I needed a new phone a few months ago and went with the Lumia 830. It had most of what I had on my old 920 and I liked the green color and it was available on AT&T. The phone is OK, but it never delighted me. Even on the first day. The screen was nice but not as good as I had expected, the camera was good but I thought my photos had a flatness to them I had not seen before. And there was the "resuming..." message that I saw over and over again. Turning on the phone, waking the phone, launching the camera, using the back arrow to return to an app, all of these lead to "resuming...."
I've read here and elsewhere about people in the US buying the 930 for use on AT&T or T-Mobile. Everyone said the same thing: no LTE but other than that, the 930 was the best Windows Phone experience possible outside of the giant 1520. I took the plunge and ordered a green 930 from a UK supplier through Amazon Prime. It came in three days and included earbuds and a UK AC plug along with a US converter. This big clunky rig will never be used because I've got several regular Nokia AC units around home if I need them, which I won't because there is wireless charging. I set up the phone and there were two updates waiting for me. When these were done I had Denim and the Lumia Camera 5 app.
For fun I started both the 930 and 830 from a shut down state to see what happened. The 930 started, ran around the block and had a snack before I saw the Start screen of my 830. That awful performance is what I had become used to. No more. I've used the 930 for three days at work now and haven't missed LTE once. Internet sharing works fine for me, but I've read that isn't true for some 930 users.
I know phones are now a commodity, a utility device that people toss with their keys and hand to their kids to keep them entertained. I get that, but I still want the device to delight me when I first experience it. The 830 didn't and never grew on me either. The 930 does. Microsoft may not be officially offering a true flagship in the US right now, but the 930 can be that device until something better comes along.
I've read here and elsewhere about people in the US buying the 930 for use on AT&T or T-Mobile. Everyone said the same thing: no LTE but other than that, the 930 was the best Windows Phone experience possible outside of the giant 1520. I took the plunge and ordered a green 930 from a UK supplier through Amazon Prime. It came in three days and included earbuds and a UK AC plug along with a US converter. This big clunky rig will never be used because I've got several regular Nokia AC units around home if I need them, which I won't because there is wireless charging. I set up the phone and there were two updates waiting for me. When these were done I had Denim and the Lumia Camera 5 app.
For fun I started both the 930 and 830 from a shut down state to see what happened. The 930 started, ran around the block and had a snack before I saw the Start screen of my 830. That awful performance is what I had become used to. No more. I've used the 930 for three days at work now and haven't missed LTE once. Internet sharing works fine for me, but I've read that isn't true for some 930 users.
I know phones are now a commodity, a utility device that people toss with their keys and hand to their kids to keep them entertained. I get that, but I still want the device to delight me when I first experience it. The 830 didn't and never grew on me either. The 930 does. Microsoft may not be officially offering a true flagship in the US right now, but the 930 can be that device until something better comes along.