Unintended consequences...

[Paul1266]

So, last weekend I bought myself an 830 purely to try W10. I run a L930 and also a L735 so the technical preview was tantalisingly out of reach. My shiny pre-owned 830 arrived yesterday (complete with all 4 battery covers - very nice). I duly installed windows 10 and as expected, twas buggy as hell but I did like the new home screen layout etc. Anyway, I flipped the 830 back to 8.1 earlier today and have fallen in love with it. My L930 is now heading for ebay. Great phone but relatively weak battery life and mildly better performance in operation (I'm not a gamer or pro photographer) mean there is no point in me keeping it anymore. The 830 is lighter, thinner, has a much better battery life, expandable storage and swappable backs. It feels great in the hand, is buttery smooth and looks...well awesome. I love this phone!

 

[worldspy99]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[BSobotta]

So, last weekend I bought myself an 830 purely to try W10. I run a L930 and also a L735 so the technical preview was tantalisingly out of reach. My shiny pre-owned 830 arrived yesterday (complete with all 4 battery covers - very nice). I duly installed windows 10 and as expected, twas buggy as hell but I did like the new home screen layout etc. Anyway, I flipped the 830 back to 8.1 earlier today and have fallen in love with it. My L930 is now heading for ebay. Great phone but relatively weak battery life and mildly better performance in operation (I'm not a gamer or pro photographer) mean there is no point in me keeping it anymore. The 830 is lighter, thinner, has a much better battery life, expandable storage and swappable backs. It feels great in the hand, is buttery smooth and looks...well awesome. I love this phone!

You validate my feelings with going with an 830 over the 930. I still will probably pick up the next flag ship upon release, but I LOVE this phone. I have been having intermittent issues with the search button, but that is relatively minor.

 

[anon(123856)]

I just picked one up myself and I'm loving it. I can't wait until I can port my number over on Monday. The waiting is killing me! :grin:

 

[hasasimo]

So, last weekend I bought myself an 830 purely to try W10. I run a L930 and also a L735 so the technical preview was tantalisingly out of reach. My shiny pre-owned 830 arrived yesterday (complete with all 4 battery covers - very nice). I duly installed windows 10 and as expected, twas buggy as hell but I did like the new home screen layout etc. Anyway, I flipped the 830 back to 8.1 earlier today and have fallen in love with it. My L930 is now heading for ebay. Great phone but relatively weak battery life and mildly better performance in operation (I'm not a gamer or pro photographer) mean there is no point in me keeping it anymore. The 830 is lighter, thinner, has a much better battery life, expandable storage and swappable backs. It feels great in the hand, is buttery smooth and looks...well awesome. I love this phone!

And now you get Glance screen too! Welcome aboard

 

[qbrick]

I use the 830 since day one in Germany and I find nothing to share with this forum except of praise for this device.

 

[a5cent]

My L930 is now heading for ebay. Great phone but relatively weak battery life and mildly better performance in operation (I'm not a gamer or pro photographer) mean there is no point in me keeping it anymore. The 830 is lighter, thinner, has a much better battery life, expandable storage and swappable backs. It feels great in the hand, is buttery smooth and looks...well awesome. I love this phone!

I think what you've described is very common. Purchasing what is advertised as best isn't always actually best. I completely agree that for those who don't play twitch-games and don't want a phablet, the 830 is currently the best WP device available. With the latest Denim update I think the camera is also pretty much on par with the 930. It has a lower megapixel count, but when viewed on a PC monitor there is no discernable difference in sharpness. There are very few practical scenarios where the higher MP count matters.

Similar to an iPhone, the 830 is a balanced device, which aims to find the sweet spot between size, battery life and performance. It doesn't sacrifice everything in a one-sided drive towards largest possible CPU, RAM and display resolution specs. Like you said, outside of games, the difference those specs make is surprisingly small.

The spec-focused approach only works well in combination with larger devices that can compensate with much larger batteries, hence the popularity of the 1530 over the 930.

 

[AndyCalling]

If you like the 830, you would have absolutely loved the 820. It is faster AND has lovely amoled.

 

[Paul1266]

I think what you've described is very common. Purchasing what is advertised as best isn't always actually best. I completely agree that for those who don't play twitch-games and don't want a phablet, the 830 is currently the best WP device available. With the latest Denim update I think the camera is also pretty much on par with the 930. It has a lower megapixel count, but when viewed on a PC monitor there is no discernable difference in sharpness. There are very few practical scenarios where the higher MP count matters.

Similar to an iPhone, the 830 is a balanced device, which aims to find the sweet spot between size, battery life and performance. It doesn't sacrifice everything in a one-sided drive towards largest possible CPU, RAM and display resolution specs. Like you said, outside of games, the difference those specs make is surprisingly small.

The spec-focused approach only works well in combination with larger devices that can compensate with much larger batteries, hence the popularity of the 1530 over the 930.

Yup, it is easy to get sucked into the specs war but at the end of the day most handsets above the very basic appear to have very smooth and stable UIs these days and the Snapdragon 400 whilst constantly being sniffed at by almost every reviewer I read does an excellent job. I picked my mint condition 830 up on ebay for ?182 ($280)with all the shells and a DC-50 wireless charger thrown in. Insane value for a handset this good.

 

[King Nickles Saintil]

So, last weekend I bought myself an 830 purely to try W10. I run a L930 and also a L735 so the technical preview was tantalisingly out of reach. My shiny pre-owned 830 arrived yesterday (complete with all 4 battery covers - very nice). I duly installed windows 10 and as expected, twas buggy as hell but I did like the new home screen layout etc. Anyway, I flipped the 830 back to 8.1 earlier today and have fallen in love with it. My L930 is now heading for ebay. Great phone but relatively weak battery life and mildly better performance in operation (I'm not a gamer or pro photographer) mean there is no point in me keeping it anymore. The 830 is lighter, thinner, has a much better battery life, expandable storage and swappable backs. It feels great in the hand, is buttery smooth and looks...well awesome. I love this phone!

Hello, please check your inbox. Would love to get a 930.

 

[envio]

Haha, I also bought a brand new, unused green 830 off ebay just over a week ago just in order to try out Win10 too! I also bought a 128GB SD card so it has way more storage than my 930 as well as being lighter, more comfortable in my hand, it's a great device. I don't regret my 930 though, it's still faster overall and the camera is excellent.

 

[Muessig]

One of lifes happy accidents it seems. Great news!

 

[droidguy1964]

Have them both and the 930 is miles ahead. Your just having fun because its change but give it a week or two.

 

[a5cent]

^ It depends on what your needs are. The 930 is not unconditionally "miles ahead".

 

[ballanda]

I liked the 830 better than my 930 in every way, except the display. Once you go AMOLED...

Anyway, I am back to using the 830 because the 930 came up with the dreaded screen lift / proximity sensor failure problem, and Microkia support wants nothing to do with it. I did try to go to a OnePlus 1 Android phone. I lasted 2 days before feeling like my brain was going to explode form all of Android's terrible UX inconsistencies. But enough about how Android sucks. We already know that.

 

[Paul1266]

^ It depends on what your needs are. The 930 is not unconditionally "miles ahead".

Correct...the battery for starters! Swappable and better. I also think the 830 feels better in the hand. Don't get me wrong, I have had my 930 for a while now and its great but the 830 addresses two of the minor concerns I had with it. The lower specs did not result in a corresponding drop in experience which is still fluid. Screen is not as punchy true but again not a million miles away in quality. Also, the scrolling is a lot less blurry on the 830. At the end of the day though I all comes down to personal preference. For ME, because of the battery life, swappable backs, micro SD support and thinner frame, it wins out...but like I say, that's just me.

 

[tgp]

I always thought that a removable battery was a necessity. Then a couple years ago I hesitantly bought a phone without a removable battery because the phone otherwise had what I wanted.

As it turns out, I no longer desire the feature, and it does not at all factor into my decision of whether or not to buy a phone. In fact, in a way it's better without because it makes the phone a bit more compact. I'm guessing this is at least part of the reason that iPhones have never had a removable battery.

 

[AndyCalling]

Worth mentioning that the 930 has a better battery than the 830 and although some early revisions reported overheating (and so poor battery use) I can confirm that I see no such issues with h/w revision 2.0.0.3. The 930 also has an easily replaceable battery. I know, the spec says it isn't removable, but it really is. The back's no harder to get off than an 820 and then swapping out the old battery is easy.

Personally, I stick a large power vault battery at ~8000mAh in my bag just in case, but I rarely need it. It is more a convenience than a necessity.

Coming from an 820, my 930 feels like it has masses of battery to spare. The lack of SD slot is more of a thing than rumored battery issues that are not really a thing on current h/w revisions.

 

[rhapdog]

I always thought that a removable battery was a necessity. Then a couple years ago I hesitantly bought a phone without a removable battery because the phone otherwise had what I wanted.

As it turns out, I no longer desire the feature, and it does not at all factor into my decision of whether or not to buy a phone. In fact, in a way it's better without because it makes the phone a bit more compact. I'm guessing this is at least part of the reason that iPhones have never had a removable battery.

That's true for most people. Most people are going to buy a new phone long before the battery stops taking a charge. In my case, that's not necessarily true. I'm still using a phone (as a second device) that I bought in 2006. I may not be using it more than the next couple of years, however, simply because that while it has a new battery now, the batteries for that phone are getting increasingly difficult to find due to the age of the device. New batteries are no longer made it seems, so I may be on the last battery it will ever have.

Yeah, for 99.9% of the population, it may be a non-issue unless they let the phone die and don't charge it for a long period of time, thus needing a battery replacement. In those cases, it's best to have replaceable batteries.

 

[tgp]

That's true for most people. Most people are going to buy a new phone long before the battery stops taking a charge. In my case, that's not necessarily true. I'm still using a phone (as a second device) that I bought in 2006. I may not be using it more than the next couple of years, however, simply because that while it has a new battery now, the batteries for that phone are getting increasingly difficult to find due to the age of the device. New batteries are no longer made it seems, so I may be on the last battery it will ever have.

Yeah, for 99.9% of the population, it may be a non-issue unless they let the phone die and don't charge it for a long period of time, thus needing a battery replacement. In those cases, it's best to have replaceable batteries.

You're absolutely correct; a swappable battery is important to some people. Using your number of 99.9%, it would be 1 in 1,000 (which is probably pretty accurate!). It's probably not enough to make a big difference in influencing the design.