the_tyrant
12-18-12, 04:56 PM
As we all know, recently Nokia isn’t doing nearly as well as they were. They have fallen from being the world’s number 1 cellphone company (they are second now, Samsung has overtaken them). Their market share has fallen significantly, and most importantly, Nokia is losing out the profitable and prestigious high end market segment. The last two generations of Nokia flagships have all been embarrassingly bad, the n97 was a disgrace, and the n8 was completely unusable in its release form. In the fall of 2011, Nokia didn’t even really have a flagship worthy device for the second half of the year.
Well, now Nokia is back, and they are bigger than ever. Their new Lumia 920 is a top of the line device, one that they claim is the “most revolutionary smartphone ever”. Is there truth in this claim? Does this phone really trump the competition? Well, let’s find out.
Hardware:
The hardware of the Nokia Lumia 920 probably the best that you can find on any phone that is on the market. On the hardware side, this phone is truly revolutionary.
Let’s start with the internals. For the past 3 generations of Nokia flagships, the internals have always been outdated. The n96, n97, and n8 were all crippled by its poor internals, delivering horrible performance. The Lumia 920 has a Snapdragon s4 CPU, with 1gb of ram. Internal storage comes in at 32gb. It has 4g LTE (only if your network supports it), Wi-Fi b/g/n accelerometer, gyroscope, and everything else that you might think you will need. These internals are not the absolute best that you can find on a phone (the LG Optimus G has the Snapdragon S4 pro instead of the Snapdragon). However, the internals are still extremely competitive with the other competing high end devices. The chipset is the same as what you would find in the Samsung Galaxy S3 (LTE version), HTC One X (LTE version), Sony Xperia T (aka the Bond Phone), HTC Windows Phone 8X (what a ridiculous name), and the Motorola Droid Razr. Simply put, the Snapdragon s4 is the chipset of choice for flagship phones this year. The Nokia Lumia 920 has very competitive internals, something that no Nokia flagship had since the n95.
From the design perspective, the Lumia 920 is gorgeous. It is of the traditional slab form factor, but its design truly stands out. It is the successor to the “fabula” design that was started with the n9, and although the design language has already been used multiple times on different devices, it is still stunning and stands out in the sea of big black slabs. The Lumia 920 comes in many different colors, and I for one always wanted a Cyan one (curse you Rogers! Rogers only stocked black).
http://mynokiablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Nokia-Lumia-920T_465.jpg
As for the screen, this is an aspect that Nokia claims to have innovated in. The screen itself is an IPS LCD screen, unlike the Amoleds commonly present in previous Nokia devices. The screen itself has great color reproduction and viewing angles, with PPI even higher than the iPhone’s “retina”. Of course, AMOLED has far better contrast, but the LCD in the Lumia 920 does have better color reproduction. The screen is what Nokia calls a “puremotion” display, aka the refresh rate is the highest in any mobile display, for no lag or ghosting. Is this really noticeable? Slightly, but lag has not really been an issue in phone displays. The other major aspect of the display is the super sensitive touch. The touch screen now responds to your fingers even if you are wearing gloves, something that other capacitive touch screens have not really been able to do. This really helps, and I have verified it does indeed work as intended with gloves on.
Nokia cameras have always been top notch. And the Nokia Lumia 920 is no different. The camera is pureview branded, but unlike the pureview 808, it does not have a 41 megapixel sensor. Instead, the Lumia 920 has optical image stabilization (the first phone to do so). This allows the 920 to take magnificent low light images and the stabilization really helps video quality. When it comes to image quality, daylight photos in good lighting conditions is good, but not great. There is a certain level of fuzziness in photos in good light, but I have heard from Nokia that a fix is coming soon within the next few days, I will update this review once the update rolls out to me. Aside from daylight photos, nighttime photos are top notch. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PHONE THAT TAKES BETTER LOW LIGHT PHOTOS. Period. The optical image stabilization allows the phone to increase exposure time, taking in more light. Although the flash is duel LED and not Xeon, the night time photos are still top notch. Video quality is also amazing, compared side by side with other phones; you can easily see the difference that optical image stabilization makes to the video quality.
Now in most reviews of the Nokia Lumia 920, you will see people discussing the weight of the phone. Yes, the phone weighs more than many popular models like the iPhone 5. Its weight is more in line with the Motorola Droid 4, and the LG Quantum; The Lumia 920 is a slab phone that weighs as much as a slider. I personally do not complain, since it’s still under 200 grams (since when do people complain about 200 grams now?). The great build quality completely offsets the weight, it just feels “high end”. I understand that this is an issue for some people, so if you like skinny jeans; this is probably not the phone for you. Also, if this phone weighs too much for you, all I can ask is: bro, do you even lift?
Other stand out hardware features include NFC and wireless charging. NFC works great, pairs fast, with no issues at all. On the other hand, wireless
charging also works great. It charges on any Qi compatible charging pad.
Software
Now the Windows Phone 8 operating system is a really controversial operating system. Windows Phone is still a minor player in the overall market, battling with Blackberry for third place. As a smaller player, this does mean
that certain tradeoffs would have to be made. I will generally outline Windows Phone 8, and that the Nokia specific stuff in this section.
As for the OS itself, Windows Phone 8 is a very strong player. It has a refreshing, touch friendly UI design, with a brand new paradigm. Windows Phone uses the Live Tile system, a clean break from the “rows of icons” introduced with the Palm OS, and popularized by the iPhone. Your main screen acts like the notification center, with the “live tiles” doubling as both the icon and the widget. Windows Phone 8 does have some deficiencies though, most importantly, unlike Symbian, Windows Phone 8 is not fully landscape friendly, which means that the phone would be used in portrait configuration most of time. Windows Phone 8 is also not as customizable with custom themes like Android, the customization level is limited to the tiles (which to be honest is more than what iOS offers), and colors.
here is an advertisement outlining how windows phone works: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/celebrity/jessica
The core experience of the operating system is very good. Facebook integration is amazing, the messaging app is great, and IE is an amazing mobile browser. The core experience is VERY GOOD. Aside from some very small annoyances in IE, the core experience is fact, and efficient. Windows Phone simply does the core things faster than the competition, hence why there is the "smokes by windows phone" advertisements.
and outline of all the major features can be seen here: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/features
Windows Phone has always been an extremely fluid and smooth operating system. The operating system does not lag AT ALL. The experience is 100% smooth, 100% fluid. It is also extremely stable, even with my extensive usage, it has only crashed on me once (and that was when I was using a beta app). Note that some users have reported more restarts (mostly users of the HTC Windows Phone 8X), so your mileage may vary.
Nokia does provide many customizations to the operating system itself. As the parent company of Navteq (arguably the world’s biggest mapping company), Nokia maps is a great mapping system. Far better than Apple Maps found on the iPhone, and Bing Maps found on stock Windows Phone. This means that Nokia phones have arguably the best mapping system found on a phone, anywhere. Nokia Maps and Nokia drive offers full offline maps support, allowing you to download whole country’s worth of maps onto your phone for offline usage. Nokia Drive can then use the maps to provide voice guided turn by turn navigation. Nokia also provides an augmented reality mode called Nokia City lens, its real world value is debatable, but I think it’s pretty fun to use.
Windows Phone is very well integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem. If you use outlook, exchange, office, skydrive, xbox, MSN, skype, etc. Windows Phone would be a great choice for you. Windows Phone 8 offers Skype and MSN integration (skype calls work exactly like normal phone calls, and MSN messages are integrated with the text messages). Xbox live is also integrated with the windows phone games, and xbox smartglass performance is excellent.
As a smaller player though, unfortunately Windows Phone has less apps than the iOS or Android. The staples are mostly there (Microsoft says of the top 50 mobile applications, 46 are already on windows phone). The majority of windows phone 7 apps works great on windows phone 8, but a few are incompatible. The main issue really comes down to mobile gaming, there is not a single game that really pushes the capabilities of the Lumia 920 to the limits in the windows phone store.
Conclusion:
I love it, I genuinely recommend this phone. I have been personally using this phone myself since launch, and I have no regrets. This is a great phone overall, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to most of my friends.
The Lumia 920 is a very good phone, it is a highly excellent device. Even without the Nokia innovations, like the super sensitive screen, or the pureview camera, just on specs alone, it is a great phone. Add in the innovations never before seen on any phone, and you have a true flagship device, worth of Nokia’s comeback.
Finally, we have to discuss pricing. In the US and Canada, normally, high end phones are 600-700$ off contract, and 199-299$ on contract. With the Lumia 920, its price is 450$ is off contract, and under 99$ on contact, around 200$ cheaper than other flagships. You are getting a superphone, for midrange prices. There is absolutely no reason not to give the Nokia Lumia 920 a try.
Well, now Nokia is back, and they are bigger than ever. Their new Lumia 920 is a top of the line device, one that they claim is the “most revolutionary smartphone ever”. Is there truth in this claim? Does this phone really trump the competition? Well, let’s find out.
Hardware:
The hardware of the Nokia Lumia 920 probably the best that you can find on any phone that is on the market. On the hardware side, this phone is truly revolutionary.
Let’s start with the internals. For the past 3 generations of Nokia flagships, the internals have always been outdated. The n96, n97, and n8 were all crippled by its poor internals, delivering horrible performance. The Lumia 920 has a Snapdragon s4 CPU, with 1gb of ram. Internal storage comes in at 32gb. It has 4g LTE (only if your network supports it), Wi-Fi b/g/n accelerometer, gyroscope, and everything else that you might think you will need. These internals are not the absolute best that you can find on a phone (the LG Optimus G has the Snapdragon S4 pro instead of the Snapdragon). However, the internals are still extremely competitive with the other competing high end devices. The chipset is the same as what you would find in the Samsung Galaxy S3 (LTE version), HTC One X (LTE version), Sony Xperia T (aka the Bond Phone), HTC Windows Phone 8X (what a ridiculous name), and the Motorola Droid Razr. Simply put, the Snapdragon s4 is the chipset of choice for flagship phones this year. The Nokia Lumia 920 has very competitive internals, something that no Nokia flagship had since the n95.
From the design perspective, the Lumia 920 is gorgeous. It is of the traditional slab form factor, but its design truly stands out. It is the successor to the “fabula” design that was started with the n9, and although the design language has already been used multiple times on different devices, it is still stunning and stands out in the sea of big black slabs. The Lumia 920 comes in many different colors, and I for one always wanted a Cyan one (curse you Rogers! Rogers only stocked black).
http://mynokiablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Nokia-Lumia-920T_465.jpg
As for the screen, this is an aspect that Nokia claims to have innovated in. The screen itself is an IPS LCD screen, unlike the Amoleds commonly present in previous Nokia devices. The screen itself has great color reproduction and viewing angles, with PPI even higher than the iPhone’s “retina”. Of course, AMOLED has far better contrast, but the LCD in the Lumia 920 does have better color reproduction. The screen is what Nokia calls a “puremotion” display, aka the refresh rate is the highest in any mobile display, for no lag or ghosting. Is this really noticeable? Slightly, but lag has not really been an issue in phone displays. The other major aspect of the display is the super sensitive touch. The touch screen now responds to your fingers even if you are wearing gloves, something that other capacitive touch screens have not really been able to do. This really helps, and I have verified it does indeed work as intended with gloves on.
Nokia cameras have always been top notch. And the Nokia Lumia 920 is no different. The camera is pureview branded, but unlike the pureview 808, it does not have a 41 megapixel sensor. Instead, the Lumia 920 has optical image stabilization (the first phone to do so). This allows the 920 to take magnificent low light images and the stabilization really helps video quality. When it comes to image quality, daylight photos in good lighting conditions is good, but not great. There is a certain level of fuzziness in photos in good light, but I have heard from Nokia that a fix is coming soon within the next few days, I will update this review once the update rolls out to me. Aside from daylight photos, nighttime photos are top notch. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PHONE THAT TAKES BETTER LOW LIGHT PHOTOS. Period. The optical image stabilization allows the phone to increase exposure time, taking in more light. Although the flash is duel LED and not Xeon, the night time photos are still top notch. Video quality is also amazing, compared side by side with other phones; you can easily see the difference that optical image stabilization makes to the video quality.
Now in most reviews of the Nokia Lumia 920, you will see people discussing the weight of the phone. Yes, the phone weighs more than many popular models like the iPhone 5. Its weight is more in line with the Motorola Droid 4, and the LG Quantum; The Lumia 920 is a slab phone that weighs as much as a slider. I personally do not complain, since it’s still under 200 grams (since when do people complain about 200 grams now?). The great build quality completely offsets the weight, it just feels “high end”. I understand that this is an issue for some people, so if you like skinny jeans; this is probably not the phone for you. Also, if this phone weighs too much for you, all I can ask is: bro, do you even lift?
Other stand out hardware features include NFC and wireless charging. NFC works great, pairs fast, with no issues at all. On the other hand, wireless
charging also works great. It charges on any Qi compatible charging pad.
Software
Now the Windows Phone 8 operating system is a really controversial operating system. Windows Phone is still a minor player in the overall market, battling with Blackberry for third place. As a smaller player, this does mean
that certain tradeoffs would have to be made. I will generally outline Windows Phone 8, and that the Nokia specific stuff in this section.
As for the OS itself, Windows Phone 8 is a very strong player. It has a refreshing, touch friendly UI design, with a brand new paradigm. Windows Phone uses the Live Tile system, a clean break from the “rows of icons” introduced with the Palm OS, and popularized by the iPhone. Your main screen acts like the notification center, with the “live tiles” doubling as both the icon and the widget. Windows Phone 8 does have some deficiencies though, most importantly, unlike Symbian, Windows Phone 8 is not fully landscape friendly, which means that the phone would be used in portrait configuration most of time. Windows Phone 8 is also not as customizable with custom themes like Android, the customization level is limited to the tiles (which to be honest is more than what iOS offers), and colors.
here is an advertisement outlining how windows phone works: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/celebrity/jessica
The core experience of the operating system is very good. Facebook integration is amazing, the messaging app is great, and IE is an amazing mobile browser. The core experience is VERY GOOD. Aside from some very small annoyances in IE, the core experience is fact, and efficient. Windows Phone simply does the core things faster than the competition, hence why there is the "smokes by windows phone" advertisements.
and outline of all the major features can be seen here: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/features
Windows Phone has always been an extremely fluid and smooth operating system. The operating system does not lag AT ALL. The experience is 100% smooth, 100% fluid. It is also extremely stable, even with my extensive usage, it has only crashed on me once (and that was when I was using a beta app). Note that some users have reported more restarts (mostly users of the HTC Windows Phone 8X), so your mileage may vary.
Nokia does provide many customizations to the operating system itself. As the parent company of Navteq (arguably the world’s biggest mapping company), Nokia maps is a great mapping system. Far better than Apple Maps found on the iPhone, and Bing Maps found on stock Windows Phone. This means that Nokia phones have arguably the best mapping system found on a phone, anywhere. Nokia Maps and Nokia drive offers full offline maps support, allowing you to download whole country’s worth of maps onto your phone for offline usage. Nokia Drive can then use the maps to provide voice guided turn by turn navigation. Nokia also provides an augmented reality mode called Nokia City lens, its real world value is debatable, but I think it’s pretty fun to use.
Windows Phone is very well integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem. If you use outlook, exchange, office, skydrive, xbox, MSN, skype, etc. Windows Phone would be a great choice for you. Windows Phone 8 offers Skype and MSN integration (skype calls work exactly like normal phone calls, and MSN messages are integrated with the text messages). Xbox live is also integrated with the windows phone games, and xbox smartglass performance is excellent.
As a smaller player though, unfortunately Windows Phone has less apps than the iOS or Android. The staples are mostly there (Microsoft says of the top 50 mobile applications, 46 are already on windows phone). The majority of windows phone 7 apps works great on windows phone 8, but a few are incompatible. The main issue really comes down to mobile gaming, there is not a single game that really pushes the capabilities of the Lumia 920 to the limits in the windows phone store.
Conclusion:
I love it, I genuinely recommend this phone. I have been personally using this phone myself since launch, and I have no regrets. This is a great phone overall, and I would not hesitate to recommend it to most of my friends.
The Lumia 920 is a very good phone, it is a highly excellent device. Even without the Nokia innovations, like the super sensitive screen, or the pureview camera, just on specs alone, it is a great phone. Add in the innovations never before seen on any phone, and you have a true flagship device, worth of Nokia’s comeback.
Finally, we have to discuss pricing. In the US and Canada, normally, high end phones are 600-700$ off contract, and 199-299$ on contract. With the Lumia 920, its price is 450$ is off contract, and under 99$ on contact, around 200$ cheaper than other flagships. You are getting a superphone, for midrange prices. There is absolutely no reason not to give the Nokia Lumia 920 a try.