Lumia 820 or not?

[Cheewii Poon]

Hi guys this is my first thread here after lurking around looking at threads on the Lumia 820!

So when I first saw the Lumia line, I was just amazed at how the simple design was so sexy, and decided then to switch to a Lumia there and then.

Some background info, I'm looking to upgrade my one and a half year old Xperia Arc S. Don't get me wrong, it's a hell of a sexy phone, but it just wasn't future proof and single-core with 512 ram was just recipe for disaster. My phone lags ALL THE TIME. Doing anything. So. On the Arc S, the camera was great. I'm not really an avid photographer or even a professional, I just like to take some quick but beautiful snaps of life time to time when I see them. So all I'm looking for a is decent camera, comparable to the Arc S. I usually take shots of vast scenery and also close-up shots of flora and fauna.

Now that being said you might be thinking, why 820, why not 920?

Well because my carrier here doesn't offer the 820, only the 920. But I'm also probably going to be buying it unlocked (no carrier branding where I am), cause I can't tolerate this lag for much longer.

Oh and I know the screen PPI is really low (lower than my Arc S 233) but I have seen the phone and tested, I can't really see the difference. Storage isn't an issue either I only use up to 6GB, unless WP8 apps are THAT large.

Design:

I like it's design better, the 920's sharp edges make typing painful for me, I've tried countless times. And I like the general design of 820 and also the removable back I also find it the perfect thickness to snap on a case. I like fat phones But it seems that the 920 is too fat for a case, but does it really need one?

Camera:

I want a decent camera, that's it. I don't really take much low light shots by the way. I don't really care for the OIS on 920 as my hand is steady enough for pictures, and I rarely take videos. But low light, 8.7MP and OIS aside, is the 920 camera better than 820's, and worth the extra money?

Battery Life:

I don't use 3G or 4G, just 2G, so will I be able to last through a day? I don't play games much. Maybe the occasional puzzle game, but mostly I use my phone for text messaging and calls and music. I don't use it too much at all, but my Arc S battery is horrible, at 1300mah.

Other features:

There's no winter where I live, so no use for sensitive touch.

I do like the Nokia apps though.

So yeah, the main thing I'm looking for in a new phone is a great design (8X is horrible to me but 920's sharp edge issue can be solved with a case), a decent camera (I think I might upload some shots that I took as a standard), day lasting battery life on 2G. Oh, and also durability. I've dropped by Arc S probably more than 50 times in it's 1 year lifespan and it hasn't had a single visible damage (except for breaking autofocus), even with a low quality non shork absorbing hard rubber case and a lousy screen protector and NO gorilla glass. Will the 820 do that with similar addons?

Expected quality of pics:

 

[ballanda]

I have one. I like the shape. Very comfortable. Only drawback is the lack of OIS.

 

[crav4speed]

I just bought one for my wife. She absolutely loves her Lumia 820. I also bought her a white back cover with the wireless charging function. It's definitely a nice phone

I have a Lumia 920 so I did find the camera to be lacking in quality. The one thing I think the 820 has over the 920 is the beautiful amoled screen. Colors are vibrant... the blacks are nice and the colors just pop out. The battery life on LTE kind of sucks but if you're on 2G the whole day, that wont matter much.

Honestly, I think you might be better off getting the 720. It's a dual core 1.0 GHz but it only has 512 MB ram. But the camera is much better than the 820 with an f/1.9, which is even better than the 920, you'll have much better low-light photography than the 820 which has an f/2.2. Plus, with a 2000 mAh battery, you'll have more juice throughout the day. There is no LTE on the 720, but that wont matter to you anyway. Plus, it's cheaper than the 820 especially if you're buying off-contract. Daniel Rubino did an unboxing on this site last week sometime and loves it.

 

[AngryNil]

Storage: currently, Windows Phone does not allow you to install apps to the SD card. It's pretty much restricted to media, with Nokia having added the ability to store maps there too in a recent firmware update.

Design: this is person, so go off what you like. I consider the 720 to be the better 4.3" design, but it has numerous drawbacks when compared to the 820.

Camera: the 920 has a better camera, period. OIS helps with low light, but also video capture. In general, it's a better sensor and takes better photos. The 820 will be passable when compared with your photos.

Battery life: every Windows Phone seems to have conflicting battery life reports, but in general I think you can say that they all last a day with light to moderate usage. If you need the extra juice, Mugen offers a 3600mAh extended battery + larger back cover to accommodate for it.

Durability: really depends how you drop it. Face down, you're probably going to get a shattered screen. Apart from that, you might get some scratches but it shouldn't be too visible since Nokia's plastic is dyed all the way through.

 

[anon(5816156)]

Go buy the 820, you won't regret it.
I would also recommended the 720 if you want something cheaper. But the 720 is not exactly future proof either with its worrying 512 MB RAM (Unless you're going to play heavy 3D games), and its battery is not removable. So if you're going to have this phone for 2 years (An example), you probably might need to replace it through Nokia Care and not by yourself.

AMOLED is actually great to see (Although I personally prefer LCD). Thus making you stop worrying about its sharpness. Design on 920 is of course better but I found it too big for myself.
The camera on 820 is not that bad either. Low light pictures on my 820 is OUTSTANDING (Hate the fact that there's no OIS on this phone) and as long as you have extremely steady hands, it's a great camera.
Battery life seems great to me as long I don't use light theme. (White pages might drain the battery quickly)

Back to the 820 camera, I found it above average. It's detailed enough but it's somehow rather noisy on dark areas (Not in low light). I also find it to be almost identical to Xperia Arc S, which is always good. But the 720 is not worse. I suppose it should be the same or even better than the 820.

In anyway, the 820 is a good phone and I recommend it.

 

[Cheewii Poon]

Wow this is actually my first time on the forum posting so I didn't expect replies to be so fast especially since a mod had to approve of this first

For those who recommend the 720, does the 5MP compared to 8MP on the 820 actually affect anything? And my Arc S was my first phone, and the fact that it still lags despite a single core 1.4 makes me a bit paranoid to try anything clocked lower than that, even with a dual core, and nothing lower than a 1GB ram. But I don't know the details on that anyway, so a 1.0 dual might actually fit my non-gaming needs...not sure.

 

[AngryNil]

720 has a 6.7MP rear shooter. The photos will come out smaller (2848 x 2144 vs 3264 x 2448), but I'm inclined to believe the image quality will be better on the 720 anyhow. The 720 only captures 720p video (chipset limitation) while the 820 captures 1080p. Nokia seemed to hype the 720's front facing camera a fair bit too.

The biggest (potential) problem with the 720 is the 512MB of RAM. Poor ports such as Temple Run require 1GB of RAM, and it's conceivable that upcoming WP8 features will be limited on 512MB, especially if there are multitasking enhancements.

The processor could be a problem as we get more graphically intensive games, but based on some basic tests, the 620 (which has the same processor as the 720) can actually outperform the 920 due to the screen resolution discrepancy. The 920 and 820 will launch apps faster, with the 820 being the best overall in performance.

 

[th0mas96]

Well, I don't know why the 720 camera should be any better. In normal light, the pictures are really good.. and the killer argument (for me) is the combination of the following things:
-AMOLED (perfect black, I don't see the PPI lack in normal usage)
-speed wise, perfect specs for a WP (1GB RAM, 1.5Ghz)
-absolute killer: microSD support!
-only 4.3". it's the perfect size to me.

 

[Andr3sfc]

820, definitely.

Same 1.5 GHz and 1 GB RAM than the 920, a better design and microSD support.
These were the reasons I got it.

 

[bor42]

After a week of use these are my observations:
- display is great, sure it could use higher PPI (I can see pixels if I try but it definitely doesn't affect day to day use) but it has great contrast, viewing angles and quite good outdoor visibility, I suggest turning off the high touch sensivity ("gloves mode") if you don't need it, just to be on the safe side
- camera is usable, it's not great but usable, check this thread for samples: http://forums.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-820/209942-pictures-videos-taken-your-820-a.html , front facing camera is a joke, very grainy joke I might add, but I think it's enough to Skype once in a while
- 8GB of storage is enough for all the apps, I only run into problems installing Batman, Spider Man and the likes, after installing some games and apps my storage is: 1GB apps, 2.5GB other (cache, mail attachments etc.), 2GB system, 2GB free. They say that new firmware is on the way that will bring the support for Storage Check that is quite useful when you get low on space
- battery is good enough, I have yet to empty it in one day, right now I have email and FB sync set on 15 minutes, I use it alot (installing games, using navigation) and can easily get through the day, I have a feeling I'm going to use around 60-70% every day once I stop poking it all the time, just keep in mind that white background will drain your battery quicker (I changed the theme of my favorite forum to black to preserve battery), if you don't need it turn off the NFC and Bluetooth and you're set for a day
- it's quite heavy but I don't mind, I got used to the size quite quick (I prefer smaller phones)
other than that it works great, WP8 is much better OS than WP7, even though I read everything I could find about WP8 it still surprised me how much better it is than my old WP7

 

[bor42]

Just a quick follow up: I just installed the new firmware and managed to delete more than 1GB of temporary files, Storage Check makes a huge difference, thumbs up!

 

[Cheewii Poon]

Thanks for the great response guys! I think I might just order my Lumia 820 this week! Should I also treat myself with a few cases

 

[th0mas96]

Thanks for the great response guys! I think I might just order my Lumia 820 this week! Should I also treat myself with a few cases

good choice! I for myself hate covers, but don't trust in scratch-resistant screens, so I wear a screensaver on it. But if the case breaks, I'll get another one. cases make it look ugly
One problem is the camera, it stands out a little bit. The glass around it will scratch. I don't care about it, but if that bothers you you should get a case or maybe there are screen protectors for it.

 

[Cheewii Poon]

I think I might risk it without a case actually, I looked at some pictures and it looks ugly with most cases really wish the rugged shells came in more colors! So I shall risk it without anything but a screen protector...hopefully it won't crack...

 

[bor42]

I think you should be ok, even if you manage to scratch the back plate you can easily change it. Anyway, I'm using this case: http://www.indigocase.com/products_wash.html and it looks and feels perfect.