Nokia Lumia 900 gets lackluster reviews. Here’s why it isn’t going to take off

What question does the Lumia 900 answer? Why would you buy a Lumia over an iPhone or Android device?

The Metro interface is fun for a little while, but what feature is a Lumia 900 going to have that iPhone or Android does not after consumers tick it off their “gotta haves” list? Perhaps the responsiveness of the user interface edges out the iPhone. However, that is not going to sway anyone. Live tiles? Glorified widgets.

Walt Mossberg concludes of the device:

If you’re looking for a $100, high-end smartphone, or are a Windows Phone fan who has waited for better hardware, the Lumia 900 is worth considering. But the phone had just too many drawbacks in my tests to best its chief competitors.

This is the problem: It does not actually do anything noticeably better than iOS or Android. From The Verge’s review, Josh Topolsky was smitten with the hardware, but I do not think it holds up with the iconic iPhone and runs neck and neck with HTC’s new One line at best. Moreover, once you turn it on, it has the same 4.3-inch 480-by-800 display that the HTC EVO had two years ago. Most reviews also claim it is pixellated. Mossberg is stretching with the “high-end” tag above.

The camera?

Cameras were once a Nokia strong point, but review after review claim the Lumia 900’s pictures are washed out…and that pink spot above is painful. LTE has been on most Androids for a year and will come to iPhone later this year, so that is not going to sway many. It has 16GB of RAM, but it is not upgradeable via SD Card. A single core processor is not going to impress anyone when some Androids are coming to market with quad cores, and the iPhone has been Dual Core since last year.

Even with huge money thrown around, I just do not see it. I imagine Microsoft is trying to sneak its Windows Phone 7 platform in between Android and iPhone, but I do not think it has found a niche.

I have owned a few Windows Phone devices including the Samsung Focus (which is just Galaxy S hardware repurposed) and the Lumia 800 on T-Mobile. I never really needed to use the smartphones once I reviewed them, because neither of the devices could answer a problem that an Android or iPhone could not answer usually better.