Nokia Lumia 920 Hands On

Key Features: 4.5in HD IPS LCD screen; 1.5GHz dual-core processor; Windows Phone 8 OS; 8.7MP camera with 1080p video and optical stabilisation
Manufacturer: Nokia

Nokia Lumia 920 Hands On
Introduction

The Nokia Lumia 920 is perhaps the poster child of Microsoft's new phone software Windows Phone 8.
Sporting an eye catching design and with a unique optically-stabilised camera, it has got many people excited. We got hands on at the official Windows Phone 8 launch event to see what all the fuss is about.

Design

The Nokia Lumia 920 sports the same styling as the Nokia Lumia 800 with the same smooth and rounded polycarbonate chassis and curved screen. Sadly it's also gone glossy for most of its colour options, though thankfully a matt black is still available. The other colours are White, Grey, Red and Yellow.

The Lumia 920 has also grown in size compared to the Lumia 800 with a 4.5in screen compared to 3.7in on the older phone. This is accompanied by a hike in weight too. At 185g, the Nokia Lumia 920 is among the heaviest phones in its class, with only the enormous 5.3in Samsung Galaxy Note 2 being heftier.

We, however, don't mind this weight, especially as the phone feels very well made. Indeed the Nokia reps seemed quite keen on showing how resilient these phones are by bashing them on the corners of the display tables.



We also didn't find the size of the phone a problem, as we sometimes do on these larger phones. That's because the button layout is excellent. Ranged down the right side of the phone they all fall easily within reach, are easy to find by feel alone and have a nice crisp action.

As with all Windows Phone 8 handsets there's a camera button that lets you jump straight into the camera app, even when the phone is locked.

Optically Stabilised Camera

It's the camera that to our minds is the most exciting thing about this phone. Its 8.7MP resolution is nothing special - especially not compared to the 41MP Nokia 808 Pureview but here there's arguably an even better feature. The whole lens assembly is mounted on a stabilisation system that uses little motors to counteract the wobble of your hands and body, resulting in smooth video and less blurry photos.

Particularly useful for taking night shots, Nokia reckons the stabilisation along with the fast f2.0 lens equates to this camera letting in 5 - 10x more light than competing phone cameras.


Rival camera


Nokia Lumia 920

We had a go with the camera at the launch event and weren't immediately able to replicate the above drastic difference when compared to an iPhone 5, but we've no doubt it will prove more than capable in more challenging lighting conditions. You also get a 1.2MP front facing camera.

Screen

Nokia is also making grand claims about the Nokia Lumia 920's Puremotion HD screen. With a resolution of 768 x 1280 pixels, it's up there with the best in terms of resolution, but Nokia reckons it's also 25% brighter than its closest rival LCD and 2.5x faster, making for super smooth animation.

Yes, some of you may be sad to note that the 920 doesn't have an AMOLED display so won't have quite the pop of the likes of the Galaxy S3 or Samsung Ativ S, but we found it to be excellent. One thing we did note, though, is this LCD doesn't quite disappear into the blackness of the glass quite like it did on the Lumia 800.



Nokia has added what it calls Super Sensitive touch to the screen, which lets you use the phone even with great big thick gloves on. Again, we'll need to test ourselves but the demonstrations of this were very convincing, with Nokia representatives controlling the phone while wearing thick skiing mittens.

The screen is also treated to reduce reflections, can apparently hammer nails into wood and automatically adjusts its brightness and colour balance to best suit the ambient light. Clever stuff.

Specs

Powering the new phone along is a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, which we've found to be a very fast processor in other phones we've tested, such as the HTC One S. This is joined by 1GB of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt memory, as well as 7GB of free SkyDrive storage. There isn't a microSD for expanding memory though, which could be a deal breaker for some.



A 2000mAh battery is wedged inside that unibody chassis and Nokia reckons it'll be good for about a day's use, which isn't exactly stellar. But, you do get built in wireless charging, as well as NFC and of course all the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G LTE.

Windows Phone 8

We're impressed by Windows Phone 8, and the Nokia additions such as its excellent Nokia Maps, which can be downloaded so as to avoid data usage costs when abroad, and augmented reality City Lens app only add to this.


Nokia City Lens projects what's around you onto a live view through the camera

Another of the cool looking new features of Windows Phone 8 are the lenses. These are apps that plug into the phone's camera app to apply filters or other special effects. This is particularly neat as it means you can still take advantage of the instant camera startup feature yet tap into your favourite app.

Read our complete Windows Phone 8 review >
Wrap Up
All told, we're liking the look of the Nokia Lumia 920. It's stylish, well built and has some great features. Yes it's a bit bulky but considering what you're getting for that bulk, we can forgive it.
source:trustedreviews