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Big 4.3″ screen and fast UI
Windows Phone 7.5 was never a lagger when it came to the user experience. If you’ve never used a Windows Phone before, you will come to appreciate how it handles your contacts and social networking especially Twitter and Facebook rather well compared to having to download apps. And now it’s on a Nokia, which makes the experience very elegant.
Translation
Windows Phone 7.5 adds a nifty translation tool which shines with the Lumia 900’s huge screen. All you need to do is take a photo with the 8MP camera and let Microsoft’s translate feature do the rest. It superimposes a new layer of text over the typography.
Nokia Drive
Apart from Bing, Nokia released their own application for driving and directions. Plotting out a course from point A to B, Nokia Drive does the rest telling you where to head.
Nokia Store and Windows Marketplace
One of the most exciting things about the proliferation of Windows Phone in the Philippines is that you have two big giants — Microsoft and Nokia working on making the Windows Marketplace work in the Philippines. As a corollary, does this mean a localization of Windows Live and XBOX Live as well? Only time will tell! As of this writing, a Nokia-based Windows Phone can download from both the Nokia and Microsoft app stores. Local purchasing of apps should happen sooner than later.
As for the solution to a deficit with “key apps” Microsoft is readily addressing this situation. Since 2011, the app store has grown to over 70,000 apps from developers around the world. Key apps like Instagram or even a Draw Something are, although still missing, should be coming soon which is a positive sign of growth for Microsoft’s platform.
It was announced that the Nokia Lumia 900 will be carried by SMART Communications alongside the Lumia 710. The latter will be launched this Thursday, April 18 2012.
P.S. This version shown to me was not the LTE version similar to the ones carried by AT&T. Please note that LTE bands differ from country to country in the same way that phones were dual-band and tri-band before. It’s the same thing with LTE.
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