Is the 930 still a good option?

[gir_wireless]

My Lumia 925 (about 10 months old) suddenly stopped working so I brought it back to the shop and they said that since it's a manufacture defect they could send it to repair which will take roughly about a month to get it fixed (no Nokia Centers in NZ). The would replace it with the same model but unfortunately this model has been discontinued, so they said I could choose another phone available in shop with similar price as the 925 that I bought, and I could just add more if I choose to get a more expensive model, so in this case I basically have $449 store credit. The only windows phones in the shop were 535, 640, 640XL, and a 930. I immediately avoided the 535 640 and the XL model as those are budget-mid range aka not as good even compared to 925, so 930 is my only choice unless if I want to go for an android phone. I would only have to pay $99 more for a 930.

I've been reading about recent 930 reviews, and it looks like there is an issue with the quad array microphones not working or going faulty after updating to Denim, and some reported it stops working when you use headphones. The confusing part of this is that most claim this to be a hardware issue, while others say it's software because the mics work in another app and not in the other. The other issue that I want to touch is the purple hazing of the camera when in low light and you move the camera (or even slowly pan) you can see purple artifacts appear as if it looked faulty. Also the white balance is very inconsistent from what I saw in youtube video samples compared to the 920 and 925. Heat problem not really a big deal as a lot of factors could be causing it.

I'm very hesitant on getting a 930, I would wait for a 950 but with that USD price tag, it'll roughly convert to $999-$1099 (incl GST) NZD which is pretty steep for a phone. I just want to know if these issues still persist because I really don't like having to pay $500 on a phone and goes kaput after an update.

 

[TheLumaniac]

I've been using the L930 for about 11 months and it's really great!

Performance is pretty good, loading times are good enough, battery is quite good as it can last 24-72 hours of usage (depending on what you do), rear camera is awesome (in most cases). It feels nice and sturdy and the screen is gorgeous.

However, there are things that you might not like. The L930 does not have a SD card slot, so if you need more than 32GB of storage, you are out of luck (unless you rely a lot on OneDrive). Despite having a great screen, there is no glance which is a deal breaker for some people. The front camera is mediocre, so don't expect to shoot awesome selfies with that. Last but not least, the L930 is kinda heavy when you compare it with other phones, but you can easily get used to that.

Do I like my phone? Yes. It's really a great phone despite some of it's "flaws".

Edit: I should also mention that the L930 will get W10M, so you won't get stuck with WP8.1.

Edit(2): Fixed some typos.

 

[Shohruh Shamanov]

Lumia 930 is a still a good choice, 5 inch display, gorgeous design. Also the last build(10572) runs well on it. I still recommend this phone!

 

[gir_wireless]

Those are some good points to consider regarding glance and SD card support, I do agree that it's still a good phone, but I really want to know the durability, the flaws that I mentioned if they are persistent. I know there's no perfect device but like I said I'm not paying for something that can be broken by a software update.

 

[TheLumaniac]

I've been reading about recent 930 reviews, and it looks like there is an issue with the quad array microphones not working or going faulty after updating to Denim, and some reported it stops working when you use headphones.

I don't know about these issues. Denim did not cause any problems to my phone. In fact, it even got better! (BTW, I use headphones on a daily basis, no issues at all.)

The confusing part of this is that most claim this to be a hardware issue, while others say it's software because the mics work in another app and not in the other.

Maybe it's a hardware issue and some people got a faulty phone? Or maybe there are using a buggy 3rd party app...

The other issue that I want to touch is the purple hazing of the camera when in low light and you move the camera (or even slowly pan) you can see purple artifacts appear as if it looked faulty.

I assume you are talking about preview mode in Lumia Camera. I think it does this (sometimes), but I does not affect photo quality. Besides, in W10M, the default app is Windows Camera, which probably does not have this update.

Also the white balance is very inconsistent from what I saw in youtube video samples compared to the 920 and 925.

Hm, I don't know about that. The screen is gorgeous in my opinion and it works just fine. I haven't watched any video samples and I don't know anything about the 920/925.

Heat problem not really a big deal as a lot of factors could be causing it.

There was a serious heat problem in the first 2 days of usage, but I've read that it's normal. After that, it got way better and the Denim update completely fixed this issue.

That's all I have to say about the 930 (from my experience).

 

[bluekalo]

I've been using the L930 for about 11 months and it's really great!

Performance is pretty good, loading times are good enough, battery is quite good as it can last 24-72 hours of usage (depending on what you do), rear camera is awesome (in most cases). It feels nice and sturdy and the screen is gorgeous.

However, there are things that you might not like. The L930 does not have a SD card slot, so if you need more than 32GB of storage, you are out of luck (unless you rely a lot on OneDrive). Despite having a great screen, there is no glance which is a deal breaker for some people. The front camera is mediocre, so don't expect to shoot awesome selfies with that. Last but not least, the L930 is kinda heavy when you compare it with other phones, but you can easily get used to that.

Do I like my phone? Yes. It's really a great phone despite some of it's "flaws".

Edit: I should also mention that the L930 will get W10M, so you won't get stuck with WP8.1.

Edit(2): Fixed some typos.

Does your Lumia got no problem with its microphone?

 

[TheLumaniac]

Does your Lumia got no problem with its microphone?

I haven't noticed anything wrong with it...

 

[gir_wireless]

There could be other 930s out there that doesn't have this problem, but then again some people who own the handset might not even be aware of the mic issue, and the purple camera haze would be very obvious at night. Since software cannot fix hardware faults, there's no way of using the phones full potential by sticking with Cyan, it'll eventually have to update to the newest firmware which may or may not even resolve the issue. So I'm holding off for now and just use my iPhone 4S.

 

[blckDTshadow]

As far as I know there has been a second hardware revision. Just bought a Lumia out of the second revision. Will let you know, how it behaves

 

[PsyOr]

Seems all 930 will get the mic issue soon or later.
For an answer to your question on the topic - NO!

 

[dupczysko]

I have 930 for a year. I won`t replace it until 960

 

[TheLumaniac]

I have 930 for a year. I won`t replace it until 960

Same with me. I got mine exactly a year ago and always get a new one after 2 years of usage.

 

[userw10]

Have been using mine for six month now and I really like it, I know its not perfect but no other windows phone is.
Mos problems got solved with Denim and performance is very good, imo right now is very good value for money, sure, I'd love to get a 950 but there is no way I'm paying the asking price right now.

 

[1Icarus2]

I would suggest no. I bought a Lumia 930 about 3 months ago, and it started giving that microphone problem the past month. I will be returning it to my service provider tomorrow.

If you want, you can google "Luma 930 Microphone Problem" and see how many users are actually complaining about this phone. It's a great phone, just a petty that it's got this hardware glitch in all(most) of them.