FULL Nokia Lumia 830 Review

Zachary Boddy

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[Updated] I've been meaning to do this but never got around to it. I've had the Nokia Lumia 830 for a few months now, and to be honest I'm quite impressed with it. It's my daily driver. To those of you who don't know the Lumia 830 is the last phone released with the Nokia branding and is Microsoft's decidedly high mid-range phone in the Windows Phone lineup. I'm writing a full review if you want to read. I'll have a verdict at the bottom if you want to skip ahead.
Spec Overview:
5-inch 720p IPS LCD display
Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC
10-megapixel rear facing camera with OIS
1GB RAM
16GB internal storage
Design:
To put it frankly, the Nokia Lumia 830 is a gorgeous phone. Arguably the best looking Windows Phone of all time (which is of course a matter of opinion). It's light and slim, being only 8.5mm thin--making it the thinnest Lumia phone of all time. Microsoft is still sticking to it's colorful credo, and bright colors are abundant with the Lumia 830. Internationally, the 830 has a light aluminum frame and comes in black, white, green and orange (all matte), while over in the U.S.A the aluminum frame is dark (the phone is an AT&T exclusive as well). The sturdy polycarbonate backs are removable, giving you access to the 2,200 mAh battery, the nanoSIM slot and the microSD card slot. The backs even come with Qi wireless charging built into them, eliminating the need for cords. And if you have the AT&T exclusive edition you're using the first ever phone to come with two standards of wireless charging--Qi and PMA--built in, when in the past AT&T has been against Qi. The backs are secured very snugly, although it's a bit difficult to reattach it once you've got it off. When you've got the back on, there's a slight hump housing the 10-megapixel camera, a single LED flash, one pinhole above the camera housing (mic) and a single mono speaker stretched along the bottom (although the speaker is actually only on one side of the phone). Around the frame on the right you have the customary trio of Windows Phone buttons arrayed as such; volume, power, two-stage shutter; the 3.5mm headphone jack up top in the center and the microUSB on the top left corner. The other two sides are completely devoid of buttons and hatches. Antenna strips are on each corner top and bottom and fit in well. The buttons on the right side aren't as firm as they could be, and cramp the side just a little bit. It might've made more sense to put the volume rocker on the left side instead. Also, the microUSB port is located a bit awkwardly in the left corner, but it's not because it's on top. In my opinion, the microUSB works better when it's on top, but it should've been on the right corner instead, because whenever you turn the phone to landscape mode it makes holding the phone a little uncomfortable. Up front the screen slopes gently into the aluminum frame. Although it looks and feels amazing, there are issues. Firstly, the way the screen slopes into the frame makes having a tempered glass screen protector both difficult and frustrating as it peels off on the edges. A flimsy plastic one would probably fit better, but won't offer as solid protection. An extension of this issue is that because the screen actually juts out slightly from the frame, it has no protection from scratches other than the Gorilla Glass 3. I take very good care of my phones but there's still minor scratches around the screen from when the phone scraped against something. Lastly, there's a near microscopic gap between the aluminum frame and the screen that dirt and other debris tends to get stuck in, mostly along the bottom. You don't really notice the gap until something gets jammed in there, then it's right unsightly. It requires a piece of paper to clear it out. However, small niggles aside, the front is just as attractive as the rest of the phone. We have a long speaker (for calls) up top, the 0.9-megapixel front facing camera and the sensor that monitors light levels to the right of it, the customary trio of Windows buttons down at the bottom (complete with a backlight), and a mic underneath them. Bezels are reasonably thin, nothing extraordinary there. The frame compliments the black font nicely, and helps break up the design. Altogether, the Lumia 830 is a gorgeous phone, and next to the Lumia 930--which is chunkier and more square, one might assume the 830 was the more expensive phone. On the design front it's a good last attempt from Nokia.
Screen:
The Nokia Lumia 830 features a 5-inch 720p IPS LCD screen. Although you're not getting the razor sharp pixel density of the 930, which has a 1080p display, the 830 is still plenty sharp for the majority of people. You have to get pretty close in order to see pixels. In fact, the Lumia 830 has a pretty fantastic screen, with good viewing angles, reasonable brightness, accurate colors and a good viewing experience in general. If you browse the web or watch videos, you won't be disappointed with the 830. At the very least the 830's screen is superior to the screen of the Nokia Lumia 730/5 which features a 4.7-inch 720p AMOLED display. Although you think a smaller screen would mean a more pixel dense experience, the PenTile pixel sub-array makes the 730/5 seem fuzzy compared to the Lumia 830. You're not getting the gorgeous IPS LCD display of the Nokia Lumia 1520, but the Lumia 830's 720p display is very good for a mid-range offering.
Performance:
Although not bad, the Nokia Lumia 830's performance is the only major tick against it. The 830 is powered by the solidly mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and is paired with 1GB of RAM. As is the case with Windows Phones, general performance is very good. Zipping around the home screen and through apps is usually pretty slick (minus the sometimes frustrating "Resuming..." screens that pop up more often than they should). However, gaming is not quite as hot. The Lumia 830 will run pretty much anything on the Windows Store, but it won't necessarily run it well. On more graphic intensive games frame rates stutter, and graphics are generally set lower than in more powerful phones. In fact, the 830 isn't even as powerful a gamer as Android phones powered by the same SoC. It's probably a matter of optimization, but if you're looking for a phone to do some mobile gaming on the Lumia 830 probably isn't it. The real issue is the options available for the same--or lower--price. The 830 is using the same processor as the 730/5 which is far cheaper, and the Moto G which is even cheaper than that. At the same price level you have the LG G3 with a Snapdragon 801 and the Moto X with the same. During the phone's release, the primary complaint was the relatively low powered processor, and how Microsoft should've instead have installed a slicker Snapdragon 6xx series processor inside the 830. After owning the phone for months now, I agree with this. General performance is generally very good, but a Snapdragon 615 would've made the 830 positively fly. On the other side, 1GB of RAM is enough to run pretty much every app on the Windows Store, and enough to multitask with ease. It's a good compliment to the Snapdragon 400 powering the phone, but it's not necessarily appropriate for the price of the phone. 2GB of RAM paired with a Snapdragon 615 would've made more sense, and the phone would be greater value overall even if it did receive a price bump. If you're a power user, you should probably look at the Lumia 930 or 1520, or maybe Android phones like the LG G3, Moto X, and HTC Desire Eye.
Camera:
When it comes down to it, the real reason for the Lumia 830's high price tag is the design, and the camera. The phone is very much a looker, and the slight hump on the back houses a very attractive 10-megapixel camera. Some of you may be saying, "Wait a minute, most phones at this price range have a 13-megapixel camera." Well, that's true. But the Lumia 830's camera has something special. Unlike the majority of phones, the 830 has optical image stabilization (OIS), which is something not even the iPhone 6 has. OIS means the phone automatically compensates for shaking and jerks during photos and videos using tiny motors inside the camera that move the lens around. Most phones have a digital, or software version of this, but OIS is much more effective. This makes for better low light photos and smoother video. Additionally, the Lumia 830 has a two-stage physical shutter button on the bottom right corner, and anyone who has ever used a Windows Phone featuring this knows it's pretty useful. It's something I wish every phone included. Of all the non-Windows Phones I can think of, the HTC Desire Eye and a yet unreleased Lenovo phone are the only ones that feature this. I may be forgetting a few more, but that's still a huge number of phones left without it. The 10-megapixel camera is paired with a single LED flash right above it, and receives the PureView label with Zeiss optics. What does this mean? It means a very clear picture and some very clever software algorithms. In usage, the 830 provides clear, bright, natural looking pictures and is a pleasure to use, especially with the new Lumia Camera 5 which introduces new features such as Rich Capture (HDR) and 4K recording. (Note: If you're using the AT&T Nokia Lumia 830, you will not be able to use Lumia Camera 5 yet and will either have to use Microsoft Camera, Nokia Camera or Lumia Camera Classic). The camera launches within a few seconds (faster with Lumia Camera 5) and takes pictures relatively quickly (again faster with Lumia Camera 5). The LED flash is decently powerful and good enough to take a few night time shots. In general, the 830's camera stands far above the majority of smartphone cameras. I've had owners of iPhone 6's and Samsung Galaxy S5's alike tell me how good the pictures from my phone look. Picture quality is pretty consistent, although detail is a little lacking (10-megapixels can only go so far) and there can be some slight purple chroma when taking pictures of sunlight playing off of water. The 830 deals well with sunlight and normally difficult lighting, however. You'd be hard pressed to find a better all around camera at this price range. On the front end you have a 0.9-megapixel affair that doesn't quite hit its mark. Although it's far from the worst front facing camera around, pictures taken with it are grainy, filled with noise and tend to have a lot of chroma. It's poor compared to the brilliance on the other side of the phone.
Software:
If you bought the Nokia Lumia 830 when it first came out, it was running a strange half-Lumia Denim firmware. It gave most of the improvements and benefits to Windows Phone 8.1 that full Denim did, but was sadly lacking the necessary update for Lumia Camera 5. If you were patient, and bought the international Lumia 830, you've gotten the full update since then and are now enjoying Live Folders, improved Cortana and the new Lumia Camera. However, the AT&T 830 is unfortunately still waiting.s If you own pretty much any Windows Phones, you're probably running Denim by now, even if you don't have 'full' Denim. It allows you to group apps on the homepage into Live Folders, gives Cortana new improvements like the "Hey Cortana!" function and gives the camera faster start up times, faster processing, HDR, 4K recording and other improvements. Windows Phone 8.1 in general also gains improvements across the board. Overall, Lumia Denim was a great firmware update for the system, even if it was--and still is--slow on the uptake. As expected, the phone is running the same Windows Phone 8.1 as every current Windows Phone, and is going to receive a free upgrade to Windows 10 for phones when it's released.
Sound:
The Nokia Lumia 830 has a solid set up for all your sound based needs. There's a single mono speaker on the back, positioned on one side of the long grille. As expected, bass is virtually non-existent and sound is tinny over all, but the loud speaker is decent enough for conference calls, casual video watching and VERY casual music listening. But for anything more serious you better grab your headphones. Sound coming out of the headphone jack is great, especially when using my Audio-Technica Sonic Fuel ear buds, and has good volume output as well. Call quality is very clean and solid, and I've had no dropped calls either. There's a mic to cancel out unwanted noise, and the speaker is solid, if a little on the quiet side. All in all, the 830 is well set up for sound, even if the loud speaker can't compare to something like the HTC BoomSound stereo speakers.
Battery Life:
The 830 is powered by a 2,200 mAh battery, which is a little on the small side. However, with a low powered SoC and a 720p screen you can easily achieve one day with this phone. If you're careful you could get two days. The fastest way to drain the battery is to watch videos. I haven't properly tested the battery life, but in all the time I've had the phone the lowest it's gotten is 13%. As long as you're not pushing top brightness all day AND keeping your Bluetooth stuck on the "drain battery" setting you'll be just fine.
Other Things to Consider:
This phone has an automatic brightness setting, where it assesses the level of light and adjusts the screen accordingly. For the most part, this keeps the screen just right, and helps conserve battery. However, in direct sunlight colors tend to wash out completely and the whole screen looks bleached. It's a little on the extreme side, and was much more effective on, say, the Lumia 1520. Microsoft could've dialed this down just a tad. Also, the 830 struggles with Bluetooth, with it cutting out, taking a long while to connect, or simply not finding the device at all. It can get frustrating when you're trying to hook up to your girlfriend's Bluetooth stereo to listen to music and you have to stand there for five minutes before you finally give up. For your information, my phone never did find her stereo. Also, the phone has the strange tendency to "drop signal" when you're using data when in reality you have full LTE bars. Texting and calling is just fine, but web browsing is a no go. This doesn't happen often but when it does it's annoying. The Nokia Lumia doesn't have an IR transmitter, so there's no using it as a TV remote. However, what the Lumia 830 DOES have is NFC, and FM radio. The 830 is feature packed, and unless you simply require a TV smart remote, or ac Wi-Fi, it has everything you need. One more thing, the capacitive soft keys below the screen. They're back lit, and look better than the lights illuminating the 1520's keys (they were more yellow, while the 830 is white), and haptic feedback is usually subtle and immediate. However, sometimes the phone simply doesn't give you any feedback at all and even though the reaction on screen is almost instantaneous the lack of feedback is still worth mentioning. And in case you didn't catch it back in the design section, the Nokia Lumia 830 features wireless charging, which is very handy.
Verdict:
Understandably, quite a few of you probably skipped down here to see what all my rambling was about. Well, here it is. I give the Nokia Lumia 830 an 8/10, and here's why. It's an absolutely beautiful phone, but there are a few design flaws that keep the 830 a few steps away from being perfect. The screen is fantastic, and great fun to use. Performance is good, but is the main reason the 830 didn't get a 9/10. I firmly believe it should've been a 6xx series Snapdragon, as gaming performance is lacking and multitasking and app transitioning can be slow. The camera mostly makes up for the performance however...almost. If you're looking for a slim, good looking phone with a great screen, amazing camera, solid battery life, and lots of features but are willing to put up with disappointing performance, a few design niggles and a slightly high price tag than the 830 is a fantastic option, and a good addition to the Windows Phones lineup. I've enjoyed using it and will continue to use it as my daily driver. I hope you enjoyed reading this review.
8/10-Overall
9/10-Design
9/10-Screen
9/10-Camera
7/10-Performance
9/10-Software
8/10-Sound
8/10-Battery Life
8/10-Extra Features
 
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raycpl

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Nice write-up. I agree with the hepatic response, which seems to sometimes miss my taps on the back-key.

Secondly, motion data collection. Works a treat with GPS enabled whenever I go on my walkabouts and hiking on weekends.

Lastly, another noteworthy mention is wireless charging. One feature I would never give up on..
Great review!!
 

hasasimo

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If you were patient, and bought the international Lumia 830, you've gotten the full update since then and are now enjoying Live Folders, improved Cortana and the new Lumia Camera.

Not quite the case. I have an unlocked, international Lumia 830 and don't have Denim yet ;)
 

Zachary Boddy

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Nice write-up. I agree with the hepatic response, which seems to sometimes miss my taps on the back-key.

Secondly, motion data collection. Works a treat with GPS enabled whenever I go on my walkabouts and hiking on weekends.

Lastly, another noteworthy mention is wireless charging. One feature I would never give up on..
Great review!!

Thank you! I completely forgot about the built in wireless charging. Thank you for reminding me. I'm typing this reply up on my Nokia Lumia 830, haha.
The international Lumia 830 comes with Qi wireless charging built into the polycarbonate rears, while the AT&T edition was the very first phone to come with two wireless standards built in-Qi and PMA, where previously AT&T shunned Qi. Another neat feature.
 

raycpl

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The only two misgivings I have thus far is the FFC. Probably the weakest amongst the Lumia mid-range to the higher ends. I'm not into selfies, but the poorer FFC do show itself when Skyping [yes, some of us do use Skype!!!]



The second would be the price. I got it SIM free, like how most people buy phones in this region. It wasn't cheap (about USD385, with no freebies. And btw, our local carrier stop selling Lumia ages ago.)... of course there are cheaper alternatives but those won't be last Nokia phone !!!
 

Zachary Boddy

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The only two misgivings I have thus far is the FFC. Probably the weakest amongst the Lumia mid-range to the higher ends. I'm not into selfies, but the poorer FFC do show itself when Skyping [yes, some of us do use Skype!!!]

The second would be the price. I got it SIM free, like how most people buy phones in this region. It wasn't cheap (USD385, with no freebies)... of course there are cheaper alternatives but those won't be last Nokia phone !!!

Again you caught something I forgot to mention. I'll have to update my review. Thank you for having such a good eye. The front facing camera (0.9-megapixels) is disappointing but not terrible. At least, not as bad as expected. Pictures are grainy, noisy and there's a good deal of chroma in bad lighting, but as far as front facing cameras go it's not terrible.
 

Desynthesis

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Agreed--the FFC is the phone's weakpoint. If you're going to have a weakness, it might as well be the FFC--a near-universal weakpoint on phones with only a few exceptions. I'd much rather have a stellar main camera and a weak FFC than two mediocre cameras, and I think most people would agree (especially if you're used to using the Lumia selfie software). Really, it hurts in the area of Skype, but it's still entirely serviceable.

Ideally, the phone would have no weaknesses, but that's not realistic for both design and price reasons. To make a dangerous comparison, iPhones would absolutely be better if they had wireless charging and MicroSD card slots, and Apple knows how to integrate both features, but they can come up with plenty of reasons not to, and customers make do anyway.
 

worldspy99

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I do agree with the OP that the design is pretty nice on this phone. I had one but for some reason it refused to get unlocked even with a code from ATT. So today I found one (locked to ATT of course) for a good price and am going to try getting it unlocked via third party and see how things go. I do like the feel of the phone in hand and since I got it for the price of a used BLU Win HD, I think it will replace my Lumia 635 nicely.
 

RumoredNow

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I liked the review and thanked you for it... But it did not touch on the one thing I wanted to learn at this late date.

What about .dng. Info I've seen says the 830 will capture .dng... Does it? At what MP size? Who has used it and how do they like it?
 

realwarder

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I've got two here, one for me and the wife. Replaced our 920's one of which died and the other started getting way too many sim failures.

Something to note is that the glass wasn't actually attached correctly on one of the phones we purchased - in the top right the glass didn't sit flat and lifted off if you got a fingernail under it. The local store swapped it no questions, but if you buy one I'd have a good look first time out the box and check the screen sits the same height from the frame all the way around.

I'd agree with OP though. Nice design, solid features, performance could be better but adequate for daily use. Battery very good.
 

Laura Knotek

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Thanks for providing a really nice, thorough review. This should be helpful for people who are considering whether or not to get an 830.

I always like to see reviews from actual users, not just tech bloggers.
 

pankaj981

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while over in the U.S.A the aluminum frame is dark (the phone is an AT&T exclusive as well).

Correction: You can get an unlocked RM-985 from Microsoft directly with both dark and silver options. The silver one comes with White and Orange backs while the Dark one with Green and Black. Also the phone is not AT&T exclusive. You might want to add that.
 

bokchoy1

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What about .dng. Info I've seen says the 830 will capture .dng... Does it? At what MP size? Who has used it and how do they like it?


The 830 running full Denim has two modes, JPG only or JPG + DNG. Both the JPG and DNG photos are the same resolution which is 9mp in 4:3 and 8mp in 16:9.

I've stuck to JPG only so I can't comment on the image quality or shot-to-shot time with JPG + DNG.
 

RumoredNow

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The 830 running full Denim has two modes, JPG only or JPG + DNG. Both the JPG and DNG photos are the same resolution which is 9mp in 4:3 and 8mp in 16:9.

I've stuck to JPG only so I can't comment on the image quality or shot-to-shot time with JPG + DNG.

TY for that... So I won't get DNG with an ATT variant unless they push Update 1. So that decides me to try P4D to see if that will let me into Lumia Camera 5.

I just recently got started using DNG on my 1520 and love it. You may want to give it a try, bokchoy1... With Rawer on the phone you can really do some nice post shot tweaks on the DNG.
 

bokchoy1

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TY for that... So I won't get DNG with an ATT variant unless they push Update 1. So that decides me to try P4D to see if that will let me into Lumia Camera 5.

I just recently got started using DNG on my 1520 and love it. You may want to give it a try, bokchoy1... With Rawer on the phone you can really do some nice post shot tweaks on the DNG.

Sounds interesting, I'll have to do it sometime. I'm generally happy with the camera but to be brutally honest, one thing bothers me from time to time: the inability to capture bright red.

Normally it's not too bad but there is a particular shade of red that I call the "worst case scenario". Here's the result:

WP_20150319_15_14_32_Pro.jpg

It's not usually this bad, this really is the worst-case scenario.
 
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Zachary Boddy

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Correction: You can get an unlocked RM-985 from Microsoft directly with both dark and silver options. The silver one comes with White and Orange backs while the Dark one with Green and Black. Also the phone is not AT&T exclusive. You might want to add that.

The phone is an AT&T exclusive in the US or at least was last time I checked. If other carriers carry it now I apologize for the mistake.
 

pankaj981

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The phone is an AT&T exclusive in the US or at least was last time I checked. If other carriers carry it now I apologize for the mistake.

It's not an ATT exclusive. Microsoft sells it unlocked from December last year. The variant is a RM-985 supporting most US GSM LTE and HSPA bands. I'm using one currently.
 

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