Nokia Lumia 900 Specs Review

Back at CES, we had the pleasure to go up close and personal with the Nokia Lumia 900 – a promising Windows Phone device bound for AT&T. What makes it promising you ask? Well, it has catchy looks, potent hardware, and it is among the first LTE-capable Windows Phone devices.

The smartphone is expected to launch no later than next month, and until then, let us go over its specs sheet and see what goodies the Nokia Lumia 900 has in stock.

If you are familiar with what the Nokia Lumia 800 looks like, the first thing that you will notice about the Lumia 900 is that it looks more or less the same, only bigger. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing. With its unibody construction and polycarbonate shell in different colors, the smartphone sure looks and feels a bit different from the smartphones that we tinker with on a daily basis. And being different might just be what will grab the attention of AT&T's customers once the smartphone lands on the carrier's shelves.

With a thickness of 11.5 millimeters (0.45 inches), the Lumia 900 is far from being outstandingly thin, but it cannot be called overly thick either. It could have used a little exercise, however, as it tips the scale at 160 grams (5.64 ounces).

You can compare the Nokia Lumia 900 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

What glows on the smartphone's front is a 4.3-inch AMOLED display enhanced with Nokia's ClearBlack technology. And looking at it is a pleasure, we might add, as it became evident during our Nokia Lumia 900 hands-on. As the case is with today's AMOLED panels, colors look vibrant and punchy even when the display is viewed at an angle.

The display's size may be nothing special by today's standards, but should satisfy the needs of most smartphone users. Same can be said about it's resolution of 480 by 800 pixels, which albeit being sufficient for every-day tasks, won't be capable of providing the sharpness and clarity that we can experience with an HD display. Still, it is nice knowing that the Lumia 900's screen uses a standard RGB pixel arrangement instead of a PenTile display matrix.

Hardware

Considering that the Nokia Lumia 900 is marketed as a high-end Windows Phone handset, it comes as no surprise that it boasts some beefy hardware: a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, namely the APQ8055 clocked at 1.4GHz, is what ticks under its hood. And it doesn't take a scientist to figure out that the Windows Phone platform will run flawlessly on the Lumia 900. After all, we have experienced silky smooth performance even on lower spec'd Windows Phone devices. The extra processing power should come in handy while browsing heavy web pages or running demanding applications.

The back of the smartphone is graced by an 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, F2.2 aperture, and dual LED flash. It can take videos at 720p resolution, which is pretty much expected out of a contemporary smartphone. Presumably, the camera sensor is identical to the one used in the Lumia 800, so if you want to have an idea as to what photos taken with the Lumia 900 will look like, you might want to check out our Nokia Lumia 800 review. Still, slight fluctuations in performance are not out of the question since camera phone image quality depends on a whole bunch of factors, as we described in a recent article.

Just like most of the latest Windows Phone devices, the Nokia Lumia 900 is equipped with a front-facing camera. It is of 1.3 megapixels and will let you snap a photo of yourself with ease, but we suppose you will be using it more during video chats. At this time, Tango is a well-known Windows Phone app for video conferencing, but we suppose that Skype for Windows Phone will become the platform's benchmark video calling app, especially since it is going to be deeply integrated.

AT&T subscribers that choose the Nokia Lumia 900 will be enjoying blazing fast internet speeds as the smartphone boasts a 4G LTE radio. How fast you ask? Just take a look at these numbers. Under the right conditions, figures of over 10Mbps should be expected. Yeah, we know that LTE radios are still quite power hungry, but the smartphone's 1830mAh battery should make up for that. It can also provide about 7 hours of talk time and will last for over 2 weeks in stand-by mode, which are both figures above the average.

16 gigs of on-board storage is what the Nokia Lumia 900 has to offer – a capacity that is neither too little, nor too plentiful by today's standards. Still, it will allow you to carry around quite a few music albums while still leaving plenty of space for photos and videos. Of course, it would have been nice having the option to expand the smartphone's storage further by adding a microSD card, yet a microSD card slot is nowhere to be seen. It is also a drag that USB mass storage is not supported, but that is a trait common for all Windows Phone smartphones.

We have said it before and we will say it again: Windows Phone is a great mobile platform with lots of potential ahead of it. Simple yet elegant, Windows Phone devices have been enjoying high user satisfaction despite having an app library not as extensive as the Apple App Store or the Android Market. But the Nokia Lumia 900 will be treated to a handful of exclusive apps that will come pre-installed on the device. One of them will be the CNN app with iReport capabilities, allowing users to report breaking news straight from their smartphone. There is also a partnership agreement with Electronic Arts to bring 20 notable game titles to the Nokia Lumia 900. 

Additionally, the Univision app will come pre-loaded on the device. For 18 months, it will be available exclusively on Lumia smartphones and will provide sports, entertainment, news, and other types of content in Spanish. Nokia Drive will be available for free and will provide offline navigation with voice guidance worldwide. Nokia Music is also on the list, as well as the ESPN and Sesame Street apps.

Judging solely by its specs, the Nokia Lumia 900 is shaping up like a very capable Windows Phone device. In fact, it won't be an exaggeration to say that once the Lumia 900 hits the shelves it will be among the best Windows Phone smartphones out there. Sure, it isn't perfect, but its drawbacks are greatly outnumbered by its strong sides. What makes things even better is that the Nokia Lumia 900 will most likely be priced very aggressively and might even retail for under $100. It goes without saying that we are looking forward to taking the Lumia 900 for a spin, so expect our full-on review shortly after the smartphone's release.