I've had my Lumia 920 since Wednesday through T-Mobile in the UK (on the Full Monty plan). I have switched over from an Omnia 7 which I've had since WP7 launched a couple of years ago.
Here's some quick thoughts on key aspects of the phone:
Battery - The big talking point since its launch. Yes, the battery drained quickly in the first day or two but since then it has been fine following all-night charges. Phone has had extensive use all day today and is still going. I have lots of things switched on, with e-mails on, lots of live tiles, location on, wi-fi and more besides, and it's still comfortably getting through a day. I have no issues with the battery but I was paranoid about it in the first day or two because of what others has been complaining about;
Hardware - Wow. It really is a stunning piece of kit. Sure it's big, and it's heavier than other phones, but it doesn't feel heavy. It has a real premium feel to it which sets it above nearly all other handsets out there. Its screen is stunning and is without question the best in the smartphone market. The phones edges at the top and bottom can feel slightly sharp if you hold the phone that way;
Camera - Seriously cool with great lowlight pictures. It needs a fix to improve daylight pics, but they still look perfectly acceptable, though more customisation options for the camera need to be included in the next update;
OS - WP8 is wonderful. It's a joy to use and with customisable live tiles, I've had great fun configuring my start screen. All of what made WP7 is still there and the logical and intuitive design principles make this smooth as silk and very quick to navigate around. It's really simple to understand and work with and not the cluttered mess that Android is;
Apps - most of what I had on WP7 are available on WP8 but several are missing (I guess because they need some tweaking to make them compatible with WP8, such as TuneIn). Lots of apps need updating to make them look good for these higher resolution WP8 screens, which means live tiles for quite a lot of apps look pixely. This aspect of the WP8 experience feels unrefined and unfinished so MS and developers will need to work together to make improvements on this front. Also, I look forward to seeing lots more top apps come to the platform given how much easier it's supposed to be to develop WP8 apps, and also, the ease of developing for the phone platform if developers are also developing for W8;
Maps - this for me is the biggest backward step. Bing Maps isn't as good as Google Maps but is still very good and I was certainly happy with it on my Omnia. Nokia Maps on the 920 is very mediocre. When I try to see my city on satellite view, it's just a blurry image where it was nice, clear and detailed on Bing Maps. Also, for information about places in the local area (e.g. pizza shops), Bing Maps is way better. I know MS and Nokia came to some sort of deal on the maps front, but either the maps app needs to be drastically improved or WP8 owners need to be given a choice of which mapping software becomes integrated into the phone. Nokia Maps at this stage isn't quite good enough.
Overall Thoughts - WP8 and the Lumia 920 are already really good, but there's slight improvements that can be made to make them great by improving available apps (e.g. maps, camera), reintroducing Windows Phone apps that are currently AWOL and bringing more of the top-end apps and games to the platform.
Here's some quick thoughts on key aspects of the phone:
Battery - The big talking point since its launch. Yes, the battery drained quickly in the first day or two but since then it has been fine following all-night charges. Phone has had extensive use all day today and is still going. I have lots of things switched on, with e-mails on, lots of live tiles, location on, wi-fi and more besides, and it's still comfortably getting through a day. I have no issues with the battery but I was paranoid about it in the first day or two because of what others has been complaining about;
Hardware - Wow. It really is a stunning piece of kit. Sure it's big, and it's heavier than other phones, but it doesn't feel heavy. It has a real premium feel to it which sets it above nearly all other handsets out there. Its screen is stunning and is without question the best in the smartphone market. The phones edges at the top and bottom can feel slightly sharp if you hold the phone that way;
Camera - Seriously cool with great lowlight pictures. It needs a fix to improve daylight pics, but they still look perfectly acceptable, though more customisation options for the camera need to be included in the next update;
OS - WP8 is wonderful. It's a joy to use and with customisable live tiles, I've had great fun configuring my start screen. All of what made WP7 is still there and the logical and intuitive design principles make this smooth as silk and very quick to navigate around. It's really simple to understand and work with and not the cluttered mess that Android is;
Apps - most of what I had on WP7 are available on WP8 but several are missing (I guess because they need some tweaking to make them compatible with WP8, such as TuneIn). Lots of apps need updating to make them look good for these higher resolution WP8 screens, which means live tiles for quite a lot of apps look pixely. This aspect of the WP8 experience feels unrefined and unfinished so MS and developers will need to work together to make improvements on this front. Also, I look forward to seeing lots more top apps come to the platform given how much easier it's supposed to be to develop WP8 apps, and also, the ease of developing for the phone platform if developers are also developing for W8;
Maps - this for me is the biggest backward step. Bing Maps isn't as good as Google Maps but is still very good and I was certainly happy with it on my Omnia. Nokia Maps on the 920 is very mediocre. When I try to see my city on satellite view, it's just a blurry image where it was nice, clear and detailed on Bing Maps. Also, for information about places in the local area (e.g. pizza shops), Bing Maps is way better. I know MS and Nokia came to some sort of deal on the maps front, but either the maps app needs to be drastically improved or WP8 owners need to be given a choice of which mapping software becomes integrated into the phone. Nokia Maps at this stage isn't quite good enough.
Overall Thoughts - WP8 and the Lumia 920 are already really good, but there's slight improvements that can be made to make them great by improving available apps (e.g. maps, camera), reintroducing Windows Phone apps that are currently AWOL and bringing more of the top-end apps and games to the platform.
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