An honest Lumia 920 review: Why I'm returning to an iPhone 5
Let me start off by saying that this may be a long read if you decide to read through the entirety of the post, so I apologize in advance. My typing process is much like my personality and thought process, which is sticken with ADD.
Yay Adderall. I'm by no means an accredited or experienced reviewer of technological gadgets, but I would LIKE to consider myself somewhat technically proficient in mobile technology. I've used so many different cell phones it's ridiculous, the majority actually being on the Android platform. (Original G1 for Tmobile, OG Droid, Incredible, X, X2, GS3, HTC One X, One S, and so many others, it's really ridiculous). I would also like to disclaim that while the majority of my time in the mobile sphere has been with the use of the android OS, I am in no way a "******" of Android hardware. I am for whatever is good and for whatever works. There are many, many things I wish I could take from ALL platforms and integrate into one OS. How awesome would
that be?
So down to the point of my article! I've been getting bored with the Android system, and frustrated with the fact that no matter what high-end Android device I've owned at the time, it still freezes, lags, and reboots occasionally. I know, I know.... I can install a custom ROM, or theme, or "deodexed" kernel to make it faster, but the point is that
I shouldn't have too do this. So, I decide to try a subsidized iPhone 5 for ATT&T, because hey, I don't have four thousand dollars lying around to buy one off contract. The overall experience was pretty good, as I have tried out an iPhone 4 and 4s in the past. The phone is fast. The pictures are superb. Everything just. plain. works. However, having moved to a new area recently, Apple Maps is the key factor that drove me away from the phone. In a period of one week, it drove me to a wrong location FOUR times. And I'm talking about at least 10-15 minutes out of the way in traffic. Maddening. I can understand why people would stick with ios 5 or a 4s for this very reason to stay with Google Maps. The point is, the iPhone is a fantastic phone (albeit a bit
boring), but I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that it's sleek, fast, fluid, and it just works when you want it too. Enter stage left temptation from the new Lumia 920........
I went to the store and played around a little with the 920, and man, I was intrigued. The first thing anyone can tell you about initial contact with this phone is "Holy $#%@ this thing is huge" and "Wow, this screen is boss". Well, here are some review points from an HONEST user, and yes, I will compare it directly to the iPhone 5 (you've been forewarned, I mean, it's in the title):
Overall Build Quality: OK, seriously, enough with the too heavy thing. I've seen so many reviews that tout the great features, awesome screen and awesome camera capabilities that this phone offers, only to give an overall negative review simply because the reviewer skipped high school gym class and can't carry around the phone for more than a day. (I'm looking at you, BGR). Please. If anything, the added heft adds that oomph that I like on a mobile device. It doesn't feel flimsy, weak, or cheap at ALL.
I'm a registered nurse, and this is also how I judge my stethoscopes. I don't like them to feel flimsy and cheap, like a toy out of a .25 cent machine. If I was attacked in my scrubs, could I use my steth to crack a skull? The answer is always yes. This phone could break facial bones with an accurate throw, no doubt. It just feels like a solid and upscale device. Granted, I wouldn't want to go running extended distances with this, but overall, I LOVE the weight of it.
Screen Quality & Detail: Seriously, just wow. Like someone else said on another post: "The screen..... oh my God, the screen". Jim Carey would describe it as B-E-A-UUUUUTIFUL! Seriously, it's that good. No really. Even with my laptop right next to me, I had no desire to put down my phone and use it instead. I had no problems opening a website with the mobile browser and reading it on the large and spacious screen. I felt colors were accurately represented, and the text was nice, sharp, and clear with no pixilation seen. IE 10 provides a pretty darn good mobile browsing experience in my opinion. (More about that in the software section). Videos were outstanding on playback. Overall, I think this screen beats out the iPhone 5 screen with ease, so if that's a major draw, this is something to consider when purchasing a new phone. Keep in mind that it's nearly impossible to use this phone with one hand, unless you're related to Lebron James or the grandson of Refrigerator Perry.
In all honesty, this is simply the best screen on any mobile device I've ever used. It simply destroys any other handset I've used in both low lighting and direct sunlight conditions. Low light setting for the display is still so easy to read, it's ridiculous. This is taking into consideration that I'm fairly young, and I already have -5.75 in both contact lens prescriptions......for those with bad vision like myself, you know exactly what I mean.
Overall Operating System Experience: I've never used WP7, so I really have nothing to base this newest release on. WP8, to me, seems fairly solid. The OS is fluid, smooth, and much like iOS 5 and 6, it just plain works. I didn't experience any hiccups or freezing at all for the most part. The Live Tile feature is actually really cool. The more important question is this: How long will this be a "cool" feature before the consumer looks at it as being as boring as IOS? People complain about how stale iOS has become, but in all honesty, I can really see the Live Tile feature heading down that same path. Do I really want to sit at the home screen and wait for one of the tiles to flip to tell me what I need and/or want to know? And if I do, there is no denying that a LOT of the applications have issues with the tiles updating since wp8 is so new. I'm actually a minimalist. My android screens weren't cluttered. I only had three screens I ever swiped too. This posed a problem to me switching to WP8. It got annoying fairly quick scrolling down and down and down to look at the different apps. I didn't like a lot of what I installed with the smallest icon tiles, so I went with medium or large. The problem is that the space fills up quick once I found a program I wanted to use on the main screen.
Also, applications lack their own "flair" per say. They lack originality. Everything has the same feel, and I don't know if its the limitations of the OS or what. For example, a lot of the applications have the same look, with the scrolling, and the large headlines at the top. It's all simplified in my opinion. Whereas in Apple or Android, applications had their own flair or originality. This is really just my opinion, but it's my honest one. Overall, I see WP8 more in line with Apple than with Android. It's more controlled and limited, but in return, you get a much more fluid and stable operating system to work with, which actually to the benefit of the majority of smartphone consumers in America.
Features, Storage & Battery Life: This phone has a TON of features. NFC, latest Bluetooth, Dolby Digital Audio Equalization, the list goes on and on. I've had no problem pairing the Bluetooth with my Bluetooth unit in my car with my system. It's a breeze, and it sounds amazing. Much better than any Android phone I've owned, and also better than my current iPhone 5 that I reverted too (But not by MUCH). It definitely beats out other phones in this category. However, I never used the NFC, and some will claim for now that it's gimmicky. I can't help but agree with that. Sure, it may make SOME things more easy, but I don't own Bluetooth speakers or anything like that, so for MYSELF, NFC is fairly useless. It's nice to know it's there though.
It's also fantastic that this phone comes with 32GB of space. Of course it's more like 27ish when you install everything, but hey, that's pretty generous. I never used tons of space anyway, so it's plenty for me. For those who want to take advantage of the beautiful screen and store movies, games, and shows, this might be a problem as there is no option to insert an SD card for additional memory. Something to think about.
Battery life, at first, is abysmal. I found that even after turning NFC off, running the battery dead, turning the screen on low setting for display, and fully charging the phone, the battery life was still less than stellar. In fact, the battery consistently drained ~13-15% every night with the display off when not plugged in. To me, that's just a little ridiculous. The iPhone 5 barely budges overnight when not in use. Some claim awesome battery life, some claim piss poor. It makes me wonder what is the definition of "moderate to heavy usage" are for those who are claiming awesome battery life. I know that my "moderate to heavy usage" usually drains around 20-25% an hour, even after all of the battery tricks. In my opinion, the battery life is less than stellar overall. Again, YMMV.
-
Applications & Navigation: Applications are....well..... some are there, some aren't. I'm not a big social medialite by any means, but I do get on Facebook daily and make a few posts here and there. Facebook integration for this phone is just downright terrible. The main Facebook application is like two tons of W-T-F....it's a bug ridden, ad riddled nightmare to navigate through. Seriously, it's that bad. Thanks Microsoft.....for all of the good points this phone has, there isn't even a passable Facebook application. That's honestly totally unacceptable. Oh, wait, that's no problem, I'll just go to IE 10 browser and do it froWAIT WHAT THE ****? IT'S JUST AS BAD. The mobile browser just simply doesn't work well with some sites. It makes some sites look simply archaic. Try browsing Facebook on the mobile browser for the Lumia 920.....it will make you want to jab a straightened paperclip underneath one of your thumbnails. I used to complain sometimes about the Safari browser......wow, never again. It's a joy to use compared to IE 10. Again, YMMV on some sites. Wpcentral's site loaded beautifully on IE 10 mobile.
Also, what the **** Spotify? Where are you? I love Spotify, and the exclusion of Spotify really saddened me. Enter Xbox Music. I really was relieved because I thought I found a solution. I have an Xbox and a Windows 8 laptop, so I thought this would be a cool test of seemless integration across three different platforms (Take that, you Starbucks dwelling hipsters... writing papers for your philosophy and liberal arts classes on your MacBooks while talking to your parents on your iPhones). So anyway, I was really excited to try Xbox music. I LOVED the integration of current songs with the Live Tiles. It just looks so damn cool. However, the interface of the application is just so jumbled. I consider myself somewhat tech savvy, and I really had to do some "google research" on how to do things such as downloading playlists to my 920 to work offline. It was a confusing mess. Think of the old "Lipstick on a pig" phrase.....seriously, which is a huge disappoint. Spotify is so much more straight forward to use. I also ran into an issue that apparently has plagued a lot of users, where it kept saying I didn't have DRM rights to access this media on this device, or some garbage like that. In the end, I wasn't able to download ANY song to my device, which left me with only the option of streaming music. Lame. Subscription wasted. I tried restarting, clearing downloaded content, even resetting my phone. Nothing. No help from Microsoft either. Totally disappointed. Nokia music really wasn't that much better, either.
Navigation? I was pumped about Nokia Drive+. How awesome is it that you could download maps and use them offline? However, on first use, I noticed that this application is missing very basic features. No text list of directions? No alternate routes? The problem is that I live right near a major toll road, and there are back roads around it. However, Nokia consistently wanted to place me on the toll road, which is unacceptable since I can't choose an alternative route......and this was considering that it EVEN WORKED. When I chose offline mode to try to use the map I downloaded, it consistently froze. It would load up my destination, and my starting point would be a mile away from where I actually was. 2D mode, 3D mode, it didn't matter. It just didn't plain work. You have some work to do, Nokia, if you want to make this a serious navigation application. Don't tell me this navigation app is as good as Google Maps, just don't. That's a bold faced lie. Google Maps DESTROYS Nokia Drive in every single way possible. This was a serious deal-breaker to me, along with the non-functioning Xbox Music error.
Cell Phone Reception & Quality: Let's not forget that despite being a feature packed media power house, that it's also a cell phone[/I. For all intents and purposes, this phone has the best reception and audio quality of any phone I've used. Reception is strong in all areas, even in areas weaker with my android and iPhone 5. Earpiece is loud, and speaker volume rocks. It truly is a great cell phone in this regard.
Overall, the experience with the Lumia 920 wasn't a negative one. It's one of hope......that maybe ONE day by the time AT&T will provide unlock codes for it, it will be worth going back too. I really loved the "freshness" and "newness" concept of WP8, however, key features that I really WANTED in a cell phone just weren't there. Spotify keeps saying they are working on an app for WP8, but that doesn't satisfy me. Xbox Music is just a totally unacceptable experience for streaming on my phone as of now. Nokia Drive+ is a god awful experience in my opinion, since I don't want to stream online everytime that I want to plan a trip. Same with Xbox Music since this error won't let me download and play music in offline mode. It's a shame too.
It's a shame that for all of the awesome features and unique experiences that the Lumia 920 and WP8 has to offer, it can also be overshadowed by glaring bugs and poor performing applications. Like I said, I'm not a "******" of any one OS or platform, I just like what works. If Nokia could deliver a better GPS experience, and Microsoft could work to deliver a more solid experience with Xbox Music on WP8, I'd be sold. As of now, for MY needs, Google Maps and Spotify are just two crucial apps for me, and since the 920 doesn't offer any comparable applications as of now, it just simply doesn't work for me. Again, YMMV. Ironically, not even a few days after switching to the 920, Google Maps was released again for the iOS 6 platform. It is just as good as an experience on that platform as it is the Android devices. Nokia could stand to learn a thing or two from them.
I hope people who have been on the fence about a 920 found anything helpful from my experiences the past couple of weeks. The Lumia 920 is a fantastic device, however, it's just not for me. Hopefully by the time AT&T has unlock codes available, it WILL be the right phone for me. I'll still be lurking the forums, keeping my hopes up that WP8 becomes the OS that I know it can be.
.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram