Nokia Lumia 900 Review - Windows Phone with LTE
by Brian Klug on April 3, 2012 9:00 PM ESTPerformance
Performance on Windows Phone 7.5 at the moment tops out at almost the same place for virtually every handset. As I touched on before, the platform is still a Qualcomm-only party, and the name of the game is single core 45nm Snapdragon with Adreno 205 at the high end in the form of either MSM8x55, or for the Lumia 900 APQ8055 at 1.4 GHz.
I’ve already penned some thoughts on WP7’s current chassis spec, and in the future the specification will open up with the Tango update (which we’ve seen in the Lumia 610) to a lower-end configuration with MSM7x30 or MSM7x27A. Eventually Windows Phone will move onto dual core SoCs and possibly more vendors, but when and how that happens remains to be seen. The driving factors will undoubtably be both performance, but also improvements to things around the edges like 1080p video encode, decode, and power gains from a 28nm process geometry.
For now however let’s focus on the Lumia 900, which again is 1.4 GHz APQ8055 with 512 MB of LPDDR2. Benchmarking WP7.5 still is a pretty basic thing, since platform consistency somewhat obviates the need for many of the other big cross-platform benchmarks (this will change with Windows 8, however). For now that means our testing is limited primarily to assessing javascript performance with sunspider, browsermark, and WP Bench.
| WPBench Comparison | ||||
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HTC Surround (1.0 GHz QSD8250) |
Nokia Lumia 800 (1.4 GHz MSM8255) |
Nokia Lumia 710 (1.4 GHz MSM8255) |
Nokia Lumia 900 (1.4 GHz APQ8055) |
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| Total Score | 61.58 | 91.14 | 92.85 | 89.09 |
| Result Screenshot |
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At this point all the most modern WP7 devices are still shipping with essentially the same SoC - 1.4 GHz 45nm MSM8x55/APQ8055. For comparison, the initial launch devices were 65nm QSD8x50 at 1 GHz. With the Tango update performance differences will start to be more of a thing for consumers to care about as it becomes possible to select a phone with a lower end SoC that still runs the Windows Phone UI at a decent clip (like the Lumia 610 we’ve handled). As a result, it isn't surprising at all to see the WP7.5 devices with the same exact SoC all clumped together and performing basically the same. In addition, though the WP7.5 IE JavaScript engine (Chakra) is a huge improvement upon the WP7 JScript engine, it still lags behind the competition on Android and iOS.
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sonicmerlin - Saturday, April 7, 2012 - link
Also even on the S4 Android isn't smooth. Look at how much of a delay occurs between when you swipe your finger and the screen finally responds with movement. There's really just no comparison to a proper OS that prioritizes the UI thread.crispbp04 - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
I have the HTC titan and I use it all day every day. It's always fast, always smooth, always fun to use, and if I forget to plug it in at night I can still use it the entire next day. Android made me want to punch myself in the face after it turned to junk after 2 weeks. I was flashing a new rom on it every other day and spending hours customizing it.... now I get to spend that time actually ENJOYING my phone.I have never once said "I wish my phone was faster". I've never felt like my phone needed a dual core because WP7 has an awesome staff of engineers making sure the user experience is the #1 focus.
I am getting the Lumia 900 because it has LTE and is one sexy ass phone. I'm waiting for the white one to launch though because it is absolutely gorgeous. I am going to whore out my Titan to my friends who have been dying to try out the WP ever since I got it.
Beerfloat - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
The experiences you claim seem highly exaggerated at best. Is this a genuine post or more astroturf?http://www.moneylife.in/article/nokia-lumia-800-wh...
crispbp04 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
I can demo my phone to you if it'll make you feel better. Want me to make a youtube video for you? I have the following devices:1) HTC HD2 running windows phone mango
2) Samsung focus
3) HTC Titan
4) Blackberry Bold (work phone)
I went to the AT&T store and did NOT purchase the lumia only because the Ttitan II was so much better than I expected. Now I am waiting until the white lumia comes out to see if it sways me back to the lumia, otherwise I'm getting the Titan II
bplewis24 - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
@ visionYou either don't know what you're doing or have no idea what you're talking about. You should probably stop posting FUD and flat out lies.
Iketh - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
I have both an Android (wife uses it) and WP device, and Android absolutely sucks. It's getting replaced as soon as AT&T allows it.Vision is 100% accurate.
jmcb - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
The problem with vision's post is he said every Android phone he's used. Well...... every Android phone he's used does not equal all Android phones.I can tell you that Android doesnt absolutely suck...thats just your opinion. WP7 might be smoother, has less lag than most Android phones....but that doesnt make up the entire user experience.
Kids mother has a Nexus S and an iPhone 4. She likes her iPhone 4 more cuz she says the Nexus S sticks, gets stuck too much. I assume she means lag. After using both....I would go with the Nexus S. Based on my wants n needs.
One thing we gotta remember is everybody doesnt have the same wants n needs. If that was the case...we would all have iPhones now. I'm talking about before Android even came out.... we would all have iPhones.
sprockkets - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
"Well, in general if Android doesn't suck so much none of us really need a quad-core phone. Clearly WP is much more efficient platform than Android today so a single-core phone can be this solid and for most people this translates to feeling faster than most Android phones that lags when apps are running and sans performance."It's called the GUI is GPU accelerated. Already solved in ICS. It was sorely needed, yes. But I'm willing to bet people will still harp about this even with the HTC One series and new Samsungs come out.
"Nearly every Android device I've used today needs manual management in order to run smoothly. Letting a single widget or app sitting background too long, battery life and performance suffers. Android's entire ecosystem is to blame for faulty app coding to OS builds rigged with bloatware."
Sorry to hear that one widget is killing your phone. I have 3 of them and I'm on to day 3 of my battery life with 3G and Wifi on with sync.
"Bloatware" is also no longer an issue either with ICS.
Hey, whatever floats your boat, go with it. I personally cannot tolerate the GUI on WP7 past 2 minutes.
eddman - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
"It's called the GUI is GPU accelerated. Already solved in ICS."Actually it was/is not just that. It's an underlying OS issue.
http://www.inspiredgeek.com/2011/12/07/why-android...
For a fair comparison, flash ICS on a 1 GHz single-core (preferably snapdragon) android phone with 512 MB memory and then compare to a 1 GHz WP.
Exodite - Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - link
You don't need ICS for Android to compare well in such a situation, you just need a device that has had at least moderate optimizations towards the actual hardware.Ie. probably not a LG device, or one mangled too much by the carrier.