Nokia Lumia 920 Review

The first thought to enter your mind when opening the Lumia box is “Wow” – the design is so different to the other smartphones on the market, yet remains identifiably Nokia. With the fabula design, Nokia has managed to set itself apart with a combination of elegance and simplicity. In comparison, Samsung’s Ativ S (pictured below) looks clunky and out-dated. On the design front, Nokia seems peerless in striving for new designs – the iPhone has had 2, the original curved plastic back of the 2g, 3g and 3gs, and the current design of the 4, 4S and 5 (adding an extra inch of vertical height does not count as a design overhaul); HTC has churned out the same rounded-edge rectangles in grey for years, until borrowing a few design cues from the Lumia range for its 8X and 8S handsets; and Samsung is profiting nicely from copying the iPhone. The Lumia 920 always got a comment when it was taken out of my pocket, and it was always positive.

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Samsung Ativ S displaying a lack of design intuition
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Lumia 920 in Ferrari red boasting a unibody design with a curved screen

Your second thought comes after picking it up – the weight is nothing like so many reviews would have you believe. Some state the phone makes their arm ache, it’s uncomfortable to hold to their ear, it doesn’t fit in their pockets and it’s a struggle to hold. This is a device that weighs not even 200g – heavy compared to other smartphones, but by no means heavy in an objective definition. The fact is, complaints about weight are not doing much to improve the stereotype of wimpy geeks.

The 920 feels like a premium device – by no means will it make your arms ache (and if it does, a visit to the gym now and then would be recommended), but you will know you’re holding it. Compared to the iPhone 5’s feel of almost weightlessness, the 920’s feel is my preference. Holding the iPhone 5 makes me worry that holding it too tight will cause it to crumble, and the end result is most people will choose to cover it in a case that bumps the weight up to that of the 920 anyway. With the 920, the usual fear of damaging a trial device isn’t there – videos are abundant on YouTube of people going to extreme lengths to try to damage the device, with most failing to do so. No case or screen protector is necessary, and after more than a month of using it, there was not one scratch on either the screen or body.

One of the big features of the 920 is the ClearBack Display boosting readability levels when outdoors. This has been a smartphone plague since day one, and nothing caused me more frustration on my Samsung Galaxy II than trying to read an email outdoors – even minimal sunlight rendered readability to zero. By comparison, I never once had to shield the 920’s screen to make out what it was displaying; during my review period I visited Arizona, and even beneath its bright sunlight it was like looking at the screen indoors. It’s without doubt the best screen the market has to offer, and a feature Nokia should be shouting about.

Fortunately for the review, I was also able to test it in the English winter. Could it really work with gloves? Yes, it can. Reasonably thick leather ones too, with stunning accuracy. Finding a contact to call and even typing messages were no problem. When resistive screens were still reasonably popular, I was an advocate of them for the simple reason that they registered clicks from things besides flesh; the inability of capacitive screens to do so is a glaring problem and one that manufacturers have been content to ignore. Perhaps a perk of being based in Finland, a country that experiences winters California can’t even dream about, Nokia saw this weakness and overcame it – to such an extent that it even registers input from big ski mitts. If you’ve ever missed a call because you couldn’t get your glove off in time, you’ll understand the benefit of this technology.

One of the other features is Nokia’s Rich Recording, a feature only present on Nokia’s recent devices (you’ll be forgiven for having not heard of it, as Nokia has hardly mentioned it). Chances are you’ve seen a video on YouTube of a concert filmed on a mobile phone, or even recorded your own, and not had a clue what the song is supposed to sound like when you play it. If you own a non-Nokia device, you’re pretty much guaranteed that experience. If you do have a Lumia or the 808 PureView, though, then you will be able to record audio and listen to it later with such clarity it’s as though you’re still there. Want an example? The video below compares the 920 with HTC’s Windows Phone flagship the 8X.


If there’s one feature that the 920 boasts and people do know about, it’s the camera – specifically the low-light capabilities. It’s one thing when a manufacturer touts these things, but there’s never a guarantee they’ll work that way in real life conditions. Here are some sample shots I took in low-light, with no flash.

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Incredible detail in a garden at night. The only source of light is from the window.
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Same shot as above, but with flash.
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Photo taken at night with the light off, no flash used.
And two to demonstrate the quality of the photos in normal conditions:

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A curious dragon
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Ice on a Canadian peak, taken from 35,000ft

The camera has some interesting features besides its incredible low-light abilities, and they never ceased to amaze my iPhone-owning friends (and at least two wanted to immediately drop their Apple and get the 920 instead). Smart Shoot in particular always got stunned expressions when a person or object was simply removed from a picture, or the option to flip through multiple shots to pick the best one – ideal when someone is blinking or moving. Cinemagraph also elicited shocked responses as the picture suddenly became alive with waves, smiles and moving objects. The camera capabilities, including the aforementioned Smart Shoot and Cinemagraph, put Nokia on a plane that its competitors can only dream of matching. In fact, the camera technology Nokia has in the 808 PureView runs rings around Samsung’s dedicated Galaxy camera.

The software on the phone is excellent too. The native Nokia Maps were used frequently during my time in America – always offline and they never missed a beat. From the back hills of California to the freeways along Pacific Highway, as well as finding stores like Target, it worked first time every time. It’s easy to take for granted just how good those maps are, but a recent use of Apple’s “sat nav” really proved how capable Nokia’s offering is. The iPhone version does not display the speed limit, the travelling speed, the time until the destination or any other information. When approaching a junction, it does not say “Turn left now”, and about one-third of the screen is taken up with the roadsign image – meaning that you can only see on the screen about the next 30 yards of road, and that makes it impossible to know what your next move is, and thus which lane to be in. Although it knew where we were trying to go, and did get us there, the way it did so was frustrating and, at times, outright dangerous. On a three-hour journey in a motorhome in California, questions of “How long until we get there?” were unanswerable by those on iPhones, partly because the maps don’t give that information and partly because when there’s no signal, there’s no information. The 920 gave the information within ten seconds of it leaving my pocket. It’s the differences like these that truly demonstrate just how far ahead Nokia is with its maps – being able to immediately pick up your location, your destination and the time between, while offline, is one feature that will be sorely missed by anyone who uses it and then uses a competitor device.

Maps also has the City Lens feature of augmented reality. When visiting somewhere new this is an excellent, and fast, way of finding what you need. You can hold the phone up to your surroundings and see what’s around you, or hold it vertically for a list. Tap an item and you can see photos, read reviews, call the place, or get directions using Nokia Drive. Seamlessly integrated, and probably the quickest, easiest way of discovering new things presented by any phone.

The other main feature of the 920 is its wireless charging capability. Although it still requires contact, of being placed onto the pad, it’s quite shocking how much easier it makes things. It’s a common problem that the charging cables are too short to reach from a bedside cabinet to the bed, which means fumbling in the dark if the phone goes off, trying to unplug it, not drop the cable, and then plugging it in again when you’re done. The wireless charging ability means you pick it up and put it down like you would normally, except it carries on charging as you put it down. It’s a simple action that makes things much easier, and since the 920’s release other manufacturers have rushed the feature into removable cases for existing handsets. That being said, the irony of the 920 having it is that it’s a battery seemingly impossible to kill anyway – no matter what my usage was (games, video, music, web browsing, voice calls, text messages, WhatsApp etc), it would never die before I put it on to charge at night. That was a solid 14+ hours every day, and on days of medium usage, I wouldn’t bother charging it overnight and it would last until the following evening.

The Windows Phone 8 software has been largely discussed already and there’s not much more to add. The new Start screen is very impressive, and going back to Windows Phone 7.5 after using 8 makes you appreciate how much better the upgrade is. The 920 is extremely fast and fluid, and the operating system is obviously designed to make everything so simple to get – from Search results offering relevant apps to improved live tiles, and resizeable tiles making information so much easier to get to. Kid’s Corner is a feature that I have no use for, but see the need for other people to have. In fact, on one trip to Target, there were three women looking at a children’s iPhone dock, of which the main feature was, according to one ecstatic shopper, “it blocks the home button being pushed so the kids can’t make calls and stuff.” Kid’s Corner, for those who haven’t yet heard of it, is an area of the phone where you can decide what apps and games are available, so the children can use the phone to play Angry Birds but you don’t have to worry about them deleting emails and contacts or making expensive calls. It’s a feature that is sorely needed by millions of parents, and you don’t need a separate accessory that only does one small fraction of Kid’s Corner. For Android and Apple, there isn’t an app for that.

Windows Phone 8 also brings the much, much needed backup ability. It isn’t quite as good as other options though – from Nokia’s previous Symbian and Maemo options, and iOS and Android, all let you backup a local copy to the PC whenever you want. Microsoft has oddly chosen not to do this, and in WP8 certain things, including text messages, are stored to SkyDrive. It’s not the complete option that we expect, and Microsoft needs to address the issue immediately – who is going to store data they can’t afford to lose on a device that doesn’t allow them to back it up?

Nokia is touting the 920 as the most innovative smartphone in the world. With wireless charging, the best screen on the market bar none, outstanding maps, Rich Recording, Optical Image Stabilisation, PureView camera technology, Lenses and the near-indestructible build quality that has led to countless people trying to destroy it in videos, there’s no choice but to agree. It’s no surprise the Lumia 920 won 12 awards in 2012, and couple that with a fast, simple and refreshing operating system, Nokia has a clear winner in the Lumia 920.

 

 

Nokia Lumia 920 Review: The World’s most Innovative Smartphone

Yesterday Nokia unveiled its latest and greatest at Nokia World. The two devices shown were the Nokia Lumia 820, a successor to the current 800, and, the Nokia and Windows Phone 8 flagship and dubbed The Most Innovative Smartphone in the World, the Lumia 920. Giving a phone such a title is a bold statement, but Nokia has packed a lot of tech into the handset. The main problem with the announcement though is that once again, Nokia demonstrated a remarkable lack of ability in giving one.

CEO Stephen Elop is comfortable on stage – clear, concise, articulate and confident. Quite why he doesn’t do the presentations, like Steve Jobs always did, is a mystery. Instead, he welcomed Jo Harlow, who stuttered and stammered through some impressive features with a tone of voice that suggested they were very ordinary. Then Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, who appeared to tell people what he told them back in June – that WP8 allows resizable tiles. Only this time he appeared on a mission to put everyone to sleep. Thanks Joe. And then Kevin Shields. Actually someone who is excited about the tech, and gives good demonstrations. But you’re unlikely to see someone else as annoying and loud on stage.

Yet, despite the presentation issues, the keynote got attention. Switch to Lumia, Windows Phone 8, Nokia, Lumia 920 and PureView were all trending on Twitter, and there were some remarkable technology features unveiled. What was most refreshing was that some of the features address some of the most common and annoying problems of owning a mobile phone, but which often go overlooked by other manufacturers.

The screen is one such issue. Everyone is familiar with the pain of trying to read something on the screen on a sunny day, especially in direct sunlight. By ‘pain’, I mean ‘impossibility’, especially on a dark background. Samsung’s approach to screens is to make them bigger – which doesn’t help; the Galaxy S II decided to make the default email client a black background with grey text, making it hopeless to read outside. Apple brags about Retina Display (which is nothing but a marketing term for ‘we have many pixels’). Yet Nokia yesterday unveiled its approach. It has long been using ClearBack Display technology to make screens easy to see outdoors, and the Lumia 900 was voted the best readability for such purposes.The 920, though, takes it further. Not only is the screen HD+ (which has more pixels than Retina Display), it has smart polarisers to help you outdoors. What does that mean? It means, much like the eye glasses that do the same thing, that the screen automatically adjusts itself depending on the sunlight to reduce glare. Meaning this is a device you can comfortably read under bright sunlight.

That alone won’t be enough to set the sales rocketing, but it is good to see a company focusing on improving the experience to such an extent that the typically overlooked aspects are still being improved. Perhaps the biggest announcement regarding the screen though was the ability to use the phone while wearing gloves. Nokia calls this Super Sensitive Touch. One of the big debates surrounding capacitive screens vs resistive screens was that the latter registered touch input from anything – styluses, keys, gloves, and so on – whereas capacitive only registered flesh, or special products that were designed to touch capacitive. Super Sensitive Touch for the first time combines the technologies, allowing the smoothness of capacitive with the benefit of being able to touch it with anything. The main area this is a concern of course is in cold weather when wearing gloves – every phone on the market with a capacitive screen requires the gloves to be taken off. Kevin shields demonstrated this working onstage not with thin material, but with heavy-duty ski mittens. This Super Sensitive Touch will end the frustration of tapping a screen at the wrong angle and nothing registering because it was the nail, not the flesh, that made contact.

Nokia also demonstrated its advancements in mapping technology. Google Maps may be the first port of call when you want directions from a computer, but Nokia’s offering provide perhaps the best in the world. With complete offline navigation and free turn-by-turn navigation, you can even be directed indoors. Nokia Drive, its satellite navigation app, has been updated so that it learns your daily commute and even tells you what time you need to leave home to account for traffic. But what got most attention of the location services yesterday was Nokia City Lens, the augmented reality app that offers a more intuitive way to discover the world around you. You can point the camera around and it will show you places to eat, drink, theaters, cinemas and so on. Point it at a building with shops inside and it will even tell you what’s in there. If you find a restaurant, you can simply tap it and see photos, reviews, and call directly to book a table. All by looking through the camera. With the current alternative to this being pulling up the search engine and finding local points of interest, the leap in the ease of exploring a new place is quite remarkable.

So far, this is all good stuff. But Nokia had two particular gems to show off. Wireless charging was one of them. While this feature is already around on the HP Touchpad, Nokia is the first to popularise it on what will be a mass market consumer product. The benefits of it are obvious – no more wires to trip over or lose, no wearing down the USB port on the phone or pulling it loose, and, thanks to certain partnerships, you don’t even need to worry about charging when you’re out and about. Virgin Atlantic’s Heathrow lounge will have recharging pillows, as will Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, large coffee shop franchises in America. Sit down, open the paper, and your phone will charge while sitting on a small fabric on the table too.

As part of this, Nokia spoke about the Lumia’s NFC capabilities, being able to pair up with wireless headphones and speakers by simply tapping them together – but, the NFC speaker they demonstrated featured a wireless charging area on its top, so the phone can charge while playing music. Imagine an iPhone dock, but without plugging it in.

The second big announcement was somewhat expected: the camera. Long revered for its imaging superiority, Nokia was expected to make a big announcement. After the 41MP PureView handset announced earlier this year, and the N8 two years ago, it was clear the Lumia would get some camera enhancements from Nokia.

The Lumia 920 comes packed with PureView, the stunning new optics technology. The 920 has floating lens technology, allowing more light to enter the camera to not only take clearer pictures in low light, but also reduce blur to produce clear photos every time. Not only does the 920 capture between five and ten times the amount of light of any competitor smartphone, it also lets in more light than most DSLRs. The short video below shows the breathtaking capabilities of taking pictures in extreme low light.

Nokia demonstrated some low-light comparisons between the Lumia 920 and a competitor (it wasn’t named directly, but they tended to use the Samsung Galaxy S 3). Competitor’s attempt is the first photo of each set, PureView second:

Also within the camera advancements, Nokia announced two ‘lenses;” Cinemagraph, and Smart Shoot.

Cinemagraph elevates photos to something else, as they allow movement. By selecting a photo then entering Cinemagraph, users can simply rub the area they want, and it will then start to move.:

 

SmartShoot continues the trend of the screen advancements in solving a common problem: people walking past your camera as you want to take a picture. We all know the feeling, and there’s no way around it other than waiting for everyone to get past and take the picture quickly before someone else walks by. Unless you own a Lumia 920, in which case you can use SmartShoot, which analyses the moving sections of a photo, then removes them:

All in all, it was an impressive demonstration. It would have been more impressive still if Nokia could learn how to deliver a truly excellent keynote, but the features largely spoke for themselves. Wireless charging, unparalleled mapping experience and peerless camera technology certainly puts the Lumia 920 amongst the most desirable handsets. And while Apple has been bragging about the ‘resolutionary’ Retina Display, Nokia has not only made it brighter, and packed 2.5 times more pixels than the nearest competitor to offer blurless scrolling, it also packed it with smart polarisers, and allowed any material to touch it and register.

The World’s Most Innovative Smartphone may just live up to its name.