Sidegraded from 920 to 830 - My thoughts

[slyronit]

Anyone else upgraded from the 920 to the 830? My thoughts are

Pros
1. Much lighter, sleeker, easier to hold. The 920 was a brick. The cold touch of the aluminium on the 830 feels nice.
2. The newer quad core processor feels snappier, almost all apps start up faster, web pages load faster
3. Has Miracast
4. Much better battery life - Definitely the best part
5. Slightly better camera
6. Louder headset and loudspeaker
7. Due to the 16:9 (opposed to the 16:10) aspect ratio, more stuff fits on the screen vertically, less scrolling required.

Cons

1. Display was better on the 920. With similar brightness levels, on the 830, the black areas appear more greyish. Also, bright sunlight visibility was better on the 920, on the 830, there's too much reflection. Even glance is dimmer than on the 830, but the black areas are brighter.

 

[Ejay Lozano]

2 things I miss about my 920 was the charging port down below and the 2nd LED flashlight. Other than that I love the removable battery, expandable memory and the light weight the 830 offers

 

[anon(5326758)]

We did the same "sidegrade" this weekend. The 830 has a good weight and balance, and the screen size is really nice. Performance wise they are in the same league, though the 830 feels more responsive (might just be the new toy effect, but it's definitely not slower).

Biggest issue for me are the capacitive buttons: their touch response is inconsistent (especially the search button, which misfires half the time) and also they light up less than the 920. In the store I found all the demo units were the same, so not sure if it's just me or a design flaw.

 

[slyronit]

We did the same "sidegrade" this weekend. The 830 has a good weight and balance, and the screen size is really nice. Performance wise they are in the same league, though the 830 feels more responsive (might just be the new toy effect, but it's definitely not slower).

Biggest issue for me are the capacitive buttons: their touch response is inconsistent (especially the search button, which misfires half the time) and also they light up less than the 920. In the store I found all the demo units were the same, so not sure if it's just me or a design flaw.

The key brightness is indeed less than the 920. One big complaint with the 920 was that the key brightness was fixed and the keys won't turn off even in pitch black darkness, which was irritating to the eyes.

 

[Keith Wallace]

If this wasn't priced so highly, I'd be interested. I think that the feeling of improved app launching times is partially because it's a fresh device. If you do a clean install of Windows on a PC, it'll similarly feel (and be) faster, because there's less bogging down access times on the storage device (particularly with slow HDDs). Thing is, I couldn't bring myself to spend money to go to an inferior Snapdragon 400 SoC (which lags behind the 920's GPU really badly). I wouldn't mind playing with one, but actually paying $20/month or whatever with Next to get locked in for a year? I just can't. I'm sadly stuck with my 920 until Microsoft finally releases a flagship-level device, which they seem to hate the concept of, considering they canceled McLaren and released a mid-range device (830) and a bunch of budget stuff (530/535/635/730/735).

 

[Kram Sacul]

No amoled screen, no bottom firing speakers, blocky design, and a limited amount of colors to choose from. I'll wait.

 

[jehugo]

My post on setting up the screen colors etc to be more 920-like:
http://forums.windowscentral.com/nokia-lumia-830/322390-things-i-did-make-my-830-better.html

 

[Desynthesis]

I may be going 925 to 830 (not willingly--the 8.1 update broke my internet sharing and degraded music playback, and I doubt Microsoft will ever fix either issue). Performance wise, I think this might be a slight downgrade, but that doesn't really bother me so much as the fact that, optimistically, it's going to cost me $200 (depending on how much I get for my 925).

That, or I'll just go Android. Kind of tired of dealing with this sort of thing, after four months, anyone would be.

 

[Noahma]

Anyone else upgraded from the 920 to the 830? My thoughts are

Pros
1. Much lighter, sleeker, easier to hold. The 920 was a brick. The cold touch of the aluminium on the 830 feels nice.
2. The newer quad core processor feels snappier, almost all apps start up faster, web pages load faster
3. Has Miracast
4. Much better battery life - Definitely the best part
5. Slightly better camera
6. Louder headset and loudspeaker
7. Due to the 16:9 (opposed to the 16:10) aspect ratio, more stuff fits on the screen vertically, less scrolling required.

Cons

1. Display was better on the 920. With similar brightness levels, on the 830, the black areas appear more greyish. Also, bright sunlight visibility was better on the 920, on the 830, there's too much reflection. Even glance is dimmer than on the 830, but the black areas are brighter.

could not have said it better myself. This review is something that could have been written by me lol.

 

[Serpent1189]

What tends to be the off-contract discount pattern with these? My 920 is only the 2nd WP phone I have owned. I would consider 920 -> 830 for $300 plus I'd craigslist my 920, but not more. I want to save my upgrade for the flagship, but the battery life is getting bad on my 920. I'd honestly keep it if I could replace the battery since the firmware updates have been so substantial.

 

[jonahtrav]

I've gone to the Nokia store here in Laos twice now looking at the 830 and I would say it's a nice phone ,but to spend $450 on a new phone that I would have almost the same user experience as my two year 920... can't do it . Like many 920 owners I think I'll just wait till 2015 and see whats coming. The one thing that's not great on my 920 is the battery life ,which was never its strong point even when it was new... I may have to hunt down a new battery for it .

 

[Desynthesis]

I've gone to the Nokia store here in Laos twice now looking at the 830 and I would say it's a nice phone ,but to spend $450 on a new phone that I would have almost the same user experience as my two year 920... can't do it . Like many 920 owners I think I'll just wait till 2015 and see whats coming. The one thing that's not great on my 920 is the battery life ,which was never its strong point even when it was new... I may have to hunt down a new battery for it .

I completely agree with that sentiment--I would happily wait with my 925 for another year or longer if 8.1 hadn't broken two important functions with no hope of either one actually getting a fix. :unhappy: I'm on the fence as to whether to go with the 830, or go Android. What a pain.

 

[slyronit]

For all those saying the 830 is not enough of an upgrade from the 920-

1. The phone is much lighter and easier to hold
2. Battery life is much much better than the 920. I got a new battery from Nokia care 2 weeks before I sold my 920, this is loads better
3. The phone is snappier than the 920, both factory reset. Webpages, especially which took ages on the 920 ate super fast on the 830

 

[Derausgewanderte]

Both my wife and I love our Lumia 830s. And the kids love us because they now have our 920s. Not looking back a single time so far. I am very happy with the switch. In my opinion it feels more premium than the 920. Everything else has been said above.
​cheers

 

[raycpl]

Agree absolutely on the battery on the 920. I've switch to my spare 720 and the latter makes me happy for the entire day

I'm considering the 830 but is the camera really better than the 920? Not talking about mp or outdoors in good light. How does it compare especially indoors, no flash or under poor lighting conditions? Is it better?

 

[slyronit]

Agree absolutely on the battery on the 920. I've switch to my spare 720 and the latter makes me happy for the entire day

I'm considering the 830 but is the camera really better than the 920? Not talking about mp or outdoors in good light. How does it compare especially indoors, no flash or under poor lighting conditions? Is it better?

Technically, the 920 camera has better specs (better aperture, bigger sensor) but practically, I have seen the 830 is on par with 920 in image quality.

One thing the 830 can do that the 920 can't, is full resolution bursts

 

[raycpl]

Thanks. I love taking picts and sometimes I get good shots especially when conditions are poor.
The shots have been edited but it doesn't distract from ability of its sensor & OIS. A bit grainy and the high ISO was expected.
So my initial question.. is the 830 comparable or better in such situation?



1234567WP8.920

 

[Noahma]

the camera is no slouch. I had a great night in Denver taking some pictures of the night the light celebration at the state house. I came away with some pretty darn good low light photos.

http://1drv.ms/1v2PcBT

http://1drv.ms/1rFLidd

http://1drv.ms/1v2PnNB

 

[Kram Sacul]

For all those saying the 830 is not enough of an upgrade from the 920-

1. The phone is much lighter and easier to hold

Other than the 920 being heavier(35g!:shocked the 830 is blocky and digs into your hand while the 920 is curved and is more ergonomic. It's all personal preference though. I just prefer to hold a phone with a smooth curved edge as opposed to a block.

2. Battery life is much much better than the 920. I got a new battery from Nokia care 2 weeks before I sold my 920, this is loads better

I would hope so. The battery is bigger (2000mAh vs 2200mAh) so that is expected. The 920 also had battery draining issues for a long time before 8.1. It's a lot better now than it was.

3. The phone is snappier than the 920, both factory reset. Webpages, especially which took ages on the 920 ate super fast on the 830

Newer quad core vs older dual core although there are some tradeoffs with the gpu in the 830.

The thing is for a lot of people that have the 920 the 830 is just not a significant enough upgrade. I currently use a 820 and even I don't find it that appealing. The lack of an amoled screen and the overall design are the biggest drawbacks for me.

 

[slyronit]

Other than the 920 being heavier(35g!:shocked the 830 is blocky and digs into your hand while the 920 is curved and is more ergonomic. It's all personal preference though. I just prefer to hold a phone with a smooth curved edge as opposed to a block.



I would hope so. The battery is bigger (2000mAh vs 2200mAh) so that is expected. The 920 also had battery draining issues for a long time before 8.1. It's a lot better now than it was.



Newer quad core vs older dual core although there are some tradeoffs with the gpu in the 830.

The thing is for a lot of people that have the 920 the 830 is just not a significant enough upgrade. I currently use a 820 and even I don't find it that appealing. The lack of an amoled screen and the overall design are the biggest drawbacks for me.

amoled: Unfortunately, all Amoled displays from Nokia suck these days. They are pentile, as opposed to SRGB and don't have display memory (no glance).

That is the single biggest reason I couldn't buy the 930. I need Glance.