buying Lumia 930 in 2018

[B3HI13]

hi everybody , actually i love microsoft & windows and i have a HONOR 4C that has 8GB Storage and it sucks literally . i was searching and i found a LUMIA 930 that has been used and it has test time to make sure its ok. my question is that does it worth it to buy in 2018? i have no problem with limited apps in the store but the smooth and bugs in OS or apps and battery life time are so important to me.

 

[libra89]

Hmm, I have heard that battery life isn't great on the 930.

I'm going to tag @TechFreak1 who recently got a 930 too. Hopefully, he'll be able to help.

 

[TechFreak1]

hi everybody , actually i love microsoft & windows and i have a HONOR 4C that has 8GB Storage and it sucks literally . i was searching and i found a LUMIA 930 that has been used and it has test time to make sure its ok. my question is that does it worth it to buy in 2018? i have no problem with limited apps in the store but the smooth and bugs in OS or apps and battery life time are so important to me.

Thanks @libra89.

If you really want to buy a windows phone, the L930 is the perfect phone to buy on a budget.

You can get (grade a if you're really lucky) grade B or Grade C L930's for £20 to £50 for the price you get a decently specced phone. Also it still gets updates (no features whatsoever) however bear in mind you will have to set alot of time aside to upgrade to WM10.

As first you need to download the upgrade advisor from the store, then install the update to build 1507, hard reset, update, hard reset and install the latest update then hard reset again for the final time.

Also depending on the region of the rom on the phone you may have to download the keyboard or language pack for English. This is what I had to do with my L930 as it's a danish CV variant.

I would suggest looking out for L950 and L950XL if you want to / can spend abit more as they can be had £80 to £150 depending on the quality / cosmetic damage. For instance my L930 has a hair line scratch on the screen but it's not visible during use, also the battery doesn't last that long when web browsing as the phone heats up really quickly. Hence grade B, Grade C has alot more scuffs and scratches. Grade D well alot of cosmetic damage. Grade A, is a almost a pristine but refurbished unit.

In regards to bugs I have a sync issue where my contacts misteriously disappear but I suppose that is an outlook bug as it has taken my main outlook account and work account an labeled them as outlook mail and calendar (outlook) and outlook mail and calander (outlook 2) consecutively. The only silver lining is that I can choose not to sync contacts and calendar via outlook app settings for the main microsoft account. But these two outlook accounts settings cannot be accessed via email and app accounts settings page. This bug does not work on my old L930 which is GBIE country variant.

So if you are going to get a L930 and I would recommend getting a mobile tool repair kit as well. As there is one major bug in WM10 if the battery is near the end of it's life. You will end up with a phone in perpetual reboot cycle. The only fix for that is a new battery or to charge the battery for several days (charger used original Nokia Charger with factory cable), that is the only thing that bought it back. Also get a replacement battery when you can before they disappear off ebay completely (can be had for £6 to £19.99).

In terms of the overheating you can resolve that using an additional layer of a copper heatsink and apparently a thermal silicon chip pad also helps.

If you need anything else, send me a PM and I'll respond when possible .

 

[nate0]

I own a 930 and a 929 both. In the US you will not get 4g LTE on the 930 fyi.
The battery life is good on builds prior to FCU in my opinion.
Also I saw mentioned to use the upgrade advisor but I'm not sure it actually works anymore...it might. Edit: It is actually available on the store and should work theoretically.
Another simple alternative and only requires a Windows 10 pc is the otcupdater.exe tool from Microsoft. Plug in your phone and run that app. It will update any phone capable of running Windows 10 Mobile to the build that phone was supported for.

I'd say the 930 is a cheaper alternative to the 950 and the 930 is built like a tank . It should have double tap to wake but will lack the glance screen.
That's my two cents.

 

[nate0]

@TechFreak1
An interesting fact about the 929 and the 930 in regards to cooling...at least between the two I own.
They use two different cooling methods. The 930 uses a method similar to the 1520 (thermal paste inside an enclosed heat sink shielding sealed with shielding. tape). The 929 uses a copper strip sandwiched between the metal shielding and the cpu. The copper is actually part of a large piece that stretches across the other components and then ends up laying on the back side of the battery to dissipate the heat. Don't try to pull it off and away from the cpu as it's a real booger to get it installed back in.

 

[B3HI13]

thank u so much guys , you helped me soo much. thanks:wink:

 

[sd4f]

Just make sure that you can get the apps that you want or need.

Pretty much everything on the platform is dead, nothing except some MS apps are getting updates and a lot of things don't work anymore.

 

[TechFreak1]

@TechFreak1
An interesting fact about the 929 and the 930 in regards to cooling...at least between the two I own.
They use two different cooling methods. The 930 uses a method similar to the 1520 (thermal paste inside an enclosed heat sink shielding sealed with shielding. tape). The 929 uses a copper strip sandwiched between the metal shielding and the cpu. The copper is actually part of a large piece that stretches across the other components and then ends up laying on the back side of the battery to dissipate the heat. Don't try to pull it off and away from the cpu as it's a real booger to get it installed back in.

@Nate W

That's an interesting difference, perhaps as the 929 came before the 930 the thermal design was probably changed... who knows.

Good point - Explicitly stating not to pull off the copper heat sink, as it is indeed a nuisance to put back on hence why I said to use an additional layer of copper heat sink :winktongue:.

 

[vEEP pEEP]

yup! get it!
Solid build!!!! Great feel!
Great camera! Good Performance!
You will enjoy it for about a year.
I had one for 3 year, but even after a lot of travel and bumps along the way, I dropped it screen first - it still worked but the display was bleeding. It was not fixable. And they were getting harder to find.

I bought an Alcatel Idol4S because I needed to travel next week. Not bad for the price. They are $99

 

[jblack299]

You can buy a brand new Microsoft lumia 950 on eBay for less than 200.00.

 

[dicko81]

still rocking one here..had it since release day..now replacing battery as there's nothing else out there I want right now..it still does all I want from a phone..