Stupidest Nokia Lumia 900 article yet

[saintforlife]

The Nokia Lumia 900: A good phone at a great price that you probably shouldn't buy

The Nokia Lumia 900 is a good phone. It looks*great and comes at a fantastic price: between $0 and $99 on contract or about $450 contract-free. Unfortunately, you probably shouldn't buy it.

The problem isn't the phone hardware. Although its specifications are not the highest, the phone is reasonable for the price, and in practice it remains fast and fluid for everyday tasks.

Nor is the problem the phone software, at least, not as such. Windows Phone 7.5 is, for the most part, a well constructed, slick operating system. It's not perfect, and there are gaps that I'd like filled (for example, I'd like support for VoIP applications), but it's eminently livable. Nokia's unique applications?Drive, Transit, Maps?are all valuable additions that greatly enrich the platform.

No, the problem is, well, the future. Unlike the dumbphones of yore, smartphones are chock full of complex software; software that has bugs, and software that doesn't necessarily do everything that you might want. But this is OK, because it also gets better. Bugfixes are released, new features are added, APIs are extended to enable more powerful applications, and the phones improve with time.

With a dumbphone, the phone is at its best on day one. With an updatable smartphone, it's at its worst on day one.

The problem is, it's not clear just what the Lumia 900's future really is. This is a problem with two causes: AT&T and Microsoft.

 

[cckgz4]

sent from the MyTouch 4G

 

[Bifurcated]

Read the article. It's actually really well written and balanced. The authors issues are, (1) AT&T has a lousy track record with releasing updates, and (2) the Lumia 900 might be orphaned in a matter of months by the release of Windows Phone 8.

These are very legitimate concerns, and customers should be aware of them.

It wouldn't be remotely difficult for AT&T and MS to address these fears by, for example, committing to put WP8 onto the Lumia. The fact that they won't do so makes this concern even more valid.

As for me, I'm going to buy a Lumia 800 or 900 (haven't decided yet) in the next couple of days. I am aware of the problems, but I need a phone now. But if you don't need a phone now, it really might well be worth waiting. You should at least be aware of the problem, which is what this article is doing.

 

[saintforlife]

If you agree with the article, I guess nobody should ever buy an Android phone either for the same reasons.

 

[Ochowie84]

If you agree with the article, I guess nobody should eve buy an Android phone either for the same reasons.

I agree with this. I have had about 4-5 android phones and the only one that got any updates was my Galaxy Nexus. Even then, Verizon delayed 4.04 so I had to get a custom rom with it.

 

[Bifurcated]

If you agree with the article, I guess nobody should eve buy an Android phone either for the same reasons.

Well, actually, yes. People should consider likelihood of upgrades when buying an Android phone. The article even discusses that.

But I would hope we can do better than saying "Android is just as bad." Apple does an awesome job with updates. That's the bar WP should be shooting for.

In any case, if a phone is potentially going to be orphaned in only 6 months, people ought to know. And people ought to know that AT&T sits on critical updates like the keyboard disappearing bug. Then they can make an informed decision.

And I say again, Microsoft could resolve this really easily by announcing that the Lumia will be upgradable to WP 8.

 

[mparker]

If you agree with the article, I guess nobody should ever buy an Android phone either for the same reasons.

Except for the Nexus phones, which are updated regularly. But the Nexii are the exceptions which prove the rule.

 

[nokia4life]

All this uproar for what? Does he know Apollo is coming in 6 months no so stop with the well ifs already of you want then get it any phone can be orphaned at anytime and no they don't have reveal that roadmap its a chance we take. And dude we should say well no one should buy an android you don't hesitate to point out the upside so point out the bad google sucks at update **** they can't even get the nexus updated on time which is why I have this now don't tell me I will get updates and then change it every month stringing folks along. I would rather you not tell me so that I won't be sitting hw in 4 to 6 months saying well they promised Apollo where is it like the android folks do look at the forums all the crying and shizzle because googs promised an update as well as the manufactures and didn't keep it. Buy the phone because you want it not because what could happen in half of a year, yes that's six months

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[peestandingup]

Why dismiss this article? Are you guys not concerned with this at all??

I agree with the article & its also a concern of mine too. When I first bought in to Windows Phone, I was under the impression that I'd be getting my updates directly through Microsoft since they controlled the OS from basically top to bottom (like they do with Windows desktop). Didn't they say as such back in the day?? Seems like now they've started to change their tune & let the carriers call the shots. Its not a good thing & if I wanted that, I'd go to a crappy fragmented Android device that everyone & their mom's has had their hand in.

There's other issues that I won't go into (mainly future proofing hardware & lazy development/lack of quality big name apps), but this one is probably one of the biggest for me personally.

 

[HeyCori]

Strange, I was going to read that article after checking out WPCentral. Thanks for summarizing it. He does make one really good point, that AT&T has not done a good job of releasing updates on time. However, to counter that point, AT&T still released the updates. AT&T combines smaller updates with larger ones (which is incredibly annoying), but kudos to them for not abandoning the update altogether. If you were around here this time last year then you may remember that AT&T also bundled NoDo with other updates. Anyone getting an AT&T 900 shouldn't worry about not getting updates, they should worry about getting updates a few months after international owners get them.