nokia lumia 900 review

Multitasking is a key feature and is built into Windows Phone 7.5. It ca be accessed simply by pressing and holding the Back button, that's the one in the left-hand corner of the device, at any time. This will cause a screen to appear with thumbnails of your six most recently active applications, frozen at the point you last left them. Touch one of these and you'll jump straight back in.

Now, you may find that the odd app doesn't pop up on your Nokia Lumia 900 multitasking list. This isn't a bug in the phone, it's actually because the app builder hasn't added multitasking support!

Now, the question is, why would you want to use multitasking on your Nokia Lumia 900? Well, it's not immediately obvious so we've pulled together a few user examples that we think nicely illustrate the point.

Multitasking on your Nokia Lumia 900: Photo flicking

You're in the camera app flicking back through your photos in reverse chronicle order after a fine day of heavy snapping. Suddenly you're interrupted by an email. Now, if you quit out of the camera app you'll lose your position and will have to start again in the camera app or open up the Pictures app and try to find where you were. The more photos you took, the more time and concentration that will take. With multitasking, the precise point you left your nostalgic browsing has been preserved, so you can continue where you left off after answering that message.

Multitasking on your Nokia Lumia 900: Playing games

So, you've loaded the latest Xbox Live game on your Nokia Lumia 900, something engrossing like Contract Killer, when you get a text message. Do you come out of the game, revert to the Menu screen or just ignore the text? Well, simply hit the home button to exit to the start screen, deal with your text, then press and hold the Back button. The precise moment you exited the game will be preserved, ready to jump back in at a moment's notice.

Multitasking on your Nokia Lumia 900: Note taking

You just noted down an important reference number or some other piece of information in Evernote or the Windows Phone Calendar To-do section. Now you're relaying that information to someone else through an email or a text message but the problem is you can't remember what the important piece of information was.

Rather than abandon the open text message and go through a laborious process of closing and opening separate applications, simply hold the Back button and scroll to the Evernote note. Because this is an accurate thumbnail of the open note, you'll see your information without having to go into the app. Simply return to the open message and re-enter with your memory refreshed!

Multitasking on your Nokia Lumia 900: Orienteering

You're zoomed in on a the location of a meeting point in Nokia Maps, and you're trying to talk another attendee in through WhatsApp or SMS. As before, simply enter the multitasking menu to reference back to the map, quickly note the nearby roads and landmarks and quickly return to your messaging to relay the information while it's fresh in mind.