AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 Review by CashSherpa.com

Nokia is a company that’s been pretty much absent from the smartphone market in North America. They may be the biggest cellphone company in the world, but in the west they’re mostly known for their lower end phones. That’s because traditionally, the providers haven’t carried their smartphones in store. This has now all changed with Windows Phone 7, and their latest model, the Lumia 900, will soon be out on AT&T. But is this the Windows Phone to get? How does it fare compared with the competition? Here’s a short review of what this device has to offer.

One would think that since it’s running an operating system that hasn’t gained much traction, it would be added to the shelves and stay pretty much under the radar, but that isn’t the case. Not only is this handset taking the media by storm, but Jeff Bradley, CEO of AT&T, said that this would be their biggest launch in a long time. The provider is putting a lot of resources in making sure the Lumia is a success, and the handset will have many accessories available as well. The phone does have a lot going for it. The OS it runs is Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, which is the latest version, with a lot of small improvements to the software over the previous version. It supports the full range of AT&T’ network, including 3G and 4G LTE. While the handset has been sold in Europe, this is the first time we’ll see it in the US, with full support for US frequencies.

Looking at the hardware itself, again we can see some very nice features. The screen is a full AMOLED display providing a 480 x 800 resolution. It’s clear and crisp, although it can’t compare with the iPhone’s retina display. Nokia uses ClearBlack technology to help get better and deeper colors. Internally, it has 16GB of storage and 512MB of RAM, which means it should run Windows Phone apps fairly well. The Lumia supports WiFi and Bluetooth on top of the 3G and 4G, and has the typical micro USB connector. One interesting note is that this one has a NFC chip, so it can be used with things like virtual wallets. The CPU is a 1.4GHz Scorpion and it even comes with an FM tuner. Nokia claims up to 7 hours talk time on a normal battery. Finally, it has a 8MPx camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

Will this be the Windows Phone 7 to buy? Just the fact that it runs the latest version of the OS is a big plus, and its camera should be good since Nokia typically uses good cameras in its phones. The feature set is nice too, and in line with other modern smartphones. So when compared with other Windows Phones, this will likely be the one to get, at least for the near future. However, will the Lumia 900 be enough of a hit to make iPhone and Android users switch? Right now that’s doubtful. The truth is that it simply doesn’t have any killer feature over any other phone out there.