Nokia Lumia 900 Review

Design                                                 

Obviously the 4.3-inch Lumia 900 is significantly bigger than the 3.7-inch Lumia 800, but the 900 also has a flatter screen (it doesn't bubble out of the chassis like the 800) and a front-facing camera for video calls. Otherwise you're essentially looking at the same classy, unibody phone, which comes in eye-popping Smurf blue or more sedate black or white.

It's heavy at 159g, but it feels solid too.

The display itself is definitely one of the Lumia 900's best features. The AMOLED screen features ClearBlack display tech and the ubiquitous toughened Gorilla Glass. Colours are rich and sharp and the picture is incredibly bright.

Photos look terrific too, with great contrast, wide spectrum variation and greens so bright they began to look unreal.

The 900's ports, like other Lumias, are all about the micro -- micro-USB for charging, and micro-SIM (like the iPhone, a paperclip or the included little key pop out the card slot).

Microsoft's mobile operating system is slick but restrictive -- it's definitely not for Android-loving tinkerers, people who love being in control of every last setting and need to micro-manage battery life with a plethora of widgets.

Camera test                                                   

Eight megapixels. Carl Zeiss optics. Dual-LED flash. Autofocus. These are Nokia's armoury of camera buzzwords, but what do they mean in practice? Natasha was disappointed by the Lumia 800's camera, feeling the iPhone 4S had the edge over it. Jessica compared the Lumia 900 to several current phones and found it or the 4S were always her favourites. You can see more of her shots in this photo gallery.

With a wider depth of field than the 4S to give rich closeups, the 900 fared less well when focusing on subjects further away. It also gave many shots a yellowish tone. By comparison, the iPhone 4S photos are generally sharper and more vibrant, with more contrast and cooler colour temperature.

In terms of shutter lag, the Lumia takes some time to focus before capturing a photo, but it's not much slower than average. The 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera was fine -- shots were sharp enough to define features, but not so detailed that an early-morning video call would terrify the poor recipient.

Battery life                                                    

Nokia claims the Lumia 900 can manage 7 hours over 3G, squeezing 12.5 days of standby time from its 1,830mAh battery. The talk time on the Lumia 900 lasted 6.86 hours, and a full day without charging under moderate-to-heavy general use.