I will say that the phone is far from perfect, but i still like it very much for my tastes. One of the biggest surprises I found out after owning the phone is that everything was the complete opposite of what the public said it was.
What they said: The phone is too heavy
What I found: I am have a slim frame (6'2" 155 pounds) and I have not experienced any wrist cramping symptoms while owning this phone for 5 months now. The real problem with the phone is not that its too heavy, but rather that its too slippery! The polycarbonate finish has caused me from time to time to drop my phone on hardened floors (at least 3 times now!).
What they said: The battery life is poor
What I found: Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, and NFC are turned on by default. Of course its going to kill battery life. A simple Windows 8 app can be setup on your start screen to quickly turn off these battery-hogging features on demand. The built-in battery saver app helps as well by preventing background apps from running, as well as turning of automatic synchronization of emails. Also, turning off wifi when turning cellular, and turning off cellular data when using Wifi can boost your battery life 1-2% additionally because its not wasting unnecessary battery life looking for access points/updates. WIth heavy use I have been averaging 6-8 hours of battery life, with moderate use, between 8-10 hours, with average use, between 1 1/2 to 2 days. I have noticed that the life of the battery depends a lot on how contiguously you use it. Surf the web in four 15 minute increments and you might find the battery life has decreased 10%. Surf the web for an hour straight and you'll notice the battery life has gone down 15%. The hotter the phone gets, the faster the battery drains.
What they said: The camera is very good
What I found: The camera can be very disappointing in all scenarios if you don't know how to operate the camera. The built-in camera app for Windows Phone just doesn't cut it for night time photography. No matter what mode I used (auto, night, portrait, etc) my low light photos turned out like crap. It wasn't until I found a beautiful (paid, ugh) app called ProShot that allowed me to manually adjust the shutter speed, iso, EV balance that my night photos started turning out acceptable. Given acceptable lightning the camera does shine at producing HD quality photos, but consumers are in for a rude awakening when they find out the stock settings aren't very good.
What they said: The phone is practically indestructible.
What I found: The torture tests used on YouTube/Internet are very biased in general. If you understand the laws of physics and mineralogy you'll understand why these tests always pass. One thing to take into consideration is the Mohs scale of minerals in general. The Nokia Lumia 920 is built with standard Corning Gorilla Glass that creates a scratch "resistant" barrier to common objects on your screen. This gorilla glass has a stated Mohs scale of 6.8. Why is it that someone can take a sharp knife (or their car keys) and slice at the phone without any scratches appearing?! Brass and nickel plated objects like coins, keys, and utility knives have a Mohs rating between 3-5 and because of this they can never scratch the phone! Finally as far as the drop test is concerned, most of the ones I found were unfavorably landing on the polycarbonate side of the phone, which because of its durable build quality will not affect the functionality of the phone. The point of doing a drop test is to see if the frame survives, but most importantly if the screen survives. You cannot control when you drop your phone, or how it will drop. Thats why its called an accident. Here is visual proof that dropping your lumia 920 on its screen can completely ruin it.
What they said: Windows Phone 8 suffers from a lack of quintessential apps.
What I found: Our consumerist society makes it nearly impossible for Windows Phone 8 to put a dent in the market right out of the gate. Developers are reluctant to create apps on the Windows Phone platform because 95% of their target audience use Android and iOS platforms. It's even more difficult to switch to Windows Phone even for the casual user because that one single essential app is not available for the Windows Phone 8 platform. My co-worker said he wouldn't switch from his iPhone because Windows Phone did not have instagram or Pandora radio. My sister would not switch simply because there is no Google Play. Microsoft can do 99% of everything correctly, but its that 1% that's the most prohibitive. App count is a very important factor you cannot rule out. It's not that its important who can create the most apps, but rather who has garnered the most attention from developers. The developer potential is there, because coding a Windows Phone offers a similar Microsoft-based programming environment, but if nobody knows the door is open, they will lock you out for life. I hope it doesn't come down to that! The Windows Phone 8 platform is a beautiful OS and the hardware complements the software elegantly.