Lumia 920 Review - clear bias

[theeboredone]

It still boggles my mind how the Lumia 920 seem to struggle in some parts of the review. Okay, it's fair game if you want to say that the camera doesn't do well in certain areas compared to say, the Iphone 5. However, the 920 is the only phone with OIS along with a bunch of abundant camera features, which I find a shame doesn't help in its score. It almost seems like were this the Iphone 5 in place, you would see a "10" on the camera for whatever reason.

I mean, just look at the Nexus 4 review. The reviewer even admits that the low light shot isn't as good as the Lumia 920, but due to additional software, it is going to score the same as the 920 in that department. Either they fail to take into account the 920 software, or there is some bias being played here.

All in all, I would say 95% of reviewers have some hidden bias, and it's always going to show somehow, someway in reviews.

 

[aubreyq]

In a way I beg to differ. Early smartphones didn't really have apps as we know them now, they just did a lot directly out of the box that featurephones didn't.

You're right. Heck, the App Store didn't come to the iPhone until a year later. Smartphones were mostly about email/messaging and other business-oriented stuff.

 

[mcphersc]

You're right. Heck, the App Store didn't come to the iPhone until a year later. Smartphones were mostly about email/messaging and other business-oriented stuff.

I don't even pay attention to the "ecosystem" section of these reviews anymore. Microsoft is paying the price of coming to the market later than everyone else. Windows store rate of growth has been incredible compared to all the other platforms (not something reviewers every seem to take note of). Of course its not gonna catch up to the iPhone, but I think Microsoft has laid the foundation for there to be significant developer interest in the platform.

We'll have to see how the ecosystem develops, I'm betting on Microsoft.

 

[Winterfang]

It still boggles my mind how the Lumia 920 seem to struggle in some parts of the review. Okay, it's fair game if you want to say that the camera doesn't do well in certain areas compared to say, the Iphone 5. However, the 920 is the only phone with OIS along with a bunch of abundant camera features, which I find a shame doesn't help in its score. It almost seems like were this the Iphone 5 in place, you would see a "10" on the camera for whatever reason.

I mean, just look at the Nexus 4 review. The reviewer even admits that the low light shot isn't as good as the Lumia 920, but due to additional software, it is going to score the same as the 920 in that department. Either they fail to take into account the 920 software, or there is some bias being played here.

All in all, I would say 95% of reviewers have some hidden bias, and it's always going to show somehow, someway in reviews.

I saw a review once of the GS3 vs OneX he said the One camera was superior but the GS3 had better software. And gave the better camera to the GS3.

Is not bias.

 

[1jaxstate1]

Early smartphone did in fact have "apps". They might not have been called app, but they had programs that you can load. I had "app" on my WM 6.0 phone years before the iPhone. They just wan't called apps. I use to load cabs on my device log before the term apps were popular.

Just because you decide not to use them, doesn't mean they are not available. Of course a most feature phone won't do as much as a smartphone, even without apps.

In a way I beg to differ. Early smartphones didn't really have apps as we know them now, they just did a lot directly out of the box that featurephones didn't.

Naturally if you see the iPhones as first smartphones, maybe then, but that's only the first mainstream smartphone if even that. Nokia for one had smartphones before Apple had even thought about making phones

I have like basically one 3rd party app on my N8, does that mean it's very close to a featurephone? Naturally the word "app" is a very generic word so I guess the features on N8 can be seen as built-in apps, but they sort of arnt.. they are just built into the OS. At the same time I can also assure that none of your feature phones would do as much as my N8 did even without a single app installed

 

[AngryNil]

Second best cameraphone in the world gets an 8/10. Only one device had any LTE problems out of several review devices they had, but reception (which covers connectivity in general) got a 7/10.

Nexus 4: no LTE at all, reception 6/10. "Good" camera, plainly admitted it is not the "quantum leap forward" the 920 is, yet 8/10.

Oh, the beautiful double standards. Also, the Nexus 4 should have been significantly boosted when thinking worldwide appeal due to its low price. Should have been 8.0 for the Lumia and 8.5 to 9.0 for the Nexus.

 

[brmiller1976]

All the throwing about of marketing terms like OIS, PureMotion HD+, etc. doesn't matter.

Specs don't sell phones -- user experience sells phones.

Apple has always been behind in the specs, but they sell 100 million phones a year because the experience is very good for a lot of people.

Nokia's strategy appears to have been to cram every buzzword possible into a phone and then tout it. Besides making the phone very heavy and thick, it also escalated expectations around camera performance.

Fair or unfair, most people were led to believe that the "PureView" would rival DSLR (like it does on the 808) and that things would generally be best-in-class. The moment ANY cracks appear, ratings start to decline. Like the collective groan when it was discovered that the "PureView" would be 8.7 megapixel and not 40+ megapixel.

Note that Apple doesn't film lots of videos claiming that their camera is the best ever made for a phone. They just say "it's a good camera." As a result, you don't see camera comparos hammering the iPhone 5 for its camera issues (which do exist). (And they also were able to keep that device thin and light as a result of not focusing on the camera).

Most people just want a "good enough" camera. But if you claim your camera is one of the best ever, and worth compromises like added weight and thickness, and it's not consistently delivering the best results, you're going to get dinged. That doesn't make The Verge biased.

I also doubt the 920 would fare well in a photography magazine, but the complaint would be different -- that "it's not fair to compare the 920 to a real camera." Except that Nokia itself claimed comparability (and even tried to simulate it with CameraGate).

 

[brmiller1976]

You're right. Heck, the App Store didn't come to the iPhone until a year later. Smartphones were mostly about email/messaging and other business-oriented stuff.

Actually, most smartphones (even of the time) were about apps. One of the big arguments that Palm and RIM made against the original iPhone was that it didn't run apps. Ironically, Apple resisted it and then tried to palm off (hee hee her) "web apps" as a solution.

That failed, they relented, cloned the Handango store from Palm on the iPhone, and designated it the "app store." And went from claiming that apps were geeky and stupid to "apps are essential."

If you want a good laugh, check out the Apple ****** sites of the day and their responses to "But I need apps." They scream that it's ridiculous and that the "core experience matters most." Now, check out an article written by the same author -- it's all about how app count is the only thing that matters, and lack of some arbitrarily-designated "essential" app is an ecosystem killer.

 

[firstness]

Apple didn't release apps for iPhone 1.0 because the SDK was not ready. It was an incredibly complex task to build the entire sandboxed app environment from scratch, with a quality future-proof SDK that could support the app boom that followed. Either the iPhone would have been delayed an extra year if they had waited for 3rd party app support to be ready, or the quality of the SDK would have suffered.

 

[Winterfang]

Second best cameraphone in the world gets an 8/10. Only one device had any LTE problems out of several review devices they had, but reception (which covers connectivity in general) got a 7/10.

Nexus 4: no LTE at all, reception 6/10. "Good" camera, plainly admitted it is not the "quantum leap forward" the 920 is, yet 8/10.

Oh, the beautiful double standards. Also, the Nexus 4 should have been significantly boosted when thinking worldwide appeal due to its low price. Should have been 8.0 for the Lumia and 8.5 to 9.0 for the Nexus.

Second best cameraphone? I know the 808 is the absolute best but Iphone 5, GS3, OneX, N8 are also contenders.

There's more than your points of what affects a score. The Nexus 4 is like what half the price of the Lumia? Is also not exclusive to AT&T, the screen is comparable but bigger and the Ecosystem, OS and Apps are subjectively better.

This might be a bit silly

But you have to take into account the software behind the camera. So far Pureview is not the leap beyond other cameras we all expect it.

TL;DR different strokes for different folks.

 

[Illicit Hero]

Second best cameraphone? I know the 808 is the absolute best but Iphone 5, GS3, OneX, N8 are also contenders.

There's more than your points of what affects a score. The Nexus 4 is like what half the price of the Lumia? Is also not exclusive to AT&T, the screen is comparable but bigger and the Ecosystem, OS and Apps are subjectively better.

This might be a bit silly
Click to view quoted image


But you have to take into account the software behind the camera. So far Pureview is not the leap beyond other cameras we all expect it.

TL;DR different strokes for different folks.

One thing about theverge is don't look at the numbers, read the review and make an opinion.

 

[Joelist]

You do realize that the Verge is a joke in the "tech site" world. Basically they totally destroyed their credibility with that stupid remark about Windows being a cancer - it basically alerted everyone not to place any stock in reviews they do of anything Microsoft.

Their cred is in the same tank ZDNet's went into back in the 90s when they basically fabricated a story about Windows 2000 shipping with 50,000 known defects. Even doing a "clarification" (which was basically a retraction) didn't restore their cred.

 

[Heron_Kusanagi]

Tech journalism feels like its going the way of the cable news networks. Not in a good way too. There's a lot of polarizing opinion, and if you aren't with us, you might as well don't exist.

Still, Nokia getting any news is more important than it getting no news like how RIM is doing. There's still quite a bit of negative news, but Nokia crafted something great and we will see how the sales go.

By the way, at least the 8X is a worthy contender, and I think that generates a good buzz in WP8, with 2 active OEMs trying to win marketshare. Only drives innovation. The small design flaw of having that standby button on top is a deal breaker for me though.

 

[AngryNil]

Nice argument, Verge. Average users don't want stable videos, less blurry pictures or visible shots in bad lighting. No, they want oversaturated colours. Good job Winterfang, nice to see you've met your match in unjustifiably skewed opinions in Joshua Topolsky.

The Verge couldn't give this camera a good score. They'd lose too much face after overblowing the fake video.

Nice to see you've overlooked the All About Windows Phone comparison, which is easily the most in-depth camera shoot-out of the pack. The One X can't stand up to the iPhone or S3 and they can't stand up to the 920. Comparing "average user" shots are stupid because average users post terrible shots taken with their VGA FFCs.

 

[Winterfang]

Actually the 920 has a problem with blurry pictures, other cameras like the GS3 ones are a lot sharper.

 

[lhunter1130]

Actually the 920 has a problem with blurry pictures, other cameras like the GS3 ones are a lot sharper.

dude do you own the phone???? if not shut up about blurry pics.. and always arguing, i've noticed all you do is post opposite of everyone on there.. news flash this is a windows phone website.. if you don't like WP8 then maybe troll away somewhere else. Every discussion you have is trying to start some kind of flame war. For example i own a RX-8 R3.. but 99.9% of people have never driven it but they immediately tell me whats wrong with it.. hey Its an amazing car and it takes driving it to see that.. see my point.. use a 920 for a week then we will listen to your "opinions". And i normally dont post but all you do is Complain and B^^&^ about what its missing or some blog on the internet said this.. hey i can start a blog right now and say how amazing the 920 is will you quote me then? Im sure more than most of us on here are tired of your antics...

 

[Winterfang]

dude do you own the phone???? if not shut up about blurry pics..

What kind of logic is that? The pictures comparisons are online.

 

[independentvolume]

It still boggles my mind how the Lumia 920 seem to struggle in some parts of the review. Okay, it's fair game if you want to say that the camera doesn't do well in certain areas compared to say, the Iphone 5. However, the 920 is the only phone with OIS along with a bunch of abundant camera features, which I find a shame doesn't help in its score. It almost seems like were this the Iphone 5 in place, you would see a "10" on the camera for whatever reason.

I mean, just look at the Nexus 4 review. The reviewer even admits that the low light shot isn't as good as the Lumia 920, but due to additional software, it is going to score the same as the 920 in that department. Either they fail to take into account the 920 software, or there is some bias being played here.

All in all, I would say 95% of reviewers have some hidden bias, and it's always going to show somehow, someway in reviews.

Doesn't the Nexus 4 have that sweet 360 camera feature? I was reading up on it hand it sounds cool as ****. Perhaps that carries some weight.

 

[independentvolume]

Nice argument, Verge. Average users don't want stable videos, less blurry pictures or visible shots in bad lighting. No, they want oversaturated colours. Good job Winterfang, nice to see you've met your match in unjustifiably skewed opinions in Joshua Topolsky.

The Verge couldn't give this camera a good score. They'd lose too much face after overblowing the fake video.

Nice to see you've overlooked the All About Windows Phone comparison, which is easily the most in-depth camera shoot-out of the pack. The One X can't stand up to the iPhone or S3 and they can't stand up to the 920. Comparing "average user" shots are stupid because average users post terrible shots taken with their VGA FFCs.

I feel the cameras are somewhere in the middle. All About Windows Phone is obviously just as bias as The Verge, just on the other direction. I'll say it again since my face is not yet blue, go to the damn store and get your hands on the devices and judge for yourself. People have different tastes, wants, and needs. To take the word of some guy sitting behind a computer as fact is completely asinine.

 

[Dr_8820]

The only impression I got from this site's review was Daniel saying " I have a L920, and you don't"....the ultimate ******.