Nokia Lumia 930: User Reviews

[nishant786]

Has anyone here moved to a 930 from a 1020? I had a few questions if anyone would be so kind as to help me out.

1. How big, if any, of a downgrade do you fin the camera to be? I absolutely worship the camera on the 1020 and this is my biggest worry.
2. How about the size. I find the size of the 1020 to be very good to hold and carry unlike the 920 I owned before that.
3. Lastly, the screen of the 1020 goes almost entirely as black as the bezel. I use the black theme so this makes the whole thing look polished. Again the 920 had greyish blacks. How about the 930?

Thanks I really want the 930 after reading most of the reviews here. Just wondering if its worth the hassle of an import.

 

[Pete The Penguin]

How's life without Glance?

Haven't missed Glance, don't believe I will.

 

[Coreldan]

Got mine yesterday, none of the "usual defects", no purple hue, no rattly buttons, no unusual levels of heating, no battery drain. It's physically just simply amazing design and I got nothing bad to say about it...except for the OS. I consider 8.1 a pretty big step backwards compared to the previous OS. That's largely why I was wondering if I should give Android a go for the first time. If it wasnt for Nokia and this phone looking and feeling amazing, I would probably go ahead and do just that. But oh well, I guess I can hope for the OS to get back to the level of awesomeness it was before 8.1, since financially I'm "stuck" with this phone anyways now. I'm not saying that Android would be some miracle solution by any means, I realize that for everything I would gain by switching, I'd trade it away elsewhere. But seeing that 8.1 removed most of the reasons I used WP, it was actually a realistic choice.Sorry for the bitter blabber, in short: barring any hardware flaws and you know you want to use WP (and arnt in the market for phablet), this phone is simply the best out there!

 

[KPAkiller]

Looks like the latest display update has fixed that display issue. What's happened to the creative studio app last updates changed it a fair bit?

 

[hasasimo]

Got mine yesterday, none of the "usual defects", no purple hue, no rattly buttons, no unusual levels of heating, no battery drain. It's physically just simply amazing design and I got nothing bad to say about it...except for the OS. I consider 8.1 a pretty big step backwards compared to the previous OS. That's largely why I was wondering if I should give Android a go for the first time. If it wasnt for Nokia and this phone looking and feeling amazing, I would probably go ahead and do just that. But oh well, I guess I can hope for the OS to get back to the level of awesomeness it was before 8.1, since financially I'm "stuck" with this phone anyways now. I'm not saying that Android would be some miracle solution by any means, I realize that for everything I would gain by switching, I'd trade it away elsewhere. But seeing that 8.1 removed most of the reasons I used WP, it was actually a realistic choice.Sorry for the bitter blabber, in short: barring any hardware flaws and you know you want to use WP (and arnt in the market for phablet), this phone is simply the best out there!

Congrats, what color?

 

[RusB]

Coming from an iPhone 5, 920, 925 to the 930, this device kicks ***. Simple. The weight & size is perfect and I just can't fault the thing in anyway. Phone perfection? Right now, I'd go as far as saying it is.

 

[flattie]

Been using this in black for the last two days. It feels a lot lighter than I was expecting; all the reviews singled it as being a chunky little brute, but I actually find it to feel only marginally more hefty than the Nexus 5. Build quality is exceptional. Doesn't have the spongy feeling that some 925s suffered with on the rear panel; feels rock solid.

The screen is excellent. Best WP one I've used (haven't seen the 1520). Pin sharp and wonderful colours. It's maybe not quite as good as the Nexus 5 screen though.

The OS feels about as responsive as it did on the 920, 925 and 1020. Apps seem to be a little snappier, but not massively so. Nokia Camera still takes too long to start up, IMO.

Not sure I like the inability to go back to larger tiles. I'm struggling to find a layout that works for me practically and aesthetically.

The phone gets very hot when charging, but no hotter than other high end Lumias in normal use.

At this stage, I'm seriously considering ditching the Nexus 5 (my stand out phone for the last 8 months) and sticking with this. It feels like a great device, I like it.

 

[KPAkiller]

What do you mean about going back to larger tiles? Don't you just long press and adjust the size with the arrow?

 

[flattie]

What do you mean about going back to larger tiles? Don't you just long press and adjust the size with the arrow?

As in only being able to fit two columns of medium size tiles on the screen. The option to toggle between two or three columns doesn't exist on the 930. That's a shame for me as I had a system I liked with the two column layout; not a deal breaker, but a minor annoyance.

 

[Coreldan]

Congrats, what color?

Green

 

[KPAkiller]

As in only being able to fit two columns of medium size tiles on the screen. The option to toggle between two or three columns doesn't exist on the 930. That's a shame for me as I had a system I liked with the two column layout; not a deal breaker, but a minor annoyance.

I thought with 1080p displays the extra column was enabled by default.

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=8964...v=3&ithint=photo,png&authkey=!AOPI5JvaFoEa0X4

 

[KPAkiller]

Also noticed with the latest display update the 3 brightness toggle levels are accurate now low/med/high. Also in the colour profile everything can be set to neutral now as the need to move the tint to green is no longer required.

 

[DJRedLine]

The sound volume when using my beats headphones is a lot lower than my HTC 8x. This is probably because the 8x had beats built-in so amplified the sound even further.

 

[KPAkiller]

You can get portable headphone amps though right.

 

[flattie]

I thought with 1080p displays the extra column was enabled by default.

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=8964...v=3&ithint=photo,png&authkey=!AOPI5JvaFoEa0X4

They are (I could have written that last post a little better). That's my problem. I prefer the two column layout, but that isn't an option on the 930.

The 1080p style makes it all look a little too busy for my liking. Again, it's only a minor thing - nothing to get excited about.

 

[mits]

Hi everyone,

Finally threw in the 5S and got my Black Lumia 930 delivered by Amazon.
First impressions are thats its pretty slick. I love the build quality of the phone. Its understated but very solid. I always felt id lost my iPhone
most of the time. Happy to know that i'll now definitely know whether the phone is in my pocket now onwards.

I'm thankful to say that i haven't had the purple issue and the battery issue. The phone does however heat up especially when put under fairly heavy use. I must admit i have abused it a fair amount since i received it though. So hopefully once i use it as i do normally it shouldn't heat up.
I have my gmail contacts, calender and email synced and outlook for email. Working well so far. Just have to see if my added contacts sync properly (fingers crossed).

I love the screen and have found all the apps with the exception of one (come on american express!!) Setting up was pretty painless.

The camera has actually been pretty good. I took some tips from the forum and purchased a third party one which i use for general point and shoot as it provides sharper shots. However i have found the nokia camera to be much better in lower light once i've made adjustments. Sadly it means im not always quicker of the mark but the shots i get are pretty good and better than my friends iphone and galaxy s5.

Call quality has been clear on both ends and the wifi has been pretty strong compared to my iphone. The 4g also has been pretty fast.
Music playback is nice and loud and the windowsphone app has made it pretty simple in terms of transferring my music across.

Overall i'm really happy with this phone and cant wait for the next flagship to come out. I cant really compare windowsphone to ios as they both feel very very different. Both work and both are smooth. Both on par with each other when you factor out the one variable - apps which isnt really a big deal anymore.

​One happy user!!

 

[Willyman]

Alright, time for a user review.

First of all...
I'm on my 3rd L930 due to the well documented screen uniformity issue. Essentially, on the first two samples I had, there was noticeable uniformity issues in the lower right corner of the screen. It looked like there was light bleeding through around the corners, which is odd given that it is an OLED screen. It was most notable on dark (black or grey) UI screens, of which there are plenty in WP. Some have had luck by resetting the phone and not updating the display app, but at least on the second sample I had, this did not help. The issue was already visible on the first installation pages. Unfortunately, it is not something which is always apparent. In well light rooms, it is much less visible than in a dark room.

Anyway, on the third one, I reset everything, left the display app without update and everything is fine now.

The real review
My previous Lumia was the 1020. A great phone. The camera was quite simply epic, as everyone knows. The camera on the L930 is not comparable in my opinion. It is definitely possible to make good shots, but especially in low light conditions, I get a lot more noise introduced (for reasons much better explained by other members of this forum). Of course I did not expect to have the same picture quality as the 1020, but still ... it leaves me a little disappointed.

For the rest the phone is great. The screen is very sharp and colors POP! On uniform colored screens, I feel there are still some uniformity issues. I can't describe it better than making an analogy with painting walls. A professional painter will be able to have a perfectly uniform color. An amateur painted wall will show some areas which are every so slightly darker or lighter. It's a very subtle effect, but noticeable when you pay close enough attention. I've seen other people on this forum say it is simply due to the level of quality of the screen used.

The phone is very responsive and flies through the OS. I haven't done a 1-to-1 comparison with my 1020, but I'm confident that apps open quicker and in general moving through the OS feels more responsive.

Call quality is second to none. I don't think I've ever had a phone which such clear sounding voice quality. Very enjoyable.

Build quality is excellent. I have non creaking issues of the back plate, all edges are perfectly aligned and the phone feels great in the hand.

The heat... Covered by many people on here. Yes, it gets hot. Not uncomfortable to hold hot, but hot nonetheless. Even when performing relatively light tasks, the bottom right corner will get noticeably hotter than the rest of the phone. I've had other phones in the past which had the same issue, so I don't care too much about it. Still, it would be great if a software update could improve the situation.

In short: It's a great phone, but not a brilliant phone. A few too many little issues with it. The L1020 I had prior to this had that little something extra special which I'm missing in the L930.

 

[DennisvdG]

Am I the only one who finds the gaming performance to be disappointing on games like gta and mc5? I don't actually have the device untill Tuesday but when I watch comparisons on youtube it becomes obvious that this newly released lumia already has worse performance than the "old" 5s and some other "older" androids... I dunno it just bothers me that I'm getting a new phone but it has an old processor... And of course it doesn't help that developers don't optimize the best they can for wp... Seriously the s800 has more power than the iphones processor but devs spend months locked up in ther office to optimize for iphone and they give wp one afternoon to optimize...

 

[mrdoubleb]

Am I the only one who finds the gaming performance to be disappointing on games like gta and mc5? I don't actually have the device untill Tuesday but when I watch comparisons on youtube it becomes obvious that this newly released lumia already has worse performance than the "old" 5s and some other "older" androids... I dunno it just bothers me that I'm getting a new phone but it has an old processor... And of course it doesn't help that developers don't optimize the best they can for wp... Seriously the s800 has more power than the iphones processor but devs spend months locked up in ther office to optimize for iphone and they give wp one afternoon to optimize...

Yes, you are probably the only one finding game performance slow without actually owning/using the phone.

 

[Squachy]

Am I the only one who finds the gaming performance to be disappointing on games like gta and mc5? I don't actually have the device untill Tuesday but when I watch comparisons on youtube it becomes obvious that this newly released lumia already has worse performance than the "old" 5s and some other "older" androids... I dunno it just bothers me that I'm getting a new phone but it has an old processor... And of course it doesn't help that developers don't optimize the best they can for wp... Seriously the s800 has more power than the iphones processor but devs spend months locked up in ther office to optimize for iphone and they give wp one afternoon to optimize...

I don't think the smoothness is any indication of it being 'not up to snuff'. I believe its an optimization issue that the devs don't bother with...or at least Gameloft. The Snapdragon 800 chipset is a powerful little beast. Sure it's not the "new" snapdragon 801. But that doesn't mean it can't do anything the 801 can. It can do everything the 801 can because its they're the same chip.But Gameloft seems to be just rushing ports out and it shows. I have dungeon gems and that game crashes 90% of the time getting stuck on the 'gameloft' splash screen. The other 10% I get lucky and it actually runs.....I do want a nice 'show off' 3d graphics title though, I want to see what the SD800 is truly capable of.