Hands On with the Nokia Lumia 920 & Lumia 820
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 5, 2012 12:47 PM ESTI'm rushing over to the Motorola event right now, but I wanted to upload some hands on shots of the new Lumia 920 and 820 that were announced earlier today. Videos and more impressions to follow!
Both the 820 and 920 felt well built as you'd expect from Nokia. We've already gone over the full spec list for both pentaband phones based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 silicon. Unfortunately Microsoft had strict guidelines about what aspects of Windows Phone 8 could be shown off, so don't expect any performance or impressions about using the new OS on faster hardware just yet.
Nokia had a scene setup in the dark to test the Lumia 920's low light camera performance. A vase with flowers was set inside a dark box with a port big enough for you to get a smartphone inside. Without using a flash or a tripod, low light performance of the 920 was pretty impressive:
We'll have to reserve final judgement until Brian gets his hands (and eyes) on one, but it's good to see Nokia continue to focus on camera quality.
The super sensitive touch feature worked very well in practice. A cloth covered finger that wouldn't respond at all on the iPhone, did amazingly well on the Lumia 920 - even when typing using the keyboard.
The wireless charging on the Lumia 920 worked seamlessly. Nokia had some tables with integrated wireless chargers that worked just as you'd expect them to. Other accessories such as the JBL PowerUP integrated wireless charging stations as well as NFC for Bluetooth pairing with the 920.
Overall the 920 feels like a much needed modernization of the Lumia platform. We finally have current generation silicon, running a significantly updated Windows Phone OS, with brand new hardware to boot. I don't know that the 920 will be what Microsoft needs to gain significant marketshare, but it's another step in the right direction.
I'm personally very eager to give Windows Phone 8 a try. I was a huge Windows Phone 7 fan at launch, but a lack of updated hardware and an OS that didn't see major updates for far too long soured me on the experience. The big question is whether or not Microsoft will start to push the envelope on hardware and software updates now with Windows Phone 8 as a base.
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briandb82 - Sunday, September 9, 2012 - link
I think this smartphone is great and it has 4G LTE technology. If the phone is approximately USD 200 cheaper as the iPhone 5 I would prefer this smartphone instead of Apples iPhone 5. Source: http://www.factitup.com/2012/09/09/nokia-released-...Brgds,
Brian
VikasJSheth - Tuesday, September 18, 2012 - link
I believe that Nokia is falling way behind in hardware....It has a Dual Core Snapdragon S4 processor, which people say that it out performs the Tegra 3...If you are talking about core to core comparison, may be they are right as Tegra 3 has A9 whereas Lumia has A15 processors...but if you look at the real world performances, the Tegra 3 will just rip off the snapdragon from the roots, because the single core performance might be higher in nokia, but in real world you are comparing Dual Core and Quad Core, Plus on top of that, the GeForce ULP GPU of Tegra 3 is the fastest in real world tests as it contains 12 Cores! So, except for the camera, the wireless charging, may be the sound through the headphones (as it Lumia has Dolby Headphone), the display & the touch screen, it fails in everything else...plus also considering the felxibility of Android OS...Nokia is Leagues behind everyone else!!!!toyotabedzrock - Monday, September 10, 2012 - link
I think this with the simple interface will be the key for Microsoft with older audience and with the wider non tech audience.MLSCrow - Saturday, September 15, 2012 - link
Contrary to what many people seem to like, I actually prefer a heavier phone. For the last few days I've been at the mall going from AT&T to Sprint to Verizon to T-Mobile, etc., checking out all the different phones. There are only 2 phones that appeal to me at this very moment; the Iphone 4S and the Nokia Lumia 900.I'm not going to get either of them, because better things are just around the corner, but the reason why I like these two phone deigns so much, is because of their build quality and sturdiness. The reason for the weight is not only the internals, but the materials used to create the rest of it. The iPhone and the Lumia are the only two phones that I wouldn't be worried about breaking if I accidentally dropped them (which happens to me a lot more than I'd like) or if I happened to fall asleep with it on the bed and roll over on it, I would never expect it to break the way I would with a Galaxy S3 or an HTC One X. Yes those phones might be lighter, but they're also very cheaply made. I'd be nervous to ever drop either of those phones (I know, just don't drop it, right? But crap happens!)
Anyway, as long as Nokia is upgrading the internals to be pretty much on par with the best of the best, along with 4GLTE and the best camera around...I think I'm sold on trying it and W8 after 4 years of IOS. I want to try something new and the only phone that is sturdy enough for my lifestyle outside of iPhones while having the performance I want, seems to be the Lumia.
Though, I am upset that it was just announced that Tegra3 has finally integrated the Icera 4GLTE modem and we'll be seeing quad-core LTE phones before Christmas. I suppose I can deal with dual core for another 2 years before switching to quad, though I am a huge fan of the Tegra3 and it's 5th power saver core. Still, just like CPU's back in the day, most apps aren't developed to take advantage of quad core processors (although the benchmarks obviously are). Dual core should be fine for now, but I'm sure I'll want a quad by the time this next 2 year contract is up.