When Nokia unveiled the Lumia 800, it felt like a stop-gap device rushed to the market to stop the company from haemorrhaging more users. Many features expected of the device were missing, such as a front-facing camera.

Many of these features are now included with the Lumia 900, but it’s still lacking in some departments when compared to iOS and the various Android powerhouses. Worse, Microsoft has just revealed that all existing Windows Phone handsets, including this one, won’t be receiving the Windows Phone 8 update.

How does it stack up now that companies like Samsung and HTC are leaping ahead with their new flagships? …

The Nokia Lumia 900, the Windows Phone camp’s best smartphone to date, is coming to Singapore on May 26 and will go for a rather attractive S$849 at retailers as well as via all three mobile operators here. …

Over the weekend, against the advice of many, I bought my dad a Nokia Lumia 800.

I know, not many phone buffs are giving Windows Phone devices much chance after a somewhat disappointing holiday season last year, when the Finnish cellphone maker was estimated to have sold a modest million or so Lumia phones.

But it is a little early to write off Windows Phone devices, and they can still go places, if only they can get some traction. My dad had bought an LG Optimus 7 a couple of years ago and it had provided a nice, easy way to join the smartphone bandwagon with the operating system’s tile-based system.

The Lumia 800 was thus a natural upgrade. Again, the large tiles make for easy navigation. The updated Windows Phone 7.5 provides for multi-tasking. The interface is fast, and the 8-meg camera, based on Carl-Zeiss optics, is no slouch.

Indeed, folks like my dad are the type of users that Microsoft and Nokia need to convince, even as many reviewers and techies glowingly praise both Windows Phone and Nokia’s Lumia range, including the latest Lumia 900 shipping in the United States this weekend.  …

Today’s unveiling by HTC and Nokia at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) should send shivers down the spines of Windows Phone fans all over the world.

For starters, the long-rumoured Nokia Lumia 900 is finally a reality, and it’s every bit as awesome as I had imagined. The new Nokia flagship smartphone features a 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display (800 x 480), a 1.4GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. No word on whether there will be other storage options, and 16GB just seems so 2008.

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