Lumia 900 or iPhone 4S?

[AlexanderMatthews]

I currently have an iPhone 4S and love it. I used to have an Arrive and fell in love with WP7os. Now I've gone into the AT&T store and played with a Lumia 900 for a bit and have fell in love with the design and the screen. iPhone 4S may have retina display, but the clear black technology is awesome and as long as I can still view the screen I'm good. Now the big thing that's kind of keeping me from jumping ship is the camera. I tested the camera in the store and it takes decent photos. I LOVE taking photos with my iPhone 4S and I love editing the photos on the go. Plus another thing I want to know about is battery life on the Lumia because my iPhone gets tremendous battery life, unless I'm at work, but still lasts me throughout the day. I live in an area that doesn't get LTE and read somewhere that HSPA+ eats more battery? I get the best battery life out of my iPhone by turning off GPS, turning auto brightness off and bringing the brightness down a bit, and turn off most notifications to certain apps. If I were to do the same with the Lumia what could I expect with the charge of the phone? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[emirozmen]

Had the same question and went L900. Will wait for what the new iPhone has to offer.

SO far I don't regret my decision
By the way I can go a full day and have %20 juice left at the end of the day (around 15hrs.)

 

[jwcdis]

Stick with your iPhone4s for now.
Microsoft announced a new Operating System for their phones (Windows Phone 8) and as new and beautiful as the Lumia 900 looks it won't be able to upgrade to that OS. If you get a Lumia phone now it will only be relevant until Fall since new models will roll out

As far as battery goes. You'll probably end up with about 25-40% battery by the end of the day just as long as you aren't constantly using the phone.

For the camera, there is a small learning curve; you can either press on the LCD screen to take a picture which does auto focusing or you can press and hold the physical camera button down halfway to perform focus then press the rest of the way down to take your picture.

 

[LordGreylock]

I had an iPhone 4S and switched to a Lumia 900 and the camera is not as good as the iPhone 4S. I find that the iPhone 4S will take better photos in a wide range of environments and lighting, while the Lumia 900 may not take quite as good photos in certain lighting conditions and environments so I've had to change camera settings on the Lumia to get the best photos. I have been able to take some very good photos though, definitely good enough for my needs.

The battery life on the Lumia has been better than my iPhone 4S by quite a bit. I am a moderate user. I am not in an LTE area.

I really prefer wp7 to iOS at this point. The iPhone 4S has retina display which is awesome however I prefer the clearblack especially when viewing the phone outside, I also prefer the larger screen on the Lumia.

If you want, check out some various photos I've taken with my L900, some of them I was experimenting with settings, so a couple don't look as good as I hoped.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108237327041998106060/NokiaLumia900Photos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLCVsPjF_-r24AE&feat=directlink

 

[tlo07]

I took my Lumia 900 back (actually bought the phone twice) and went back to my iPhone 4s. I loved the Lumia's design, the screen and especially the sleek Metro UI. I couldn't deal with the camera, however. I PRAY the next Lumia iteration has a low light sensor! You could always try it out and if you don't like it bring it back before your trial period ends. I do think this Fall will have some awesome options if you can hold out. I mean, you've got an iPhone, it's not like your rocking a Razr or some crappy flip phone!

 

[rmichael75]

I had an iPhone 4S and switched to a Lumia 900 and the camera is not as good as the iPhone 4S. I find that the iPhone 4S will take better photos in a wide range of environments and lighting, while the Lumia 900 may not take quite as good photos in certain lighting conditions and environments so I've had to change camera settings on the Lumia to get the best photos. I have been able to take some very good photos though, definitely good enough for my needs.

The battery life on the Lumia has been better than my iPhone 4S by quite a bit. I am a moderate user. I am not in an LTE area.

I really prefer wp7 to iOS at this point. The iPhone 4S has retina display which is awesome however I prefer the clearblack especially when viewing the phone outside, I also prefer the larger screen on the Lumia.

If you want, check out some various photos I've taken with my L900, some of them I was experimenting with settings, so a couple don't look as good as I hoped.

https://picasaweb.google.com/108237327041998106060/NokiaLumia900Photos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLCVsPjF_-r24AE&feat=directlink

Well you have two choices:

Wait for win 8 lumia or IPhone 5. These are going to cost may be 200 dollars for you. But they will be the cutting edge. You do not know what problems you will face as it may get hardware issues like IPhone 4 (Death Grip) which till now has not been fixed. So that is the risk you have.

Of the current ones I think Lumia is the best you can get for win os and it will be upgraded with non hardware dependent features from Win 8 as 7.8 upgrade. It will be a great phone anyway with a lot of apps and updates from Nokia. I would trust Nokia to do everything it can to make you happy. The will keep doing a lot of apps unlike samsung or Htc who just fire and forget.

So if you like it and dont want to wait and take the risks, go ahead with Lumia 900.

 

[rotobadger]

I won't go into all the pluses and minuses regarding iPhone v Lumia 900 (I have a couple of threads on that already) but I will say, as a long time iPhone user who is now testing the Lumia 900 in the real world (iPhone temporarily sitting in a drawer ) that the camera on the Lumia SUCKS in lower light compared to the iPhone. I'm not a crazy picture taker but this could be a deal breaker for me as it's so bad in my opinion.

But the screen and the UI on the Lumia...ahhhh. Love it! I can't put it down!

 

[AlexanderMatthews]

I should let everyone know I have the iPhone 4S on Sprint. If I make the switch I plan on selling my iPhone to take care of the cancellation fee and buy myself the Lumia. Still thinking about it. My service is terrible with Sprint though. This whole week my iPhone has been constantly roaming or having one bar. I would think with the Lumia I'd get better service and data speeds would be A LOT better. The Lumia may not be getting Windows Phone 8 upgrade, but 7.8 should be getting a lot more than just the start screen. I'm just really sick of my service with Sprint and I'm disappointed with them not saying a word about Windows Phone 8.

 

[emirozmen]

Lumia's reception is very very good. Blackberry's are known to have good reception. At the same place Lumia passes BB by 2 more bars (BB-2, Lumia-4)

 

[AlexanderMatthews]

I do know the Lumia has amazing reception. That has been decided in just about every review I've watched or read. They all state they are blown away by the call quality. I'm referring to the data speeds and such. Internet on my iPhone 4S is atrocious. Again, I'm coming from Sprint. I'm still debating...I'd just hate to sell my iPhone and then hate the Lumia. Probably the BIGGEST selling point for me is battery life. I want this phone to last. That is definitely the best thing about my iPhone is the battery life. It can last a whole day and then some! Argh...decisions, decisions!

 

[B00m79]

You won't hate the Lumia, but you may not love it either. It has it's flaws, as every phone does.

I had an iPhone 4 I gave to my wife when we got married, and it's camera is far superior to the Lumia, to the point I borrow her phone to take pictures. If taking pics are important to you and the OS doesn't matter that much to you, stick with the iPhone. If it doesn't, and you have LTE service in your area with ATT (which is awesome, btw), go for the Lumia.

 

[AlexanderMatthews]

You won't hate the Lumia, but you may not love it either. It has it's flaws, as every phone does.

I had an iPhone 4 I gave to my wife when we got married, and it's camera is far superior to the Lumia, to the point I borrow her phone to take pictures. If taking pics are important to you and the OS doesn't matter that much to you, stick with the iPhone. If it doesn't, and you have LTE service in your area with ATT (which is awesome, btw), go for the Lumia.

Well I don't have LTE in my area. They do have HSPA+. I do enjoy taking photos with my iPhone, but someone posted some sample photos and they didn't look too bad. I always edit my photos anyhow. From what I'm reading the only real big flaw is the camera is mediocre.

 

[AlexanderMatthews]

So my big concern with the Lumia 900 is the camera, but after reviewing these boards and looking through some photos that have been posted and taken with the Lumia I'm kind of blown away by the quality of the shots. I was really shocked to see them and also confused as to why people hate the camera on the phone. They seem to take pretty good shots.

 

[sdreamer]

So my big concern with the Lumia 900 is the camera, but after reviewing these boards and looking through some photos that have been posted and taken with the Lumia I'm kind of blown away by the quality of the shots. I was really shocked to see them and also confused as to why people hate the camera on the phone. They seem to take pretty good shots.

The reason is, most of those photos you have been blown away by were not taken on the Auto setting, but instead, those users were able to figure out the right settings for the mind blowing photos. The general consensus is the camera on Auto just is a hit or miss, or just sucks in most people's minds. From my experience auto has taken some awesome shots for me, but the number of those pales in comparison to the many subpar photos I've also taken with it, especially in low light with no flash. The iPhone4s, imo and from my experience, takes decent photos all the time on auto; no manual adjustment needed. To sum it up, the Lumia900 has pretty awesome hardware, but sub-par software auto settings, while the iPhone4s has good hardware, and good software for photos almost any time.
Lumia 900 --> Can take awesome photos. May spoil some moments though.
iPhone4s --> Always takes nice photos. Will work for most occasions almost never missing a moment.
So I guess it comes down to tolerance and reliability. I think if Nokia can tweak their auto settings, then you can have a much more reliable camera. But compared to the iPhone4s, it isn't as reliable, and I think that is what most people don't like about the Lumia's stuff.

I gotta agree though, that ClearBlack technology is really dazzling, it really makes everything pop. Every other phone I've seen, the colors just can't compare, especially in direct sunlight. To me the iPhone4s has a tiny screen, and it has this greyish hue that makes it look super dull, where the Lumia 900 just pops at me. I think it is this alone that has kept me in the honeymoon phase with this gadget for so long, followed by the OS.

 

[SnailUK]

I wouldn't buy a WP or iPhone right now. WP8 and iPhone 5 are due out in the next couple of months, which means better phones, and big price drops on existing phones.

 

[Verkunder]

If taking pictures is important to you and you want a Windows Phone, get the Titan 2. There's more than just the Lumia out there, people. Heck, I kinda want to swap my Lumia for the Titan 2... :S

 

[doublebullout]

Lumia's reception is very very good. Blackberry's are known to have good reception. At the same place Lumia passes BB by 2 more bars (BB-2, Lumia-4)

Don't want to derail the thread, but the number of bars is not a standardized unit of measurement. You can't compare signal strength between different phones by counting bars.

 

[TMavC5]

I currently have an iPhone 4S and love it. I used to have an Arrive and fell in love with WP7os. Now I've gone into the AT&T store and played with a Lumia 900 for a bit and have fell in love with the design and the screen. iPhone 4S may have retina display, but the clear black technology is awesome and as long as I can still view the screen I'm good. Now the big thing that's kind of keeping me from jumping ship is the camera. I tested the camera in the store and it takes decent photos. I LOVE taking photos with my iPhone 4S and I love editing the photos on the go. Plus another thing I want to know about is battery life on the Lumia because my iPhone gets tremendous battery life, unless I'm at work, but still lasts me throughout the day. I live in an area that doesn't get LTE and read somewhere that HSPA+ eats more battery? I get the best battery life out of my iPhone by turning off GPS, turning auto brightness off and bringing the brightness down a bit, and turn off most notifications to certain apps. If I were to do the same with the Lumia what could I expect with the charge of the phone? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Wait for WP8.

 

[jfa1]

and/or IpHone 5 to come out see what they do what changes and determine which one best meets your needs.

 

[freestaterocker]

I would advise waiting for WP8 but if you're jonesing bad for a new device the the HTC Titan 2 has the best smartphone camera short of the Nokia Pureview 808. (btw the Pureview tech is coming to WP8)