Need An Honest Review Of The L930

[Nicholas Blackman]

Ok,

So I recently had the misfortune of damaging the screen on my L1020 (absolutely loved the phone) , which somewhat put me in the market for considering an upgrade. Now I've always liked the idea of the 930 and if it had an SD card slot it would be perfect in my eyes, but I can manage 32GB without any problems (L920=>L1020).

I acknowledge the growing "HW" limitations of my L1020 and even though the camera is pretty amazing, for me personally I don't notice a significant difference when comparing it to my colleague's L1520, and maybe i'll notice it even less with the new Lumia Camera.

Also from a financial point of view it makes a bit of sense to just dish out an extra bit of money as repairing my L1020 is roughly about 50% the cost of a new phone.

I guess my questions are:

Should I take the plunge to upgrade to the L930?

Or is it just not that much better than the L1020?

Are the issues which I see quite a few users experiencing, cause for concern?

My first L920 was an absolute nightmare... i'd rather not go back to that

Do you miss the Glance feature?

This by far has been one of my major holdbacks... I use this feature a lot on my previous Lumias...even though it's a gimmick it's a pretty neat gimmick. But now that I've temporarily downgraded to a borrowed Z10 I guess the "tap to wake" feature would suffice, I could adapt lol

Thank you in advance, I appreciate any and all opinions given (I want to make an informed decision based on actual user experience)

 

[bozza72]

I upgraded from a 920 to 1520 to 930 and I love it, glance was missed for a,while but I soon got over it as the phone rocks on every other level

 

[o_k_boy]

I've had my 930 for about 6 months after upgrading from a 920. At first I wasn't sure about the more conventional look of the phone compared to the fabula design, but I've come to appreciate it and now think it's pretty classy. It feels nice in the hand with the curved back and rounded corners too. The build quality is great although, like many others, I do have the issue of the screen coming slightly unstuck at two of the corners.

I never liked amoled screens I'd seen on phones and thought they looked gaudy and discoloured, but the 930's screen is great. At least when it's static... I'm not sure what happened to puremotion, but there is noticeable blur when scrolling on certain content. I have got used to it now, but I remember it being a bit of a shock coming from the 920.

The performance is much better than the 920. Much snappier. Still some resuming and loading in places, but no where near as much.

The camera is very good, and in good light takes amazing shots. I was surprised by the low light performance after coming from the 920 as it doesn't seem as good somehow. They seem to have ramped up the iso rather than the shutter speed, so shots come out noisier than on the 920 unless you tweak the settings manually.

I haven't missed glance even though I thought I would, but I'm not a heavy social media user.

It's a great phone overall, and a definite step up from the 920 with a couple of imperfections. Maybe the best thing is to find one in a shop and give it a go.

 

[xratola]

I also upgraded from a 920 and, so dar, my experience's been pretty pleasant. I don't miss anything from my 920 after upgrading to this phone. I never used glance, so I'm perfectly good now. What is the most remarkable thing about this phone is its camera. Rocking 20mpx is more than almost everyone needs daily and I love that!
This phone is indeed faster than my 920. It just loads things faster in almost any app.

 

[Paul1266]

I have owned a 920, 925 & 1020. I loved them all but speaking frankly, the 930 is a cut above them all. I have not suffered the drawbacks some have experienced (the purple screen was fixed by the time I bought in) and the build quality is awesome. This phone is solid, fast and the screen is a joy to behold. I use mine with Nillkin textured back which makes the phone feel really solid and grippy in the hand. I really don't get the Glance thing to be honest. I always disabled it on my devices as a pointless battery sucker. Clever, but most phone users seem to get by without it just fine. To treat it as a potential deal breaker just leaves me scratching my head lol. The battery life is only average but coming from a 20 series you will be okay. The 930 is an awesome phone...dive in and enjoy!

 

[captaincalamity]

I've owned, a Nokia 920, 925, HTC 8X, many Android phones and practically all the Iphones.

Thankfully back with a superb bright green backed L930, firstly the quality and strength of build for this device, is fantastic, I can lob it in my pocket and not worry at all about the frame flexing when I crouch down etc...The weight in my opinion is just right, not too light like the IPhone 5 or too heavy like some of the enormous flablets (Phablets) out there, the screen is probably the best all round ive used, with its Amoled HD quality that is even very good outdoors in direct sunlight.

The Glance feature that was on both the 920 and 925 plus a cobbled together version on some of the android phones was nice, but not really a reason not to buy the L930, I really don't miss it at all.

Battery life is always relevant to the individuals needs with a smartphone, coming from an Xperia Z3, which had a two day battery life with pretty heavy use, the L930 falls short by a day, but that's doesn't mean its a bad battery, its far and beyond the battery life from the IPhone 5s and better than most top end Android phones, also the ability to drop the L930 onto a few handy wireless chargers also helps greatly and I would seriously miss wireless charging built in to the phone. I get a day easy for my usage with the L930, which is all I need as I simply drop it onto a wireless charger while sleeping, so really don't notice battery life, I think we can get hung up on battery life and the fact you don't have a constant % on the top bar helps the paranoia.

With Both the L920 and 925, I enjoyed the camera and the L930 is superb as well, the speed of the L930 stands out though and I would say the 1020 had a similar tech inside, launching apps, browsing, photo editing everything is so much quicker and snappier to use and the device runs as fast if not faster than any other phone I've used.

Apart from the usual, Windows phone missing apps and the occasional double tap to wake not happening, I would say this is a very worthy phone to upgrade to.

 

[JaniM]

Should I take the plunge to upgrade to the L930?
Or is it just not that much better than the L1020?

Yes, 930 is better in almost everything except camera. Even some camera features are better in L930. L1020 was a bit clumsy to use because of that camera hump but it's way easier to use with one hand than Lumia 930. I love my 1020 but it feels a bit old compared to my L930 now.

Are the issues which I see quite a few users experiencing, cause for concern?
My first L920 was an absolute nightmare... i'd rather not go back to that

Yes and no. It's not as common as it's thought to be. Defects are covered in warranty so if there's a defect they should replace the phone quite easily.

Do you miss the Glance feature?
This by far has been one of my major holdbacks... I use this feature a lot on my previous Lumias...

I miss it too. But rarely. Sometimes it's too hard to find a black phone in a dark room. With glance that wouldn't be a problem. It's not that hard to press power button once to wake the screen if you want to check something.

 

[scgf]

I've owned a 920 and a 1020 and now have a 930.

The 1020 is effectively a 920 with a better camera. Having said that my photos on the 1020 were always very disappointing and I bought it for the camera The 930, on the other hand, is much better than the 1020 - it's a real high-end phone, comparable hardware to the top Android phones and, IMO, much better than the iPhone 6 which I also owned for a short while.

The screen resolution of the 930 is 1080 vs 720 on the 1020. I have found I get nicer photos on the 930 too - especially with the Denim update. It is altogether a much better phone.

Regarding Glance - I used it for a short while on my 1020, but found it underwhelming and didn't bother with it after that. BTW, you can double-tap on the 930 screen to wake it up.

 

[supadryz]

I have had the Lumia 930 from the day it came out & to be completely honest best phone I have ever had. Photos are great, style of phone is good. Wish it had a flick stand on back like my old HTC but can't have everything. Only real issue as with all Windows phone sometimes your finger will flick across the seach button at the bottom by mistake or brings up Contana by mistake

 

[miodrage]

I have also upgraded from Lumia 920, and haven't regreted it one sec.
So, I don't like AMOLED, but this AMOLED is very pleasant to look. I have used Glance, especially in the night, however, I have learned to live without it, and nothing has changed for me, because I wasn't born with Glance (did use it for several months though).
I have only 1 issue, which is not a real issue, with my phone, and that is the color - black. I was looking in to change the back cover, but as I am clumsy, I do not want to risk anything with those connectors and stuff, so I gave up on the idea, at least for the moment

 

[anon(5725119)]

I don't know about how much you're willing to spend or how long you're willing to wait, but considering the 930 is quite old hardware now, I'd hold out a few months for a new Lumia flagship, probably released with Windows 10.

Having said that, if you do want the Lumia 930, I would definitely recommend it. I haven't experienced any issues with mine. I do miss glance, but after a few weeks I got used to not having it.

If you do get one, don't get it in black. I have a black one and it's pretty boring. Apart from that, I love it.

 

[supadryz]

I have only 1 issue, which is not a real issue, with my phone, and that is the color - black. I was looking in to change the back cover

As quoted here this + forgot to mention the biggest issue with this phone, which almost stop me getting it in the 1st place. The fact it does not have the option of SD Micro cards to be fitted to beef up the memory, felt this was a huge mistake on a flag ship phone.

 

[zkyevolved]

As quoted here this + forgot to mention the biggest issue with this phone, which almost stop me getting it in the 1st place. The fact it does not have the option of SD Micro cards to be fitted to beef up the memory, felt this was a huge mistake on a flag ship phone.

I agree. I will ditch the 930 if a better Lumia comes out with a MicroSD card slot and a larger battery. I honestly think 2400mah on a flagship is far too little. But I am not complaining now about my device. I love it. But a MicroSD card slot is a NIGHTMARE to not have! What were they thinking?!!?!?!?! They launched the 930 over a year later than the 1520, and the 1520 has the slot. It also has a larger battery (although it's larger as well, but the 1520 is thinner which isn't a plus for me.... But, if I had the 1520, which is huge, I'd want it to be thinner too). Overall, I like the thickness of the Lumia 930... It has a fantastic feel, but seriously.... NO MICROSD SLOT?!?!?! What WERE THEY THINKING!?!?

 

[DCdeVries]

I can do an honest review of this phone, this is my first post on wpcentral, but i am a windows phone user since the lumia 800(dropped it, screen broke), lumia 920(amazing phone, but replaced it on day one with the 930).
So first of i am a heavy user, from 5:30 i wake up, take it of the charger and the day starts.

First the build quality:
When upgrading from the 920 to the 930 i got alot of questions, is that the same phone?
Looks the same, same nice build quality buuuuutt....not much improvement.

The metal bar around the phone is nice but gets hot fast, when using just the phone for Spotify, whatsapp, the down part gets damm hot.

The screen:
Love it.
I am not someone who used glance on my lumia 920 so i never had an issue with that.
But the screen problems that i had before all the updates were terrible, and made me doubt if i made the right choice.
All is good, and the screen is pleasant and easy to look at.

Battery life:
It's the worst. I cant get a full day, i charge my phone twice a day. And of the charger like right now, i can see the percentage dropping.

Performance:
Its a major upgrade from the 920, everything is snappier, faster.
Love the camera boot up time, LOooove it.
But when writing alot like this review, the phone starts to lagg and typing is horrible.

Also, right now again, battery goes lower by the seconds, it gets hot and my hands start to sweat.

I like the phone tho, and when the next flagship will come out, i will upgrade to that one, coz i am a sucker for windows phone, i use the phone at work with enterprise software.
Sorry, not allowed to talk about that.

Other than that, i would give this phone an 7,5 out of 10, there is soo much room for improvement. But they failed to deliver on small things like battery life.

Any questions, just ask

 

[agentmikeyd99]

Get the 1520

 

[scgf]

I don't get the need for an SD card. I've had phones with cards - in particular an LG G3 and spent a lot of time just trying to save stuff onto the SD card because I'd bought a fast 64GB one and wanted to use it. I just couldn't find things to save. I had photos and videos save to it, but they all get auto-uploaded to OneDrive anyway. Music? Videos? No they're all on my Plex server at home and streamable on the phone. Documents? They're all on OneDrive. Apps? I can only use so many. Umm, what else?

Don't get me wrong - I'm not an apologist like most Apple users are - my phone doesn't do that, let's make up reasons why we don't need it - an SD card would be useful to some people, but I'm just saying it needn't be a deal-breaker.

 

[Fred Wilson2]

Yup, same here. I thought lack of an SD card slot would be a big deal, but it's not at all. Plenty of storage on the phone, photos and such get uploaded when I'm through with them, etc.
I have also an 830 which has an SD card slot and I have an SD card in it, but same thing, I don't carry thousands of photos or messages on anything on the phone. I have plenty of room for all the music that I routinely listen to. No problem at all. I'm not a gamer,

Fred

I don't get the need for an SD card. I've had phones with cards - an LG G3 and a OnePlus One and spent a lot of time just trying to save stuff onto the SD card because I'd bought a fast 64GB one and wanted to use it. I just couldn't find things to save. I had photos and videos save to it, but they all get auto-uploaded to OneDrive anyway. Music? Videos? No they're all on my Plex server at home and streamable on the phone. Documents? They're all on OneDrive. Apps? I can only use so many. Umm, what else?

Don't get me wrong - I'm not an apologist like most Apple users are - my phone doesn't do that, let's make up reasons why we don't need it - an SD card would be useful to some people, but I'm just saying it needn't be a deal-breaker.

 

[vc-10]

I love mine. I've really abused it- dropped it many, many times. Did the normal Nokia thing of probably doing more damage to the floor than the phone...

It would be nice if it was a bit thinner, had a microSD slot, and had Glance. But none of these things are deal breakers. The screen is fantastic, it's fast, camera is superb, battery life is fine, and I'm loving Hey Cortana. I'm looking forward to Windows 10!

Edit: Oh and the green back is so cool. Why go for black or white when you can have bright green or orange? My mum has an orange 735, my sister a black 830, and the 830 looks so dull in comparison.

 

[DJCBS]

I don't notice a significant difference when comparing it to my colleague's L1520, and maybe i'll notice it even less with the new Lumia Camera.

This alone told me that you never knew how to take advantage of the hardware on your 1020 for a start. And that's ok. Most people didn't. That's why Nokia designed the Nokia Camera with simple functionality for point-and-shooters too.
Therefore, no, you won't experience any difference in image quality on the 930 apart from the obvious size of the pictures. As for your specific questions:

Should I take the plunge to upgrade to the L930?

I wouldn't bother. If you've held this long, you can hold on a little longer for some Windows Phone 10 flagships. The 930 is, after all, already a year old and it's also old technology (the snapdragon 800 was in 2013 flagships. The 801 and 805 where the chips for 2014 and in 2015 you'll be seeing the snapdragon 810). If you can hold on, you'll probably be better served with whatever is Microsoft's first flagship device (and possibly Windows Phone's only flagship IF the HTC M9 for Windows doesn't happen). Because I'm sure Windows Phone 10 will be taking full advantage of that chip more than the SD800.

Are the issues which I see quite a few users experiencing, cause for concern?

I'm already on my third 930 unit and I don't even use the phone as a daily driver. This should answer your question.
But to be very clear: YES, the 930 has a plethora of hardware and software problems that Microsoft refuses to address. They exchange your phone, sure, but you'll still get at least one of the vast offer of problems the 930 has for you. Yet another reason to hold on.

Do you miss the Glance feature?

No.
But I never thought it useful in the first place. The work it gives me to wave my hand in front of the device, is the same work it gives me to double-tap the screen. And I rather double-tap.
Also, should add that the double-tap to wake feature on the 930 is TERRIBLE, specially if you're used to the 920/1020. Often you have to knock on it as if there was no tomorrow.

 

[zkyevolved]

Regarding the SD card. 1 word... Backup.

My messenger apps (LINE and WhatsApp) place their backups on the SD card or NOTHING AT ALL! So.... It's kind of a pain that I can't backup my data! With Android I just made sure it backed up, and copied the folders (either from internal storage or SD card) to my PC before changing devices or before flashing my device. I can do neither on WP which is the only REALLY big downfall for the 930. Battery life could have been a lot better, I'm looking into a L1520 (used) to see if I can handle the size of the 1520. We'll see! But in all honesty, the SD card is a really big downfall...