Video proof: Nokia Lumia 900 can take a beating

Published by Jason Harris on May 18, 2012

SUNNYVALE, CA, United States – The Nokia Lumia 900 is one tough cookie. The phone is constructed of a unibody polycarbonate shell that can withstand drops, scrapes and dings. On the face of the phone, you’ll find Gorilla Glass from Corning that is really tough.

But don’t just take our word for it. Our quality engineers wanted to put the quality of the Lumia 900 to the test and created this video. You can see a hammer and nails being applied to the screen and even using the Lumia 900 as a hammer.  And through all this, the screen looks great.

We asked the two engineers who created the video, Mike Myers and Chris Ruble, what the inspiration was behind the film.

Mike replied:

The video was inspired by this Sonim video: Our Failure Analysis Specialist Mike Wellborn saw the video on YouTube and told us how amazing it was. Chris and I said that our Lumia 900 would be able to survive this “test” as well . . . Mike Wellborn did not seem to think it could be done. On a gentleman’s bet, we headed down to the lab and tried it out. The Lumia 710 was the first phone victim. It performed just as the 900 did in the video.

Mike went on to say that they weren’t surprised at the toughness of the screen at all and that they thoroughly enjoy testing the limits of Nokia hardware and had a lot of fun running these types of lab tests.

We hope you’ve enjoyed the video!  What are your tales of Nokia Lumia 900 endurance?

[DISCLAIMER: Don't try this yourself. Deliberate mistreatment of your phone is not covered by the warranty.]

Comments

  • http://www.davidar.org Jonathan Davidar

    Taking a beating is fine but what about the primary issues which affect this phone? I recently, yes I a Symbian user, actually did, bought a Lumia 900 on contract with AT&T to
    replace my aging E62.

    Here are the areas where it just does not deliver: battery life with all background tasks killed is just about 8-9 hours without usage and 5-6 hours with polling for background tasks and calls, and web. It also does not pull in contacts from my Nokia E62 and says ‘unsupported phone’. Really? I thought Nokia made the E62, at least that’s what the phone says and it has worked well for 7 years. The display is brilliant but it has a purple cast bug. If you let it manage the brightness, the ‘Automatically adjust’ setting, the screen keys and interface suddenly turn purplish from time to time and when it is on the Low option, the display is almost always purple. My wife and I both have this problem with our phones. I have now set the brightness to Medium and that of course, gives me less battery life, and it doesn’t turn bright when I step outdoors.

    To add insult to injury, I tried setting up my personal mail on the phone to pull in mails from my domain. I got quite a shock to see a message stating that Windows Phone does not support this version of the server – and no prizes for guessing what the server is – Linux. So, I am forced to buy into hotmail. My E62 seamlessly connected with my Linux hosted webserver.The Drive App is nowhere as brilliant as the Symbian version which enables you to choose from a lot of options to plan your route. While it works well, I have the Symbian one on the N97 Mini and yes, that is better.The Bluetooth transfer capability is just awful. Doesn’t connect to my phone or my laptop. It just says Not Supported. I am amazed by the insularity of this device. Well, the display is truly crisp and black and the One Note App is useful but apart from that I am terribly disappointed with my purchase.

    I hope I can return it and go back to the E62 and get something else – maybe the E7 or wait for the Pureview 808 with a slider keyboard. I can’t understand why you have not made the N950 commercially available. I tried the Motorola slider keyboard and that is nowhere close to what you have on the E7 and I presume that N950 is in that league or better. Sometimes, brand loyalty gets you an amazing everyday, and yes, it is, really amazing how this device is locked into Windows Phone. Guess what,you can’t even share the internet connection not unless you get the 50$ per month data plan, even that joy has been killed. It has a great display (swiped from N9, literally) and some nice apps but as a phone to live your day and day and half through, hasn’t given me any confidence. And talking about taking a beating, I sure have, and I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless the 99$ is the only attraction. The camera too is a disappointment – nowhere near the N97 Mini camera, which is a good camera but not a prize winner, and that, is saying something.

    • steelicon

      Trade it in for a Nokia 808 PureView! You can get it from virtually anywhere in the world!

      Unless you don’t live in a Third World Country or in a Developing Economy Country, a remote, unknown region or a minimal market share market, sorry, you can’t have it.

      Better catch that next flight to India or Russia. Or move there. Or order from there.

      Sorry Ozzies and Kiwis. You can watch and see it, but you can’t have it!*

      Nokia: Disconnecting People.

      *But people working @ Nokia AU can have it, just not ordinary working people like us.

    • http://twitter.com/capricotwi04 Caprico

      Say thank you to Microsoft that the N950 isn’t available… :-/Nokia could have made some good cash with that phone regarding how many people are looking for a phone with keyboard. 

      I also recommend the Nokia 808 Pureview or of course a Nokia N9 – they’re both seem to be amazing devices (in case of N9 I know it is) and won’t disappoint you like all those Lumia phones which don’t have that much to do with a typical quality Nokia phone. 

      Even though it’s older, the E7 is a good phone too and looks amazing. At least its the only newer phone with such a keyboard I know of. Otherwise Nokia has some newers phones with a similar keyboard to the E62. But they are “just” feature phones, although have a couple of functions Windows Phone doesn’t have.

      Good luck! :-)

    • http://twitter.com/capricotwi04 Caprico

      Say thank you to Microsoft that the N950 isn’t available… :-/Nokia could have made some good cash with that phone regarding how many people are looking for a phone with keyboard. 

      I also recommend the Nokia 808 Pureview or of course a Nokia N9 – they’re both seem to be amazing devices (in case of N9 I know it is) and won’t disappoint you like all those Lumia phones which don’t have that much to do with a typical quality Nokia phone. 

      Even though it’s older, the E7 is a good phone too and looks amazing. At least its the only newer phone with such a keyboard I know of. Otherwise Nokia has some newers phones with a similar keyboard to the E62. But they are “just” feature phones, although have a couple of functions Windows Phone doesn’t have.

      Good luck! :-)

    • Anonymous

      the battery life seems strangly low, are you using a new micro SIM or some old cut down SIM (that is usually the cause for bad battery life more often then people think.) 

      To use contacts transfer from your Nokia E62 to the Lumia 900 the old phone needs support the Bluetooth profile PBAB  . nokia E62 does not . But there are several ways to transfer the contacts.  Do you have a Windows PC?  
      Download Nokia Suite, 
      Choose to sync contacts from your E62 to Windows contacts with Nokia Suite 
      Download and install Microsoft Live Mail. 
      Start Live Mail and you get the question to set up an account, 
      Enter the Windows Live ID you use on the phone
      Choose to import contacts from the current user (of windows)
      your contacts will be imported to the Windows live Id and will end up on your phone automatically.

      you don’t mention what mail server you use. Linux is available in several flavors and what type of mail protocol you use i rather vital information to go further.
      Is it a POP3 or IMAP?  Or is it ActivSync of some sort?

      True , you cant connect the phone to a computer transfer files, but why would you want to.?  Bluetooth speeds suck and takes for ever.  why not just set up wireless sync and sync images video and music via WLAN instead with Zune? Much faster . 

      “You can’t even share the internet connection not unless you get the 50$ per month data plan”
       would you really want to share your mobile internet connection without a dataplan???  That would probably cot a lot more in just a few seconds.

      • http://www.davidar.org Jonathan Davidar

        1. Brand new micro SIM store fitted

        2. The E62 talks to the N97 Mini and my laptops via blue tooth and it is quick for transferring Notes and Active Notes. It is best practice to enable backward integration with your own products at the very least. Especially if you plan to get users to adopt Nokia WIndows phone, it is a 100% requirement to enable data transfer and syncing of phones.

        3. I have a Windows PC and LInux machine and Nokia Suite does not recognize the Lumia 900. It says device not supported.

        4. I use a server running Red Hat with a Cpanel installation and a POP3 and btw, the Symbian OS recognizes it I can still pull mails into my 7 year old phone.

        5. I typically push lots of PDFs and other documents to my E62 via bluetooth, and it is very convenient.

        6. Regarding the internet sharing, of course, the default is a data  plan, but why would I need a 5 GB one when a 3 GB one will do. For those of us who use a phone as an ultrasmall, portable device, creating, reading, and sharing documents is of critical importance. I have connected my laptop to my phone while travelling – the Nokia E62 and have used its Internet Sharing option to connect my laptop seamlessly. I have used it to do FTP and also send email and access static
        web pages.

        7. Zune is not a good option as a file manager and is more suited as a media managment app, not quite likethe Nokia Suite on Symbian.

        • Anonymous

          I guess Windows Phone is not for you. I hope you have learned to do some research before you buy next time . 

          I personally prefer to find out what something can do and how it corresponds to my personal needs before I buy something, instead of buying first and then complying about everything something can’t do that I want to to do, but it was not designed to. 

          If you plan to buy a car, you can’t buy a sports car with only two seats if you want the features of a station wagon.  It seems rather pointless to then complain you can’t fit the whole family in the car, or can’t fit camping equipment in the boot, if you yourself didn’t think of it when you bought it.

          A BMW Z3 is not a less of a car then a Volvo. But only you know what you want when you buy something.

          If you want a filemanager, if you didn’t want to get locked in to contacts, if you wanted bluetooth transfers and Nokia Suite support, and a qwerty keyboard, , why didn’t you buy a Nokia E7 cash to get these features.. or a N8 if you wanted an amazing camera?

          If you wanted a Symbian devices, why didn’t you buy one?
          If you wanted MeeGo , why didn’t you want a Nokia N9?

          or if you wanted something else why didn’t you buy it?

          • http://www.davidar.org Jonathan Davidar

            You assume that I don’t research – wrong! Research is what drives such decisions but when obvious things don’t work like the way they are expected to and you get a purple cast screen, horrible bluetooth connectivity, short battery life, no wifi sharing by default unless you bleed for it, and a camera that is just not suited for photography. Anyway, both the E7 and the N9 are not available in-store in the US. Will most likely wait for the 808 to be made available.

            Would anyone know if the Nokia Drive on N9 is the same as the Symbian one or have features been left out as they have with the Windows port? Look forward to any insights on either the N9 and E7 – would love owners to comment, thanks for your help.

          • Anonymous

            I’m sorry, but it sure seems like you didn’t do any research.

            Of course Nokia Drive on Windows Phone is different from the one in Symbian. Nokia Drive on N9 is different then the on Nokia N8, and Nokia Belle in general. On S60v5 devices there is no Nokia Drive at all, the function is included in the Nokia Maps software. On S60v3 same thing, but they use a different Nokia Maps version. 

            Nokia Drive is written fro windows Phone, and is sure to get developed further, but its totally different software, written for a totally different operating system, and have to take account the new OS’s limitations and benefits.

            One visit to this page and you would see the difference. One stop to a shop selling the device and you would see the difference as well if you are a normal consumer that does not visit this page, but you clearly do.

            Nokia Drive does not have the same features as Nokia Drive on Symbian^3 devices. I use both and Nokia Drive on for instance E7 have a lot better unctions, but on the downside it will not be developed further. Neither will probably the version for N9. But for Windows phone it will.

            If you want i can list all the differences between Drive for N9 and E7.

            When it comes to Bluetooth connectivity the specifications for the Lumia devices, just like all other devices , it clearly states what Bluetooth profiles it supports. Since it does not support the BT profile FTP, it cant transfer files. 

            amazon have been selling the E7 for a while now, also the N9.

    • Anonymous

      the battery life seems strangly low, are you using a new micro SIM or some old cut down SIM (that is usually the cause for bad battery life more often then people think.) 

      To use contacts transfer from your Nokia E62 to the Lumia 900 the old phone needs support the Bluetooth profile PBAB  . nokia E62 does not . But there are several ways to transfer the contacts.  Do you have a Windows PC?  
      Download Nokia Suite, 
      Choose to sync contacts from your E62 to Windows contacts with Nokia Suite 
      Download and install Microsoft Live Mail. 
      Start Live Mail and you get the question to set up an account, 
      Enter the Windows Live ID you use on the phone
      Choose to import contacts from the current user (of windows)
      your contacts will be imported to the Windows live Id and will end up on your phone automatically.

      you don’t mention what mail server you use. Linux is available in several flavors and what type of mail protocol you use i rather vital information to go further.
      Is it a POP3 or IMAP?  Or is it ActivSync of some sort?

      True , you cant connect the phone to a computer transfer files, but why would you want to.?  Bluetooth speeds suck and takes for ever.  why not just set up wireless sync and sync images video and music via WLAN instead with Zune? Much faster . 

      “You can’t even share the internet connection not unless you get the 50$ per month data plan”
       would you really want to share your mobile internet connection without a dataplan???  That would probably cot a lot more in just a few seconds.

    • http://twitter.com/Bloodymirova Elena Vladimirova

      Try to find an N9 (yep, N950 is like a friggin’ unobtanium) – the phone is really good. The Drive is just as good – if not even better – than the Symbian one. It’s a breeze to set up and maintain, especially if you have Linux experience, and I’m saying that as a former Android user. The phone really is an experience.

      You can also have a look at Nokia 701, which is possibly the most functional phone in the world, even more so now after the service pack for Belle.

  • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

    Now set it on fire!

    • steelicon

      Funny, I thought it was already the bur… ermmm… sorry couldn’t resist! :-p

      • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

        Cheeky! It’s a Nokia – course it’s tough.

  • http://twitter.com/Hdrules Hradayesh Nimavat

    Gorilla glass on 1D display is tough but on 2.5D display N9/Lumia800 gorilla glass is not that good at all and I have seen some 5-6 broken N9s/lumia800s on twitter.  

  • http://twitter.com/Hdrules Hradayesh Nimavat

    Gorilla glass on 1D display is tough but on 2.5D display N9/Lumia800 gorilla glass is not that good at all and I have seen some 5-6 broken N9s/lumia800s on twitter.  

  • http://twitter.com/itswiz Wiz

    I’m pissed.  I just scratched the front of my Lumia 900.  I was looking for a fix and came across this. Maybe mine doesn’t have Gorilla Glass.

    • http://twitter.com/Jeppezdk Jeppe Christensen

      How did you manage to do that? 

      • http://twitter.com/itswiz Wiz

        Man……I put a couple of coins in the same pocket of my phone. I guess when I sat down, the coins rubbed against the glass. I got a streak right down the left side of the phone. I’m so mad.

        • Anonymous

          Chrome barbs on keyrings seem to be able to do it, maybe it was a keyring?

        • Anonymous

          Chrome barbs on keyrings seem to be able to do it, maybe it was a keyring?

    • http://twitter.com/Jeppezdk Jeppe Christensen

      How did you manage to do that? 

    • KUZZY

      THIS VIDEO ONLY SHOWS FAKE VERSION OF THE LUMIA FOR PEOPLE TO BREAK THEM!

  • Anonymous

    lol well done 

  • http://twitter.com/EtherasFox Etheras

    But does it blend? O.o

    • http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney

       I want to see the blender burst into flames with this one.

  • http://twitter.com/EtherasFox Etheras

    But does it blend? O.o

  • Anonymous

    The caller picture is Elop?  

  • Anonymous

    Every time i watch a video for Nokia Lumia 900 i ended up having an idea to throw my current old dusty phone from my room window :(

  • Anonymous

    Every time i watch a video for Nokia Lumia 900 i ended up having an idea to throw my current old dusty phone from my room window :(

  • Anonymous

    Someone Chinese guy tried this on Lumia 800, and failed lol

  • Anonymous

    Someone Chinese guy tried this on Lumia 800, and failed lol

  • http://www.facebook.com/frnkpoon Frank Poon

    Indestructable Nokia 3310:
    That’s my son!

    • Anonymous

       My 5800 suffer from 2 crashes and 100 meters fall, and works perfect. Thats indestructible symbian phone

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000747312120 George Birsan

     Europe needs the Lumia 900! I need the Lumia 900! Thank you!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000747312120 George Birsan

     Europe needs the Lumia 900! I need the Lumia 900! Thank you!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Faithofmylife12 Amado Senses Exile IV

    did you try in a full blast smash!?

  • http://www.facebook.com/Faithofmylife12 Amado Senses Exile IV

    did you try in a full blast smash!?

  • http://www.facebook.com/Faithofmylife12 Amado Senses Exile IV

    did you try in a full blast smash!?

  • http://www.facebook.com/Faithofmylife12 Amado Senses Exile IV

    did you try in a full blast smash!?

  • Nam Đào Duy

    my lumia 900′s screen cracked by dropping in 30cm tall…… first time dropped

  • Nam Đào Duy

    i had a sony arc and it was dropping 10 times then it was fine ==!

  • SarahNC

    Yeah well two days ago I dropped mine onto my driveway trying to get everything into my car and the screen shattered. So honestly not sure it can take a hammer beating and I’m very unhappy because I can’t upgrade until 2014 and of course didn’t have it insured.

  • akfdja;

    This is bull. I’ve had my phone for three days and dropped it on dirt and the screen shattered.