Gadgetory

so the same thing kind of always happens when a new phone is announced the media gets the device ahead of time maybe a couple days a couple weeks if we're lucky and we get to use it while we're preparing our review then the date and time of the press embargo arrives the embargo lifts everybody posts their review at once and it is a giant big frenzy of activity there's commenters going nuts and defenders and attackers and it's just a huge explosion for about a day and then everything disappeared ensure there's follow-up coverage and stuff as people find bugs people have other stuff to say about the devices they wear a man over the course of a day or so but really nobody ever goes back and revisits these devices after that initial blast of a review to see how they feel after a couple weeks so let's do something about it let's have a look at a device when it's a couple weeks after release and not shiny and new anymore I'm Michael Fisher with pocketnow.com this is the Nokia Lumia 900 and this is episode 1 up after the buzz so in reviews we try and cover the good and bad but we don't always have enough time to cover all the details we'd like to and see how much of a big deal maybe one of these issues is so let's see what a couple weeks worth of marinating I've done for our opinion in the Lumia 900 I've tried to use it as my daily driver without using my Galaxy Nexus as a crutch for about two weeks okay first up is hardware now I've been rather gentle with my Lumia 900 in the two weeks or so been using it and that shows on the whole the device holds up rather well to long term use if you're not a contractor carrying it around without a case on a job site now I've had clean hands most of the time as well so I haven't seen much dirt or grime picked up by the polycarbonate even on the cyan version here one thing that hasn't held up all that well though is that soft metal that makes up the bezel surrounding the camera and the most rough-and-tumble action this phone is seen is going into and out of pockets and sitting on some tabletops and the metal though looks like it was put through a clothes dryer with a whole bunch of pocket change in it the granite it's not too noticeable unless you dwell on it and get it in the exact right kind of light here but this is only after two weeks I can't imagine what this will look like after two months it reminds me of the old easily scratched iPods this is seriously gonna hurt the resale value of this phone the only other issue I had with the hardware over the long term was that it hurt me physically even though as I mentioned in my last video I absolutely loved the hardware design it really isn't all that comfortable to hold for long periods and it actually gave me a blister yes I'm totally serious and here's the photo to prove it the Lumia 900 gave me a blister now the answer to that is of course to go out and do more hard work or whatever and maybe it's true that I've soft hands but I thought it was hilarious I did adapt to holding the device a different way and switch to my left hand on occasion but yeah it's the price you pay for cutting edge Wacka Wacka as for the display obviously we're not working with an HD panel on this device but in the time that I've been using the phone as my primary device it hasn't bothered me can you tell the difference between this and say the 1x absolutely but this is a serviceable display at least and the saturation and clear black are amazing what about the software for a user of many platforms how does Nokia's take on the Windows Phone 7 platform hold up after a few weeks really not bad at all I touched on this in my 1x versus nokia lumia video but Windows Phone 7 continues to be the most capable underdog platform out there despite the app gap I found most of the apps I needed even specialty ones like Boston area bus tracking applications and even some games and specialty apps I grew rather attached to that I couldn't find on other platforms I am mildly concerned about the amount of abandoned wear in the marketplace but we'll just have to see how that plays out the camera continues to be the low point on this device while photos an ample lighting are ok too much lighting really overwhelms the sensor and too little lighting results in a ton of noise the built-in software is simple but lacking in features and the inconsistent performance of the pocket 2 picture feature that Adam Lane mentioned in his review is a real annoyance other annoyances like the sometimes scrolling bug on Windows Phone can really get under your skin as well and the anemic 16 gigs of memory doesn't allow me to carry my music collection around with me Windows Phone still has some shortcomings there's concern about this device not being upgradable to Windows 8 and the Metro UI isn't quite as fresh as it used to be but we've talked about all these things in other venues the question I want to answer today is about six weeks after the initial launch of the Lumia 900 would I still recommend it to an average user one of my friend and expect him or her to be happy with the device in short yes absolutely this is a more than capable smartphone with excellent performance on 18 T's Network in the United States and I wouldn't be worried about anyone coming after me for my head for recommending this device this has been Michael with pocketnow.com thanks for joining me for the first episode of after the buzz if you liked what you saw give us a thumbs up if you wanted to leave a comment please do so on the post at pocketnow.com not here on youtube and we'll see you next time