I got the phone on Tuesday so this is just from extensive use the past 3 days. I HIGHLY reccommend you bring your old phone with you into a store to do a side-by-side comparison. This helped me a lot since I had my Lumia 800 with me. The store had the 820, 920, and 8X on display. I compared my phone to the other 3. The 920 is a boat anchor compared to the other 3. The 8X feels like a feather compared to the other 3. I don't want a phone as large as the 920. I have a pouch I use on my camera strap and the 920 won't fit in there. After the endless problems I had with my HD7 the 8X wasn't an option either. I almost didn't get the 820 either since the first store I went to only had black and white. That is how I ended up with the 820. Price was never an issue.
Availability: TOTAL GARBAGE. This launch was a total tank job. 0 of 5
Body: It feels just as solid as my 800. It's extremely slippery compared to my 800. The 820 is red and my 800 is black. My 800 has some grip to it and the 820 has none. I will rate this a 3 of 5 stars.
Screen: It's does seem a bit brighter then my 800. I don't need a 1080p screen, so this screen is good with me. It renders text/graphics just fine with me. The colors are bright and not washed out. The edges of the text/graphics are not dithered or jaggy. 5 of 5.
Sound: I haven't recieved any calls, as I am away on holidays at the moment, so I won't comment on that. I will say when I used it with Skype to make calls the quality was crystal. Sound was a MAJOR issue with me on the 800. No matter what headphones I used with it there was ZERO bass. The 820 has none of that problem. The EQ they included fixed all of the sound issues. Music now has great definition and clarity. 5 of 5.
Responsiveness: Where do I start? The lag on this phone is horrid. There is no way around it. Nokia Drive(3D mode) has the worst lag of all the apps, with the xBox Music app a very close second. When switching between apps, say Music and Drive, the lag is so bad I actually have thought the phone locked up! How do you increase the processing power that much and the lag gets exponentially worse? One caveat is that the apps that specifically designed for WP8, such as xBox music, is horendous and the older apps run smooth and virtually lag free. I know Drive is in beta so I don't expect much from it, but Music isn't in beta. There is some noticeable lag when swiping up/down/side-to-sde. The 800 had zero lag doing anything I did with it. 1 of 5
Apps: I use very few apps, mostly news (i.e. bbc, USA today, etc.) and next to no games. With that said the app choices for me lack nothing. EVERY online review of WP7 and 8 complain about quality apps, and I don't. The app store works and it's easy to find what I'm looking for. Nokia Drive is garbage: it lags (see above), freezes, forgets where I am, and doesn't call out street names. I understand it's FREE and in BETA. I took all of that into consideration before using it. xBox Music: easy to use AND made sure NONE of the my old music from my old 800 worked! I am in the process of downloading ALL of my old music again because any downloaded to the old phone doesn't work on the new phone because of DRM. Good job MS. I won't mention the ridiculous cloud service that was ON by default burning massive amounts of my cellular data plan. WPCentral has an article on how to FIX that. 3 of 5
Buttons: LOL at the buttons on this thing. It takes a feather touch to activate any of the buttons. I have taken more pictures of the inside of my pants pockets then anything else. Due to the phone being very slick the buttons are an issue. I am not ham fisted by any means but...come on. 2 of 5
Battery: Horrid. Nokia Drive ran for an hour and half today and ate 85% of the battery. That's God awful to say the least. When charging the battery, and using the phone, the shell of the phone gets warm to the touch. It doesn't get painfully hot but I would say it was at room temp, maybe 25-30C. 2.5 of 5
Weight: This is slightly heavier than my 800 so the weight wasn't an issue. 5 of 5
Wireless charging: I didn't get the plate, the store had none. I won't get one, it is no interest to me. No rating
Overall: I will give the phone a 3.5 of 5. It is a good phone and I do like it.
I hope this helps some of you. Let me say again: bring your old phone and compare it.
Availability: TOTAL GARBAGE. This launch was a total tank job. 0 of 5
Body: It feels just as solid as my 800. It's extremely slippery compared to my 800. The 820 is red and my 800 is black. My 800 has some grip to it and the 820 has none. I will rate this a 3 of 5 stars.
Screen: It's does seem a bit brighter then my 800. I don't need a 1080p screen, so this screen is good with me. It renders text/graphics just fine with me. The colors are bright and not washed out. The edges of the text/graphics are not dithered or jaggy. 5 of 5.
Sound: I haven't recieved any calls, as I am away on holidays at the moment, so I won't comment on that. I will say when I used it with Skype to make calls the quality was crystal. Sound was a MAJOR issue with me on the 800. No matter what headphones I used with it there was ZERO bass. The 820 has none of that problem. The EQ they included fixed all of the sound issues. Music now has great definition and clarity. 5 of 5.
Responsiveness: Where do I start? The lag on this phone is horrid. There is no way around it. Nokia Drive(3D mode) has the worst lag of all the apps, with the xBox Music app a very close second. When switching between apps, say Music and Drive, the lag is so bad I actually have thought the phone locked up! How do you increase the processing power that much and the lag gets exponentially worse? One caveat is that the apps that specifically designed for WP8, such as xBox music, is horendous and the older apps run smooth and virtually lag free. I know Drive is in beta so I don't expect much from it, but Music isn't in beta. There is some noticeable lag when swiping up/down/side-to-sde. The 800 had zero lag doing anything I did with it. 1 of 5
Apps: I use very few apps, mostly news (i.e. bbc, USA today, etc.) and next to no games. With that said the app choices for me lack nothing. EVERY online review of WP7 and 8 complain about quality apps, and I don't. The app store works and it's easy to find what I'm looking for. Nokia Drive is garbage: it lags (see above), freezes, forgets where I am, and doesn't call out street names. I understand it's FREE and in BETA. I took all of that into consideration before using it. xBox Music: easy to use AND made sure NONE of the my old music from my old 800 worked! I am in the process of downloading ALL of my old music again because any downloaded to the old phone doesn't work on the new phone because of DRM. Good job MS. I won't mention the ridiculous cloud service that was ON by default burning massive amounts of my cellular data plan. WPCentral has an article on how to FIX that. 3 of 5
Buttons: LOL at the buttons on this thing. It takes a feather touch to activate any of the buttons. I have taken more pictures of the inside of my pants pockets then anything else. Due to the phone being very slick the buttons are an issue. I am not ham fisted by any means but...come on. 2 of 5
Battery: Horrid. Nokia Drive ran for an hour and half today and ate 85% of the battery. That's God awful to say the least. When charging the battery, and using the phone, the shell of the phone gets warm to the touch. It doesn't get painfully hot but I would say it was at room temp, maybe 25-30C. 2.5 of 5
Weight: This is slightly heavier than my 800 so the weight wasn't an issue. 5 of 5
Wireless charging: I didn't get the plate, the store had none. I won't get one, it is no interest to me. No rating
Overall: I will give the phone a 3.5 of 5. It is a good phone and I do like it.
I hope this helps some of you. Let me say again: bring your old phone and compare it.
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