Is the Nokia Lumia 925 worth it? Are there long-time user?

[dlstevenson]

Alright, hello! I made this account specifically to raise my questions and anxieties about the Lumia 925. I recently purchased one with t-mobile and I'm awaiting it's arrival. HOWEVER, yesterday I logged on to read a stunning amount of comments on defects, scary blue screens, overheating and things just generally not working. I read enough to shake me in my belief that these were just "flukes" and wouldn't happen to me. So, this is my question; is the Lumia 925 worth it? Yes, I'm aware of the fact that it's a beautiful piece of technology when things are going right.. but do things go right often enough that it's worth the price? Are there any LONG term users -- I'm talking more than a few weeks -- that have not had a single issue with the phone? Would it be better if when I receive me phone, I just sell it and find something more reliable? I'm not looking to replace it every few weeks, and I don't have a warranty or insurance to make this possible since I bought it from an independent person, not a dealer. I need something that won't just crap out on me, because I can't afford to re-purchase a smart phone every few weeks.

So please, anyone with any words of advice or thought, let me know what you think!

 

[Muessig]

I have a 920, not a 925, and I can honestly say it's the best phone I've ever had. That might not be very useful to you, given you want information on 925's specifically, but what I will say is that there are a load of threads here showing user comments and you'll hopefully get some great feedback, too below. WP8 is renowned (with Lumia handsets) as being a really fast, stable operating environment with great hardware.

It's important for you to recognise where you've come to, to get the feedback you want though. Remember that most people that own a device and have a problem will come to a forum to complain about their issues. This is the 5% that have issues and is by no means a reflection on the problems you should expect with your device. You can find complaints about any device on any forum out there. It's just where people go to get help. What better place to get help about the 925 than the biggest WP Community on the web?

You need to remember, also, that your device will have a 12 month warranty in the country you purchased it from. So if you do get any problems with your device, Nokia (or T-Mobile) will fix your issues no problem.

 

[rockstarzzz]

I have Lumia 925. Switched from Lumia 920 - it is worth it. No issues, solid build. But with phones it's always a machine thing. No machine is the same as the other.

 

[dlstevenson]

Thank you both for your responses. Muessig, you're right. The unhappiest people are usually the most vocal -- no one is going to randomly just made a thread being like "oh! I love my Lumia. Works wonderful. That is all." Most of the topics are a bit more specific and usually concerning a confusion or error. Obviously, there has to be more Lumia owners than the 25 or 30 people on here that have verbalized their problems.

I guess I am just looking for a bit of reassurance that I've made the right choice! This is my first real smartphone purchase and I just don't want to end up regretting it! But hearing that Nokia will surely help me out if I have a problem is also very comforting.

Rockstarz -- thank you for your input. Glad to hear it!

 

[bigkevbosky]

I just got a 925 on AT&T and I have zero issues with it - everything is great including battery life.

Then again, I've been on WP8 since launch day and I know how to tweak it to get it to run how I want. People who have issues are usually new to the WP world.

 

[anon(5140585)]

I can't give any advice, but I am also thinking of purchasing the 925. I would be coming from a 4s. I have used a Focus Flash in the past and thought WP7 was great. Nokia builds a solid phone, even back when I had a flip phone from them. All the reviews I have read and watched, the 925 is a highly recommended WP8 phone. I will be visiting my local AT&T store tomorrow to check it out. I may not purchase because of the Nokia event in October, they may deliver an even better set of devices at that point. I will be following this thread for sure.

 

[mriveaa]

Well worth it.....

 

[mjrtoo]

I adore my 925, such a beautiful display and design.

 

[original.woodster]

Long term 925 user here from UK, grabbed it on release months ago, had one single issue where the screen broke or failed a couple of days after purchase, swapped it with carrier, no problems with this one. I love it, so fast and fluid, cameras great, nice features like super sensitive touch will come in handy when the temps drop and iphone users have to take their gloves off to use/unlock their phones haha. Got a free wireless charging stand and shell with the contract, the shell i use all the time, makes it a little easier to hold due to its size and thickness and adds a little protection to bumps in my pocket.

 

[sinergy2k]

I've had it since launch day in Aus (14th July) and have had no issues with it. I had the 920 before that also from launch day and never had an issue with that either, the forums are always full of people who have issues but thats with any brand phone.

The 925 is a great phone, looks awesome, its light, has an awesome camera and silky smooth windows 8.

 

[mark nt]

Have to agree with sinergy2k the 925 is a great phone, i also have had mine from day one and have had no major issues with it. A friend of mine just bought the 1020 after coming from iphone and cant stop raving how good that phone is..

 

[Mike_J]

I have had the Lumia 800 and 900. Ran a 920 for about 10 months - loved it. I had the 925 for about three weeks - its was light compared to the 920 but I did miss the solid indestructible feel of the 920. The 16Gb memory was an issue for me, I had to be careful what I loaded. It was a nice phone but I grabbed a Lumia 1020 the day it was release - I absolutely love it, has the solid feel of the 920 and an awesome camera. The camera is definitely lives up to all the hype, it out performs my Sony point and shoot camera (was top of the line two years ago). Will now be using the 1020 for all my holiday snaps.

 

[VinceGio]

Had problems with my Lumia 920, contacted the Nokia team in Sweden, they got me a Lumia 925 for free and they checked the phone for defects before I got it.

But yes, you should get the L925, there are downsides like the Memory, small heating issue, battery time.. But that's totally worth it man!
If you are like me, then you can structure and organise stuff so the memory works. The heating issue is nothing big imo, and the battery time is a hope to be fixed within the next versions (GDR3).

 

[sdc1]

I've picked up a 925 on it's UK release day and it's been perfect, an excellent phone. The screen, build, operation, etc are all very pleasing. You'll love it, relax.

 

[raycpl]

Played with a friends grey 925, a thing of beauty. The obvious & glaring advantage is the weight difference. But its not enough for me to switch from my 920. I love my tank's wireless charging and bigger memory!!!

 

[txkimmers]

Another very happy 925 owner here, and I really didn't think I could love it as much as I loved my 920 (I mostly switched just for a lighter phone). It's GREAT. Very happy I switched, I even feel guilty for throwing over my 920. But not that much.

 

[dlstevenson]

Thank you everyone for sharing! Awesome, I feel VERY reassured and hope I have as amazing experience as you all do. I was super hyped to get this phone and now I'm back to feeling that way!

As far as the memory issues I've seen mentioned a couple times.. I really only would be using about 6 apps, and having photos. I'm not big on loading music onto my phone or anything heavy like that. I don't even fill the memory on my ipods, haha. So hopefully I wIll be okay!

 

[zinksilver]

Well I got my 925 exactly one week ago and it is both my first flagship phone and my first Windows Phone (I still consider the 925 the all-rounder flagship and the 1020 the cameraphone flagship).
I must say that this is indeed the best (smart)phone that I have used until now. This is kind of a long review; so if tl;dr, please read the bold bits and jump to the bottom, please!

• Design
  
  Design-wise it feels light, but not feather-like, meaning you still get some comfortable grip. You can hold it with one hand, though you might end up resting your fingers on the lens. If it gets annoying, try to rest it in between the lens and the dual-LED flash, where the hump starts (this can give a bit of extra grip, so less accidents with the floor). Sideways, you get the chance to admire that beauty of an aluminium frame, and it is more eye-popping when it comes in silver, rather than the more bland and dark-ish on the black version of the handset (this is the colour I got).
  The buttons have a nice feeling when pressing them - not too hard, not too soft - but the power/lock button can become noisy sometimes, may you be in complete silence and press it. I also like the metal/aluminium corners, where they get those iPhone4-ish black stripes. The bottom and left side are plain, and I agree when I see some reviews online that this thing looks like a stealth bomber. It's like if a stealth machine of destruction met this futuristic alien tech. And it is awesome.
  The top of the device is kind of busy with the headphone jack/microSIM slot and microUSB port all together, but guess what, you're facing your phone upfront, you won't notice these most of the time.
  The back? Well, the back is as beautiful as the front. I love the mix of features (how they look), like the speaker grill and the charging pins, and how it makes this baby different from the competition. The camera hump makes you say to yourself, even more, that this is a proud camera smartphone. It's nice to look at and the Pureview & Carl Zeiss branding leave some people asking you questions. The dual-led flash is unobtrusive. The black polycarbonate back has got some serious relationship with fingerprints and smudges, though the screen has a very efficient oleophobic coating. I can't see any fingerprints at all (I know, it's new and it will wear off after some time, what's the deal. The iPhone 5 on day one had fingerprints all over it, maybe it was intentional to make people get ready for Touch ID :winktongue
  
  
• Screen/Display
  
  The screen blends so nicely into the body that I couldn't find any better out there. Don't get me wrong, some screens are really nice on other phones, but this one (and the 1020's, etc) is just plain beautiful. The light plays nice with the reflections on it, giving the device a special feeling. (note: screen != display). For the display, I have to repeat the word 'beautiful'. I really like the fact that I cannot distinguish individual pixels, so I'm not complaining (more like not moaning?) for not having 1080p fHD here. You get a pretty high resolution and detail with 720p + AMOLED, and that ClearBlack feature turns out to be stunning. The black background and the bezels are almost exactly the same colour, so where does the screen/display start and where does it end? While obvious, it's still a good mind-trick. Colour reproduction is vivid, bright and sunlight legibility is really good (for the standards). Didn't try the gloves feature yet, but hey, I trust what Nokia's saying there.
  
  
• Software/Features
  
  This is the first time I use Windows Phone. I'll say it proudly: this is, by far, the best mobile Operating System I've used, and WP8 is now my mainly driver.
  Coming from an Android-filled world, I was getting tired of the annoyances: lag, lag, lag. Oh and stop right there if you say that I "used a Galaxy Ace hence the lag". Stop it. I used main flagship phones, with the latest Android versions (no nexus there, sorry) and it still lagged. Probably due to the horrible forks some OEMs do to the OS, but quad-cores and octa-cores should not give you lag or random force closes. Also, updates. Do you know how frustrating it is not to get even a minor update, then your OEM/whatever releases another flagship a few months after yours was launched, updates it, and you are left behind? Then: you have to dive and swim infinitely on xda forums to root, unbrick, install custom roms, change apps, etc. It's probably one of the most time consuming and warranty-hating things in this planet.
  What I mean to say is that with Windows Phone 8 (rocking Amber + GDR2 here) I cannot feel any lag. No lag at all. Animations are fluid: check. Everything scrolls smoothly: check. Quality apps: check.
  Seriously, even the fact that goodies (i.e. Bing Vision) and Facebook are integrated into the OS makes me love it more. Personalisation is good and the Modern UI is something I loved since the early days of "Metro". As for the apps: I have all the quality apps. GPS with *proper* offline support. Greatly designed apps/games. Xbox. Office. Skydrive. Office. Outlook. Did I say Office? :wink: (I use it that much).
  Ok, I admit! I still miss some games that I had on Android, but that is it. There's only one complain here: not having a close button or a nice method for closing running apps. The back button thing gets tiring after some time.
  [edit] 16gb memory is not an issue for me, so not commenting on that. It's up to how you fill it up.
  
  
• Camera and conclusion
  
  I'm sorry folks, but I haven't tested the camera as much as I wanted to, due to being working almost all day. I took some pictures and low-light is indeed incredible. Check the 'pictures taken with your Lumia 925' thread to see some samples (mine as well).
  Sorry for the long and somehow out of topic review, but I got the opportunity here to do it. I think it's also relevant, in general, if you want to know about the 925 and are an absolute beginner with the Windows Phone world or if you are 'afraid' of switching.
  

Resuming (and for the tl;dr bastardites) - this is a great phone, it feels premium, it feels flagship, it feels solid and it looks futuristic. So, if you're like me and want the best all-rounder Windows Phone device* in a slim body with a premium look/feel, go for it.

*until now. October might break this, a bit.

 

[thundr51]

I have to piggyback on this thread as I was seriously considering picking up a 925 but after reading aobut the bad reception, I decided to wait. I barely get good reception now with my 8x when I'm at work or in any building so I'd be interested in hearing about your reception as well.

 

[Blacklac]

Why not just get a 1020? More RAM and better camera.