Nokia Lumia 920 Review: Can the WP8 flagship convert iPhone/Android lovers?

Nokia Lumia 920 Review

Since Microsoft and its manufacturing partners introduced Windows Phone 7, they have tried in vain to introduce a legitimate competitor to the Apple iPhone. They have also failed to unseat an army of Android devices that have been more lucrative for the same manufacturers who first embraced Windows Phone. Nokia's entry was an all-in gamble that was supposed to platform among the elite of smartphones, but being the most popular of the bunch didn't translate to commercial or critical success.
In the Nokia Lumia 920, Windows Phone 8 has a worthy competitor to iOS and Android. It continues the design philosophy that made the original Lumias the most popular Windows Phone handsets by having eye-catching colors and distinguishing features. It also features brand new software that is faster and more robust than its predecessor. Will a winning hardware foundation and vastly improved software secure the Lumia 920 a place among the elite?

Hardware, Key Features

The Nokia Lumia 920 isn't guaranteed to earn millions of sales, but the phone is sure to garner plenty of looks thanks to its bold color choices. Available in a matte cyan finish or a high gloss red or yellow, the bold color choices that wrap around a black face stand out from a crowd.
People who want a more conservative color scheme can opt for a matte black or glossy white model, but even those will be distinguishable because of the Lumia 920's body. The phone measures 134.62mm x 70.87mm x 10.67mm (5.13in x 2.79in x 0.42in). Arriving in an era where smartphone vendors are racing to make each phone thinner than the last, the slightly curved back of the Lumia 920 protrudes far enough to make this a relatively thick phone.
It's also on the hefty side by topping the scale at 184.27g (6.5oz). The Lumia 920 is the heaviest flagship phone to hit the market in quite some time. The phone's weight is not excessive, but there's no getting around that this phone carries extra ounces that the Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III do not.
The Lumia 920 carries its weight well by still managing to introduce an attractive figure with solid hardware credentials. The top and bottom of the device are completely flat, so the Lumia 920 can stand up on a table or desk. Both sides curve as if the two sides were squished smoothly meet in the back and give shape to the phone. The left side is a blank slate but the right side has volume buttons, a button to turn the device on or off, or take a photo. The bottom houses a microUSB slot and a pleasingly loud speaker, and the top has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a SIM door that's accessible by a key included in the box.
In an effort to make an equally attractive display, Nokia built the Lumia 920 to have a 4.5-inch screen with PureMotion HD+, ClearBlack, Sunlight Readability Enhancement, and Corning Gorilla Glass 2.0. To put those clever brand names and marketing terms into plain English, the Lumia 920 displays bright colors and deep blacks accurately, and animation and video move smoothly across the screen without any drops in quality. The Sunlight enhancement works as advertised and does a very good job of combating the glare or lack of visibility that occurs on sunny days. The screen adjusts outdoors to make content readable even under direct sunlight. The curved glass reduces the shock of impact of drops or scratches, and a touch panel with increased sensitivity makes the device operable even when wearing gloves.
While Windows Phone 7 was a temporary stopgap to modernize Microsoft's smartphone operating system, Windows Phone 8 is truly a whole new experience. Modern UI, formerly known as Metro, is a flexible interface that is a comfortable departure from Android and iOS. It's easy to make sense of the UI, which relies on Live Tiles as its main feature. Live Tiles are akin to Android widgets because they provide updates and shortcuts on the home screen. Rather than show an icon for an email account, it shows the icon and the number '14' to indicate that there are 14 unread messages. Tiles can also show top stories from CNN, tweets from friends, or photos from a camera roll. Live Tiles can be repositioned, fit into themes with different colors, and adjusted to different sizes.
A 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM make slick movements possible, but Windows Phone 8 doesn't always feel like it benefits much from the hardware increase. When browsing the home screen or loading system apps, things snap at a reasonable pace; however, there's a considerable delay when loading apps. Users should become accustommed to seeing the word "Loading" because it appears frequently. Whether this is the fault of the OS or poorly coded apps from developers, many news apps like ESPN, CNN, and Entrance spend too much time displaying loading or splash screens before actually displaying content. Most apps move quickly once loaded, but the slow start-up times pop-up often enough to become an annoyance.
Not all apps are a letdown. Nokia delivers some interesting mapping solutions like City Lens, an augmented reality app that showcases famous landmarks and nearby points of interest. It also includes a very powerful Maps app with offline turn-by-turn navigation and lots of data from across the globe. Windows Phone provides added privacy with Kid's Corner, a sandboxed section of the phone where guests can only access pre-approved apps, games, and songs. These built-in software features are equal to, and arguably better than, what's offered on other platforms.

Call Quality, Apps, Browser

Making phone calls on the Nokia Lumia 920 is pleasant thanks to a decent connection on both ends of the call. The phone could benefit from stronger noise cancellation when outdoors, but voices are audible and not muffled. Skype offers an alternative calling option with an always-on set-up that keeps users logged-in without using much battery. The app sends notifications, is integrated into the People app and incoming call screen, and can easily switch between Skype and cellular calls. It's the best Skype integration I've seen on any mobile device, which is not surprising considering that Microsoft bought the company.
Data speeds can vary based on where AT&T's LTE and HSPA+ network has been deployed. In the suburbs of Miami, I received 3 to 5 Mbps downloads and as much as 6 Mbps upload. Those speeds were a significant drop from the 14 Mbps downloads and as much as 8 Mbps uploads I experienced while in San Francisco. If you're someone who cares more about how much data you use rather than how fast the network performs, Windows Phone 8 includes Data Sense, an option to compress data and locate Wi-Fi hotspots to limit your data usage.

Messaging

Windows Phone 8 has a standard messaging app that continues the typography-centric interface found throughout the software. It also has the People Hub, a unified communication tool that includes group messaging featured called Rooms and a custom update center called Groups.
Rooms is a BBM-like group platform for sharing messages, calendars, photos, and notes. Sadly, non-Windows Phone 8 devices cannot access all content, including group chat, which is a major problem. Even Windows Phone 7 users can't fully participate in group chat, so the feature is practically useless unless you have a social circle with a disproportionate amount of friends with Windows Phone 8. Groups have more value because they are a way to monitor a select group of friends social network updates, but they can also send mass text messages or emails to members.

Apps / App Store

Windows Phone 8 has an apps problem. More specifically, it has a lack of apps problem. Microsoft recently announced that the Windows Phone Store has crossed the 125,000 apps mark, but that high total does not mean there are not glaring omissions from the best of options available in the Apple iOS App Store or Android's Google Play. For first time smartphone buyers, having fewer apps may not be as big as an issue, but anyone who has used an iPhone or Android device is bound to come up short in their app search. Shutterbugs will be disappointed to learn there's no Instagram, music lovers shocked discover there's no Spotify or Pandora (both coming soon), and new readers will stare at blank pages if they seek Flipboard or Pulse.
The best that anyone can hope for is that a suitable alternative will be available, and that's not always the case. There's no Dropbox app, but there are apps for Box and SkyDrive. Fhotoroom actually has better photo filter options than Instagram, but it is much weaker as a social app because the people you wish to share photos with are far more likely to use Instagram. A search of the Windows Phone Store reveals that there are some great apps, but they are no match for the wealth of options available for other operating systems.
On the bright side, the apps that are available have a uniform and sensible style, and Nokia has worked to get more apps on its phone than any other Windows Phone device. Nokia has exclusive deals with some companies that mean they get apps and games first, so Lumia owners benefit by being the first of the last to receive key apps.

Browser

In many regards - standard browsing, side-by-side comparisons with other devices, and benchmarks - the Internet Explorer 10 browser rates highly. Loading times were reasonable and quick, and HTML5 and JavaScript rendering are far better than anything previously seen on Windows Phone - 2x and 5x as good according to Microsoft.
The Lumia 920's browser also features enhancements for custom fonts and animations, so websites are more likely to display as their designers intended. The over-the-hood features include tabbed browsing, favorites, sharing URLs, and managing favorites. It also has the option to set "mobile" or "desktop" preferences, an anti-malware SmartScreen filter, and Do Not Track settings for privacy.

Camera, Battery, Conclusion

The Lumia 920 has a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.4 aperture still images and HD 720p video recording. The rear shooter has an 8.7 megapixel, Carl Zeiss optics-enabled camera with f/2.0 aperture. In bright lighting, the lens is not any more remarkable than what's seen on the iPhone 5 or Galaxy S III. You'll still find images that do well to accurately depict colors and produce very good image quality, but don't go in expecting the world-changing upgrade in photo quality that resulted after Nokia oversold the device's capability with questionable marketing tactics. Instead, focus on the very real and reasonable improvements possible because of Nokia's floating lens system that allows the Lumia 920 to capture more light and provide better image stabilization than the average device.
The lens does an exceptional job at taking pictures at night or in poorly-lit rooms without relying on an LED flash that can make the subject too bright or remove details about the background. It does a better job of accounting for user shaking and movement than most devices, but it's not a miracle worker. Photos and videos will be more stable thanks to the floating lens, and this is definitely the best smartphone camera to have if you have shaky hands or need extra help taking nighttime photos.
Nokia does a tremendous job improving the image processing in the Lumia 920, but the actual camera software is mostly untouched. It's standard Windows Phone 8 fare with shooting modes for close-ups, sports, backlight, night, and night portraits. Users can enhance the software by downloading "Lenses" that introduce panoramic images, taking multiple photos to select a specific face, cinemagraphs, and edit photos.

Music

Microsoft and Nokia each gift users with a quality music experience for the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia Music offers both local playback and streaming radio organized according to popularity, genre, or artist. The Echnonest-powered app limits users to skipping six songs per hour, provides options to purchase songs or entire albums, caches songs for offline listening, lists local concerts and music festivals in a "Gigs" section.
The Music+Videos app acts as a central jukebox that tracks history in the Nokia Music app or any other music-streaming app like Slacker Radio or Rdio. The app has a dashboard for music and video, but also serves as the home of Xbox Music, Microsoft's streaming and download service. A $9.99 monthly Xbox Music Pass has millions of songs that can be downloaded or streamed on-demand or played with a Pandora-like Smart DJ feature. Collections are synchronized on Windows Phone, Windows 8 desktops or tablets, and Xbox 360, a bonus for users of all three systems.

Battery

A 2,000 mAh battery goes a long way towards improving performance, and the Nokia Lumia 920 puts in a solid day's work. The Lumia 920 managed about 15 hours under moderate usage and 12 hours when pushed to do more web browsing and streaming music. Connecting to LTE all day will shorten that time, and there's unfortunately no easy way to disable LTE. When the user does need to reach for a charger, the Nokia Lumia 920 supports the Qi wireless charging standard on separately sold charging pads for the home, office, and select locations.

Final Thoughts

The Nokia Lumia 920 is an incredible device. It has a fantastic screen, a unique appearance, and a peerless low-light camera that will rescue many photo taking opportunities. Stellar as those attributes may be, there are issues with the device.
The hulking build of the Lumia 920 is a small issue, but the weaker Windows Phone app options are a major concern. Many apps that I rely on daily are not available on Windows Phone 8, and others are available but receive features long after the Android and iOS versions.
The Lumia 920 suffers from guilt by association because no matter how nice it dresses up Windows Phone 8, the OS and third-party software are still playing catch-up. This is a fantastic phone for someone who is a dedicated Windows or Xbox user, or someone with a patient streak who spends most of their time on the web. Users who rely on a healthy app market may find that this is a great phone held back by the limitations of its software.

80

Pros: Beautiful body and unique appearance. Excellent screen quality. Best camera for low-light photos, fashionable color schemes.
Cons: Bulky build. Fewer app options than other smartphones hinder the phone's full potential.