Need 928 owner advice Please.

[PAC757]

Hello all, I need some sound advice from 928 owners, I own a 925 on AT&T, but I need to replace my company phone which is on Verizon, at my own expense, I've been leaning towards the 928, the ICON is a little to pricey right now. A few questions please, am I going to be able to update the 928 to 8.1 developer platform or will being on Verizon block that, is the battery life as bad as some people say, and in general, is it going to be comparable to my 925? Thanks for any input you can provide.

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[maevinj]

I can't speak in comparison to your 925, but you can update the 928 to 8.1 developer.

 

[jleebiker]

-Update to 8.1DP? Yes. I have it on Vzw.

-Battery life is all relative. I don't have a problem with it as I can get about 12-14hrs easy.

-Don't have a 925 to compare against. Sorry.

 

[PAC757]

Thanks, spec wise, they seem to be the same, I guess I'll try it, worst comes to worst, I'll sell it on eBay.

 

[stephen_az]

I have found the 928 to be a good all around phone - no hesitations in recommending it. The performance is very good and the battery life has been above average (before and after installing the DP). I do have one word of caution though on GDR1 through the DP. It made a mess of the hands free Bluetooth setup between the phone and my 2014 Toyota Corolla. These are just the highlights but integration with steering wheel buttons was semi-functional; voice activation was mostly non-functional; voce recognition that was previously good, suddenly and randomly sucked (as in ask the phone to find something and have it then call someone whose name isn't even similar to what I asked to find); voice synchronization took 10+ minutes every time I started the car, display of music titles and artists randomly stopped displaying in the dash console; music selections would not always advance; music elections would randomly jump several titles forward when trying to skip a tile; and both music and phone calls would have occasional silent pauses. I had the time to restore back to 8.0 and reinstall the DP twice and both times everything worked fine until GDR1 was installed and then almost every hands free Bluetooth function was impaired or simply broken. None were a problem before GDR1 (8.1 fixed most quirks) and as long as GRD1 is not installed there is not even a hint of any issues. It may be unique to the phone and Toyota Entune system (only car I drive) but was definitely something I could replicate in my car. The solution, of course, was simple. Use the DP to get to 8.1 and then turn it off so GDR1 is not installed.

 

[carneopevani]

I have Lumia 928 for six months now, and from day one it was nothing but trouble. It is a good phone, do not get me wrong, but the build quality is terrible. After a month of normal use, dust started gathering under the main camera protective glass. Aslo there is a well known issue with the speaker, where you need to press the back of the phone to make it work properly. So my advice is to stay away if you can.

 

[jwpear]

How long do you plan on keeping the 928? That might factor into your decision. This phone has been on the market for about 14-16 months? Will it get firmware updates in another year or so? Maybe, but I doubt it.

While performance has been good, I've noticed mine has dropped slightly with 8.1. Screen animations are jerky and apps start more slowly and sometimes feel a little sluggish. For example, the start screen tile animations are noticeably jerky it times. It was really bad with initial 8.1 release, but got considerably better with the updates Microsoft released. I don't yet have Cyan firmware, so I'm hoping that brings it back to the pre-8.1 performance. I can live with it at this point, but I think Microsoft Mobile should be working to get it back to the pre-8.1 level since most phones have at least a two year life.

It is a very good phone. Battery life is excellent--was before 8.1 and then after 8.1 once we got those updates. It sucked on the original 8.1 release. I easily get 12-14 hours on heavy use days and better than a day with light use. Phone call quality is great. Camera is awesome. Screen is beautiful and is very legible in daylight. I love the Clear Black display. Took me a while to appreciate it coming from the HTC 8X because text seemed a little blurry during scroll on the 928 compared to my 8X.

I really like getting the Nokia apps. Those really make Windows Phone shine and I hope they'll come to all handsets in the near future. You probably are already familiar with those since you have the 925, but just wanted to give you the perspective of someone who moved from a non-Nokia WP to the 928.

My screen does occasionally--maybe once every 2-3 months--stop responding to touch. I just restart the phone and it's all good. The screen also occasionally paints weird when I tap the power button to wake--like it's in 256 or 16 color mode. A quick off and on tap of the power button resolves that.

If I understand correctly, the 925 is lighter and thinner than the 925. Have you checked that in a store to see if the heft and girth of the 928 suits you? It is big, especially compared to the iPhone 5S my wife and daughter have. My wife makes that comment every time she picks up my phone. It isn't a huge deal for me, but I do sort of wish Microsoft Mobile would work to give us something a little thinner and lighter while retaining the great build and features we're getting from them. Might be mutually exclusive and I'll take the build and features over thin and light, but I suspect the heft hurts them a little with female buyers.

I've had my 928 a little more than a year now. Got it on contract since I was up for a new phone and this was before VZW offered the Edge plan. So still have a year to go on the contract. I've typically just purchased a new phone (all Windows phones) off contract halfway through my two year contract, but I've been pretty happy with my 928 and haven't had a huge itch to make the jump. I've been eyeing the ICON. It is nice. Would love the 1080p screen and 20MP camera. With kids, that higher res camera would come in handy for sports shots from the sidelines. Would also love a 1520 like phablet, so sort of been waiting to see if something like that materializes on VZW.

 

[PAC757]

Thanks everyone for the input, I'm starting to notice ICON prices are dropping a little, I might just hold out and check that out, the company I work for only uses Verizon so it's one of these 2 phones.

 

[Mustang6511]

Battery life is pretty decent, Verizon has few dropped calls if any. 8.1 will arrive! Don't worry!

 

[Isaac Abraham1]

Honestly I picked up mine from Craigslist for about $70. Just for experimenting purposes. Read former android flashaholic.
The 928 has been an eye opener for me. From the solid feel of durability, to ease of use of office applications to the beautiful camera and full day battery life. I owned the phone for several months which is an abnormal long time for me. I have not experienced any stated or allegedly 'well known' issues. If you were forced to get a WP on vzw. Then you might as well be thrifty and pick up a used handset to lessen the blow and also to prepare for any future advancements. Without the 8.1DP, I would have ditched the phone honestly. However with said combination of hardware meeting software. Its a no brainer. The experience was so overwhelming. I picked up a Nokia 2520 vzw tablet which I also feel has been a godsend for business and entertainment.

Sent from an Apple/Google household.

 

[Jason Drum]

Yes to DP, and with the latest update to 8.1 (14157 I think it was), the battery life for me is much improved.

 

[PAC757]

OK so I found a almost new 928 cheap enough, I have been running 8.1 DP on my At&t 925 for a while and now it has official Cyan on it, I forgotten how much better it is than 8.0, I can not use the 928 like this, got to spoiled using the 925. Have to remember how to put 8.1 DP on this thing. It's a shame Verizon is so slow with updates, if all that was Available was 8.0 I'd be putting this thing on ebay.

 

[psiu_glen]

Should be comparable, integrated Qi charging, probably better loudspeaker, otherwise it is more or less the same phone -- 925 has an additional lens element in the camera, 928 has xenon flash, I don't think either will make much difference day to day.

Should have no problems getting the DP on it, though as some have indicated above, might always be wise to trail a little bit and wait to see what new bugs MS is rolling out.

Keeping my trio of Lumia's on WP8, ha.

 

[PAC757]

Should be comparable, integrated Qi charging, probably better loudspeaker, otherwise it is more or less the same phone -- 925 has an additional lens element in the camera, 928 has xenon flash, I don't think either will make much difference day to day.

Should have no problems getting the DP on it, though as some have indicated above, might always be wise to trail a little bit and wait to see what new bugs MS is rolling out.

Keeping my trio of Lumia's on WP8, ha.

Yes, I keep hearing that the Cyan update may only be a few weeks away on Verizon, it was a real pain and took about 4 attempts to roll back my 925 to 8.0 to get the official Cyan update on my 925. I may just leave it alone and see if Verizon actually does release the update.

 

[AV2RY]

Currently I have both but 928 is my daily phone. I've had it since July 7, 2013. As some already mentioned here it USED TO freeze alot first few months. But since the day I got it, it has been updated many times, and right now I absolutely don't have any problem with it.

Yes you can have DP on it. You read that from previous comments.

Battery life. I'm heavy WhatsApp user, so I can't really tell you how long it last. But when I'm not using it last 1 day for sure. Can't compare with 925, I have it but don't use it.

Now comparing some stuff.
925 is lighter, its beautiful phone,928 bit taller.
I think 925 has bit brighter display, but I hate reading on it.
Cameras are same (928 has xenon, 925 has extra lens).
928 has Qi charging
925 has wifi calling (dont know its usefulness)