It all depends on how you use it. You could replicate some of the issues that people complain about on your phone (like the capacitive buttons only registering long press when using Zune to play music) but if you don't use your phone in that way you'll never notice it.
My first Lumia was a pre-order - I pre-ordered it in an AT&T store and received it via UPS the Friday before it was available in stores. That specific device had several problems:
- The data problem that everyone fell victim to during the first week: after a day or two, the Lumia 900 would lose the data connection and was unable to reconnect to the cellular data network unless you performed a hard reset. Thankfully Nokia released an update very quickly but I had to hard-reset my device once, and then instead of hard resetting my device for a second time, I just went without cellular data for two days. It was pretty frustrating but like I said, an update was released pretty quickly.
- Even after the cellular data bug was fixed via an update, my first Lumia 900 had a very flaky WiFi connection. WiFi would work fine sometimes, and other times it wouldn't. The phone would indicate that it was connected to a WiFi network but nothing would load; I had to go into Settings and turn WiFi off and then back on before web content would load again. Nothing would load until you did that. I'd have to do this on a daily basis, and sometimes more than once a day.
The WiFi bug was so irritating that I exchanged my first 900 for a new one in early May. It's the device I currently have. WiFi has worked perfectly on this device, but a new problem appeared that wasn't present in my first Lumia 900: the purple screen bug!
I use the auto-brightness feature because medium or high brightness is just too bright indoors, where the lowest brightness setting is perfect. The problem with the new Lumia is that a certain shade of gray that was ubiquitous throughout the OS was showing up as purple. It was a huge shock when I first noticed it as I got in the car after exchanging my device at the AT&T store. Lots of people on this forum/site downplayed the significance of this bug but for an OS that prides itself in its clean, modern, and deliberately subdued Metro UI, the purple tint was a huge annoyance for me. An update that fixed this issue was eventually pushed out to all phones but only after several weeks.
And I'll only touch very briefly on the camera. It stinks. Others have mentioned that you have to use it "properly" to get good pictures. You know what phone takes great pictures right out of the box? My fiancee's Evo 4G LTE. Takes amazing pictures using the default settings with no fiddling with the settings. Those who say you have to "learn how to use the camera correctly" are the same hypocrites who laughed when Steve Jobs told iPhone users that they were holding their phones incorrectly. The camera is bad, but I've come to terms with it.
Thankfully, right now all the above issues have been rectified (except the camera obviously) and I'm really enjoying the phone. I just flashed Tango and it's actually made a huge difference, especially with Notifications and applications running in the background. I had been getting a few "You have too many applications open in the background" notifications in Baconit and some other apps before I flashed Tango; now they've disappeared and everything is running great. So if you haven't flashed Tango yet I strongly suggest you do so.
The phone is still beautiful. The screen is still amazing to look at, and the OS is still silky smooth and very fast. If I had to choose a phone TODAY, would I still choose the Lumia 900 over something like my fiancee's Evo 4G LTE? Definitely. But that's mainly because Android is still bloated and laggy, and because of how much I like Windows Phone.
How about: would I still buy the Lumia 900 over something like the Titan II? The answer to that question is most likely no. The only thing that makes me hesitate is the screen on the 900; I absolutely love the SAMOLED+ panel. Otherwise, the Titan II has a better camera and the screen is more responsive, especially when scrolling through the Start menu. If you've ever put the two phones side by side you'll know what I mean. HTC has some of their own exclusive apps, but it's not like I'm even using any of the Nokia Apps on my 900.
tl,dr: Some of us who pre-ordered the Lumia 900 were essentially beta testers and had to suffer through several bugs that were eventually fixed. These were well-documented bugs that were not the fault of the user. After exchanging my device and after several updates from Nokia, and after upgrading my device to Tango, I finally feel like the Lumia 900 is firing on all cylinders and working very well. I just wish it would've shipped this way back in April, but I guess early adopters should always expect to work through bugs, even if Nokia claims the Beta Test Is Over.