The good: The Nokia Lumia 920 forges new Windows Phone ground with wireless charging support and a highly sensitive screen you can use with gloves. Moreover, Nokia helps fill in Windows Phone OS gaps with a few missing features.
The bad: A thick, heavy build and slippery finish for some colors make the Lumia 920 harder to hold and carry, and the phone’s overhyped camera doesn’t have enough settings.
The bottom line: Nokia’s Lumia 920 is heavy and thick, but if you want the most powerful, feature-rich Windows phone available, this is it.
AT&T’s Nokia Lumia 920 isn’t for wimps. It’s big, it’s heavy, and it takes a power user to truly appreciate the phone’s special features. If you open your heart and expand your pockets, the Lumia 920’s smooth, streamlined design beautifully showcases all that the just-launched Windows Phone 8 OS has to offer. Beyond that, a glove-friendly screen, wireless charging, cached music, and turn-by-turn directions take the Lumia 920 a step further than Windows Phone can achieve on its own, bringing you the roundest, fullest Windows Phone experience that money can buy.
Just because the Lumia 920 is bigger, doesn’t mean that it’s better for everyone. Not all AT&T customers who can choose between the Lumia 920 and the HTC Windows Phone 8X — or even pick among the iPhone 5 or an Android phone or two — will go Nokia. However, for $99, I would.
The specs are strong, but not everyone feels they need 32GB of memory over 16GB, and if you believe Nokia’s trumpeting message about its advanced camera, you could find yourself mildly disappointed. The Lumia 920’s chief high-end Windows Phone rival, the Windows Phone 8X, is lighter, handles better, and spans three carriers to the Lumia 920’s single provider. You’ll be able to find a comparison between the 8X and the Lumia 920 here.
Slightly larger and significantly heavier than its predecessor, the Lumia 920 could do some serious damage if you were to catch it in the jaw. With its consistent 0.4-inch thickness throughout the polycarbonate unibody, the Lumia 920 has presence. And gravity; 6.5 ounces of gravity, to be exact. As such, it’s a handset you notice when you drop it in your purse, shove it into a pocket, and casually lift it off a tabletop.
The 920 retains the Lumia 900’s perfectly flat top and bottom, round spines, and distinct 90-degree angles around the face. On the plus side, its curvier back gives it a more comfortable palm feel than the Lumia 900’s mostly straight plane. Yet its girth makes it a bulkier back-pocket companion than I prefer. I usually desensitize to the phones I carry around in my jeans, but the Lumia 920 never let me forget.
Although the two Lumias are clearly cut from the same cloth, there are differences. The Lumia 920 is 0.1 inch taller (5.1 inches) and 0.1 inch wider (2.8 inches) than the 900, its side buttons are slightly redesigned and repositioned, and the Micro-USB charger moves from the top to the 920’s base, while also adding two small screws. The camera and flash also drop a few millimeters on the back.
Leave a Reply