Nokia’s epic Lumia 900 landing on Optus in June

Windows Phone isn’t exactly setting the world on fire, but Nokia is hoping to change all that with its upcoming release of the Lumia 900 in Australia. The real question is whether it’s worth getting excited over?

Packing a massive 4.3-inch screen, HSDPA+ connectivity speeds and the intuitive Windows Phone operating system, the Lumia 900 looks pretty good at first glance. The fact Nokia is loading it full of functionally useful software like Nokia Music and Nokia Transport is an added bonus.

The catch is that the Windows Phone operating system has a couple of really big “hardware requirement” hurdles that Nokia has been locked into. For example, the screen. While the 4.3-incher is gorgeous at first glance, when you try and read text on a web page, it becomes rather difficult to make out. The reason for this is that Microsoft doesn’t allow screen resolutions larger than 800 x 480 pixels. So even though the Lumia 900 has an extra 0.6 inches in screen real estate, it only has the eact same number of pixels. Compared to recent Android phones like the HTC One X, and even the iPhone 4S, the Lumia 900’s screen clarity is disappointing.

Also disappointing is that Microsoft hasn’t raised the 16GB storage limit for phones running its OS. With a nice big phone like the Lumia 900, you might like to store some large video files to enjoy, but without an expandable MicroSD slot or even the option for 32GB, you’re severely limited from the outset.

All that said, the design of the phone is still gorgeous, and the operating system is still a joy to use. The pricing is even pretty good, with Optus selling it for $0 up front on a $60 plan or $699 outright.

But let’s hope that Microsoft can really stop holding Nokia back by lifting some of the draconian hardware restrictions in the very near future…

Price: $699
Web: Nokia