The Nokia Lumia 920: A Unique Smartphone Experience

Hey guys, this is Austin and today I’m here to review the Nokia Lumia 920. With Windows Phone 8, a unique build and one of the best smartphone cameras out there, let's take a look.

As you pop open the box, you'll see the phone itself and a tool to eject your MicroSIM. Dig a little deeper and you'll find an NFC demo tag, extremely boring safety info, a quick start guide, and a little smart setup guide. Lastly, you'll find a MicroUSB cable for charging and syncing along with a USB wall adapter to juice the phone up.

The Lumia sticks out from other smartphones in a big way. Decked out in a glossy yellow finish, there's no doubt it's unique and I'm a big fan of how it looks. Of course, if you want something a bit more tame, it's available in other colors, including black.

The Lumia is also a very big phone at 10.7mm thick and weighing in at almost 50% more than the Galaxy S3. The overall size is quite large as well, with a footprint roughly on par with the Nexus 4 but with a smaller screen. All of that said, I actually really didn't mind the added heft as it reminded me of the old indestructible Nokias with excellent build quality.

The body is a single piece of polycarbonate, aka plastic, and since it's colored all the way through, you don't have to worry about scratches removing the finish. Up front, you'll find the 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera which is capable of 720p video and your speaker grille. Below are the capacitive back, Windows, and Search keys.

For some reason, I'm not sure why Microsoft chose to make such a big phone with an even bigger screen. However, for those who love large screens and don't mind carrying around a larger device, this might be the perfect choice.

The camera on the other hand is the best you'll find on a modern smartphone period. With 8.7 megapixels and an LED flash to work with it might not seem too great on paper but it has one major advantage: optical image stabilization. With tiny springs inside the lens to keep it steady, this allows the Lumia to deliver spectacular low-light performance.

I was walking around on some pretty uneven ground here and yet the camera kept it nice and smooth as I went ahead and brought it down for you guys. You can see that 1080p video looks really nice on the Lumia 920.

Inside, you'll find the Lumia 920 is powered by a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Windows Phone has always been fast and this does a great job of making sure the phone stays incredibly smooth.

The Snapdragon S4 is starting to show its age as the S4 Pro has been released but it's still an entirely competent performer. Impressively, the phone includes 32GB of storage which is generous considering the price.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey guys, this is Austin and today I’m herewith a review of the Nokia Lumia920.With Windows Phone 8, a unique build and oneof the best smartphonecameras out there let’s take a look.Pop open the box and inside you’ll seethe phone itself and a tool to eject yourMicroSIM.Dig a little deeper andyou’ll find an NFC demo tag, extremely boringsafety info, a quick start guideand a little smart setup guide.Lastly you’ll find a MicroUSB cable forchargingand syncing along with a USB wall adapterto juice the phone up.It won’t takeyou long to see the Lumia sticks out fromother smartphones in a big way.Decked out in a glossy yellow finish there’sno doubt it’s unique and I’m a bigfan of how it looks.Of course if you want something a bit moretame it’savailable in other much more boring colorsincluding black.The Lumia is also avery big phone at 10.7mm thick and weighingin at almost 50% more than theGalaxy S3.The overall size is quite large as well witha footprint roughly onpar with the Nexus 4 but with a smaller screen.All of that said, I actuallyreally didn’t mind the added heft as itreminded me of the old indestructibleNokias with excellent build quality.The body is a single piece ofpolycarbonate, aka plastic and as it’s coloredall the way through you don’thave to worry about scratches removing thefinish.Up front you’ll find the 1.3megapixel front facing camera which is capableof 720p video and yourspeaker grille and below are the capacitiveback, Windows and Search keys.For some reason the screen and buttons areoffset quite a bit from thebottom of the phone, making the entire frontappear off center.Up top is theheadphone jack and MicroSIM slot and on theright side is the volume rocker,sleep button and the dedicated camera keywhich is nice to see.On bottom isyour MicroUSB port for charging and syncingalong with the very impressivespeaker.This is by far one of the loudest speakersI’ve heard on a phone inquite a while, delivering enough volume tofill a decently sized room withmusic.Finally on back you’ll see the 8.7 megapixelcamera and LED flashwhich I’ll get into in a minute.It's also compatible with the Qi wirelesscharging standard and AT&T is bundling a freewireless charger with the Lumiaright now.The screen is a 4.5 inch IPS panel with aresolution of 1280x768making it slightly wider than normal 720pphones and a huge step up fromolder Windows Phones.It is a bit smaller than the 4.7 and 5 inchscreens onmost smartphones today but you aren’t losingout on too much and it makesup for it with 332 pixels per inch.The display itself is very nice with goodblack levels and decent saturation, both ofwhich are important with the LiveTiles on Windows Phone.The star of the show here is definitely WindowsPhone 8.Just like the Lumia itself it's a very differentexperience than youraverage smartphone and it's easily one ofthe sleekest and smoothest UIs outthere.The home screen is all about Live Tiles whichdo double duty as appicons and an at a glance bit of info for examplea missed call or a new Tweet.You can also resize the tiles and rearrangethem as much as you'd like.Justlike Windows 8 you can customize the colorof the entire OS but beyond thatwhat you see is basically what you get, thisis definitely not a phone forpeople who really like to customize.As a Windows Phone you'll findintegration with SkyDrive, Office and XboxLive.Office is included and isdecent for viewing or editing a Word or Exceldoc on the go but not muchmore than that.Gaming was originally supposed to be a strongsuit of WindowsPhones as you can connect your Xbox Live gamertagand getAchievements from mobile games but the selectionis lacking.You'll find afew games like Angry Birds and Final Fantasybut overall there really isn'tmuch in the Store right now.App support is a little better.You can find an appto do most things but a lot of what you'llfind is really lacking in quality.TheGoogle app isn't bad if you want to avoidusing Bing but it hasn't beenupdated in nearly eight months.The Twitter app is just terrible with constantcrashes however and the list goes on.That's not to say some apps aren't great,amazingly enough Internet Explorer reallyisn't bad.Just like the rest ofWindows Phone it's buttery smooth most ofthe time and is one of the fastestmobile browsers out there.SunSpider is a great example of this, it notchesascore which is able to clear the iPhone 5and Nexus 4.You'll run intooccasional issues with fonts not renderingproperly but overall it's a reallynice browser.I don't want to give the wrong impressionhere, WindowsPhone 8 is a major step forward and in someways surpasses both iOS andAndroid.The big issue is the lack of apps which hopefullywill improve nowthat Windows Phone and Windows 8 share a lotof DNA but right now it's farbehind its main rivals.The camera on the other hand is the best you’llfind ona modern smartphone period.With 8.7 megapixels and an LED flash to workwith it might not seem too great on paperbut it has one major advantage:optical image stabilization.With tiny springs inside the lens to keepit steadythis allows the Lumia to deliver spectacularlow light performance.Comparingit to the iPhone 5 and Nexus 4 you can seethere’s really no contest, it pulls inimages better than some point and shoots.In normal daylight the images arequite nice as well although not a huge improvementover ordinarysmartphones.That optical image stabilization makes a bigdifference forvideo.So I’m walking around on some pretty unevenground here and yet thecamera keeps it nice and smooth, as in factI’ll go ahead and bring it downhere for you guys.You can see that 1080p video looks reallynice on the Lumia920.Inside you’ll find the Lumia 920 is poweredby a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4dual core processor and 1GB of RAM.Windows Phone has always been fastand this does a great job of making sure thephone stays incredibly smooth.The Snapdragon S4 is starting to show it’sage as the S4 Pro has been releasedbut it’s still an entirely competent performer.Impressively the phoneincludes 32GB of storage which is generousconsidering the price.Call qualityis quite good on the AT&T network and withLTE on board if you have it inyour area you can expect impressive speeds.Unfortunately it hasn’t rolledout here yet so I did my testing on HSPA+which can still give you reasonablespeeds above 5Mbps.Battery life was good enough in my testing,deliveringenough juice to make it through a day of moderateuse thanks to the2000mAh battery.The Nokia Lumia 920 is easily one of the mostuniquephones out there, definitely in a good way.It looks and feels like nothing elseand Windows Phone 8 finally delivers modernspecs including a dual coreprocessor and HD screen.It’s incredibly smooth and the camera isstellar butapp support is severely lacking and it isa big, heavy phone.It’s not going tobe for everyone but for only $99 you coulddo much, much worse than theLumia 920.You can check out more reviews of high endphones here and ifyou enjoyed be sure to hit up that Like buttonand subscribe for more!Anyway guys I’ll catch you in the next one!