Need An Honest Review Of The L930

[scgf]

This alone told me that you never knew how to take advantage of the hardware on your 1020 for a start. And that's ok. Most people didn't

That comes over as rather arrogant IMO. The 930 gives me better pictures for how I use a phone camera. I want to take it out of my pocket and shoot a pic, I have been well into photography for decades and have a Leica amongst other cameras. I'm perfectly capable of using manual settings but am not particularly interested in doing this on a phone camera. The 1020 pics were always disappointing when used as a point and shoot. It was a lot of hassle to get a pic which looked remotely impressive. The 930 on the other hand delivers.

 

[Martin Spilovsky]

in short you should upgrade, the L930 is a great upgrade to L920.

Battery life for a 2200mAh is pretty good,
display - well its not LCD, so the colours are "different
Camera its absolutely amazing
Glance - never used it on my 920, double-tap FTW
build-quality -pretty good, sofar no issues at all.

however I have some problem but Im really not sure if its the operator or software problem, if I have wifi, turn off celular data and turn it on, the connection isnt restored, I have to switch between 2G and 3G and then it starts to work....

 

[Vlada Nehez]

in short you should upgrade, the L930 is a great upgrade to L920.
however I have some problem but Im really not sure if its the operator or software problem, if I have wifi, turn off celular data and turn it on, the connection isnt restored, I have to switch between 2G and 3G and then it starts to work....

That happens to me too, sometimes. Not always, and not so often. But it does happen.

 

[DJCBS]

That comes over as rather arrogant IMO. The 930 gives me better pictures for how I use a phone camera. I want to take it out of my pocket and shoot a pic, I have been well into photography for decades and have a Leica amongst other cameras. I'm perfectly capable of using manual settings but am not particularly interested in doing this on a phone camera. The 1020 pics were always disappointing when used as a point and shoot. It was a lot of hassle to get a pic which looked remotely impressive. The 930 on the other hand delivers.

It's not supposed to be arrogant, it's just supposed to be honest. The 1020 has a great camera but ONLY if you know how to take advantage of it.
If you want to take the phone out of the pocket and just take a picture, the 1020 isn't the phone for you in the first place. The 920 is/was and so is the 930.

The 1020 (and the 808) weren't created as just point and shooters. They were created with those who take their time to manually adjust everything and fiddle with the control, in mind. If you don't want to take the time to properly use the 808/1020, then there's no point in having one. Precisely because you're not using it as it was supposed to be used.

But one thing is for sure, the 1020 will ALWAYS deliver better pictures than the 930, as long as you use it as it's supposed to be used. But since the OP said he never noticed a significant difference with the 1020, that just leads me to the conclusion that he was using it as a P&S which the 1020 wasn't really designed to be.

Therefore, he won't notice a difference with the 930 results if he just wants a P&S. Well...low light photos, he'll notice, since the 930 is God awful at low light photography.

 

[DJCBS]

Battery life for a 2200mAh is pretty good

Should point out that the 930 has a 2420mAh battery

However, in regards to battery life, I'll say otherwise. It's God awful, not even lasting you 24 hours. Drains really fast and overheats which makes it worse. And that's because the battery is way too small for a 1080p 5" AMOLED screen.

 

[Nicholas Blackman]

Ok,
I acknowledge the growing "HW" limitations of my L1020 and even though the camera is pretty amazing, for me personally I don't notice a significant difference when comparing it to my colleague's L1520, and maybe i'll notice it even less with the new Lumia Camera.

This alone told me that you never knew how to take advantage of the hardware on your 1020 for a start. And that's ok. Most people didn't. That's why Nokia designed the Nokia Camera with simple functionality for point-and-shooters too.
Therefore, no, you won't experience any difference in image quality on the 930 apart from the obvious size of the pictures.

That comes over as rather arrogant IMO. The 930 gives me better pictures for how I use a phone camera. I want to take it out of my pocket and shoot a pic, I have been well into photography for decades and have a Leica amongst other cameras. I'm perfectly capable of using manual settings but am not particularly interested in doing this on a phone camera. The 1020 pics were always disappointing when used as a point and shoot. It was a lot of hassle to get a pic which looked remotely impressive. The 930 on the other hand delivers.

It did come across a bit harsh, I wasnt sure how to reply, thank you for saying this.

I too myself have been into photography for many years now, and it's obviously the reason why I bought the L1020 in the first place. Likewise I am perfectly capable of using the manual settings but for a phone camera, you're exactly right this isn't what i want to do. I use my DSLR for important photo shoots sure the L1020 is more mobile but majority of the time I just need to point and shoot, and similarly more often than not i'm not blown away.
That being said I appreciate what the L1020 is capable of and certainly when I downgrade to other phone cameras the contrast in some cases can be ridiculous. However this doesn't mean that the L1020 is the end all of camera phones and that nothing else on the market is not comparable.

Thank you once again.

 

[captaincalamity]

Sd card are more trouble than they are worth, there are so many mass produced copies of Sandisc, cheap, unstable and get corrupted easily, slow at read/write speeds, give me internal memory everyday thanks

 

[Nicholas Blackman]

Thanks is in order for everyone who posted a response, I appreciate them all I think i've gained quite an informed opinion about the L930 which is that it is not a clear winner due to one or two pet peeves but still a great option for a mobile device

Just a few things of mention here in case I missed to point them out in my OP.

My L1020's screen was recently damaged and is what made me decide to look towards upgrading (and yes I know how to use it's camera lol). The screen repair cost is roughly 60% of a L930 so I was considering it. Since the L930 and L1520 should be future proof for a while.

I am ok with not having an SD card space is not really an issue to me as mostly my phone is only used for pictures and music small documents etc.

Time i think is of the essence right now, as i do need something comparable to my L1020 for my line of work/study (Architecture). My current device is an old BB Z10 which is just.... horrid. So waiting 4-6 mths for the next Microsoft flagship isn't really something I had/wanted to consider... also flagship prices. Did that with the L920 which was then last Gen is approximately a year. My point being I guess is that technology is always advancing and i'm not too distressed about having what's fancy and new as long as it performs satisfactorily. After all if my L1020 never broke this whole thread wouldnt even be a question

This week i'll go to test a L930 for myself to get a feel for it in my hand. Right now I think my only other concern is the metal strip I would imagine it gets ridiculously hot, my first windows phone (L920) used to as well but my L1020 never overheated to uncomfortable levels. Which leads me to think that this might be a defect in some models? So I guess it is hit or miss when you buy your phone, pretty much like everything else.

So that being said I am trying to stick with the WP/Microsoft ecosystem as I love the OS and WP 10 can only get better. Any further reviews are appreciated as well, thank you for your time.

 

[blue1k]

Good plan. I grabbed a 930 from the 1020 and happy with the device hardware.

 

[zkyevolved]

Sd card are more trouble than they are worth, there are so many mass produced copies of Sandisc, cheap, unstable and get corrupted easily, slow at read/write speeds, give me internal memory everyday thanks

You could say the same for replica phones, bags, shoes, computers, etc. You get anything that's a fake / replica / copy, you'll end up paying for it. Just make sure you buy it from a trusted place. That's all! I for one think internal storage SHOULD be 32GB minimum, and they should supplement it with a Micro SD card slot. I would love to put 128GB on my phone and carry my music library!

 

[captaincalamity]

You could say the same for replica phones, bags, shoes, computers, etc. You get anything that's a fake / replica / copy, you'll end up paying for it. Just make sure you buy it from a trusted place. That's all! I for one think internal storage SHOULD be 32GB minimum, and they should supplement it with a Micro SD card slot. I would love to put 128GB on my phone and carry my music library!

I agree 32GB minimum internal storage should be a minimum these days, luckily my L930 has 32GB, 128GB of music, wow, that's one hell of a lot of music, i'm impressed, I tend to have most of my collection on a cloud server for streaming, use about 8GB on the L930 for stuff I have to have all the time, latest etc...then use Blinkbox, MixRadio etc...for all the other music I need

 

[zkyevolved]

I agree 32GB minimum internal storage should be a minimum these days, luckily my L930 has 32GB, 128GB of music, wow, that's one hell of a lot of music, i'm impressed, I tend to have most of my collection on a cloud server for streaming, use about 8GB on the L930 for stuff I have to have all the time, latest etc...then use Blinkbox, MixRadio etc...for all the other music I need

I don't have 128 GB, but I have 60, easily. Right now I have Google Music. I'm not tied to any music service, so if it's true about what they say that in Windows Phone 10 you'll be able to stream all your music from OneDrive, I'd plop my music folder into OneDrive and stream that way. As of right now I'm using CloudMuzik which is a good app considering that there are only 2 that are decent. But CloudMuzik still leaves a lot to be desired. It also eats through my data! Haha. It always streams in top quality, which I don't mind sometimes. I missed that about Google Music. But hey, that's my issue.

I would love to just download all the music to internal storage, but I'd eat up all my internal storage. That's why I stream everything. That's why I'd love to have a MicroSD card slot. I'm thinking about switching to the 1520, a used one for money reasons, and returning my L930 just to have a micro SD card slot.

It's not only about the music. It's also about backups! My chat apps make their backups on SD card slots and not in internal memory (since we can't access them). So this makes it a nightmare for me to switch phones some day seeing as I'll lose all my chats and conversations just because I switch phones. So I don't know! haha. I have some time to think about it. It's just that the 1520 is SO HUGE!

I love my 930. But yesterday battery life was not the best. I was off the charger for 6 hours and it went from 100 -> 40% in 6 hours with not so much use. Maybe 1 hour of usage, playing Tetris Blitz, browsing the web, and taking a total of 9 pictures.... I think that battery life leaves a lot to be desired and I don't know what Nokia did with this phone to not give it awesome battery life. It has older specs, lower res screens, less memory and a fatter body! It makes me feel like they COULD HAVE put in a 3,000 mAH battery AT LEAST!

 

[captaincalamity]

Would something like this work
USB 3-in-1 Flash Drive for Smart Phones

 

[Fred Wilson2]

None of the Windows phones (that I'm aware of anyway) support USB OnTheGo.

Fred

Would something like this work
USB 3-in-1 Flash Drive for Smart Phones

 

[zkyevolved]

LOL. No! That's not an option! To carry around all your music with you in a flash drive defeats the purpose of it. Doesn't it? That's fragile and will break and occupy a lot of room! Regardless of it not being supported on WP. .

 

[scgf]

The metal band on my 930 doesn't get hot at all. In fact it has that pleasing cold feel when I pick it up that only metal has. The phone rarely gets warm, much less so than my previous LG G3 or Nexus 5.

 

[DJCBS]

This week i'll go to test a L930 for myself to get a feel for it in my hand. Right now I think my only other concern is the metal strip I would imagine it gets ridiculously hot, my first windows phone (L920) used to as well but my L1020 never overheated to uncomfortable levels. Which leads me to think that this might be a defect in some models? So I guess it is hit or miss when you buy your phone, pretty much like everything else.

The overheating on the 930 exists in all units. You'll have it, regardless of where you buy it, unforutanetly.

As I said, I'm in my 3rd unit and they all overheated. I would advise anyone against the 930 as it's literally a waste of money. But everyone is free to do as they will.

 

[scgf]

Mine gets warm sometimes, but never hot. I suppose it depends on what you do. I've never had a phone which doesn't get warm, and that includes the 930, 1020, Nexus 5, OnePlus One, iPhone 5 and 6 and my current 930.

 

[Torontonian22]

I switched from a 920 to a 930 a week ago so here's an honest opinion.

I changed my 920 as it was getting old after 2 years. After having some issues, i decided to get the 930. To be honest, it's a good phone but it's not impressive by any means. It's... ok.

First of all, the display... sharp if static. As soon as you scroll left or up and down, you'll want to puke. Colors get mixed up, it gets really blurry... nothing to brag about. Crazy saturation which, thank god, you can adjust. But still, the 920 display was much more comfortable to use despite its lower resolution.

Camera is better.... which is not surprising considering the 920 aging hardware. But it's not like an incredible upgrade. Shots are sharper, sometimes too much actually. So, yeah, good but once again not great.

I miss glance as i was used to it. I have owned the n9 and the 920 that both had it. However, i do understand that people don't use it and don't miss it. But it's not my case, i still miss it

battery life is weak. Better than on the 920 however my 920 is 2 years old... another "ok but definitely not great".

Double tap to wake is slow as ****, at least compared to the 920. It takes a few seconds to wake while it is still instant on the 920. Which pisses me off at times.

It does get hot. People who try to defend this are simply wrong. It's an issue and you will notice it. The 920 had it so it's a bit disappointing to see it again. However, i was aware of it so i can't really be mad as it was my choice to get it.

So, what's left you'll say? It's thinner, lighter, it feels better in the hands (way better actually), the camera is better, everything except the double tap is snappier and that's about it.

So here's something to consider. Yes the 930 is a good phone and as i already said in another thread, i would have enjoyed the phone better if i was coming from a low-end phone. Coming from a 920 the gap in performance is noticeable but it's not really huge. In other words, looking at the 930 issues (for me), it is a minor upgrade not worth the investment, especially now. MS might introduce a new flagship soon, i would suggest you wait instead of purchasing a phone that may disappoint you. I got it brand new, unlocked, in box with a wireless charger for €300... that was actually good deal which makes the issues easier to swallow. But is it worth spending the full price? I wouldn't say so....

 

[scgf]

.

It does get hot. People who try to defend this are simply wrong. It's an issue and you will notice it. The 920 had it so it's a bit disappointing to see it again. However, i was aware of it so i can't really be mad as it was my choice to get it.
....

OK, I'm obviously lying then. The heat depends on how intensively you're driving it. I'm not a gamer and have no games installed. I watch streaming video, do emails, web-browsing, listen to podcasts, WhatsApp, KiK, Netflix etc. and comfortably warm is about as hot as it gets.