Nokia Lumia 920 Review: The best Windows Phone ever?

The new Nokia Lumias has just been launched a few weeks ago. One of them is the Nokia Lumia 920. Nokia called it as the most innovative smartphone. Its camera is one of the best in the market right now and it is one of the best Windows Phone in the market right now. The Nokia Lumia 920 is first Lumia to feature Pureview and OIS which enables you to have a stabilized videos and awesome low-light photos without even the need of flash. But of course my review doesn’t only cover about the camera. Check out the review after the break.

Hardware

The first time I held my hand on the Nokia Lumia 920. I already felt that the phone is a flagship phone.  Compared to the Nokia Lumia phones that I’ve reviewed before. The Nokia Lumia 920 is a glossy one. The Nokia Lumia 920 that I got is a glossy yellow one and it really look and feels good. Nokia also started that lively and colorful design language on their phones. The only thing that I really don’t like about it is that some of their phones looks very similar. They always use the same design just like Samsung. I know, the Lumia looks good but c’mon, maybe they need to spice things up sometimes.

When you compare the Nokia Lumia 920 to the competition, you might think that the Nokia Lumia 920 is too thick. I guess that phone is really thick but holding it isn’t really an issue. It won’t strain your arms for holding it too long. It’s the type of smartphone that you would rather hold and show it to everyone rather than hiding it in your pocket. I really commend Nokia for making such a great design.

I praised the Nokia phones that I reviewed before for having such a great screen especially the Clearblack displays. But of course, there are already a lot of competition that had been introduced like the HD Super AMOLED, Super LCD2 and a lotta more. I expect that Nokia could improve it more but there wasn’t really too much to praise about it. They called it a Puremotion HD+ Display. The display is something to be proud of Nokia because it has a very sensitive screen but I guess that won’t be needed here in the Philippines because there’s no snow here and we won’t use a our gloves when using the phone. The display isn’t bad but I really expected too much from the display of the Nokia Lumia 920.

The Nokia Lumia 920  has all the things that you need when it comes to connectivities. The phone has NFC and LTE.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test the LTE on the device because the software on the phone isn’t capable yet in the Philippines. But the Nokia Lumia 920 that is on retail in the Philippines can do LTE. FYI, The Nokia Lumia 920 came from Nokia Connects (Thanks guys!).  However, I was able to use NFC thru Tap + Send feature for Lumia phones. Basically it pairs up your phone to another thru NFC and send it via Bluetooth. You can also use the NFC for saving NFC business cards. Not really something that can “Wow” people.

Unfortunately, there’s no MicroSD card slot. If you want that one then you can opt to Nokia Lumia 820. It’s not really an issue for me since the phone’s storage is already at 32 GB. But of course it’s not really 32 GB because a little bit of that is chopped of for the phone. Oh and speaking of batteries! The Nokia Lumia 920 didn’t really perform that well. The Nokia Lumia 920 performed up to less 14 hours of Jam’s average-heavy use. I guess I always took a lot of photos (Because the camera is really great!!!).

Once again, I really love the hardware and construction of the phone. They still used the same design language from the Nokia N9 and the first Lumia phones. You still need that little needle to eject the Micro-Sim tray and the buttons are still placed at the same position. The glossy look didn’t make it cheap but I still miss that Cyan Nokia Lumia.

Camera

This is the best thing that you would love from the Nokia Lumia 920.  The camera. To give you a short review about the camera, the Nokia Lumia 920 boasts a 8.7 Megapixel rear Carl Zeiss camera with LED flash. Not impress? Well, the Nokia Lumia 920’s camera also packs OIS. To give you a much simpler and not so techie terms, the OIS lets you have a very stabilize video even when you have a shaky hands, riding a bike, walking or whatever you’re doing. Basically, when you’re moving your Nokia Lumia 920 into a certain direction, you wouldn’t that shaky and jellow videos instead, it will make the video look like you’re using a tripod and having a smooth video.

Still not impress? Here’s the best thing that I really like about the Nokia Lumia 920, the phone can take photos at low-light environment. I know, all phones can do that. But I’m not finish yet! The phone can take low-light photos without the need of flash but still have bright photos without sacrificing too much shutter lag. Actually, I don’t really remember when I used the LED flash of the phone. The Nokia Lumia 920 also replaced my Micro 4/3 camera when I’m attending events and taking a shot of review units. You can take a look of some of that photos in these posts:

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Nokia Launches Nokia Lumia 720 and Lumia 520 in the Philippines
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E-Leksyon 2013 website and and mobile app launched!

But if you’re still not convince with that, you can check out my photos that I took using the Nokia Lumia 920. Like what I’ve said, I never used the flash of the Nokia Lumia 920. All photos that I took here are taken without a LED flash. I must warn you, it is really really really really good.

Here’s a photo that could convince you how great is the Nokia Lumia 920’s camera.  This photo are taken using a Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Nokia Lumia 720. The Nokia Lumia 720 can also took great low-light photos. All phones are at normal settings.

Here’s a 1080p video sample of the Nokia Lumia 920.

As you can see in the video, the sound was really great and of course, the video. My hands are a little bit shaky but the video doesn’t really showed it. I was impressed by its camera and it exceeded my expectations. I hope that the next Nokia Lumia could record a HDR video.

Software

The Nokia Lumia 920 is powered by Windows Phone 8. Contrary to what most people said, the Windows Phone is really a great operating system however it is plagued by a limited selection of apps. I really like using a Windows Phone because of its simplistic design and live tiles.  But there’s one thing that I really hate now. The menu in the settings isn’t arrange alphabetically which is very annoying as it really take some time to find the things that you really want in the settings.

Nokia City Lens

Of course, the Nokia Lumia 920 comes with Nokia Apps that we all loved. Aside from the Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive. The Nokia City Lens is also one thing you could surely love about the phone. It uses Nokia Maps and your camera to show you an augmented reality of the nearest places. It is actually an AMAZING app. That is a must download app from Nokia. Cinemagraph is another Lumia-exclusive app that you would really love. It take a short video and then converts it to .gif. You can edit it and choose the things that you do not like to move.  Not really a useful app but it is really fun to use.

Sample .gif image made by Cinemagraph

The market might be filled with Quad-Core or even an Octa-Core Androids. But Windows Phone doesn’t really need that. The Nokia Lumia 920 is powered by a Dual-Core Qualcomm processor. It is already enough for all the games and the apps that  you need. It might not have the same smooth framerates of Temple Run on Android but at least, the other apps and games really made for the phone doesn’t really suffer. I guess the Windows Phone is still lagging behind even at games.

Nokia Lumia 720 and Nokia Lumia 920

The Windows Phone Store lags when It comes to number of app on its store. Some Android and iOS apps doesn’t have a Windows Phone counterpart especially Instagram. But some people didn’t know that there are alternatives for that. For Instagram, you can buy Instagraph, which enables you to upload photos to Instagram. But the downside is you have to pay P120-P150 for that. Twitter app for Windows Phone has also been updated to a much similar one to the Android and iOS. Facebook app for WP will get the much-awaited overhaul too, which will align it to its Android iOS counterpart.

I believe Nokia and Microsoft are really catching up to that and they believe that they could succeed in that soon. I’m not being biased here but I really want to see Windows phone rise and have a more decent apps.

Verdict

The Nokia Lumia 920 is Nokia’s current flagship and best smartphone. Nokia Lumia 920 is really innovative. It pushes the smartphone camera into a whole new level. Actually, the whole photography industry. IMO, this is the best camera after the Nokia Lumia 808 Pureview. I also love the design of the phone. I got the yellow one and it doesn’t really look like feminine at all. All the Lumia colors looks good. The only thing that I really didn’t like about this is the lack of apps that I need. There are some apps that are only exclusive to iPhone and Android phones. If there are some alternatives, some of them lack some functionality or it might be a paid app. If you think that all the apps that you need from a smartphone is on Windows Phone then get this one. I really recommend this one especially if you’re a photo junkie. It has the best camera in a Windows Phone. Actually, it is the best Windows Phone. I can’t say if this is the best smartphone in the world right now but I really love using the Nokia Lumia 920. The Nokia Lumia 920 is now available in the Philippines for P24,950.

Pros:
Great camera
The design and colors were really catchy
Fast and Fluid

Cons:
Windows Phone needs more apps
The phone is thicker than most phones in the competition
Lack of MicroSD card slot

FAQs

Q: Is the camera really really really good?
A: Yes it is.

Q: Can I replace my camera with this one?
A: I believe that the Nokia Lumia 920 can replace SOME of your Point and Shoot cameras but not really the Micro 4/3 and SLR. The phone might have replaced my Micro 4/3 but nothing can beat the flexibility of settings, DOF and other things of SLRs and Micro 4/3. I only use this one because it can take nice photos even at low-light conditions and this phone is very portable compared to my camera.

Q: What about games? What can you say about it?
A:  Like what I’ve said, Windows Phone’s Achilles heel is their availability of apps. There a lot of games but most of them are paid apps. I also noticed that most of their games are original and only available on Xbox Live/Windows Phone.

Q: Can I use LTE hotspot on this phone?
A: Yes, I believe you can do that as long as you got a LTE enabled sim.

Q: Is this the Best Windows Phone ever?
A: In my opinion, yes.