Usability, Calling & Data, Browser

Usability

The Lumia 900 is powered past the same i.4GHz single-core Qualcomm processor and 512MB of RAM as the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 smartphones from Nokia. The processor has no trouble pushing around the Windows Phone 7.five Metro interface, though opening tertiary-party apps nevertheless takes longer than I would adopt.

Still, the fast and fluid interface is a joy to navigate and provides a very different feel than other smartphone platforms. Windows Phone 7.5 introduced a few new features to get in easier to navigate a long list of apps, but I feel that the app list could do good from some sort of folder organization system, peculiarly when there are a lot of apps installed on the phone.

Nokia hasn't really contradistinct the Metro interface in Windows Telephone vii.v for the Lumia 900, and it offers a similar experience to most whatever other Windows Phone on the market place. The alive tiles that can be pinned to homescreen work well for providing glanceable data and quick access to certain app features, and Windows Phone's extensive integration with social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn makes the phone experience very connected with your social circle. The power to see photos that are shared to Facebook through the Pictures Hub is very cool, and the central admission to all of your friend's status updates in the People Hub is very handy.

I still don't similar the fact that the search push always opens a Bing web search instead of providing contextual search within an app, and I wish that Microsoft would integrate voice dictation features throughout the OS instead of offering them only in the Messages Hub, the Start menu, and the Bing search tool.

The lockscreen could also benefit from showing 3rd-party or social network notifications (currently it is limited to displaying missed calls, new messages, and new emails).

Still, the Windows Phone approach to using a smartphone is very different than that offered by Android or iOS, and information technology'due south a refreshing change of pace. It has a beautiful, font-heavy interface that meshes well with the spartan hardware blueprint of the Lumia 900.

Calling & Data

As mentioned at the start, the Lumia 900 is the first Nokia to feature LTE support, and it is one of the first Windows Telephone smartphones with LTE. Using the Lumia 900 on AT&T's LTE network is terrific, with average speeds easily topping 10Mbps. The Lumia 900 also has 21Mbps HSPA+ support, so even if you aren't in an surface area covered past AT&T'due south LTE, you can still become respectable network speeds.

Additionally, the Lumia 900 is the kickoff Nokia Windows Phone to back up the native Internet Sharing mobile hotspot function for up to five simultaneously-connected devices in the platform.

Call quality on the Lumia 900 is very good, with callers sounding clear and full in most whatever situation. The external speaker located on the bottom on the phone produces clear audio, simply it could stand to gain a boost in the volume department, every bit the maximum volume level is nonetheless as well low for anything only a quiet room.

Messaging

The Windows Phone messaging app on the Nokia Lumia 900 supports both SMS and MMS threaded conversations, likewise equally integrated Facebook chat and Windows Alive instant messaging. The app intelligently keeps conversations with the same contact within the same thread, even if they are across unlike services. I would honey to see support for Google Talk, but I'm not holding my breath on that ane.

I'yard a large fan of the Windows Phone email client, especially since it recently gained improved support for Gmail accounts. It supports POP3, IMAP, and Exchange email accounts, and most popular web email services are setup automatically. The app features combined inboxes, multiple message management, threaded conversations, formatted text within messages, and a make clean and fast interface.

Apps & App Store

Nokia has included its ESPN and App Highlights apps with the Lumia 900, and in that location are a number of AT&T services as well. You can uninstall any of the pre-loaded AT&T apps if y'all decide non to utilise them, which is a nice touch on. Additionally, you lot can install Nokia's free Drive, Maps, and Transport apps from the Windows Telephone Marketplace to add neat navigational features to the Lumia 900.

The Windows Phone Marketplace has grown tremendously and information technology now boasts over seventy,000 apps. Still, at that place are a number of big name apps missing (PayPal and Pandora come immediately to mind, though many others missing), and it appears that developers are withal giving Windows Phone lower priority than other platforms.

Browser

The Internet Explorer mobile browser on the Lumia 900 is fast, loading web pages, scrolling and zooming. In that location are some rendering issues with it, though, and you can really see where the Lumia's relatively low resolution display holds it back when you zoom out fully on a spider web page.

Fortunately, double-tap zooming is quick and the browser does a good job of re-flowing the text for like shooting fish in a barrel readability. I really like how the address bar is at the bottom of the brandish, every bit it makes it much easier to input URLs rapidly. The browser does non support Adobe Wink content, but information technology does have robust HTML5 support and a multiple tab direction system for chop-chop switching between open pages.