Impressions/Reviews

[RiseAgainst94]

I know some of you work for AT&T or have had a chance to get a hands on with the device, I just wanted to put all the opinions about the device in to one place.
For me it seems very nice, good size, sturdy, fast, great screen. Unfortunately it was a little too heavy, bad with fingerprints, and camera band scratches easily.

 

[chsoriano]

I had a quick hands-on today at an AT&T store, the rep had literally just started using it over her lunch break (it's replacing her iPhone, not sure which model). I have to say the screen was stunning - it almost looked fake when I first looked at it (like a freshly published magazine). It felt great in hand too, better than my TITAN actually, which has a difficult to reach power button. I didn't spend too much time with it but there were other customers waiting so I didn't want to keep her too long.

This wasn't meant to be a review, but I sure as heck can't wait for April 8th to go pick up my pre-order.

 

[iViz]

1. Screen itself is amazing, I like it and its vibrant when needed for HQ videos.
2. Battery life is awesome for being on LTE.
3. Physically the unibody is amazing and the matte finish adds grip to the phone so it doesn't slip out so easily.
4. Yeah, that camera band is gonna get messed up easily. (Especially, since I lay it down and spin it around because its capable of being spun.)

 

[Judge_Daniel]

\
4. Yeah, that camera band is gonna get messed up easily. (Especially, since I lay it down and spin it around because its capable of being spun.)

I lol'ed at this because I used to do this with my Imagio, so I understand completely.

 

[mhopii]

Just got my Lumia today from work. Haven't played with it too much but I can already tell the battery life is going to be great. I pulled it out of the box at about 2pm for the first time and it had no more than 30% battery. I made about 5 phone calls on it before I got off totaling about 1.5 hrs and browsed the internet and downloaded some apps on my home wifi and I didn't have to charge until about 2am. Even then I still I had some life left in the battery.

It feel pretty heavy compared to my galaxy s2 and my iPhone which could be good/bad depending on the person. I tend to like lighter phones but its not a deal breaker for me.

Screen is brilliant. I agree with an earlier comment that the screen seems to be like a magazine fresh off the presses.

I did notice however that the silver band by the camera already had some scratches close to the lens possible from shipping. So be prepared for that to show some wear and tear pretty quick. See attached pic

thats all for now

 

[mhopii]

To add to my previous post the only negatives about the hardware is that the corners are so squared off that it almost feel sharp. It reminds me of the bottom or "chin" of the Palm Pre.

Lastly I hate when the charging port is at the top of the phone. It makes it look like you are talking on the phone upside down when it is plugged in. Also it makes it difficult for accessory makers to make dock accessories.

 

[chsoriano]

To add to my previous post the only negatives about the hardware is that the corners are so squared off that it almost feel sharp. It reminds me of the bottom or "chin" of the Palm Pre.

Lastly I hate when the charging port is at the top of the phone. It makes it look like you are talking on the phone upside down when it is plugged in. Also it makes it difficult for accessory makers to make dock accessories.

Yeah... that's what I hate about them putting them the USB ports anywhere else but the bottom, means we can't expect any 3rd party docks. I prefer to stream to my bluetooth speakers (or DLNA receiver), but it would be nice to have a dock to drop it in to charge when I get home.

 

[Judge_Daniel]

I just went an played with a sales rep's Lumia 900 in black and it was very, very nice! The screen was beautiful, and it felt really good in-hand. However, the screen DID leave a LOT of fingerprints. It was not nearly as smooth as other touch screens I have used and I'm not sure what would cause that. I'm sure a screen protector would take care of this, though, so it definitely wouldn't deter me from a purchase. The poor guy didn't know too much about it and said he had just received it less than an hour ago (his live tiles were still set up on defaults). I tried to answer his questions that he had, but I'm no salesman.

 

[sr!]

May I ask a simple question to all the folks who have handled this phone? Be it for 15 mins or a couple of days -
1) Did you get to make any phone calls? If not, why not? If you did, how is the call quality? How do the other party sound during the call? How do you sound to the other party?
2) How is the cell reception? do you see all the bars? or are they 1 and half at best?

After all, this is a phone, and sometimes (me included) forget that. I read some lumia 710 had call quality issues, and i hope 900 is clear of any of those glitches. Nokia is known for amazing antenna designs and I hope we get to experience it on 900 as well.

 

[Judge_Daniel]

I handled it inside an AT&T store, so it had full signal, although I didn't make a call on it. It couldn't pick up GPS service, though.

 

[RiseAgainst94]

I just went an played with a sales rep's Lumia 900 in black and it was very, very nice! The screen was beautiful, and it felt really good in-hand. However, the screen DID leave a LOT of fingerprints. It was not nearly as smooth as other touch screens I have used and I'm not sure what would cause that. I'm sure a screen protector would take care of this, though, so it definitely wouldn't deter me from a purchase. The poor guy didn't know too much about it and said he had just received it less than an hour ago (his live tiles were still set up on defaults). I tried to answer his questions that he had, but I'm no salesman.

I completely agree with the screen, fingerprint magnet and a little slow. The screen will save the fringerprint thing, but hopefully we can get used to the screen.

 

[gtg465x]

It was not nearly as smooth as other touch screens I have used and I'm not sure what would cause that.

Strange, the screen on the Lumia 800 is supa slick!

 

[sr!]

Thanks Daniel.
I went to an ATT store this evening as well. I saw the full bars as well. The thing at the top said 4g. the rep was awesome. he had a black one he was using himself, and he said he was one of the earliest adopters of WP7 platform. His personal phone was a focus flash. Another girl was using a cyan version and was on a call. I dont recollect her asking the other party to repeat.. which is nice.

I asked Kevin (the rep) about his experience with 900. He had been using it for 3 days. he said he hasnt dropped a call or missed a call. and he said call quality was on par with the iPhone.

Kevin told me a Nokia rep had just visited them this morning. It looks like the Nokia rep told them about 5 areas Nokia concentrated on with Lumia 900 - Smooth experience of Windows Phone OS, build quality, network reception, better camera and the fifth one he forgot...lol. and he said he can see that all 5 (hmm 4 of them) were amazing in his experience in the last 3 days. He clearly said if you want to and if you decide to switch from your iPhone, this is the one you should get.

I held the phone and played with it.. mind you, i'm not experienced with WP7 yet. and this will be my first WP7 phone. But the phone felt great in my hand. not too huge. not bulky as others mentioned. and definitely not heavy as others felt. Again, i think its a personal thing i guess.

One last thing I observed was - while the OS is fluid, and the screen is magnificent, the screen sensitivity felt a bit weird. I dont think it was taking my screen taps correctly. I hope thats not going to be an issue.

 

[RiseAgainst94]

Awesome! Really great to hear again. I found the phone to be heavy, as did the AT&T rep that was with me, but it is not a deal breaker by any means. Yeah the screen tendancies are kind of weird. Was your experience similar to this video?

Check out this awkward scene: Nokia City Lens beta on Nokia Lumia 900 at 2012 CES - YouTube
1:48-1:55

 

[sr!]

Awesome! Really great to hear again. I found the phone to be heavy, as did the AT&T rep that was with me, but it is not a deal breaker by any means. Yeah the screen tendancies are kind of weird. Was your experience similar to this video?

Check out this awkward scene: Nokia City Lens beta on Nokia Lumia 900 at 2012 CES - YouTube
1:48-1:55

Exactly. You nailed it there. Thats exactly what i meant. Some lag/stutter can be found at 1:20 mark as well. I also found that issue is of lesser concern if you hard tap/hard swipe instead of using softer gestures.
But I dont know if this issue is because of the screen sensitivity or some software issue. Hope its not hardware issue.

 

[mhopii]

Exactly. You nailed it there. Thats exactly what i meant. Some lag/stutter can be found at 1:20 mark as well. I also found that issue is of lesser concern if you hard tap/hard swipe instead of using softer gestures.
But I dont know if this issue is because of the screen sensitivity or some software issue. Hope its not hardware issue.

Im sure that software in that vid was of an earlier build because no one using it at my store has witnessed it. Also, our Nokia rep said that they may be releasing an update prior to or shortly after the launch of the device to fix any remaining bugs.

 

[RiseAgainst94]

That's great, yeah Nokia will not do us wrong. You can expect this device to very refined after the first 6 months after release.

 

[hellomiggy]

So an iPhone User here, fell in love with the phone since I saw it on Engadget and Gizmodo. This phone is making me realize, how much I really am considering coming over to WP7.

So I went to the at&t right now, reading all these stories of guys on here and Reddit, saying they played with em. I saw online that at&t and Nokia is making the workers use that phone. So they seem inexperienced, I noticed. The guy came over from a Samsung Galaxy II Skyrocket. He was all about his Skyrocket, and apparently he only had it for a couple of hours. I saw that the Lumia was 5 bars with LTE. Surprised, I barely found out that Pasadena, California has LTE, so it made it more worthy to get it. I played with it for a couple of minutes, first thing I went for was the Keyboard and Camera. The keyboard is nice and it felt extremely roomy and I loved it, haha. I felt like, I could type faster with that phone compared to my iPhone. It was fluid and fast and I didn't make any mistakes, which made me even want it more. I type fairly fast and I have several mistakes here and there on my iPhone.

The camera from what I saw it, looked awesome. I didn't want to take a picture, but it looked awesome, I enjoy taking pictures, but sometimes I never have the opportunity to take them. The screen was gorgeous, as they said on the top. It looked fake, when he handed me the phone, He had the screen unlocked and it was on the home screen, so when I saw it, I was like this is Fake, it looked like they printed a sticker and left on top of the screen. That's how good the screen look, it was dark the Navy Blue tiles popped out. Just looked like a Hi-Res printed sticker.

I didn't know what else to play with as well, since I was kind of shocked and awed with the device. It's big it felt, big in my hands. I am so used to a smaller phone. The phone felt like the plastic on the bottom of my Laptop, It felt nice though, the screen was beautiful and just felt awesome in my hands. I have a protector for my iPhone, so it makes it a little heavier than usual. So it felt like, I had the protected iPhone. Go check it out at your at&t store. You will be amazed. I'm going to wait for the White one to come out. It is going to be a tough wait. I know it'll be worth it.

 

[sr!]

Nice to hear jonathan. Welcome to WPCentral I'm coming from iPhone as well. Will be my first WP7. I think its a fair statement to make that this will be the first WP7 device to a lot of people.
I as comparing a statement about weight by a few people above. Got me to think that i didnt feel it was too heavy because i have my iPhone in an Otter case, so that kinda makes the iPhone heavy. So i guess i'm used to that weight and the naked Lumia 900 felt about the same.
Since I'm not planning on covering this beauty with ugly clothes, the weight should be bearable for me.
I'm also planning on waiting for white. But I'm known to have little patience.. so time will tell.

 

[RiseAgainst94]

Welcome MiguelJonathan and thanks for your reply! What did you think about the screen fluidity? Any lag?