Anybody here thinking of switching to the Nokia Lumia 900 (Windows Phone 7) from an iPhone or Android phone?

[saintforlife]

Looks like Nokia and Microsoft are going all-in with this one to try and make a dent in the US market.

You can pre-order it at Walmart now for $49 - http://www0-walmart.letstalk.com/pro...719&corpId=515

So for people that have tried WP7, how does it compare to iOS? Are the live tiles really that helpful and as big a deal as people make it out to be? Is it as user friendly and intuitive as iOS? Will the learning curve be steep if somebody wants to switch over from an iPhone?

Frankly I am tired of the stale iOS operating system and want to try something new. AT&T gives me upgrades every 18 months on average. So I guess I really could switch to the Nokia Lumia when it comes out (I am upgrade eligible now) and use it for the next year and a half. If I don't like it, I could always switch back to the iPhone and my next upgrade will coincide with the 7th gen iPhone.

Thoughts? I'd like to especially hear from folks who have switched to Windows Phone from iOS or Android.

[AlexJT89]

I have the 2011 version of the T-Mobile HTC HD7 which is the AT&T HTC HD7S (the "S" stands for S-LCD screen it uses) and I'm running a hacked version of Windows Phone 7.5.8107.79 whereas AT&T just simply refuses to update the handsets on a timely manner. In fact, AT&T won't even offer Internet Sharing via default when T-Mobile enabled it which is why I flashed a T-Mobile ROM over the AT&T ROM to get the latest firmware/software updates along with Internet Sharing.

Now regarding the Nokia, I am in love with it, I am on Month 8 of my 2 year contract and have been trying to figure out ways to obtain the Nokia on a low price and extend my contract (I'm still a noob in the handheld-world, if anyone can help me out that would be great).

The operating system is stupidly easy to use and configure, I have a iPad 2 so I'm familiar with both OSes, I honestly find Windows Phone 7.5 MUCH more enjoyable to use and play around with than iOS 5.1. It is SUPER stable and secure, literally have like 50 ongoing Live Tiles divided into categories and with all that information being processed, the phone has never frozen or locked up do to the constant scrolling and opening of the Live Tiles processing onscreen information.

Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live are integrated into the People Hub which is the Tile with multiple icons in it on the screen you provided, it is fast and smooth with quick access to everything. If you pin the Me Tile (which is your own little account where everything is contained) you'll get Facebook-like notifications on the Tile and you can access your status updates etc.

I can provide more information if you want, just ask.

[saintforlife]

For me the biggest draw of the Nokia Lumia 900 is the Nokia specific apps like Nokia Drive, Maps etc. which can give you turn by turn navigation around the world for free without a data connection. Since I travel internationally a lot, this feature alone could make me buy this phone.

Coming to WP7 itself, how does the IE9 web browser compare to Safari on iOS? I love Safari on my iPhone. Can I expect the same smoothness and fluidity on IE9? The web browser is probably the app that I use most often, so it is kind of important to me.

Also have you ever found any major apps missing in the Marketplace but which are available on other platforms?

I hear that WP7 phones have typically much better battery life than the iPhone or Android phones. Is this true?

Lastly, the single-core processor and puny 512 MB of RAM kind of scare me. Will the Lumia 900 miss out on future upgrade like Apollo etc owing to lower specs? Or even if it got the SW upgrade, will it bog the phone down similar to how iOS 4 rendered the iPhone 3G unusable with its constant freezing and lag?

[AlexJT89]

I have no experience nor have I read any of the reviews for the Nokia Apps but my HTC has similar Apps but I never ever use them... Though I have been reading up about the Nokia Drive App and it seems kinda redundant because the built in Bing Maps already does this, it knows exactly where you are on the map and exactly how fast you're moving.

I had my WP7 phone before IE9 Mobile (that's what Microsoft calls it) and prior to WP7.5 it used some version of IE6 which wasn't bad at all but it lacked certain features and didnt have HTML5 which IE9 Mobile now includes. I find IE9 Mobile to be much faster and process websites the correct way more than Safari does on iOS...but again Safari has ALWAYS been garbage... (I also use an iMac with Safari 5.2 [OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion DP2]), HTML5 works pretty well for me on the sites I visit, you can change the settings to Web or Mobile sites depending on your preference.

Regarding the Marketplace, it satisfies my needs pretty well. Almost all the major news and weather Apps are available except for NBC and CNN (but who follows those anymore these days?) the official CNN App is something like 90-day exclusive to all Nokia devices as well as the official ESPN App...which is why I want the Lumia 900...it's like the Galaxy Nexus of Windows Phone, it gets everything first and exclusitivity. Shoot me some Apps you want and I can search for you and post if it finds it or not.

The battery life depends on how much effort the manufacturer has put into the firmware they provide (there are 2 kinds of updates for WP devices when you connect to Zune Software or Windows Phone Connector for Mac) they are the manus updates which most likely mean the device firmware and radio updates and the official OS updates that come from Microsoft (in this case, AT&T simply SUCKS at updating all devices fairly). On my HTC HD7S I can go whole day with texting, browsing and syncing email with Hotmail all day and still have maybe 3 hours left before the Battery Saver kicks in with a "heart" over the indicator where everything turns from Auto update to Manual update. The Nokia Lumia 800 has had many battery issues but Nokia has pushed like a hundred Firmware updates fixing many issues in their software in timely manner...which impressed me. People saying the battery life has quadrupled due to their consistent updating habits.

Now the updates, Microsoft has pushed out the "Tango" update which they call "Mango Refresh 2 or 3" and it now only requires devices to run on 256MB of RAM with some functionality disabled due to limited RAM (like the Nokia Lumia 610C in China), people who have hacked their current 1st/2nd Gen devices (mine is 1st Gen) have seem RAM usage decrease and performance increased due to Tango so I don't expect Microsoft to leave everyone else in the dust with Apollo in less than 7 months away... Afterwall, Mango "7.5" works perfectly fine on all 1st Gen devices except for the Dell Venue Pro. My phone has never lagged or freezed on ANYTHING even thought it's 1.1GHz 512MB RAM device.

[Vision33r]

Frankly I am tired of the stale iOS operating system and want to try something new. AT&T gives me upgrades every 18 months on average. So I guess I really could switch to the Nokia Lumia when it comes out (I am upgrade eligible now) and use it for the next year and a half. If I don't like it, I could always switch back to the iPhone and my next upgrade will coincide with the 7th gen iPhone.

Thoughts? I'd like to especially hear from folks who have switched to Windows Phone from iOS or Android.

And you think WP won't go stale after awhile? Imo, WP is more locked down than iOS (jailbroken). I think you got that grass is greener in your head.

Imo, Microsoft has not done a good job at luring iOS or Android users by making apps that makes it easy to copy your iPhone or Android settings over. A lot of iOS users don't want to leave because they already invested a ton of money in media and apps on iTunes. Thankfully there are apps that allow you to sync them with your Android.

I don't think anyone right now is really interested in WP unless they have a clear niche.

- Metro UI is probably the best one-handed UI I've used but also the most locked down.
- Hardware is not better, the top WP device was last year's spec on Android
- Lack of indie apps, you can't spend your way to more apps. Google clearly invested a lot on app development and have not churn out any ground breaking apps.
- It's the indie devs that come up with the brightest and newest ideas for apps
- IE still not up to par with Safari in rendering speed and compatibility.

The only one strength that WP has is Outlook app is the best email app if you have corporate email.

[GahannaKid]

For me the biggest draw of the Nokia Lumia 900 is the Nokia specific apps like Nokia Drive, Maps etc. which can give you turn by turn navigation around the world for free without a data connection. Since I travel internationally a lot, this feature alone could make me buy this phone.

The Nokia apps are a fairly big reason I'll be switching to Nokia as soon as they come to T-Mobile

Coming to WP7 itself, how does the IE9 web browser compare to Safari on iOS? I love Safari on my iPhone. Can I expect the same smoothness and fluidity on IE9? The web browser is probably the app that I use most often, so it is kind of important to me.

I have an iPad through work and a WP7 and from the tests I've done they are equal. I've used the browser extensively while on vacation or looking things up while out with friends and it's never let me down.

Also have you ever found any major apps missing in the Marketplace but which are available on other platforms?

The app market is obviously smaller so there are going to be missing apps. To me it's not a big deal as my bank, insurance, and other commonly used/accessed things are all there. I'm not an app whore though either so someone else (or even you?) may experience something different. The only thing I wish WP7 had was a good NASCAR app.

You can browse the marketplace before you buy though and ask the community for any alternatives.

I hear that WP7 phones have typically much better battery life than the iPhone or Android phones. Is this true?

Than Android? Hands down better. My boss just came to me a little while ago bitching about his battery on a new Samsung Galaxy class phone. Than iPhone? It'll be about equal as they're both very good.

Lastly, the single-core processor and puny 512 MB of RAM kind of scare me. Will the Lumia 900 miss out on future upgrade like Apollo etc owing to lower specs? Or even if it got the SW upgrade, will it bog the phone down similar to how iOS 4 rendered the iPhone 3G unusable with its constant freezing and lag?

We don't know what will happen with WP8/W8. Microsoft in the past (Zune, Xbox, etc) have been really good about bringing over as many features as possible when they update the software. Naturally though if you're going to buy a phone now, no matter the OS, when a future one comes out it will outclass the older models. It happens on Android the most, iOS & WP are a bit more immune to it though due to the nature of the beast. In terms of overall feel though the OS is buttery smooth and I honestly wouldn't worry about it. Buy what you want now as, if you are waiting for the next big thing, you'll be waiting forever.

Overall it's a great OS and everyone that's asked about mine has been very impressed (until they see it's made by Dell and is a Windows Phone, then they suddenly become allergic). The average customer satisfaction of WP7 is one of the highest in the industry and the community is very helpful. You can also unlock your phone and MS has been much more open to things like that than Apple, although being open source Android is obviously a notch above.

My advice would be to go to the source though for your questions. I've found that Android users & iOS users aren't all that knowledgeable about WP7 and spread a healthy chunk of FUD around.

[SuperGroove]

love my Windows Phone 7.

But I wish I had access to apps that every other phone has.

[AlexJT89]

To GahannaKid; The Nokia Lumia 710 has been available at T-Mobile for some time now. I also think you can get the Lumia 800 which has smaller screen but its curved for Gorilla Glass and have it opened on T-Mobile as well through Microsoft Store.

Nokia has patented different device designs for Windows Phone and there are some that resemble BlackBerry devices with physical keyboards.

There is the Lumia 910 coming out but not much is known about it... from what I read so far. Might be just a bump in camera MPs from 8MP to 16MP or something like that from what HTC did to the Titan to Titan II (8MP to 16MP)

About the hardware. Who freaking cares? It's minimum specs for the best battery life and it STILL smokes Androids on quad-cores. Android is hugely inefficent OS which is why it needs all those 2GB Quad specs just to open a OpenOffice 3.0 document.

If you like to stream photos and videos and stuff like that, PLEX Media has finally released their official app yesterday and it's REALLY nice to view stuff on phone and/or control devices like PS3/PC/Mac with the phone like a remote control.

If you wanna listen to music, you can open a Zune Pass account for $9 a month which gives you 10 Song credits to keep forever, you can access the Zune Marketplace through WP7 and download entire albums and songs with no limits, I have like 2,000 songs already which on iTunes would've meant I had to spend $2,000 or something like that.

Also if you have Xbox 360, you can play Xbox Arcade games and earn achievements and there are some games that can work together with the full 360 game. Microsoft Office is integrated as well if you gotta type stuff down on a whim, OneNote in included.

[saintforlife]

@AlexJT89 - Thanks for the detailed post.

And you think WP won't go stale after awhile? Imo, WP is more locked down than iOS (jailbroken). I think you got that grass is greener in your head.

- Metro UI is probably the best one-handed UI I've used but also the most locked down.

The only one strength that WP has is Outlook app is the best email app if you have corporate email.

I've used an iPhone for the past 3 1/2 years which was my first ever experience with a smartphone. So I am ready for a change. Like I said in my OP, I get upgrades on average every 18 months, so I am sure I can put up with WP7 for that period and switch back to the iPhone if I don't like it for whatever reason.

I have relatively small hands, so being able to use the phone with one hand and click the large tiles is a definite plus for me personally.

My work uses MS Exchange email and the Outlook app will be something I will be using extensively.

I will wait for a few weeks after the Lumia 900 is released, see people's reactions to it and then might take the plunge myself. The WP7 with the Lumia 900 is indeed intriguing.

[GahannaKid]

To GahannaKid; The Nokia Lumia 710 has been available at T-Mobile for some time now. I also think you can get the Lumia 800 which has smaller screen but its curved for Gorilla Glass and have it opened on T-Mobile as well through Microsoft Store.

I'm fully aware of what Nokia devices are out on T-Mobile but I'm not about to give up my Venue Pro for a downgrade. T-Mobile has no high end WP7 devices and most likely won't until WP8 later this year. As it stands my contract is up right around Christmas time though so the timing should be perfect.

[AlexJT89]

I've never used Outlook personally, but heard good things about it on WP7 devices. I use Hotmail and it never gives me any problems on my WP7 device. It can sync on a predetermined time to save battery life and depending on the circumstances it can receive your email instantly they're sent out to you. You can override the sync with press of button if you'd like, I'm sure Outlook has that feature built-in as well.

GahannaKid; do you have any problems with Mango 7.5 on your Venue Pro? I know some sensors don't work on it, I'm personally running 7.5.8107 which includes the Outlook/disappearing keyboard/SMS glitch fixes but I don't know if T-Mobile pushed that update to your device or not.

If anyone is curious, this is the WP7 I'm currently using and the last "smartphone" I had was the T-Mobile Sidekick II and 3 which I both loved dearly.


*The photo is running on WP7.0 which is why the Tiles look kinda off.

[GahannaKid]

GahannaKid; do you have any problems with Mango 7.5 on your Venue Pro? I know some sensors don't work on it, I'm personally running 7.5.8107 which includes the Outlook/disappearing keyboard/SMS glitch fixes but I don't know if T-Mobile pushed that update to your device or not.

T-Mobile hasn't pushed it out yet. I get a disappearing keyboard which can be annoying, but that's all I've noticed. This phone has always been a bit of a red headed step child to them, but I still love it.

[AlexJT89]

It would be nice if I could pick up the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G and hack Windows Phone 7.5.8773 ROM onto it (current version of Tango) because I miss my physical QWERTY keypad and NOTHING comes close to the Sidekick line of keypads...

[AlexJT89]

Also if you want the 8107 update, you can force it onto your phone using the .CAB Sender method. Just look on XDA Developers forums under Windows Phone 7.

[silver_slayer]

while i would never give up my galaxy nexus, i would absolutely hop over to WP7 if i was on iOS. WP7 is beautifully simplistic, i love the swipe left/right gesture through the entire OS, the live tiles seem pretty helpful (weather, calendar) but are usually not that helpful (contacts) but are just nice to look at. iOS is pretty dated, and "stale" as another user put it....same ol' thing for the past 4 years. iOS needs a change IMO. obviously they dont think so, and they probaby dont...they are doing just fine sticking with "what works"
like i said, its a smooth OS, and the Lumia 900 is a sweet piece of hardware. but the overall lack of apps, and customization is a huge drawback for me...especially since i have been in the android game for over 2 years and i have seen how far the OS has come. just cant get away from that...at least not right now given my other options.

[16v]

a few weeks of use on the nokia and I"m still not impressed

[saintforlife]

a few weeks of use on the nokia and I"m still not impressed

Which Nokia phone are you using? Are you unimpressed with the hardware or OS or apps? How about Nokia specific apps like Nokia drive, Nokia transport? Have you used them?

[16v]

Which Nokia phone are you using? Are you unimpressed with the hardware or OS or apps? How about Nokia specific apps like Nokia drive, Nokia transport? Have you used them?

I thought this thread was about the Lumia 900 so that's what I was referencing; hw, OS, and apps. Though the screen is pretty

[GahannaKid]

I thought this thread was about the Lumia 900 so that's what I was referencing; hw, OS, and apps. Though the screen is pretty

The phone (OS) isn't for everyone. I've been using an Android phone for a couple of weeks now and it's irritated me to no end how rough around the edges it feels. I think a lot of times too we all get so used to our respective OS choice that we think anything that does it differently is doing it wrong, when in reality it's just different.

I have yet to find the perfect phone nor the perfect OS, but WP comes closest for me.

[silver_slayer]

i know this is completely off topic....kinda....but last night, i saw my FIRST EVER WP7 phone out in the wild. pretty sad such a beautiful OS just can't hold its own. i would love to see WP7 distroy iOS because i think it is a superior OS.

[jerk]

Just checked out a co-workers Lumia 900 today and it's a lot larger than I thought it'd be. Not overly so, but large. They kept the weight down with the polycarbonate shell and it feels good in the hand. I just can't get over the mail issue (my biggest sticking point) and the lack of quality apps. As I've said since 7.5, the OS is good, better in some respects than iOS (and easily better than Android), but until they get apps, they'll remain a bit player.

[SuperGroove]

Just checked out a co-workers Lumia 900 today and it's a lot larger than I thought it'd be. Not overly so, but large. They kept the weight down with the polycarbonate shell and it feels good in the hand. I just can't get over the mail issue (my biggest sticking point) and the lack of quality apps. As I've said since 7.5, the OS is good, better in some respects than iOS (and easily better than Android), but until they get apps, they'll remain a bit player.

I forget what your beef was with the mail issue? I only have two email accounts (exchange-work) and gmail. Is it somethign to do with unified inbox?

Anyways, I agree with your assessment about apps. Hard to catch up to Apple or Google at this point. I can almost usually count on products that have iOS or Android to not include windows phone 7 support.

That said, I love my windows phone 7. There is not a better looking OS, IMHO, and the music player beats the pants off of anything on iOS or Android.

[jerk]

I forget what your beef was with the mail issue? I only have two email accounts (exchange-work) and gmail. Is it somethign to do with unified inbox?

I have three gmail accounts, two personal domains with IMAP, and a yahoo account, the unified inbox is a good thing. My issue is with image attachments.

Real-world situation; I get an email with 5 image attachments:

iOS (and, I believe Android) displays them inline, only requiring interaction to load images over a certain size (not sure where the cutoff is.)

edited below now that I have my WP7 phone in-hand:
WP7 requires me to touch "Show all attachments", tap each image to download them, tap the image to view it, tap back to get back to the body, then tap the next image, etc. The same goes for PDFs and Office documents, but to a lesser degree. Another related annoyance: If you go back out to your inbox, then back into the message, you have to tap on "Show all attachments" again! (however, your images are already downloaded.)

So...using my real-world example, the number of taps (from my inbox) to see the email and all 5 images:

iOS: 1
WP7: 15

[Jesse]

The phone (OS) isn't for everyone. I've been using an Android phone for a couple of weeks now and it's irritated me to no end how rough around the edges it feels. I think a lot of times too we all get so used to our respective OS choice that we think anything that does it differently is doing it wrong, when in reality it's just different.

I have yet to find the perfect phone nor the perfect OS, but WP comes closest for me.

Which Android phone? Android is highly dependnt on quality implementation by the manufacturer.

[Vision33r]

Which Android phone? Android is highly dependnt on quality implementation by the manufacturer.

I'm going to somewhat disagree with this statement. I think pretty much all OEM Android implementation at this point is crap. The last Nexus phone was arguably the cleanest with the recent Nexus phone being a close 2nd.

Android is highly dependent on the user's knowledge and ability. It's like Windows, a clean installation of Windows still requires a lot of tinkering to run optimally.

Which is why most skilled Android users all use custom roms.

[SuperGroove]

I have three gmail accounts, two personal domains with IMAP, and a yahoo account, the unified inbox is a good thing. My issue is with image attachments.

Real-world situation; I get an email with 5 image attachments:

iOS (and, I believe Android) displays them inline, only requiring interaction to load images over a certain size (not sure where the cutoff is.)

edited below now that I have my WP7 phone in-hand:
WP7 requires me to touch "Show all attachments", tap each image to download them, tap the image to view it, tap back to get back to the body, then tap the next image, etc. The same goes for PDFs and Office documents, but to a lesser degree. Another related annoyance: If you go back out to your inbox, then back into the message, you have to tap on "Show all attachments" again! (however, your images are already downloaded.)

So...using my real-world example, the number of taps (from my inbox) to see the email and all 5 images:

iOS: 1
WP7: 15

yeah, that's pretty annoying. no me gusta.

[Son]

Though I have been reading up about the Nokia Drive App and it seems kinda redundant because the built in Bing Maps already does this, it knows exactly where you are on the map and exactly how fast you're moving.

I haven't used one, but I don't think Bing Maps is a turn-by-turn navigator, which is what Nokia Drive is.

I thought this thread was about the Lumia 900 so that's what I was referencing; hw, OS, and apps. Though the screen is pretty

What is it about the HW that doesn't impress you?

Anyway, the phone is $99 at AT&T and you'll get $100 worth of credit to your AT&T account until 21st of April.

[Jesse]

Had a minute with this phone the other day.. just one comment, that it didn't feel too good in pocket. A little thicker than some recent smartphones, and the sharp edges don't help. The footprint is smaller than my Galaxy Nexus, but it wasn't as comfortable to have in there.

[GahannaKid]

I haven't used one, but I don't think Bing Maps is a turn-by-turn navigator, which is what Nokia Drive is.

It is turn-by-turn but you have to touch the screen to get it to tell you the next set of directions. It's due to the navigation company they're using, is my understanding. I use it and find that it's adequate at getting you where you're going and I like that it gives you landmarks. Sometimes it's better than Google maps, sometimes it isn't. My sister has a standalone Garmin and the built in navigation is no replacement (though that's true of all phones I've used).

[Son]

My sister has a standalone Garmin and the built in navigation is no replacement (though that's true of all phones I've used).

Try Nokia Drive. It's a real navigator, tells all the needed info, can be used pretty much anywhere in the world without extra costs. I haven't needed anything else. It even has a walk navigation feature, which I have used while cycling. Back in Italy last summer I just put my phone in my jersey pocket, earphones in my ears and the phone guided me to my destination, telling me when to turn and to which street.

[Son]

Stumbled across this video today.

[16v]

What is it about the HW that doesn't impress you?

the question should be what DOES impress, not what doesn't.

[Son]

the question should be what DOES impress, not what doesn't.

OK, but I was curious to know what the weaknesses are in your opinion, which you still failed to tell.

Let me guess, the video above didn't impress you, either?

[16v]

OK, but I was curious to know what the weaknesses are in your opinion, which you still failed to tell.

Let me guess, the video above didn't impress you, either?

now why would that video impress anyone? Kinda silly in my opinion

[Son]

now why would that video impress anyone?

Because at least I was absolutely sure tapping a hammer on a nail on the display would break the display glass?