India Gadget Reviews

The Nokia Lumia 900 is a great phone for mobile web browsing, thanks largely to its software provided by Microsoft, which of course is a world leader in personal computer operating systems. In this article I will take a closer look at the phone's credentials as a web browsing tool by looking at its connection methods, software and ease of use.

The Nokia Lumia 900 utilises all the usual connection methods found on the majority of smartphones. Wi-Fi allows users to connect to wireless networks where a fast connection can be gained, while battery consumption is kept to a minimum and zero data fees will be incurred. Also, 3G and 4G (where available) networks will also provide an internet connection whereby data download speeds of up to 42 megabytes per second can be achieved. This is among the fastest available on a mobile phone, leaving no doubts about browsing speeds.

Because the Nokia Lumia 900 runs the Windows Phone OS in its latest 'Mango', or v7.5 version, the default browser is a smartphone optimised version of Microsoft's well known internet explorer, which is also the latest version (IE9). This provides probably the most desktop-like browsing experience available on a mobile phone app, and anyone who is familiar with the computer version of IE will instantly find that it is easy to use, and is even aesthetically very similar to the software used on millions of desktop and laptop computers all over the world. The functions are also essentially the same; multi-tab browsing, back/forward functions, HTML and flash compatibility means that web sites appear virtually the same as on a computer even if they have embedded videos or flash graphics.

The interface of the Windows Phone Mango OS means that web browsing is intuitive, with all controls carried out by the 4.3 inch AMOLED display. Pinch to zoom functionality allows you to zoom in and out of a website by moving two fingertips closer together or further apart to achieve the required zoom distance. Bookmarks and favourite sites can be achieved, and for those who also use a different browser like Firefox, Chrome or Safari on their desktop, and app called Xmarks can be downloaded for a small fee which allows you to sync all bookmarks across all the web browsers you use, regardless of device. This can be handy if you use a Windows or Apple computer, and/or an iPad or Android tablet, as you can access all your favourite sites on your Nokia Lumia 900.

As a web browsing device, the Nokia Lumia 900 is up there with the best. The combination of its fast connection and data download speeds together with its Microsoft IE9 browser means it ticks all the boxes.