but on far far better hardware.
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Well, no, I guess you really like your iPhone but that does not mean it was 'the phone to put the FREAKING INTERNET IN YOUR POCKET' (why shout, btw?). There were many phones which did this before Apple got into the game of selling phones. Many operating systems, as well, with many applications. Some were mediocre (Windows Mobile, I'm looking at you), some were good (Maemo comes to mind). Given the hardware they ran on, some of them actually performed quite well as mobile web platforms. Even the aging HTC Pr [wikipedia.org]
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The killer app of the iPhone was capacitive touchscreen. You know, one that actually responded when you touched it, and for that matter, didn't when you didn't...?
To go with it, an OS that prioritised user input. That was novel.
iPhone is not, and has never been about all about being a "fashion icon". Sure, it's pretty, but that's just one of it's features.
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For most consumers, the tablet - if properly conceived and integrated - is a far better computer experience than the PC/Laptop.
Disagree 100% Not sure what you mean by "properly conceived and integrated", but the simple fact that you have to hold the tablet with at least one hand, and control it using broad movements with your other hand make it mostly impractical for long term use.
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The integration has a dual edge to it. It handles some things well like replying to a FB message in tiles but to create a new FB message you need the FB app.
Pretty sure you just select 'Send Facebook Message' (or somesuch) in the contact card.
New Class? BS! (Score:5, Insightful)
A quick glance on Amazon shows new android phones at less than $300 without a contract. T-Mobile has lots of Android phones available at $0 + plus a contract. Those current feature phone owners will find that more attractive than $450 for the Lumia 900, or about the same as $0 to $99 with a contract. It's not a new class.
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Nokia have also released the Lumia 710 which is in (or close to) that price range I believe.
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How many new Android phones for $300 come with a non-PenTile AMOLED screen?
Can I hear you now? (Score:2)
So, are any of these reviews going to give us any idea, at all, of call or sound quality on these phones? Or have we just completely given up on the "phone" part of the functionality?
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So, are any of these reviews going to give us any idea, at all, of call or sound quality on these phones? Or have we just completely given up on the "phone" part of the functionality?
From what I can tell about reading non proffesional online reviews/comments, all many techincal people care about are the number of cores on the device. Doesn't matter if they're turned on or off, or are even fast. They apparently only buy phones for the cores in them.
Re:Can I hear you now? (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, when was the last time you tried a phone and found it to have poor sound quality for just talking? You sound like someone who shops for a new car and asks if it's hard to change the points or adjust the carburetor.
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This isn't completely true. You can use a Nokia phone as a pretty good conference phone with the speaker mode. It grabs voice from people speaking meters away from the device. I used to think all phones did this, but then I learned that Samsung Galaxy S II and I are pathetic as speakerphones. Great for surfing the web though.
So, yeah, I'd like to have something about talking in the reviews.
Nokia N9 Linux Swipe FTW! (Score:3, Informative)
Nokia's Linux N9 has a front facing camera and an option for 64 (not 16) gigabytes. Plus the swipe keyboard is the bomb. Check out the video, 2nd thumbnail from the left, on the bottom of this page:
http://swipe.nokia.com/ [nokia.com]
It is a breeze for me to SSH to it, when I need a real keyboard, like to enter serious passwords, (hopefully rarely).
Those are the main advantages the Linux N9 has over the Lumia 900, its WP7 polycarbonite twin.
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I bought a 16GB N9 a week ago for 299€ (no strings attached). I just love the thing. I've been learning to build small apps for it and the Qt development environment is just awesome to anything I've seen before. And despite it being the only Meego model and only sold in some markets, the Ovi store pretty much has all the apps I care for... ok, I'd take some more games, but that's not critical.
It's just sad that something technically so excellent is abandoned completely for strategic business reasons. :
I read the Anantech review (Score:4, Informative)
It looks okay. Wifi and 3g battery life is poor, but 4g is good. Java script performance is unimpressive. Camera is good, but white balance is poor and a faster CPU would help post processing. There wasn't nothing to complain about on the display. No 5Ghz wifi, but bandwidth and such is good. Speaker quality is good. And that's about it.
Their biggest complaint seems to be that the phone lacks a dual core CPU. They are apparently coming and will let the phone record video at 1024p, over 720p, and perhaps take better photos.
Other than that, it's a normal Windows 7.5 phone.
Nice phone, but Nokia needed more for Microsoft (Score:2)
First off, I like Windows Phone 7.5. I have an HTC Titan, and it works quite well. I would definitely say it's almost competitive in most aspects, and does exceed in a few important areas. That said, Microsoft's really not doing Nokia many favors. Lumia 900 really needed an updated WP OS. This was a perfect opportunity for Microsoft to release, say, WP7.6, with support for a higher resolution screen, and maybe some much needed UI tweaks and facelifts. Instead, consumers may well walk into AT&T and reali
Physical keyboard? (Score:3)
Are there any good phones with a real physical 5-row QWERTY slider keyboard anymore?
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Thanks but I'd prefer Android.
Cell Phone Luddite Input (Score:2)
I'm still a cell phone Luddite. I don't like most "smart" functions because of the drain battery power while giving me a ton of stuff I don't want.
Things I don't want:
"Seamless integration of phone and social networking contacts" -- I have different spheres of life for a reason. I don't want any corporation being able to draw a perfect picture of my habits, hobbies, peers, or family.
"Blazing fast web access" -- I don't want to shell out more than I'm paying right now ($50/month) for a cell phone. That means
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"Seamless integration of phone and social networking contacts" -- I have different spheres of life for a reason. I don't want any corporation being able to draw a perfect picture of my habits, hobbies, peers, or family.
You misunderstand what "integration" means in this case. Simply put, if you add a Facebook account, your friends from there will appear in your contact list ("People hub"). Which I personally find rather inconvenient, but it doesn't mean that Facebook gets to see your regular phone contact list. And, of course, if you don't add Facebook account at all, it's a non-issue.
"Blazing fast web access" -- I don't want to shell out more than I'm paying right now ($50/month) for a cell phone. That means I don't want a "data plan". The lack of web access decreases time/money/effort spent on phone development and prevents unexpected accidental charges.
"Touch screen keyboard" -- Buttons work better. They just do.
Sounds like you don't want a smartphone, then.
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You are correct. I *don't* want a smartphone, but that's the only kind of cell phone receiving genuine development. No one's trying to perfect the simple functions of the feature phone (sound quality, mic quality, media player, camera, keyboard, battery life).
Instead, the smartphone is receiving 99% of development focus because it can be used to bring in additional revenue beyond normal subscription.
It's too much of a focus on "more" and not enough on "better".
Most reviews lob softballs, Not TheVerge. (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/3/2921472/lumia-900-review [theverge.com]
It seems reviewers are anxious for a third ecosystem to emerge so the keep making light of the shortcomings. This is ~2010 era HW power, with an OS that was aimed at the original iOS and hasn't caught up to the competition. People need to stop making excuses for the Weak HW, and weak SW. Microsoft/Nokia, need to seriously revamp the OS and release a real flagship if they want to be anything but irrelevant.
Verge Excerpt(on the software itself):
Let me just put this bluntly: I think it's time to stop giving Windows Phone a pass. I think it's time to stop talking about how beautifully designed it is, and what a departure it's been for Microsoft, and how hard the company is working to add features. I am very aware of the hard work and dedication Microsoft has put into this platform, but at the end of the day, Windows Phone is just not as competitive with iOS and Android as it should be right now.
The problems with Windows Phone are myriad, many small. But it's a death by a thousand cuts. And all those little problems were once again immediately apparent to me the moment I started using the Lumia 900.
The most glaring issues also happen to be some of the oldest issues — things you think at this point would have been dealt with. Scrolling in third party apps, for instance, is still completely erratic. I would blame this on developers, but given that this platform has been around for nearly two years, I think that's a cop out. In new Twitter apps like Carbon, lists of messages will sometimes disappear or skip weirdly when scrolling. I first complained about this in version 1 of Windows Phone, and I thought it had been squashed — it has not.
Elsewhere there are missteps. Though Microsoft has added some form of multitasking to the OS, there is nearly never a feeling that apps in the "background" are actually still waiting for you. In fact, many apps still deliver a splash screen to you when you reenter them — if this is a developer issue, then I guess most of the hardworking coders on this platform never got the memo. In short, it kind of sucks to use. Where iOS and Android at least feel responsive in packing and unpacking background apps, Windows Phone often comes across as broken and limp. ....
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This.
I've been using Nokia Lumia 800 for some time now, and while some aspects of the product are very polished, my overall opinion is negative.
Sample problems:
- some tiles are animated, some not - pretty distracting experience.
- while the interface is responsive, you still need to do several taps and slides to get a result you can set a single tap under an Android or iPhone.
- 50k apps in the market if neither can do stuff I need.
- no Google apps I need - sorry, Nokia, your phone needs to be able to join ex
Re:Goodbye iphone and android! (Score:4, Funny)
Goodbye iphone and android!
What? You dual wield two phones at once? Go-go phone ninja!
Curious: do you plan to dual wield 2 Win-Phones now?
Re:Goodbye iphone and android! (Score:5, Funny)
Curious: do you plan to dual wield 2 Win-Phones now?
That's obviously a win-win situation.
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Re:Goodbye iphone and android! (Score:5, Informative)
I think you were in cryogenic stasis since ~2007, which is ironically the last time Nokia made a phone worth owning.
I am the proud owner of a Nokia N900 (which is very much worth owning) since end of 2010, which is well after 2007.
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Buy a spare N900 while you still can! That's what I'm about to do!
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I had the N900, used it for several months, I don't consider it worth owning at all - and I can't understand why people are so enthusiastic about it.
Terrible interface, terrible screen, terrible keyboard, hardware wasnt at all resilient (the wifes one died physically after 6 months of usage).
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I bought three N900 phones until now (one for wife, one for a friend), two of them were second hand, none of them broke. And they've been constantly abused by my two toddlers, fell down from tables and into puddles god knows how many times. Recently I tried to smash mine against a wall (was having a rage episode), threw it directly at the wall two times with all my might. It's still working, apart from the camera function, and I'm still using it. I also constantly overclock it from 600 to 1150 MHz.
I'm not s
Re:Goodbye iphone and android! (Score:4, Funny)
I can post photos later on of the second N900 she used, with most of the keyboards plastic covering rubbed off through normal usage.
Dude, buy your poor lady a dildo!
She does use it a lot tho.
Maybe you should spare some time for her in bed...
I can't see what others see in it.
They see a phone which is at the same time a pocket Linux computer. For other purposes, there are sausages, cucumbers and bananas.
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The preference between a physical and onscreen keyboard is just that, a preference, most certainly not "matter of fact" one way or the other. I don't prefer one over the other.
Yeah, nothing can be "better" "as a matter of fact" without an agreed upon metric. I was thinking about the talk about how the new types of touchscreens make it easier to type, etc. Let's say there are potential advantages and disadvantages of a separate mechanical keyboard and leave it at that.
Re:Goodbye iphone and android! (Score:5, Interesting)
That's sort of the point of the reviews. For the price (and that does count a lot) the Lumia 900 is a decent phone. It struggles to compete with dual core phones which are much more expensive, which is a problem for the windows brand, since the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4s are powerful flagship devices, but as a Nokia Phone that isn't going to just be sold to rich people who can afford 500+ dollar phones it's pretty good overall (where I am the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4s run 575 and 650 dollars respectively, where the Lumia 900 is about 450).
Now, overall, given the circumstances I don't think that makes it a great launch. Nokia, or one of the WP7.5 launch partners should have a quad core phone out the door nowish (but then I figured the playstation vita should be a phone as well), and the lumia 900 could be a mid range device. There's a big gap in the user experience between iphone and android in terms of software updates, and it's an area on the PC that MS does surprisingly well at in terms of how updates are delivered and what works/doesn't on them. But MS doesn't seem to have delivered very well, and that's not good for anyone, least of all nokia employees and shareholders.
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Re:Goodbye iphone and android! (Score:5, Insightful)
Billions? They've been at this a while. Kin was dead out the door, they knew it, you knew it, I knew it. Everyone knew it. But contracts must be honoured.
That doesn't mean they'll ever make any money however, it could be billions invested for nothing. The windows 8 strategy of unifying all the device OS's is actually a good idea. A decent phone these days is basically a half speed laptop (with a dual core 1.x GHz processor and a gig or so of ram that's like half a laptop), which means you really can run the same OS on everything. If you try out the windows 8 preview it seems more like it's for phones than desktops, so this might be shooting themselves in the foot with a rocket launcher overall, but we'll see. They certainly seem to be all in on this plan.
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They certainly seem to be all in on this plan
Indeed they do. Too soon to know whether it works or not. But it's all upside for Microsoft. They don't need for people to like it on the desktop. As we've seen with Vista - people get (and pay for) it whether they like it or not. And if they put up a big enough stink, they can pay extra not to get it. In the meantime, Microsoft gets a fully funded project to develop a tablet OS that might possibly be able to leverage MSOffice compatibility into a winning formula
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But people didn't buy vista. MS biggest competitor is themselves. Windows 8 will have to compete with windows 7, and I have a feeling a lot of people will be waiting to upgrade to windows 9, and by then they may move to a mac and an iphone. If only we could know the future...
And ya, windows phones *should* provide a great user experience. OS updates when they're actually released, compatibility with windows apps, full document/calendar/e-mail syncing, all automatically, that sort of thing. Whether they
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But people didn't buy Vista
That's my point. Vista was a big success, and everybody hated it. It still 'sold' with most new PC's. Nobody actually buys Windows upgrades any more - XP is 'good enough' for most Windows users, and newer OS's have needed beefier machines. So Microsoft's business model is no longer dependent on selling OS upgrades. They make all the Windows revenue they need from the OEM pre-load monopoly. Except for those pesky netbooks, for which they couldn't charge enough while still keeping Linux out of the marke
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Not quite true. There is a windows 8 for ARM that will be tablets and phones, and Windows x86 (or actually IA64 but whatever), that will be for Intel/AMD chips. Those could be phone, tablet, or desktop.
They're also streamlining the application development so you hopefully don't have to completely rewrite your application for ARM, it's just setting multiple build targets and off you go.
How similar that makes office is hard to say. If it really is just setting a new build target everything will just kind o
iPhone is not a $500 phone in the US (Score:3, Interesting)
Interesting how Apple cannot shake its image as a pricy, too-expensive-for-the-hardware manufacturer, even when that's not always true.
In the US, you can get an ATT iPhone 4, which everyone agrees basically is not that much worse than their flagship 4S, for $99. For that price you get 960x640 resolution at high pixel density and a motherlode of apps, plus a device that when jailbroken is an absolute joy to use. This is for the same exact price as the N900, yet N900 comes off as a cheapo phone that's a barg
Re:iPhone is not a $500 phone in the US (Score:4, Interesting)
$99 up front and how much each month? For how long?
From this side of the pond, the U.S. phone market looks really weird. I just bought an N9 for 299€ without any plan. My phone bill is below 20€ / month and obviously, I can change any time. For me the cheapest iPhone would be 519€ - again without a plan... I do have the choice of buying the phone and paying in installments for two years, but why would I want to?
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For the price (and that does count a lot) the Lumia 900 is a decent phone. It struggles to compete with dual core phones
It only "struggles" in the imagination of people who believe that more cores = better, before they have actually tried to do anything with the thing.
Nokia, or one of the WP7.5 launch partners should have a quad core phone out the door nowish
Why the hell? Lumia 900 is fast enough for anyone whose perception is not affected by reading spec sheets.
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If you like the shape of the phone, just get an N9
I might if I could try it before buying it.
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While I agree in this point, how is becoming a windows phone manufacturer any different?
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Everybody else seems to have it in their strategy to only put Windows Phone on half-assed, bland-looking models. In fact, their Android phones are hardly better, but somehow everybody puts up with that because Android is "free" or something.
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It's because of google's slogan: "do no evil". How could you not truste a company that friendly?
Re:Why Nokia hate android? (Score:5, Insightful)
Every OEM is using it expect Nokia and Apple
And the Android phones are having trouble standing out in a crowded market.
There are a lot of people out there waiting for new Windows phones.
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Source please.
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Flip phone + Galaxy Player (Score:3)
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why is this modded as -1 ?
some people do want phones that work also as... phones!!
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This has been Microsoft's failing for a long time; they desperately want to have the cachet and blind following that Apple has, but they have no idea how to do it (heck, even Apple probably doesn't really know how they did it; if it was that simple, everyone would do it). Instead, Microsoft just copies Apple but very poorly, with ridiculously bad ad campaigns--remember the MSN butterfly campaign years ago, where people dressed in ridiculous blue butterfly suits were running around Manhattan trying to "gene