Nokia Lumia 928 : User Reviews

[dakranii]

Windows Phone 7.X did play them. It's strange that WP8 won't. I get my work voicemail in that format as well.

 

[Brad Miller2]

My verdict/review on the Nokia Lumia 928 from Verizon Wireless

First, a little history. My 1st smartphone was a Motorola Q (Motorola Q - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and I used it from 2005-2006. After that, I became a Blackberry lover and ran with the 8703e (BlackBerry Electron - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) from 07 to 09. When the HTC Droid Eris (HTC Hero - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) came out, I was on board with Android for the next 4 years and a BUNCH of Android phones (Eris,X,Bionic,ReZound,Nexus,S3). I guess the point is, I am a smartphone JUNKIE. I bought the Samsung Galaxy S3 last July and I can honestly say it was the best smartphone I ever owned, and I've owned a lot of them!

I just assumed that on the day the S4 launched, I'd be there before the Verizon store opened to get mine. When my son Josh Miller (he manages an AT&T store) showed me his S4 and let me spend some time playing around with it, I was blown away by how awesome it was (and is).

And then they had to go and make that damn Lumia commercial (Funny Commercial - Switch to the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone 2013 - YouTube). Now, a commercial wasnt enough to get me to bail on the S4, but it did at least plant the idea in my head to see where the Windows phone OS has gone since 2006 and the Q, so I went down to the local store on Thursday and bought a Nokia Lumia 928.

With Verizon, you have 14 days after purchase in which you can return the phone, no harm, no foul (there is a $35 restocking fee).

I have literally beaten this poor Lumia to death these last few days and surprisingly enough, my verdict is IN well before the 14 day window closes.

Let me save the suspense for all my friends running their office pool of "Will Brad return the Lumia for the S4 in LESS than 7 days or MORE than 7 days" - I am KEEPING the Lumia 928. Now let me tell you why:

The screen is AMAZING, and I don't use that word lightly. It's a higher resolution than the IPhone 5, lower than the S4, but most importantly, it has the blackest of blacks I have ever seen on ANY phone. You can put this thing under direct bright sunlight and the screen comes through clear as a bell! The screen is also hi-sensitive, so you can operate it with gloves on as well.

The Lumia has the tightest social integration of any smartphone on the market today. I can tap one time, type an update, hit send and BOOM - I just sent a tweet AND updated my Facebook status in about 5 seconds flat.

The Live People tiles are a game-changing feature. I added a live people tile for my wife, Tracy to my home screen. I tap that tile and it launches her hub. In her hub, I am one tap away from calling the house or her cell, texting her, wall-posting her Facebook or emailing her. it also shows her latest tweets or Facebook status, and because it is a live tile, it updates in real time to show her current Facebook profile photo, right on my home screen.

You also get an excellent suite of Nokia-exclusive apps, like HERE city lens, HERE maps, Nokia DRIVE (which downloads the maps offline so your gps nav works even when you have no signal at all) and Nokia music.

And the camera. Oh me, oh my, the camera!! Industry leading Carl Zeiss F:2.0 lens with Nokia's Pureview technology, plus dual LED/Xenon flash. There is not another smartphone camera out there that can go toe-to-toe with the Lumia, PERIOD! Smart Shot, Panoramas, videos in full 1080P, this thing does it all, and does it BETTER THAN ANY OTHER SMARTPHONE CAMERA HANDS DOWN. Words cant do justice to the low light performance of this beast, so I am just going to show you a picture I took. 10PM, in my bedroom, lights out. I am talking "cant see your hand in front of your face" dark and I took this picture http://sdrv.ms/16v7i4v.

The Nokia also ships with the standard Windows Phone 8 keyboard, which is surprisingly robust and a real pleasure to use, even without a swype option.

This phone is, by today's standards, HEAVY. If you want a feather-light smartphone, the Lumia 928 is not for you. I personally have found I like the substantial feeling of the Lumia. It weighs about 2 ounces more than many of it's competitors, so it's not a brick, but you can definitely tell it's there.

There are a couple downsides I want to talk about too.

The battery is 2000 MaH and is NON_REMOVEABLE. I don't like non-removeable batteries, but I will say that thankfully the battery life on the Lumia is, in a word, OUTSTANDING.

There is no slot for an SD card, but the phone does come with 32GB of storage on board and, unlike the S4, half of that storage isnt taken up before you even turn it on.

The biggest negative for the Lumia (or any Windows Phone for that matter) is the Windows App Store. Microsoft was very late to the smartphone game, and it shows. They are still trying to catch Android and Ios and probably will be for quite some time. If you are on an Android phone, you can download the free "switch to Windows Phone" app from the Google store which will tell you how many of your Android apps have identical or similar versions for Windows Phone. (Collector is nice, but it's not Flipboard)

Does the Galaxy S4 do MORE STUFF than the Lumia 928? It sure does. Does it have a lot more apps and games in it's market? You betcha. But what the Lumia does do, it does way, way better than any other phone out there and the things *I* need on a day-to-day basis from MY smartphone are all right there in the Nokia Lumia 928 with Windows Phone 8.

So in closing, if the top 3 things you do with your smartphone include Facebook, Twitter, texting, email, taking pictures and video then the Nokia Lumia 928 just might be YOUR next smartphone too! You never know until you try, so get to the store, get your hands on one, and decide for yourself.

Thanks for reading.

 

[devspeed]

To everyone concerned about the play back of WAV files. WP8 Will play WAV files. It is only some of the older compression codec's aren't supported. Have your voicemail provider change the codec. There is a long discussion on Microsoft about this. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...wav-file/603a0d71-01c0-432b-815b-1f1737ad2ff6

 

[moh maya]

ok; I got my phone yesterday, and I am glad I pulled the trigger on ordering it as soon as it was released. It is remarkable phone - the hardware has heft; it feels substantial and solid - something that I really like. The Windows phone design language and interface appeals to me in a way the iphone and Android do not (My previous phone was a rooted Samsung droid charge, and I have/had an iPAD and ipod touch).

The screen is simply stunning; and with the WP interface and its high contrast and tiles, it is just a treat to look at. I've never found much use for most apps - so the windows app store is more than sufficient for my needs. I am glad I made the switch, since for the things that I need to do on a regular basis with the phone, the phone is not getting in the way. I don't miss moving from Android, and I am glad I made that switch. With the droid charge, using the phone was a mechanical experience; with the lumia+WP, it is a visual, aesthetic treat.

 

[zinj]

Can anyone tell me if the 928 has the always-on clock option for the sleep mode?

 

[antsin3d]

Not yet, supposed to come with Nokia's "Amber" update in June or July, along with MS's WP update. Should be a nice couple months!

 

[gibbyhome]

I don't know why people use screen protectors, I have not used one since gorilla Glass and It does not scratch. in fact the protector looks so bad on such a beautiful phone.
I was in line at the store the other day and a guy in front of me was looking at his phone and he kept pealing back the screen protector to look at his phone. I told the dude don't you have gorilla glass on that smart phone, he said yea. I told him you DON"T NEED A SCREEN PROTECTOR Than.. He ripped it off and threw it away..

 

[Residing]

I admonish all Lumia 928 owners to post their review on the Verizon website - be it favorable, non favorable, or indifferent. I only see 10 reviews thus far on their site. While the reviews are 'favorable', no one has yet to highlight what I consider 'unique' about the device - i.e. Xenon, screen sensitivity, sound quality (voice or recording), OIS, etc; if I didn't already know about Lumia's and WP, those are just some of the descriptions/features that would pique my interest.

 

[Blkacesvf41]

I don't know why people use screen protectors, I have not used one since gorilla Glass and It does not scratch. in fact the protector looks so bad on such a beautiful phone.
I was in line at the store the other day and a guy in front of me was looking at his phone and he kept pealing back the screen protector to look at his phone. I told the dude don't you have gorilla glass on that smart phone, he said yea. I told him you DON"T NEED A SCREEN PROTECTOR Than.. He ripped it off and threw it away..

I agree with you. I bought a protector for my 822 and I never put it on. I thought what am I doing? This is gorilla glass!

 

[dksf42]

I don't know why people use screen protectors, I have not used one since gorilla Glass and It does not scratch. in fact the protector looks so bad on such a beautiful phone.
I was in line at the store the other day and a guy in front of me was looking at his phone and he kept pealing back the screen protector to look at his phone. I told the dude don't you have gorilla glass on that smart phone, he said yea. I told him you DON"T NEED A SCREEN PROTECTOR Than.. He ripped it off and threw it away..

Look no farther than Daniel's AMAZING torture test ... this was a Lumia 920 and the 928 "should be the same" ... WHY mess up the gorgeous scree with some protector after seeing this???

Nokia Lumia 920 Torture Test II - Keys, knife and a mallet | Windows Phone Central

 

[Residing]

I don't know why people use screen protectors, I have not used one since gorilla Glass and It does not scratch. in fact the protector looks so bad on such a beautiful phone.
I was in line at the store the other day and a guy in front of me was looking at his phone and he kept pealing back the screen protector to look at his phone. I told the dude don't you have gorilla glass on that smart phone, he said yea. I told him you DON"T NEED A SCREEN PROTECTOR Than.. He ripped it off and threw it away..

Lol! I use a screen protector on my Lumia 900 because I am under the impression that if I should drop it, and it 'falls' a certain way, that the screen protector can help in keeping the screen 'in tact'. Screen still looks good with the protector on

 

[deadwrong03]

how is the front camera on the 928? I read the 920's camera isn't the best but I saw in the specifications the 928 has a "improved" front camera with a wider lens is it better than the 920s ffc?

 

[MikeLip]

My new favorite phone!

I have been through them all. iPhone4. Droid DNA. Note 2. S3. 8X. I have a very strong liking for Android on the DNA. Not quite so much on the Note 2, although I love the screen. iOS is just boring. The 8X was close, but who was the ***** who put a green searchlight on the thing for a charged light? It makes it useless as a bedside clock. Now, I know that Microsoft keeps nearly as tight a grip on their environment as Apple does, and you won't see huge performance differences between Windows8 phones. But the 928 has the 8X beat. The screen is hugely better, the camera is better, it feels better in the hand, the buttons are better, everything is just better. I do wish there were notification lights and a rotation lock - then it would be nearly perfect. I like Live Tiles - the Blackberry Z10 sort of does this but not as well. Win8 has a beautifully coherent look to it, unlike Android, although Android is more customizable. The phone is very fast, very smooth, and the OS shows a lot of, well, craftsmanship. Transitions are classy and smooth. Someone sat down and said, THIS is how things are going to work, and they are going to look GOOD. And they do. In terms of looks and symmetric operation, W8 is head of the pack. The Lumia 928 isn't on fire as a super high performance phone, but it never, ever lags, stutters or screws up. Interestingly the battery seems to last forever. I had some worries when I saw it's relatively low capacity, but W8 is very good on power.

The keyboard is awesome. This is the first stock keyboard I've ever liked, and I like it a LOT. I don't need Swype or Swiftkey. Sound is amazing. This is the best sounding phone on the market, and you are talking to the is coming from Blackberry. BB is known for superb sound. The 928 beats it, and not by a little.

If you are getting this phone, get the wireless charging pad. Better yet,get two. It seems like a small thing. How hard can it be to plugin a USB cable? But once you use inductve chargiing, you won't go back/

I got mine from Verizon using my early upgrade. I paid $300, and got the phone, a Motorola external battery, a case, screen protectors, and the inductive charger. It was a great deal and a great phone. It's white but that's OK - the skin case they gave me is black. Problem solved. I think the phone is really good looking, and yeah it's kind of big and heavy. But hey, it's a top end phone and it fees like one.

If you are thinking a Windows phone is what you want, you want this one. W8 is not as messy as Android,but it's more sophisticated and modern looking. It's not as stultified as iOS. he hardware is rock solid and performs amazingly well. Just do yourself a favor and get it.

 

[pjannon]

So I can remove the screen protector?

 

[berty6294]

Yeh I'll keep using my screen protectors. I like when I sell my phone and can say "screen is in flawless condition" I guess that means something to people.

 

[hulkkii]

Can someone test how fast the camera software is compared to Lumia 920? (With app named CamSpeed)
I get scores around ~300 in normal light conditions with 920.

 

[o4liberty]

I was the first one at my store to purchase the 928 and so far the device is nothing less than perfect IMO. From the size and shape to the awesome camera the 928 is a true winner that most people will enjoy. I have owned a lot of smartphones and to date the 928 is the best all around device. I came from the 822 which I thought was a great device until the 928 was in my hands.
If you don't mind a larger device and want a phone that performs than this is the device to get.

 

[jleebiker]

Coming from the Trophy and got this on the first day it was available and all I can sayis WOW! Simply WOW!!! Fom the buttery smoothness of WP8 on this device to the battery life, to the gorgeous screen, it's PERFECT. There are a couple of things I would change, but they have nothing to do with the phone itself. They are issues with Microsoft not seeing the light about certain features (indvidual ringtones). It is bigger than the Trophy, but I find I am adjusting to it.

 

[nooaah]

I'll be honest, I'm getting discouraged by the apps and browser performance. The notifications are also not that great and I miss being able to send texts without leaving whatever app I was using on my iPhone (jailbreak, BiteSMS).

 

[matfantastic]

I got my 928 in white yesterday and so far I like it. I had the 8X before this and although i much prefer its design to that of the 928, the 928 seems to be a great phone so far. Battery life is better than my 8X was and I'm enjoying the 32gb of storage, even though my "other" folder is already at 2 gigs after one day of use...