Other features
Things remain smooth within the
Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) operating system, thanks to a 1.4 GHz
Qualcomm Snapdragon processor that trails behind the 1.4 GHz 4212 Quad
Exynos brain of the Galaxy S3 and
Nvidia Tegra 3 1.5 GHz quad-core beast utilised within
HTC’s One X.
In practice though the single-core
Snapdragon delivered a lag-free performance whilst opening, running as well as closing apps. Besides this speedy CPU, the Lumia 900 offers users an 8 MP autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics that captures quality stills and lag-free HD-ready (720p, as opposed to 1080p) videos. There is also a 1 MP front-facing snapper, making it a lot easier to capture self-portrait shots and also enabling users to make video calls via the included Tango video calls app or Microsoft’s Skype.
Our review unit came with Nokia’s
Creative Studio app pre-installed (also a free download from Windows Phone Marketplace), which enables you to crop your images and do some photo editing. In addition, users are also able to add fun effects to their pics such as Alien head or big chin for instance.
Also onboard are some excellent apps, including Mix Radio and Nokia Drive, which provides turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation. Nokia Drive works incredibly well, so well in fact that it virtually eliminates the need for a standalone
GPS unit. Both Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive are big drawcards for Nokia’s smartphones and remain one of the best reasons to buy from the Finnish giant (although Nokia Maps will appear in future on all Windows Phone 8 devices).
Ditto for Mix Radio, a free (although data costs apply) mobile music-streaming application that works over Wi-Fi and 3G. It enables music lovers to stream music tracks from Nokia’s global catalogue of millions of tracks that includes a large contingent of local artists. Nokia’s Mix Radio is connected to Nokia’s MP3 store, allowing users are able to purchase tracks for R8 a track using their credit card.
Be careful how much you buy though, since unfortunately, users only have access to 16 GB internal storage and cannot expand on this due to the lack of a microSD memory card slot. However, you do get 7 GB additional cloud-based storage for free via
Microsoft SkyDrive. Additionally, the Lumia 900 can support faster HSPA+ networks that deliver download rates of up to 42 Mbps.
While recently previewing
Windows Phone 8 (WP8), Microsoft revealed that Windows Phone 7x devices will not be updated to WP8. Instead, devices like the Lumia 900 are being upgraded to Windows Phone 7.8 later this year, which luckily features the same user interface as WP8.
