Photographic camera, Battery Life, Conclusion

Camera and Video Capture

With all of the praise I've been heaping on the Nokia Lumia 900 thus far, you lot might be wondering if information technology has any faults at all. Well, if there are faults, they are in the camera. On newspaper, the 8 megapixel camera with wide-bending 28mm, f/2.2 Carl Zeiss lens looks fantastic, but in practice it doesn't live up to the hype.

The camera app tin be launched by long-pressing the camera shutter key and the interface is the same as on other Windows Phones. You can half-press the shutter key to focus earlier taking the motion picture, but it is difficult to feel the difference between a half and full printing, which makes it more cumbersome to employ than anything else. Alternatively, you can tap the screen anywhere to focus and shoot an paradigm immediately. Windows Phone's camera app makes it easy to instantly share your photo with others or to Facebook.

Unfortunately, images captured by the camera aren't that impressive, especially in bogus low-cal. White residual is often inaccurate to the indicate of being downright awful (e.thou. photos appear too blueish), and the Lumia 900's depression light functioning can't touch that of competitors like the iPhone 4S or HTC'due south new One Series smartphones. The dual-LED flash tends to produce lousy results, with particularly dark backgrounds and blown out subjects. Outdoor images with a lot of light are good, but that's not something any smartphone should have trouble with these days.

The 720p video captured by the Lumia 900 fares better though, and it features continuous autofocus while filming. While other phones on the market are shooting 1080p clips, at to the lowest degree the Lumia 900's 720p video is sharp and offers a skillful framerate.

As unimpressive every bit the Lumia 900's main camera is, the front-facing camera is a gem. It captures 1 megapixel images that are brilliant and sharp, and the VGA-quality video is polish and stutter free. The wide-angle of the lens makes it easy to hold the phone comfortably when on video calls, and its fast f/2.iv aperture lets in gobs of light. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of apps that currently accept advantage of it simply still, and the included Tango app and downloadable Skype client leave a bit left to be desired.

Given Nokia's impressive imaging pedigree and prior success with older cameraphones, the Lumia 900'south poor photographic camera functioning is just all that much more than disappointing.

Music

The Nokia Lumia 900 features the slick and attractive Zune music player. It uses the Zune Desktop syncing software to manage music, which works well and doesn't experience almost as bloated as iTunes. The music role player supports anthology art, playlists, and Smart DJ mixes, which automatically create playlists of similar music based on the artist selected. The music player tin be controlled from the notification bar or the lockscreen, and the Music + Video Hub smartly aggregates all of the apps on the phone that tin can play music or video content.

Sound quality through the external speaker is clear and free of distortion, simply the volume doesn't get nearly as loud equally other smartphones. Nokia does non include whatever headphones with the Lumia 900. Those that similar to store a lot of music or video content on their device will desire to take note of the Lumia 900's non-expandable 16GB of internal storage (xiv.5GB is bachelor to the user out of the box). The Lumia supports Microsoft's Zune streaming music service, so you tin mind to tunes on the get without having to bring them with you - for a fee.

Battery Life

Like the iPhone 4S, the Motorola Droid Razr and Razr Maxx, the HTC One series, and an increasingly growing list of other smartphones, the Nokia Lumia 900'southward battery is internal and not user replaceable. I don't think that volition present much of an issue for almost users, however, as the 1830mAh unit easily cruised through a full twenty-four hours (12 to 14 hours) of difficult usage during my tests - even when on AT&T's 4G LTE network. Those that aren't every bit demanding on their smartphones volition likely be able to stretch that number fifty-fifty farther. Nokia says the Lumia 900 is rated for 7 hours of talk time, just is really an "all-day" bombardment, and I think it lives upwards to that claim.

Final Thoughts

It'south difficult to enlarge how impressed I am with the Nokia Lumia 900. The phone's industrial design is impeccable, and it'south actually the only phone on the same level of the iPhone 4S in this regard. Performance is peachy, and the Windows Phone Metro interface is a joy to use, though I do wish that third-party apps opened and refreshed their information faster than they currently do.

The Lumia 900'due south support for AT&T's 4G LTE network is greatly appreciated, but even if you don't alive in one of the few markets currently covered by it, you can get bang-up performance with the Lumia 900 on the carrier'due south HSPA+ network.


Lumia 900 pictured in white

The just existent complaint is with the photographic camera, as it just doesn't alive up to the remainder of the phone's greatness. The poor image quality indoors might exist bargain breaker for some users. It should be noted that the poor white balance functioning is something that Nokia could potentially address with a software update.

AT&T is offering the Lumia 900 in cyan and blackness on April viii. Patient buyers can opt for a glossy white version on April 22. All colors volition exist bachelor for $99.99 with a new two-year contract (Amazon is cutting downwardly that toll to $20 or $l depending on where you lot are with AT&T). That depression price combined with a great user experience and the top-notch hardware of the Lumia 900 makes it a tremendous value.

Microsoft's Windows Phone platform has struggled and then far to gain traction in a market dominated by the iPhones and Androids of the earth, despite offering a smart and intuitive experience. One thing it was lacking in the U.South. was a true hero device (other earth regions received the as impressive Lumia 800 late last year), and it really feels like the Nokia Lumia 900 is Windows Phone's knight in polycarbonate armor. You tin sign me upward for one.

Pros: Fantastic design, gorgeous display, fast operation.

Cons: Downright lousy camera, non-expandable storage, minor app ecosystem.