Nokia’s metal-clad Lumia arrives July

If you fancied the look of Nokia’s all-plastic Lumia 920 but wasn’t a fan of its astonishingly heavy weight, it might be time to find a new phone, as a revision arrives packing a frame of aluminium and a loss of almost 50 grams.

With a slightly revamped look and a different take on the sort of materials used in its construction, the Lumia 920 is being pushed five points higher to be an all new Lumia, with a better camera, better weight, stronger glass, and a new display.

Set to be released in just a few weeks, the Lumia 925 is the new flagship Windows Phone for the company, and is expected to turn heads with a similarly minimalist design, but with stronger and lighter build.

“The Lumia 925 is undoubtedly Nokia’s best smartphone yet and we’re hugely encouraged by the interest in this device from our partners and consumers,” said Steve Lewis, Managing Director for Nokia Australia.

“I believe that Nokia has reinforced its reputation as a major player in smartphone imaging, design and mapping and the Lumia 925 exemplifies the developments Nokia has made in these areas.”

New to the handset is an AMOLED screen, albeit one that occupies the same 4.5 inch screen size of the previous Nokia Lumia 920, and even features the same 1280×768 HD resolution. Corning’s scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 2 will protect the display from unwanted knocks, while the touch sensitivity has been enhanced for use in cold weather with gloves.

The 8.7 megapixel camera has also been updated with a new Smart Camera app for taking ten shots with one click, which – similar to HTC Zoe and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 – can remove items in a few clicks.

Most of the specs inside are the same, with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB storage, 2000mAh battery, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, Windows Phone 8 operating system, and support for 4G LTE.

The build, however, is one place where Nokia has spent some time, switching over to a combined aluminium and polycarbonate design which has reduced the weight from 185 grams to a much more pocket-friendly 139 grams.

Telstra and Optus are both confirmed to be compatible with the Lumia 925, with Telstra grabbing it from July 30, August 1 for Optus, and retail stores pulling it outright before anyone else with a price of $699 RRP on July 17.

With a new smartphone camera expected to be announced this week, it will be interesting to see how this one goes, especially since the next big Nokia camera is expected to trump every other one with a size of 41 megapixels.