928 vs Icon - Image Quality Comparison

[JudgeHolden]

Realizing I was going to be trading my 928 in, I took a few images last night. After the fact I realized I could have done better, but I did the following:
1) No light with flash (in my bathroom, since it's the only place to get near pitch darkness)
2) No light without flash (same)
3) Low light without flash
4) Night scene
All were done with the default Camera app, rather than Smart Cam. Sadly, several of these were compressed and sent via email rather than having the full file taken from the phone. So this isn't a perfect comparison, by any means, and I'm sure others will do it better when they have both in hand.

The Icon does decently in all of these (except #2), but it's clearly not even remotely as amazing in extremely low light conditions. Nor is the flash as wonderful. But we make up for it in less graininess, it seems.

See here:
928 Flash - pitch black - Imgur

 

[Laura Knotek]

This is nice for comparison. I always like to see reviews from users, not just tech bloggers.

 

[Christopher Senn]

Seems 928 has better flash and judging from these pics seems low light aint that well either

 

[Robinsonmac]

STOP!! If youre going to trade in any smartphone to get the Icon. Don't do it! Buy a basic flip phone on Craigslist or ebay & activate it on the line that's going to be on the edge program. You don't have to trade in your current phone!

 

[deadwrong03]

The 928 looks better surprisingly

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 928 using Tapatalk

 

[Scorpio5x0]

I haven't tested low light to give a comparison on that. I did get to use the Icon yesterday with some outdoor and indoor shots and found the photos to be better than the 928. I will miss the 928's xenon flash. The one minus I saw was a little bit of blur when I caught movement with the flash on. You didn't see this with the 928. A plus with the Icon is the ability to take a shot and zoom in without losing a lot quality.

Sent from my RM-927_nam_vzw_100 using Tapatalk

 

[JudgeHolden]

I used the 928 flash only a handful of times. If you discount testing it out, maybe twice. I'm just not a flash guy.

The lowlight out of the box is definitely worse on this phone, but I'd imagine you can spend a few minutes with procam and get something nearly as good. It's just annoying to do that, sometimes. I'll try daylight shots today, but fully expect this to be much, much better at them. Unfortunately, I do much more night shooting, haha.

 

[kb4000]

The 928 has an aperture of 2.0 while Icon has 2.4. Most people think lower is automatically better but that's not always the case. 2.0 is great for letting in more light for night shots but 2.4 should result in sharper daytime photography. For shooting landscapes the numbers are much higher.

 

[antsin3d]

Icon looks like it has more potential. Less grain, less lens flaring/streaking. The 2.4 vs 2.0 fstop is going to make the Icon pics a bit darker at the same shutter speed, but you should be able to boost the ISO to balance that a bit (depends on how grainy the Icon gets as you increase ISO). The flash stinks, sad they didn't include a decent one. Kinda weird to lose a good flash, Glance, and get an undersized battery in an 'upgrade'. With that said I'll be getting mine manana and will do some shots with 928/Icon as well.

 

[JudgeHolden]

STOP!! If youre going to trade in any smartphone to get the Icon. Don't do it! Buy a basic flip phone on Craigslist or ebay & activate it on the line that's going to be on the edge program. You don't have to trade in your current phone!

I actually did have to trade mine in. It was defective, and rather than replace it with another 928 (which would be my fifth or sixth) they replaced it with an Icon.
But yes, in order to have a phone replaced you need to relinquish the one that's under warranty.

 

[kb4000]

I actually did have to trade mine in. It was defective, and rather than replace it with another 928 (which would be my fifth or sixth) they replaced it with an Icon.
But yes, in order to have a phone replaced you need to relinquish the one that's under warranty.

When you say they traded it for an icon what do you mean? Did you have to switch to edge or pay a large fee or did you just tell them that your 928 had too many problems?

 

[Robinsonmac]

There is an open enrollment promo for the edge program. If you signed a 2 yr contract before 11-15-2013 you can join edge but you have to trade in a phone. The trick is the fine print says any phone not your current or newest phone, even a basic flip phone. In the case of a flip phone you don't even have to trade it in. The phone just has to be activated on the lone you are adding to edge.

 

[JudgeHolden]

When you say they traded it for an icon what do you mean? Did you have to switch to edge or pay a large fee or did you just tell them that your 928 had too many problems?

No, I was covered under warranty. They saw no point in giving me another 928 when it was, in their eyes, a manufacturing issue that led me to repeatedly return it. So, instead of seeing me every 2 months, they just gave me an improved phone.

 

[MobileVortex]

Yea i was just wondering if i could get an Icon saying i "lost" my phone, looks like its doable, but the Icon is not on the list of devices yet. Not exactly the kosher way of doing things but if you want to make a $100 claim and kill your current phone's ESN it will work.

 

[kb4000]

No, I was covered under warranty. They saw no point in giving me another 928 when it was, in their eyes, a manufacturing issue that led me to repeatedly return it. So, instead of seeing me every 2 months, they just gave me an improved phone.

what was wrong with yours? Did you have the speaker issue?

 

[JudgeHolden]

what was wrong with yours? Did you have the speaker issue?

Repeatedly. First the earpiece would go, and since I held on to the final one longer, waiting for the Icon, the speakerphone ended up going as well. The phone was unusable if I didn't have a pair of headphones on me.

 

[Christopher Senn]

Icon looks like it has more potential. Less grain, less lens flaring/streaking. The 2.4 vs 2.0 fstop is going to make the Icon pics a bit darker at the same shutter speed, but you should be able to boost the ISO to balance that a bit (depends on how grainy the Icon gets as you increase ISO). The flash stinks, sad they didn't include a decent one. Kinda weird to lose a good flash, Glance, and get an undersized battery in an 'upgrade'. With that said I'll be getting mine manana and will do some shots with 928/Icon as well.

any updated on the 928 vs Icon cameras?