Well I got my 925 exactly one week ago and it is both my first flagship phone and my first Windows Phone (I still consider the 925 the all-rounder flagship and the 1020 the cameraphone flagship).
I must say that this is indeed the best (smart)phone that I have used until now. This is kind of a long review; so if tl;dr, please read the bold bits and jump to the bottom, please!
Resuming (and for the tl;dr bastardites) - this is a great phone, it feels premium, it feels flagship, it feels solid and it looks futuristic. So, if you're like me and want the best all-rounder Windows Phone device* in a slim body with a premium look/feel, go for it.
- Design
Design-wise it feels light, but not feather-like, meaning you still get some comfortable grip. You can hold it with one hand, though you might end up resting your fingers on the lens. If it gets annoying, try to rest it in between the lens and the dual-LED flash, where the hump starts (this can give a bit of extra grip, so less accidents with the floor). Sideways, you get the chance to admire that beauty of an aluminium frame, and it is more eye-popping when it comes in silver, rather than the more bland and dark-ish on the black version of the handset (this is the colour I got).
The buttons have a nice feeling when pressing them - not too hard, not too soft - but the power/lock button can become noisy sometimes, may you be in complete silence and press it. I also like the metal/aluminium corners, where they get those iPhone4-ish black stripes. The bottom and left side are plain, and I agree when I see some reviews online that this thing looks like a stealth bomber. It's like if a stealth machine of destruction met this futuristic alien tech. And it is awesome.
The top of the device is kind of busy with the headphone jack/microSIM slot and microUSB port all together, but guess what, you're facing your phone upfront, you won't notice these most of the time.
The back? Well, the back is as beautiful as the front. I love the mix of features (how they look), like the speaker grill and the charging pins, and how it makes this baby different from the competition. The camera hump makes you say to yourself, even more, that this is a proud camera smartphone. It's nice to look at and the Pureview & Carl Zeiss branding leave some people asking you questions. The dual-led flash is unobtrusive. The black polycarbonate back has got some serious relationship with fingerprints and smudges, though the screen has a very efficient oleophobic coating. I can't see any fingerprints at all (I know, it's new and it will wear off after some time, what's the deal. The iPhone 5 on day one had fingerprints all over it, maybe it was intentional to make people get ready for Touch ID :winktongue
- Screen/Display
The screen blends so nicely into the body that I couldn't find any better out there. Don't get me wrong, some screens are really nice on other phones, but this one (and the 1020's, etc) is just plain beautiful. The light plays nice with the reflections on it, giving the device a special feeling. (note: screen != display). For the display, I have to repeat the word 'beautiful'. I really like the fact that I cannot distinguish individual pixels, so I'm not complaining (more like not moaning?) for not having 1080p fHD here. You get a pretty high resolution and detail with 720p + AMOLED, and that ClearBlack feature turns out to be stunning. The black background and the bezels are almost exactly the same colour, so where does the screen/display start and where does it end? While obvious, it's still a good mind-trick. Colour reproduction is vivid, bright and sunlight legibility is really good (for the standards). Didn't try the gloves feature yet, but hey, I trust what Nokia's saying there.
- Software/Features
This is the first time I use Windows Phone. I'll say it proudly: this is, by far, the best mobile Operating System I've used, and WP8 is now my mainly driver.
Coming from an Android-filled world, I was getting tired of the annoyances: lag, lag, lag. Oh and stop right there if you say that I "used a Galaxy Ace hence the lag". Stop it. I used main flagship phones, with the latest Android versions (no nexus there, sorry) and it still lagged. Probably due to the horrible forks some OEMs do to the OS, but quad-cores and octa-cores should not give you lag or random force closes. Also, updates. Do you know how frustrating it is not to get even a minor update, then your OEM/whatever releases another flagship a few months after yours was launched, updates it, and you are left behind? Then: you have to dive and swim infinitely on xda forums to root, unbrick, install custom roms, change apps, etc. It's probably one of the most time consuming and warranty-hating thing in this planet.
What I mean to say is that with Windows Phone 8 (rocking Amber + GDR2 here) I cannot feel any lag. No lag at all. Animations are fluid: check. Everything scrolls smoothly: check. Quality apps: check.
Seriously, even the fact that goodies (i.e. Bing Vision) and Facebook are integrated into the OS makes me love it more. Personalisation is good and the Modern UI is something I loved since the early days of "Metro". As for the apps: I have all the quality apps. GPS with *proper* offline support. Greatly designed apps/games. Xbox. Office. Skydrive. Office. Outlook. Did I say Office? :wink: (I use it that much).
Ok, I admit! I still miss some games that I had on Android, but that is it. There's only one complain here: not having a close button or a nice method for closing running apps. The back button thing gets tiring after some time.
[edit] 16gb memory is not an issue for me, so not commenting on that. It's up to how you fill it up.
- Camera and conclusion
I'm sorry folks, but I haven't tested the camera as much as I wanted to, due to being working almost all day. I took some pictures and low-light is indeed incredible. Check the 'pictures taken with your Lumia 925' thread to see some samples (mine as well).
Sorry for the long and somehow out of topic review, but I got the opportunity here to do it. I think it's also relevant, in general, if you want to know about the 925 and are an absolute beginner with the Windows Phone world or if you are 'afraid' of switching.
*until now. October might break this, a bit.
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