Nokia Lumia 610: Revealing chinks in the armor?

We were very fond of Windows Phone powered Nokia Lumia 610, with its relatively affordable Php10,990 suggested retail price while offering a very decently sized 3.7-inch display. It was a budget phone which did not necessarily feel like one. 

But it appears that it may have been too much of a good thing. Microsoft has claimed that only five percent of apps in the Windows Phone Market will have difficulties on devices with 256MB of RAM. First, we learned that the Skype app was pulled from the Nokia Lumia 610. Given that Microsoft own's Skype this was particularly disappointing. Now we learned that Tango and Angry Birds, cannot be installed either. The problem appears to be the 256 MB of RAM on the phone. 

This is all a bit disappointing since Skype, Tango and Angry Birds run fine on Apple iPhone's and Google Android devices with 256 MB of RAM. And worrisome too.

Windows Phone's come with 512 MB of RAM and the Nokia Lumia 610 comes with 256 MB. The Windows Phone operating system has been touted as one which is not resource hungry and user have often cited the buttery smooth user interface. Microsoft itself has launched its "Smoked by Windows" campaign to show that its devices to well on the decidedly average hardware you find on a Window Phone these days.

Beyond revealing the limitations of the Nokia Lumia 610, it has gotten me worried hardware on Windows Phone devices throws prioritizes its user interface and built-in apps so much as not to leave enough resources for some causal bird slinging. If you cannot run Angry Birds on 256 MB of RAM, there is a lot you probably cannot run on 512 MB, especially once more Android and iOS apps are ported to the Windows Phone platform. Unless Windows Phone 8 is less resource hungry, current Window Phone hardware may get dated faster than one would expect, which is all not looking to good for Nokia's newly launched Lumia line.  

App developers of the affected apps may release updates to support 256MB of RAM devices. Maybe 512 MB of RAM will be good enough to run Angry Birds Space? Still, with apps which are not all that resource hungry having problems on the 256 MB Windows Phone devices, and with a new operating system on the way in a few months, it looks like a little caution should be taken before jumping in on this platform.