Nokia Lumia 900 for AT&T: Features, Release Date, Pricing

While some phone manufacturers were fairly quiet at CES 2012 (we’re looking at you HTC), Nokia decided to take the stage front and center and announce its flagship Windows Phone device, the Lumia 900, a device that will be heading to AT&T’s 4G LTE network. It’s an exciting device to say the least. In fact, we awarded it with our Best in Show award for CES 2012.

Yeah, this is a phone you want to keep your eyes on.

Maybe you have been. And if that’s the case, you have come to the right place because we have compiled everything that we know about the Lumia 900 into one simple post that should help make your decision on whether to buy it a bit easier.

So without further ado, let’s dive into what the Lumia 900 is all about.

Hands-On Video

We were able to go hands-on with the AT&T version of the Lumia 900 at CES this year and while we weren’t able to get a sampling of the 4G LTE speeds – you can thank the beta software for that, we did come away impressed by the hardware.

Check it out for yourself.

Hardware

To put it bluntly, the Lumia 900 is a gorgeous looking smartphone. It takes some of its design aesthetics from both the Lumia 800 – a phone that we recently reviewed, and the Nokia N9.

It’s going to feature a spacious 4.3″ AMOLED ClearBlack display, a single core 1GHz processor, a large 1830 mAh battery, and an 8-megapixel camera with a wide aperture sensor and Carl Zeiss optics which just so happens to be the same technology found in the Lumia 900’s 1-megapixel front-facing web camera.

All of that is packed into a polycarbonate unibody shell.

It’ll also be compatible with AT&T’s 4G LTE network, thus the huge battery, and it will come in both cyan blue and black colors.

Software

The software that we saw on the Lumia 900 for AT&T during CES 2012 was not the final version. However, we do know that it’s likely going to be coming with Microsoft’s Windows Phone Tango update pre-loaded. That software will allow for cross-platform video chatting and should bring some other features to the table as well.

Don’t expect it to be a terribly huge piece of software though.

That will be reserved for the Windows Phone Apollo update that will be rolling out later on in 2012.

We should know more as we get closer to the Lumia 900’s release date.

Pricing

We don’t know how much AT&T will be charging for the Lumia 900 just yet but Nokia has said that it hopes to enter the U.S. market with aggressive pricing. We know the company isn’t joking either as the T-Mobile Lumia 710, the first Nokia-made Windows Phone to hit the United States, is currently priced at a mere $49 with some retailers even offering it up for free.

At launch.

So it’s safe to say that the Lumia 900 probably won’t cost you an arm or a leg.

Just as a reference, AT&T’s current top of the line 4G LTE phone, the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, is currently priced at $199 on a new two-year contract. We can’t see the Lumia 900 costing any more than that.

In fact, if we had to guess, we’d rather boldly say it’ll fall somewhere in the $150-200 range.

Release Date

Like with the pricing, both AT&T and Nokia have remained mum on an exact release date for the Lumia 900 on AT&T’s 4G LTE network. It did however confirm that the device would be launching in March.

So, once March rolls around, those of you fortunate enough to live in areas blanketed in sweet AT&T 4G LTE will be able to run down to the store, pick one of these up and start accessing data speeds that blow 3G speeds out of the water.

As a reminder, here are the markets where 4G LTE is currently available:

• Austin, TX
• Athens, GA
• Atlanta, GA
• Baltimore, MD
• Boston, MA
• Charlotte, NC
• Chapel Hill, NC,
• Chicago, IL
• Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
• Houston, TX
• Indianapolis, IN
• Kansas City; MO
• Las Vegas; NV
• New York City metro area
• Oakland, CA
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Orlando, FL
• Phoenix, AZ
• Raleigh, NC
• San Antonio, TX
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• San Jose. CA
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Washington, D.C.

If your city isn’t on there, don’t fret just yet. Look for AT&T’s 4G LTE network to expand again prior to the release of the Lumia 900.