Nakedmolerat’s Nokia Lumia 920 impressions

Intro

First, thanks to Geekzone and Telecom New Zealand for choosing me to participate in this Blog. I am extremely excited about this opportunity. I never thought that I would be selected as there are others on Geekzone that are more 'geeky' than me. Most of my IT knowledge is self-taught. I don't have any formal training in IT.

I shall introduce myself. I work in the health sector. I use my phone mainly for calls, txt, email, browsing and certain apps related to my work. Occasionally I do play games and I take photos.

I have been using Android for some time now. It started with an HTC magic back in 2009. I have been using a few other Android-based smartphones from different manufacturers since then. Currently I am using Galaxy Note but I also have a Motorola Defy and Samsung Galaxy Nexus as backups. I don't have much experience with IPhone / iOS though.

The Nokia Lumia 920 is my first Windows Phone device. In this post, I am only going to highlight interesting points from my viewpoint. Please write in the comment section if you have specific questions.

Unboxing

I received my Nokia Lumia 920 about a week ago. The phone comes with white wall charger and USB cable. It also comes with a headphone, manual and SIM key to unlock the micro SIM card slot. My first impression of the phone. WOW!

I have always been impressed with Nokia products. I think Nokia is synonym with phones that are long-lasting, tough and durable. The Nokia design team is highly respectable and they are known to push the limits. The Nokia Lumia 920, one-piece monoblock polycarbonate body is such an exceptional design. The phone feels premium in hand. At the back, the 8.7MP camera is detailed with ceramic zirconium.

Main specifications:

• 4.5" Display size, IPS
• Aspect ratio: 15:9
• 332 pixel per inch(ppi) (to put this into perspective, iphone 5 has 326 ppi)
• Storage: 32 GB, not expandable
• 2000mAh battery with standby 460 hour on 3G (Telecom smartphone network is 100% 3G), 74 hour music playback
• Front / Rear facing camera

Head onto Nokia site for details (www.nokia.com/nz-en/products/phone/lumia920/specifications). The Nokia Lumia costs NZ$ 999 (if you are getting it upfront, without any network contracts).

Mobile Network

This phone supports:

• Quadband GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• Pentaband WCDMA (850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100)
• Pentaband LTE (800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600)

This means you can use this phone on ANY network in New Zealand (ie. Telecom New Zealand, Vodafone New Zealand, 2Degrees) and pretty much everywhere throughout the world. On top of that, this phone also supports DC-HSDPA. Theoretically you can approach download speed of 42Mbit/s. This is double the maximum theoretical speed of ADSL2+!

LTE is just 'warming' up in NZ. There is some discussion on Geekzone forums with regards to this. Telecom and Vodafone are on top gear getting their 4G network ready. This means the Nokia Lumia 920 is a future-proof phone. Once the 4G switch is turned on, your Nokia Lumia 920 should be able to give you access to that part of the network data service.

Display

The phone display is spectacular. Personally, I have not yet come across any phone that produces a crystal clear image. Side by side comparison to my android collections, Nokia Puremotion HD+ display beat them all. This Puremotion technology in Lumia allows 2.5x faster response time for individual pixel compared to standard IPS displays. Because of this, it enables the refresh rate of 60Hz. As far as I know, there is no other phone that has a refresh rate this high.

The display is bright and I can actually read it right under the sun in the middle of the afternoon. Thanks to Clear Black Display technology and sunlight readability enhancements.

One more thing to note, the screen is ultra-sensitive. In the menu below, you can set the sensitivity to high. What it means is that you can use gloves or even fingernail to scroll. This would be useful during the winter!

Dedicated Button & Ports

Facing the phone, on the left side, there is no side key. On the right hand side, there are volume rocker, power/lock/unlock and dedicated camera button. Pressing the camera button for 2 seconds will bring the phone straight into the camera app when locked even if your phone is password protected.

Top part, there is a headphone jack and noise cancelling microphone. For the bottom part, you have stereo speakers and micro USB jack in between. Three specific touch buttons at the bottom of the screen:

Left arrow - Back, but if you press and hold, it will bring you to the recent running apps. Unlike Android, you are unable close these running apps by swiping.

Windows - Bring you into the main screen / Tiles

Zoom - straight into Bing search and also gives you choice to scan QR codes and Microsoft Tags.

Soft Reset (if the phone froze)

Press and hold the power button and volume down button for 10 seconds. You will feel that the phone vibrates and automatically reboots. You will not lose your apps or settings.

Hard Reset - everything will be deleted, back to factory state.

Hold the volume down, power button and camera button until you can feel the phone vibrating. Quickly release the power button but keep the volume down and camera button for a further 5 seconds.

If you can reboot the phone normally, hard reset can be done by going to [Settings] - [About] - [Reset Your Phone].

Camera

Smartphone cameras are now an integral part of our life. The Nokia Lumia 920 main camera sports 8.7 MP and Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. The maximum resolution can be as high as 3552 x 2448 pixels. The short pulse high power dual LED flash can function as far as 300 cm. The secondary/front facing camera produces a picture resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels.

One thing to note is the camera also uses Nokia PureView camera technology. This is the same technology as Nokia PureView 808 that can take 41 MegaPixel picture. One can expect excellent quality.

Setting up

Please note that my phone is from Telecom NZ. Turning up the screen, you will be greeted with the infamous blue Telecom Logo. Other than this customized start-up screen, there is no other obvious Telecom brandishing stuff on the phone.

The setting up is outrageously simple. The phone offers multiple languages. After that it will guide you step by step. They have made it really simple for new users by offering 'recommended' vs 'custom' settings. Each setting has short explanation about what it does.

Once done, you will see blue coloured tiles and a greeting text message from Windows Phone.

Summary

• The phone is gorgeous.
• Puremotion HD+ display, 60Hz refresh rate, 332 ppi make Lumia 920 the phone with the best display out there.
• Elegant camera.
• The phone design is simple, dedicated camera button is a great idea.
• Easy to setup - no prior smartphone knowledge is required.

In a next post I will explore the Windows Phone operating system.

About the author

Hi, my name is Fergus. I am a big fan of the nakedmolerat character in Kim Possible - Rufus. I work in  the health sector. I am also a volunteer firefighter when I am not working. I started using computers when I was five years old. I am the 'guy' that family and friends approach when they have issues with their computers. I am also an Android fanboy (Yes! I believe Android will takeover the world soon). It was such a great opportunity when Telecom New Zealand and Geekzone offered me to be one of the Nokia Lumia 920 / Windows Phone reviewers. I hope my reviews are helpful to the readers.