Nokia Lumia 920 & 820 - Thoughts?

[bigboss]

Icons in Windows 8 is now a lot more customizable than even. Android. Check the Nokia launch video.

 

[manicm]

My feeling is... it's not an iPhone. Love'em or hate'em there is a reason why iPhones are popular, their build quality, sure, but even more important, their ease of use and their apps. Anything Windows or Android is a poor second bought either by those who are ignorant of the difference, or those who weird form of inverted snobbery will never buy anything which comes from Apple. Myself, I have a five-year-old Nokia phone with no apps, no 'smart' facilities whatever because I have an iPod Touch. I have an iPod touch because it sounds (marginally) better than an iPhone and that is more important to me than having both gadgets in one box. iPod for music, phone for making calls, cheaper, slightly more cumbersome, but it suits me. When my £10 plastic phone gives up the ghost, I will probably buy another one, until then..... (Or until someone makes a better, slicker interface than Apple, with a better quality of build and better sound for less money... but that's not happening any time soon)

Perhaps but I'm dead bored of iOS.

 

[bigboss]

I think that's the main problem with iOS. Lack of customisation means people can easily get bored of it.

 

[professorhat]

Oh and I won't buy anything from Apple. Not snobbery, I just don't like bullies.

And of course both Microsoft and Google are both faultless when it comes to that eh? And Sony, IBM, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, HP, Vodafone, BP, Walt Disney and of course good old News Corporation to name just a few others - I'm sure you boycott them all too.

 

[fr0g]

Oh and I won't buy anything from Apple. Not snobbery, I just don't like bullies.

And of course both Microsoft and Google are both faultless when it comes to that eh? And Sony, IBM, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, HP, Vodafone, BP, Walt Disney and of course good old News Corporation to name just a few others - I'm sure you boycott them all too.

I installed Linux when MS were up to their tricks. I was extremely anti-MS at the time. Not so much now, and they keep me in work as well as creating thousands of jobs around the world. I agree that many of these companies get up to no good whether it be Apple, MS, Google, Amazon etc etc, for me it's a case of the lesser evil. Apple are the poster boys of Patent-trolling and bullying at the moment IMO and the stupid decision by the stupid jury in america only solidified my stance.

5 years from now it may all change. But not until attitudes (and probably laws) do.

 

[John Duncan]

I'd say the inclusion of full Office on these devices will be a killer. Think of all the company phones that are in circulation, and most companies use Office.

I'm not sure I get this argument. My iPhone opens word and excel docents fine. Read only, but I'm not sure I'd want to try to edit my year end forecasts on a phone. I liked windows 7 the one time I tried it, but am fairly android agnostic - I found it a bit clunky but I'm sure I could make it work for me for reasons stated above; it was more the hardware that put me off - I found the HTC Desire quite poor. Am very tempted by a nexus 7 or fire HD just to see what they're like, unless the rumoured iPad nano comes in at a very compelling price point.

 

[bigboss]

All I can say is that I have been annoyed on a number of occasions when I tried to make some minor corrections to my word document or PowerPoint presentation & the whole layout was messed up when converted back to word / powerpoint. Also, try opening "Read only" Excel files (where you have to select "open as read only"). It's impossible on a non-Microsoft programme.

 

[tino]

As someone who might be looking to get a 'smart phone' in the next few months, the Nokia phones and Windows 8 are genuinely interesting entrants into the market. I have no interest at this point in time in getting any iOS device, and I'm not sold on Android - I'm looking forward to see what Windows 8 and Blackberry BB10 have to offer.

Of the two new Lumia devices I actually think the 820, despite having less stand-out features than the 920 might be the more popular of the two devices - I like the fact that it has a removeable battery, optional charging shell, memory card slot, free Nokia music + maps and navigation, and it will have the same CPU performance as the 920.

 

[bigboss]

I'm not too sure of BB10 to be honest. Blackberry is genuinely struggling. I'll be surprised if it survives beyond 1-2 years. At least with Nokia, their hardware is usually very good. I have been disappointed with Blackberry dropping calls and hanging, taking ages to restart.

HTC has a problem with connecting back to network once it loses it. Even my experience with Samsung wasn't very good (my wife had the Galaxy S2 for a while), with the phone hanging. iPhone as a phone is very good, but I'm bored of the UI. I'm now keen to try out the Lumia.

My first ever phone was a Nokia 3310 & my next 2 were Nokia as well. Brilliant phones which never dropped signal & had an excellent call quality. I once even dropped it onto the tracks from the train. When I went back to collect it, it was still intact! :O

I then migrated to Sony Ericsson for its superior battery life for the next 3 phones. I then went on to Blackberry Storm which was very good initially (I especially loved the clickable touch screen) before the above problems surfaced. My next phone, the HTC Desire was the best phone I had, until I went for the Sensation. Now it seems like a circle complete when I go back to Nokia!

 

[tino]

I'll reserve judgement on BB10 but if the Playbook QNX operating system is anything to go by it should be very good indeed. It's very fluid and fast on a moderately powerful processor and rock solid in use.

 

[fr0g]

I'd say the inclusion of full Office on these devices will be a killer. Think of all the company phones that are in circulation, and most companies use Office.

I'm not sure I get this argument. My iPhone opens word and excel docents fine. Read only, but I'm not sure I'd want to try to edit my year end forecasts on a phone. I liked windows 7 the one time I tried it, but am fairly android agnostic - I found it a bit clunky but I'm sure I could make it work for me for reasons stated above; it was more the hardware that put me off - I found the HTC Desire quite poor. Am very tempted by a nexus 7 or fire HD just to see what they're like, unless the rumoured iPad nano comes in at a very compelling price point.

Yep, my android can open the docs nicely in Polaris. And I agree I wouldn't want to so anything heavy on the phone, but the ability to quickly amend a document, save it with no worries about losing formatting etc I think could be quite compelling.

 

[fr0g]

HTC has a problem with connecting back to network once it loses it.

My One X had this problem. It's "smart sync". I disabled it and the problem has gone.

Not sure if it's possible without rooting though. (seems it might be...

http://www.androidauthority.com/smartsync-disabler-app-review-100311/

 

[bigboss]

HTC has a problem with connecting back to network once it loses it.

My One X had this problem. It's "smart sync". I disabled it and the problem has gone.

Not sure if it's possible without rooting though. (seems it might be...

http://www.androidauthority.com/smartsync-disabler-app-review-100311/

Smartsync disabler is not available on Google Play any more.

 

[fr0g]

HTC has a problem with connecting back to network once it loses it.

My One X had this problem. It's "smart sync". I disabled it and the problem has gone.

Not sure if it's possible without rooting though. (seems it might be...

http://www.androidauthority.com/smartsync-disabler-app-review-100311/

Smartsync disabler is not available on Google Play any more.

Ah.

Well it's an option in the ROM I am using...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1562603

(which has also boosted battery life somewhat... I now charge it when I get home from work, and it's usually on 40% or more 24 hours later when I get home the next day).

 

[bigboss]

Nokia's camera is vastly superior to its competitors:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/7/3299784/nokia-lumia-920-pureview-camera-hi-res-photos

 

[fr0g]

Nokia's camera is vastly superior to its competitors:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/7/3299784/nokia-lumia-920-pureview-camera-hi-res-photos

Looking at those images, the S3 in night mode looks best. The 920 image is a little blurrier and noisy, although not bad for the scene.

 

[bigboss]

Yes, it was commented that Nokia could do with a shorter shutter time & sacrifice a bit of brightness. Hopefully, the final version comes with a better algorithm.

 

[BenLaw]

Nokia's camera is vastly superior to its competitors:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/7/3299784/nokia-lumia-920-pureview-camera-hi-res-photos

I'm not sure I get 'vastly superior' as a conclusion from that article. 'A bit better than all but one of its competitors at one aspect of photography' might be a fairer conclusion. Oh and 'much dodgier advertisers than their competitors'.

 

[bigboss]

It's vastly superior in terms of lighting. Also, do you really think competitors use the actual phone when showing photos and videos in those adverts? In real life, is Siri really that good as shown in the advert?

 

[bigboss]

http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-testing-of-nokia-lumia-920-shows-nokia-didnt-need-to-lie-about-pureview-performance-7000003919/

As is clearly shown in The Verge article, the Nokia Lumia 920 does indeed capture solid photos in low light conditions and turns our still images better than any other current high end smartphone

 

[BenLaw]

It's vastly superior in terms of lighting.

So as I say, in one aspect only (per that article). And as you've already accepted, not in relation to one competitor (as it stands at the moment). So my summary is much better and yours was misleading for anyone not reading the article.

Also, do you really think competitors use the actual phone when showing photos and videos in those adverts? In real life, is Siri really that good as shown in the advert?

No, I don't think either of those things, nor did I say I did. I think it is the responsibility to state when this sort of thing happens, such as when apple says the sequence is shortened with Siri. Nokia admitted their wrongdoing with an apology.

 

[shafesk]

I know people want it to be great but I made the mistake of getting a win 7 phone replacing it with an android, big mistake. It gets buggier the more I use it, few days ago whatsapp stopped working for the entire platform. While it is true that they seem to have a lot of apps but these apps are really really horrible. There is also no real multitasking here, it just pauses the app and takes ages to resume. I would like to advise everyone not to be early adopters as Microsoft takes their sweet time with bug fixes. Shame that Nokia didnt choose the android path, it has so much more potential.

 

[bigboss]

So as I say, in one aspect only (per that article). And as you've already accepted, not in relation to one competitor (as it stands at the moment). So my summary is much better and yours was misleading for anyone not reading the article.

Depends on how you look at it. The quality of a photo depends on 2 aspects: hardware (aperture & shutter speed) & software (the algorithm to determine the correct shutter speed & aperture). The hardware cannot be altered. The other phones cannot overcome the aperture limitation, while Nokia's algorithm can be altered with a software update. By Nokia's own admission, it's not a finished product. The camera is vastly superior to its competitors, & also includes image stabilisation which is not merely a software feature.

This is the complete explanation, which, you may admit, is better than your explanation.

No, I don't think either of those things, nor did I say I did. I think it is the responsibility to state when this sort of thing happens, such as when apple says the sequence is shortened with Siri. Nokia admitted their wrongdoing with an apology.

Apple put that disclaimer AFTER people complained & went to court. Similar with its 4G claims. Apple has never admitted using professional cameras to click those photos. Even it will come put with an apology when it gets caught.

 

[shafesk]

I'd say the first iPhone was more evolution than revolution. It certainly wasn't the first touch screen smart-phone. It did of course bring the best (at the time) OS to touch screen smart-phones and a sleek exterior. iOS looks pretty dated now though.

yep, least we not foget, the first iphone was an ipod touch with a built in phone module, something that modders had done previously to the touch.

Untrue, the first iphone was launched about 3 months before the touch. Modders did come up with a mod for the touch but this wasnt till about 8 months after the launch of the iphone.

 

[bigboss]

I'd say the first iPhone was more evolution than revolution. It certainly wasn't the first touch screen smart-phone. It did of course bring the best (at the time) OS to touch screen smart-phones and a sleek exterior. iOS looks pretty dated now though.

yep, least we not foget, the first iphone was an ipod touch with a built in phone module, something that modders had done previously to the touch.

Untrue, the first iphone was launched about 3 months before the touch. Modders did come up with a mod for the touch but this wasnt till about 8 months after the launch of the iphone.

That is correct. It is without doubt that the iPhone was a revolutionary product & not mere evolutionary. The entire mobile landscape changed after the iPhone.