Nokia’s bold new phone: the Lumia 920 reviewed

When Nokia re-entered the market late last year with its first Windows Phone 7.5 devices, we were intrigued, with the company bringing some beautiful designs to the clean look of Microsoft’s mobile OS. Now with the next version of Windows Phone here, it’s time to look at a new breed, with the launch of the first Lumia with Windows Phone 8, the 920.

Features

The first of Nokia’s new line-up of handsets, the Lumia 920 evolves the design made famous by the Finnish giant from barely a year ago in the 800 and 900 series phones.

In that generation, Nokia had slightly evolved a phone from a few months prior, the Nokia N9, the first and only device with the MeeGo operating system. Now, we’re pushing on to a new device, with refinements to the polycarbonate brick with toughened glass shell that Nokia uses.

The inside is different too, with the new Lumia running on similar hardware to many Android phones, including a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, Adreno 225 graphics chip, and 1GB RAM.

Storage inside the Lumia 920 is limited to 32GB, and much like the past generation, there is no microSD slot, so what you have here is what you have. No memory upgrades.

There is, however, an update to the operating system, which comes in the form of Windows Phone 8, the next generation of Microsoft’s mobile version of Windows. In this version, you’ll find more live tiles, homescreen customisation, a better web browser, support for wallet and payment options, group communication, and a special “Kids Corner” that acts as a safer option for you and your bank account when you inevitably give your handset to the kids.

One of the new things about Windows Phone 8 is that manufacturers can provide higher definition resolutions, and that’s included in the Lumia 920, with this smartphone featuring a 4.5 inch screen support 1280×768, making it HD.

The screen is protected by Corning’s second-generation Gorilla Glass technology, while the actual display supports Nokia’s ClearBlack for better colour and contrast in sunlight.

Nokia is including quite a bit of connectivity here, with Near Field Communication available, as well as Bluetooth 3.1 with A2DP, a microUSB port at the bottom, the standard GPS, dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, and even 4G LTE, resulting in some uber fast speeds when you’re outside of work or home.

There’s also a camera here, provided in the form of an eight (8) megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, and a degree of image stabilisation for both images and video. You’ll find a front-facing camera on the front, unsurprisingly, able to be used in 720p HD video conferencing or snapping 1.3 megapixel stills.

As is typical with smartphones these days, most of the operation is handled through a touchscreen, with the 4.5 inch display taking up most of the device, and three soft buttons – back, home (Windows icon), and search – available as soft buttons below the screen.

On the right side of the phone, you’ll find the only three buttons on the device, with a volume rocker, power button, and a camera shutter, which not only fire off shots, but also activates the camera.

Up top, there’s the microSIM tray and ejector hole, next to the 3.5mm headset jack in the middle, while the bottom features speakers with a microUSB port in the middle.