Lumia 920
Although much fuss has been made over Windows Phone 8’s shortcomings
and its supposed inability to compete in the smartphone market, no one
seems to have told the
Lumia 920, which reportedly sold out in
many locations the first weekend it was available. And it’s easy to see
why folks are eager to get their hands on it: It’s a big, bold handset
with fantastic camera technology, unique features, and a beautiful
display.
However, it won’t appeal to all users, many of whom are firmly
entrenched in the iOS or Android ecosystems. But those who are
platform-agnostic, are more focused on productivity than playing, or who
are interested in a something fresh and unique can find much to love
about the
Lumia 920.
Lumia 920 Design
The phone is a beast of a handset and impossible to ignore. Constructed from a single piece of polycarbonate, the
Lumia 920
measures 5.12 inches tall, 2.7 inches wide, and 0.42 inches thick and
is available in both glossy (yellow, white, red) or matte (black, blue)
finishes. We did our testing on the glossy, bright yellow version. The
4.5-inch screen is framed by a bezel that houses the three capacitive
Windows buttons (back, home, and search) and curves neatly into the
body. The physical buttons (volume, power, camera) are ceramic and are
all located on the right-hand side.
The bottom houses the micro-drilled speakers and the micro-USB input;
the top holds the 3.5-mm headphone jack and micro-SIM card. The rear
features the flash and the 8.7-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss
wide-angle optics (much more on that later), while the front-facing
camera is tucked next to the earpiece and the ambient light sensor.
The first thing you notice when you hold the Lumia 920 is its size
and weight—at 6.5 ounces, it’s significantly heavier than the iPhone 5
(3.95 ounces) or the Galaxy S III (4.69 ounces). It feels both large and
substantial when held, no surprise given Nokia’s history of solid build
quality. I’ve heard the 920 described as a “beast,” a “heavyweight
player,” and a “monster truck,” and while there’s no denying that this
is a sizeable smartphone, that’s not necessarily a drawback. I had no
trouble operating the 920 one-handed, and my fella (who is 6’5”) was
pleased that I’d finally brought home a handset that fit his large
mitts. I should note that the glossy finish available for the yellow,
white, and red colors does pick up smudges and fingerprints; you might
prefer, as I do, the soft feel of a matte finish.
One place where the Lumia 920 really shines is its screen, a 4.5-inch
high-contrast IPS (In-Plane Switching) display that Nokia calls
PureMotions HD+, sealed in a coating of Gorilla Glass 2. It is drop-dead
gorgeous. Capable of deep blacks, rich colors, and sharp text, the 920
is rocking a slightly higher pixel density—332 ppi—than the iPhone 5’s
Retina Display, which has 326 ppi. Images are crisp and popping with
color, text is pleasant to read, and videos look amazing. Not only does
the Lumia 920 provide a stellar viewing experience on an expansive
screen, but it is also capable of great visibility in sunlight, and the
Synaptics-powered capacitive touchscreen can respond to gloved
fingertips, as well as fingernails and some pens. And not to be outdone
by appearances, the touchscreen on the 920 is impressively
responsive—Assistant Editor Armando Rodriquez kept calling it “zippy,”
and I was similarly delighted by how quickly the 920 responded to
commands.
Performance Lumia 920
While all handsets running Windows Phone 8 have benefited from the
upgraded hardware requirements of the new OS, the Lumia 920 pushes the
limits by packing in a remarkable camera, as well as NFC capabilities,
Bluetooth 3.0, and built-in Qi wireless charging. With a dual-core
Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a
2000mAh battery, the 920 is loaded with solid specs. It does lack
expandable storage, but Microsoft throws in an additional 7GB of cloud
storage for all new SkyDrive accounts.
Nokia claims that the 920 is capable of 9 hours of talk time, 52
hours of music playback, 5 hours of video playback, and 2.6 hours of
video recording. When we ran our battery tests, the 920 lasted for 6
hours, 13 minutes worth of video playback (with brightness set to
medium, and in airplane mode)—slightly less time than the HTC Windows
Phone 8X, which ran for 6 hours, 33 minutes.
While some apps took a moment to load, overall the Lumia 920 had no
problem running apps or playing games—although the rear of the phone did
become quite warm after more than 20 minutes or so of continuous use.
Web browsing and searching was similarly effortless; the 920 quickly
loaded Web pages and displayed search results without a hitch. It did
well on our page-load tests, and aced both our SunSpider and WebVizBench
tests, where it pulled slightly ahead of the HTC 8X.
Call quality was good for every call I placed; I encountered no
problems making calls either locally or long-distance. In each case, the
conversation was clear, and I had no trouble understanding what was
being said, even for lengthy calls. No real shock there: Nokia was able
to cram 11 different bands onto the 920, so it’s covered a lot of bases
for cellular support.
Wireless charging was effortless; all I had to do was set the Lumia
920 onto a charging pad, and it gave me a tone to let me know it was
charging. Granted, the charging pad itself does need to be plugged in,
but if you’re going to set your phone down, it may as well be charging
so it’s ready when you pick it up.
Software Lumia 920
The Lumia 920 is one of Windows Phone 8’s flagship phones, the other
being HTC’s Windows Phone 8X, and it certainly does the revamped OS
justice. The Lumia’s brightly colored hardware is echoed by the
software’s Live Tiles, which can be resized, and the OS now supports
Office documents—easy to read and edit thanks the to 920’s large,
crystal clear screen.
In addition to the standard set of Windows Phone 8 features (Groups
and Rooms, Kids Corner, DataSense, SkyDrive integration, Xbox
SmartGlass), Nokia includes its own suite of software goodies such as
City Lens, Drive + Beta, Maps, and Music.
Nokia Music now offers Dolby sound and has a built-in equalizer; both
features are available for use with headphones. Turning on Dolby sound
did in fact add a nice layer of bass to songs. Though Pandora will soon
be available, Nokia also includes its Mix Radio service—which offers
free music to stream and download, so you can create playlists to listen
to anywhere.
While Nokia powers all of the Maps on Windows Phone 8, Lumia 920
users get the bonus of free turn-by-turn navigation, and they can
download maps of entire countries and the inside of popular venues. You
don’t get street-level photos, and therefore nothing like Google’s
Street View, but both the Places function within Maps and the City Lens
app offer services similar to Google’s Places. City Lens relies on
TripAdvisor and other third-party databases to provide data for this
augmented-reality app that displays nearby businesses through the
camera. The Local Scout app does much the same thing, but nicely filters
results into categories like Food + Drink.
Overall, Nokia Drive, a Lumia exclusive, provides a more robust
mapping experience, while the Windows Phone 8 maps provide more detailed
information on nearby businesses.
Internet Explorer 10, though not a desktop favorite, performs well as
a mobile browser, loading quickly and looking sharp. The Xbox
integration continues with SmartGlass, which allows you to use your
Windows Phone 8 handset as a console controller; however, the full
version will require an Xbox Live subscription. It’s a neat, if not
fully realized, feature that could use some further integration. At the
moment, it lets you use your Lumia as an additional controller for your
Xbox, but it would be nice to see more interactive content.
The major reason that most people will look into the Lumia 920 is the
camera. And oh, what a camera it is: 8.7 megapixels with a
backside-illuminated sensor, an f/2.0 autofocus Carl Zeiss lens paired
with Nokia’s PureView technology, and the first-ever floating lens and
sensor for optical image stabilization. All of which basically means
that the camera takes impressively stable video and superior low-light
images. While we saw some ISO noise, the low-light images were heads
above the rest. Images taken during the day were often warmer, and
softer, than those taken with our other test cameras (an iPhone 5 and a
Samsung Galaxy S III).
During our photo testing, the Lumia 920 did very well in capturing
color in low light, though the image wasn’t as sharp as we would have
liked. Likewise, for our still-life images, the 920 did very well in
capturing color and skin tone, but suffered a bit in sharpness. It also
did very well in capturing low-light video, although it fared slightly
worse in capturing normal-light video, scoring below the Galaxy S III
and the iPhone 5.
The camera includes six scene modes (auto, close-up, night, night
portrait, sports, and backlight), as well as adjustable ISO settings
(from 100 to 800), adjustable exposure value, and five white-balance
settings. That is… a lot of settings for a camera that will likely be
used by a lot of folks who don’t know what ISO stands for. While it’s a
stellar camera with impressive technology, it may be a bit too advanced
for those who don’t understand the various settings.
Lenses bring additional features to the camera courtesy of
third-party apps (although there are admittedly not that many of those
yet) such as Panorama, SmartShoot for group photos, burst shots, and
Cinemagraph GIF-making functions. The floating lens technology did a
stellar job of keeping videos stable; the short test videos I took
walking around San Francisco were clear and steady. Autofocus did a good
job keeping up, although the white balance sometimes had a hard time
doing the same.
Bottom Line Lumia 920
The Nokia Lumia 920 is an all-around impressive handset: It has
solid, eye-catching hardware with some impressive features and makes a
case for Windows Phone 8 as an operating system. It has a truly
beautiful screen, a camera capable of incredible low-light images and
stable videos, NFC functionality, and wireless charging (if that’s
something you think you’ll use). It provides a full suite of Office
programs, integrates with the Xbox, has turn-by-turn navigation, offline
maps, and Mix Radio. This smartphone has a full host of services;
although none of them are iTunes or Google Maps, that doesn’t mean the
Lumia can’t provide music or directions.
Choosing a Windows Phone 8 handset means some adjustments, both good
and bad. While you’re still missing some essential apps (Instagram,
Dropbox), that list is steadily improving, and Windows Phone 8 provides
features that other smartphones lack (Office documents, Groups and
Rooms, Xbox integration) that make it worth considering—especially if
you’re looking for your first smartphone or are a business user. Nokia’s
Lumia 920 is a champion for Windows Phone 8, and while it may not win
the smartphone war, it is more than capable of winning its share of
battles.
[ Source :- Pcworld ]
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