There’s a lot of hype about Nokia’s Lumia 920. I never really gave it a fighting chance even before trying it. Why would I when the iPhone THE smartphone of choice? But, the overwhelming positive reviews from friends and my tech support crew pushed me to at least try it.
My demo of the Lumia 920 was pretty smooth. On first touch, it felt fatter and a little heavier than my trusty iPhone 5. On first glance, the screen appeared dull and not as crisp as the Apple supported devices. I was started to understand why AT&T only sells this phone for just $100 with a 2-year contract.
Once you get past the negative first impression, the Nokia makes a comeback with its interface and camera. Let’s start first with the camera. It feels like you are operating a normal camera with its shutter button on the side. It has a Carl Zeiss lens that is also found on Sony digital SLR cameras. More importantly, the photo quality is amazing, rivaling the iPhone 5’s clarity. On to the operating system, Windows 8. It flows nicely and is really pretty to look at. Did I really call a phone pretty? The tile look makes it easy to place icons where you want in terms of importance, i.e. mail, Facebook, browser. You can also pick which color you’d like which is nice. But, you can get an iPhone color conversion which will give you more options. The big downer is still the app shortage and quality issue. It lacks apps and the ones it has are not must-have apps.
Who’s the Lumia 920 for? For photo enthusiasts who are sick and tired of carrying their point-and-shoot cameras and phones. It’s also for those die-hard Windows support fans who want to integrate just their Windows computers with their phones. Another camp of fans are those who don’t just want to go along with the wave of iOS devices. For me, I’m staying far away from this brick-like device which has entered the smartphone market a little bit to late to be taken seriously.
