My Lumia 930 Experience

[AirSlab]

Hi guys Pulled the trigger today and got myself a stunning black Lumia 930. I'm from South Africa, so mine has no wireless charger but I did get a headset. I know how nervous buying a new phone can make people and the 930 takes a lot of flak so I thought I'd share my thoughts about it over the next few days. Please feel free to comment or ask questions

THE BEGINNING:

Phone out of it's box at my local carrier branch at a touch before 1pm. 42% battery upon it's breath of life.

The good news: NO purple tint, no strange heating (it did get a little warmer during my initial setup but it wasn't bothering me at all; I felt no heat at all if I put it in my pocket, so no issue really.

The design of this phone is crazy beautiful, no joke. The screen is stunning, and even though this is my first Windows Phone, it seems mega quick.

From 13:00 to 15:30 I was going crazy getting the phone set up, downloading my essential apps, setting up email accounts, syncing contacts from Google (used to be on Android) and of course the screen barely went off during this time. Battery fell from 42% to 17%. Plugged it in since I had to step out on the town for a while. It charged to 60% in about 50 minutes which I was quite pleased by.

From 15:30 until about 19:30 I was on it non-stop, lots of texts, 10 or so photos from the Nokia Camera, some browsing, downloading a few apps, testing out Cortana (she's really good) and also adding some music to the phone with 20 minutes or so of listening. The phone dropped to 20%. Again, the screen wasn't off a whole lot so I'm quite happy. Of course there was a lot of setting up the homescreen too.

Anyway, from tomorrow evening onwards I'll post more about my usage and experience.

 

[Dragonic87]

Where did you get your phone from? MTN?

 

[AirSlab]

Where did you get your phone from? MTN?

Yes, MTN. I would've liked a green one but I was told we'd only get black and white. The black is nice though, imposing and sleek.

 

[Dragonic87]

Yes, MTN. I would've liked a green one but I was told we'd only get black and white. The black is nice though, imposing and sleek.

Still waiting on Vodacom to get stock. So annoyed.
I will also be getting black though. Glad you don't have any purple tint or heat issues, sounds promising.

 

[AirSlab]

Still waiting on Vodacom to get stock. So annoyed.
I will also be getting black though. Glad you don't have any purple tint or heat issues, sounds promising.

I should mention that I've read that it helps if you don't let the phone update all 30 its pre-installed apps upon the first boot, so I did that and just updated whatever I wanted to as I went along. Good luck though, and enjoy!

 

[AirSlab]

DAY ONE:

So today was my first full day with the phone. General settings are: Automatic brightness, Double Tap to Wake ON, NFC off, Wifi off, Mobile Data always ON (3G/HSPA+), battery saver always OFF.

Having charged the phone up to 100% last night I was impressed by how fast it charged; it went from 6% to 90% in about 85 minutes, so roughly 1% per minute. The final 10% took longer, but the way it gained juice so quickly made me pretty happy. I went to bed after turning mobile date off and upon waking up at 07:25 the battery had fallen to 97%. Topped it up and took it off the charger at 07:41.

My usage for the day was as follows:

Whatsapp pretty much all day
10 minutes of browsing
30-40 photos with the Nokia Camera, plus some editing
30-45 minutes of music
5 minutes of calls
Downloaded 3 or 4 apps
5-10 minutes of Twitter
A couple of emails
Recorded and played a couple of 1 minute HD videos to test the camera
General fiddling and getting to know the phone better

On the whole I was on it more or less all day. I'm on holiday from college right now and I was at home all day so I entertained myself with the phone.

It is now 22:17. I have 26% battery life left. So I've used 74% in 14 and a half or so hours. I'm pretty happy with that given the usage and also that I haven't babied it at all, if I want to go outside and snap 10 photos I do that. The phone remained cool to the touch at all times and was perfectly-behaved. However, the camera is pretty heavy on juice. Music and texting not so much but the camera definitely took its fair share. Nothing too alarming though. Idle consumption is good, it just doesn't lose anything if you aren't using it which is nice. The camera really is very good and the video capture, while not necessarily better than that of other HD-capturing phones in terms of image quality certainly does have really good sound; nothing tinny or funky sounding.

Overall I'm pleased with Day One. I was really nervous about the battery but it soon became clear that the phone was out to surprise, and it did just that.

So that's day one. Tomorrow I'll be out all day with some friends and I know I'll be at the beach, so hopefully some more photos and an opportunity to see how the battery goes when I'm not constantly on the phone. Thanks guys

 

[AirSlab]

DAY TWO:

Phone fully charged overnight and off the charger at 07:43 AM. Trip to the beach with like 25 photos taken. I discovered that the true magic of the pureview camera lies not in it's megapixel count, but in the way I can zoom in and reframe and still end up with really good quality on the image. Music play was maybe 15 minutes along with 15 minutes showing Cortana off to my friends as well as responding to a few emails and doing some light browsing. There was less texting today but still quite a chunk. Downloaded maybe 7 more apps including Angry Birds GO!. Played it for a while and noticed a slight heat buildup in the bottom right corner, but only because I was purposefully searching for the heat because I know that that's where the processor is. The heat never became serious or really noticeable though.

Today was a more normal day for me. I don't really tax the phone too heavily except for the photos, but for my usage it's holding up really well, with 37% battery left right now at 12:05AM. That's 63% in 16 hours, which is really nice.

Happy boy. I think I'll do one more update tomorrow and then stop.

 

[DennisvdG]

Do you have the unevenly raised screen issue? I do and I'm debating on sending it to Nokia Care (or whatever it's called). I also have the purple tint and the screen is not lit evenly, but these issues are supposedly getting fixed this month with an update.

 

[AirSlab]

Do you have the unevenly raised screen issue? I do and I'm debating on sending it to Nokia Care (or whatever it's called). I also have the purple tint and the screen is not lit evenly, but these issues are supposedly getting fixed this month with an update.

When I look at the bottom right corner of the screen a certain way I get a little suspicion that it's a bit higher up than the left, but then when I change my angle I see no such thing. It could just be because my brain knows this is an issue some units have and so I end up looking for a problem. At any rate, if it's the case on my unit it isn't noticeable.