Nokia’s Lumia 900 reviewed: big, shiny, and very sturdy

Fragmentation

Since starting this review, Microsoft has announced the next version of the operating system found on this handset, with Windows Phone 8 set to land later this year.

Strangely, Microsoft is throwing a massive spanner in the works by saying that no currently released Windows Phone will support an upgrade to this new platform, instead citing that current phones will get a new start screen with similar animated live tiles, but none of the other updates.

This puts the current Lumia range – as well as every other Windows Phone-based device released before the new models out in October – in a really strange place, as the upgrade path is now broken, with Microsoft basically saying that when Windows Phone 8 arrives later this year, there won’t be any where for these devices to move.

That means that as good as the Lumia 900 is, no major updates are coming and the upgrade path is essentially fragmented.

Conclusion

Before Microsoft’s announcement for the next generation of Windows Phone, we were willing to say that the Nokia Lumia 900 is an absolutely top mobile phone and a very solid piece of hardware.

For the most part, it still is, but with the knowledge that Nokia and Microsoft won’t be allowing customers who grab one now or next week to move to the new Windows Phone 8 platform, this makes it a hard decision.

Overall, the Lumia 900 is excellent, even with the few quibbles we have about storage limitations, but given the fragmentation issue, know that this phone – like the Lumia 800 and 710 – has very little upgradeability long term.