back to article Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 handset review

If you ever go down the pub and let slip you’re a tech writer, you’re invariably asked for recommendations. With smartphones, this is pretty difficult these days because they’re all pretty good. No, scrap that, today’s devices are just amazing compared to what you could get a few years ago. They all do a job; you can’t really …

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  1. Bob Vistakin
    FAIL

    With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

    http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_lumia_920_sample_images_found_to_be_fake_as_well-news-4769.php

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

      Yes, yes, you keep banging on about it.

      However, the images in this article were obviously taken by the author, weren't they? The author also said that the camera was excellent, possibly the phone was worth it for the camera alone.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

        "possibly the phone was worth it for the camera alone."

        NO ! you do realize what sort of camera you can actually buy for half the price of this phone ?

        1. dogged

          Re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

          If such a camera could receive SMS messages, act as a full voice-guided GPS SatNav and fit comfortably in my pocket, I might consider it. Sadly, I don't know of any. If you do, please link them because I'm not kidding.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

            @dogged - perhaps you missed "possibly the phone was worth it for the camera alone."

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: If such a camera could receive SMS messages...

            http://www.samsung.com/in/promotions/galaxycamera/

            ;-)

          3. Richard Plinston

            Re: I don't know of any

            Try this one.

            http://phandroid.com/2011/09/29/panasonic-lumix-phone-101p-digital-camera-meets-android/

            What I don't understand is why Panasonic with its LUMIX trademark hasn't sued Nokia over their steal this with LUMIA. How close does it need to be ?

        2. Hyper72
          Happy

          Re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

          For most people the best camera is the one they have with them when unexpectedly needed.

      2. Manu T

        Re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

        The reviewer is using superlative terms to describe this camera although I haven't seen any photos worth of these superlatives. Sure they are a little bit better but not enough to brag about it. The 808's photos are A LOT better, in fact IMHO the N8 even takes better pics.

        I don't understand why ppl are so gullible and susceptible to this kind of pro-WP/pro-Nokia propaganda. The OS still isn't mature enough to replace a recent Symbian device. Many distinctive Symbian features are still not converted to WP and hence quite some Symbian users simply can't make the switch.

        One example. I've been using call recording for ages (SE K700i --> K750i --> Samsung Omnia SGH-900i WM6.1 --> Nokia C7 --> Nokia 701) and simply won't go back to limited pre-2004 phone functionality. This is becomming more and more important since recent leglislation prohibits calling when driving in various states and countries.

        Another example. I've been syncing my contacts and agenda (from the expensive MS Office business suite) to my phones since I had a Pocket PC PDA. Today this list contains well over 600 contacts which I can't store on the cloud due to client confidentiality.

        From what I read here I see yet another smartphone not suitable for professionals but for fashionable kids and yuppies who have nothing else to do than to fool around in Twitter and Facebook. Before the iPhone professional phone users where catered for (not in the least since professionals have the money to spend on expensive phones) but ever since the iPhones it's all for rich kids. It's all about fart apps, games and music. And now even Nokia is falling for that crap :-(

        When will these guys start making smartphones for professionals again?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      8 Page Review

      Nearly twice as long as any other product.

      Are all the Reg hacks enjoying their new Windows 8 goodies that arrived in the post?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 8 Page Review

        @AC 13:05:

        I assume that you're accusing the Reg reviewers of being bribed by MS to give good reviews? If that's what you think then just come out and say it.

        I personally think that if you think that little of people you'll always be a disappointed, miserable and ultimately bitter person. Try to look on the bright side a bit, if all you look for in a person is low standards, you'll always find something, if you expect people to be basically genuine and honest, you'll usually find that and be happier to boot.

      2. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

        Re: 8 Page Review

        Eight pages because it's mostly photographs and there's lots to say about it.

        C.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 8 Page Review @AC

        "Are all the Reg hacks enjoying their new Windows 8 goodies that arrived in the post?"

        That's an oxymoron.

        1. DF118
          Stop

          Re: 8 Page Review @AC

          I don't know if you've noticed over the years but our Mr Orlowski is big on Nokia. He wants to see them do well and obviously went to a lot of effort in producing this review. Doesn't mean the review's biased or that he or the Reg is being bribed. In fact I don't think I've seen a more in-depth and honest review of a phone - either on the Reg or elsewhere - for quite some time. Orlowski's occasional Nokia analysis articles are required reading even if you're only slightly interested in the company or its products.

          In summary, take your snark elsewhere.

    3. N13L5
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: "They all do a job; you can’t really recommend a ‘bad’ one."

      Yes you can recommend a bad one. Because its not just the device you're buying.

      It matters a LOT if you're stuck with a SINGLE SOURCE APPSTORE controlled by a greedy corporation like Apple or Microsoft.

      Since Microsoft is all-in for copying Crapple's closed business model, there's one BIG FAT recommendation against anything with WindPhone to be made.

      What matters is, if programmers can sign their own apps at no cost, to foster competition between large and small developers and that you are free to get apps from other stores besides a given Corporation's store, or side-load them from your own backups. The way you've always been free to do on the PC. M$ plans to end that, and WART is phase one.

      >>>>> Please don't vote with your money for this shit coming to pass!

      Also important is, that you can actually customize your phone's OS to work the way you like, instead of having to conform to Microsoft's or Apple's one-size-fits-all shackles.

    4. Jan Hargreaves

      Re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

      Looking at the pictures the author has posted, I can see every reason why they used a PROPER camera to make the shots for the advertising. The shots he has posted are grainy, fuzzy, lots of noise, just poor overall. But I guess most people now accept this level of picture. Laziness to carry 2 devices is all I can think of as a reason.

      Can you imagine the ads if they used the actual pictures taken by the phone? They would be a laughing stock of tech world. Which wouldn't be so bad, but for the fact that the camera is supposed to be the most impressive feature of the phone... oh dear... the rest of it must be awful.

      I do find it slightly strange how the review starts off really positively, but then this doesn't work... this crashes... this is not as good as the rival... etc etc

      I'm glad some people like the tiles home screen.. .I just haven't met any of them yet. It's big, ugly, a waste of space, and as the author stresses - counter intuiative.

  2. Andy Nugent

    re: With such a great camera why fake the pictures then?

    Do you think it's possible the marketing company was hired to do the campaign before the phone was ready?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To ee or not to ee

    Sorry - couldn't resist.

    Given my experiences with Orange in the past though there is no way in hell I would invest in a 4G phone only to have to use their sorry excuse of a network. It may be the biggest in terms on the ease with which you can connect but just try doing anything on their 3G network - never mind 4G - once you're connected. As far as I'm concerned the EE exclusiivity is a deal breaker for me, and if Nokia were really to withhold unlocked sets for even longer than currently planned then I may well end up buying something else.

    I hope this doesn't happen though as the 920 looks like a nice handset. Why Nokia would stop people like me from buying one though really is beyond me. Are they still in self-destruct mode?

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Re: To ee or not to ee

      They don't seem to have moved beyond the "sell to the operators" mindset of the last decade.

      People don't want to change their network to obtain a phone, they look for the phone that is on the network they are on or if some cases look for an unlocked handset.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    gloves, hey?

    > This is a phone can even be used with gloves, thanks to.

    Well, maybe the author should have removed his gloves before typing this :P

  5. skeete
    Thumb Up

    Get mine on 15th Nov

    I live in Bangkok, Thailand and I pick up my fully unlocked slate grey 920 on the 15th November. Was £429 and I get a 7% rebate at the airport when I fly out of the country in December.

    I personally went for this phone as its Microsoft and I quite like the Dev community support I have received over the years, it seems far more friendly and willing to help than the Apple Dev community. I have not experienced Android Dev's.

    1. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: Get mine on 15th Nov

      Downvoting for giving an opinion on the support you personally experienced from a dev community...

      Fanbois annoyed that you didn't find them friendly, or Fandroids disappointed you didn't give them a go?

      1. Silverburn

        @ Graeme

        Given the abundance of sour grape downvotes on any articles/posts even slightly critical of Android, I'd go with the later.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @ Graeme

          Given the abundance of sour grape downvotes on any articles/posts even slightly critical of Apple, I'd go with the former.

          1. graeme leggett Silver badge
            Facepalm

            Re: @ Graeme

            @Me

            Damn, I meant to post anonymously.

    2. k007

      Re: Get mine on 15th Nov

      Hi Skeete

      Will the 920 be generally available in BKK on the 15th? I get in that day and wouldn't mind grabbing one that day - any tips where to go (MBK, Pantip, etc)

      cheers

      K007

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Re: Get mine on 15th Nov

        > Damn, I meant to post anonymously.

        I can' believe the mendacity in this hive of scum and villany.

  6. Alexander Hanff 1
    Alert

    Some questions for the author

    I was lucky enough to be gifted with a Lumia 900 from Nokia for free and would very much like to upgrade to the 920 purely because the 900 will not be getting WP8.

    However, a few questions remain unanswered.

    1. Does WP8 support OpenVPN?

    2. Does WP8 support opening password protected MS Office documents?

    3. Does WP8 support full "file" encryption (I say file but obviously I am referring to the user space/files)?

    4. Does WP8 support NTP (the Lumia 900 and 800 both suffer from terrible "time loss" issues).

    I know this is a Lumia 920 review and not a WP8 review, but I would really like to know if these issues have been addressed. If they haven't then I don't see how WP8 devices can ever make serious waves in the business sector as these are fundamental issues.

    1. Ian Michael Gumby
      Alert

      Re: Some questions for the author

      To add to this...

      The article mentions mail sync w Hotmail.

      What about other imap sources including GMail?

      Granted its an alternative to Microsoft, but many potential customers rely on it so easy connections/synch w GMail and Google Calendar is unfortunately a 'must'.

      One advantage over the iPhone... able to swap sims so I can just buy a sim in a new country if I need to, right?

      1. Mike Taylor

        Re: Some questions for the author

        I didn't get that reference either. I have a nokia windowsphone 7.5. I get email from my gmail account into my messages bit, along with other email and facebook messages. Contacts are pulled in from linkedin, outlook, live, google, twitter, facebook and google. Seamlessly. Calendar ditto, i don't have to think about it, it's really sweet and built in. Andrew has been critical of these parts before now. I guess he'd prefer some native set of apps, not this cloudy synced rubbish. :-)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Some questions for the author

          I'll correct that for ya: "Contacts are pulled in from linkedin, EXCHANGE, live, google, twitter, facebook and google. Seamlessly. Calendar ditto, ..".

      2. matt williams 1

        Re: Some questions for the author

        When he says you can only sync contacts with Hotmail, he's plainly wrong unless WP8 is different to 7.5.

        Windows Phone syncs with Google as Exchange so you can hook up Contacts, Email, Calendars with ease.

        I don't have any contacts or anything in Hotmail, my live account email account is hosted with google and it all works fine for me

    2. Andrew Orlowski (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Some questions for the author

      Alex:

      These are really good questions, we need to a proper business/pro focussed roundup that gives them answers. It just didn't seem to be a priority for MS getting fixes into WP8.

      Flagging an IMAP message isn't even a particularly 'pro' feature, its absence is a killer for me.

      1. Matt_payne666

        Re: Some questions for the author

        You can add multiple sub calendars to that list too!

        On my iPhone I have my main google calendar which has a sub calendar for work and the subscription to my girlfriends calendar, all works a treat, on my win8 metro calendar I can get my main and sub calendars up, but not the subscribed one... Then only the main is selectable for adding appointments!

  7. pip25
    Thumb Up

    This is what a review should look like

    As much as I don't see eye to eye with Mr. Orlowski on copyright-related matters, I find myself wishing he'd review the fruity firm's newest offering as well next time.

    (Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I intend to own a WP8 device.)

  8. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Can I buy the review handset off you?

    Cus I'm buggered if I can find some way of getting one without paying for a stupidly expensive EE contract.

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Even worse is EE are delaying the phone for a month stating there are issues with 4G and battery life on their network.

  9. Danny 14

    how much of the 32Gb is available for use? No SD card would put it off for me straight away. Cloud storage would be useless for most people due to usage caps.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Notifications

    Do Facebook notifications work yet? They don't on 7.5 that's for sure....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Notifications

      Go into your people hub and slide across to notifications. All notifications from your friends will be shown. Obviously posts from groups aren't as it doesn't bring in groups.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Notifications

        I mean notifiactions....you know, liek that notify you. Not somethign whereby you need to unlock the device, go into people hub and then check, otherwise you may as well just go into facebook and check there. I mean real notifications that tell you about messages etc...

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Linux

      Re: Notifications

      No, and the fact they aren't present shows the software is half done as they claim to be coming later. What you get now is this half-assed fail, cynically rushed out in time for Christmas in the bizarre hope someone will not mind being forced to use ee and their comedy tariffs.

      It's a prefect example of exactly what Nokia pre-Microsoft would never release in a million years. Nor need to fake crowds outside stores, or fake photos to market it or flood online forums with shills in order to astroturf interest etc.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Notifications

        "It's a prefect example of exactly what Nokia pre-Microsoft would never release in a million years. Nor need to fake crowds outside stores, or fake photos to market it or flood online forums with shills in order to astroturf interest etc."

        What are you smoking, exactly? The slow death of S60 became a bugfest that would have shamed Windows Vista. "N97", that is all.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Notifications

          Symbian was very optimal, but it was also shit.

          https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r04yjaQoL1c_vuwQr-CdbDQ8EjGVGOL_1V6BNVWaR1c/preview?sle=true

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Notifications

        @Bob: You answer so authoritatively that I assume you've got a 920, presumably in order that you can fully understand it before you slag it off. Once you've finished with it, can I have it? I'd really like one.

        Also: It's just a phone and some software, it shouldn't be able to wind you up this much. There are many things to be wound up by, but a telephone that doesn't quite please really isn't one of them.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Notifications

        So the software not finished, like Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.0 (remember that?).....

        Search for:

        gingerbread wifi issues and see the never ending problems people had with it.

        Talk about rush jobs and bad installs...

        1. TeeCee Gold badge
          Coat

          Re: Notifications

          One might also mention a certain mapping application that seems to have had a quick rebadge from "Alpha" to "RTP" and been rushed out the door to coincide with a launch date by A N Other manufacturer.

      4. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

        Re: Notifications

        Bob,

        1. There are many people in the world.

        2. Those people have not had your life experiences, they are genetically different from you, have grown up in a different environment to you, and have not read and heard the same information as you, and consequently, they have not formed the same opinions, desires and expectations as you have.

        3. These other people, when acting on the knowledge and opinions and expectations that they hold, may occasionally do things that you find inexplicable or illogical.

        4. When other people act in opposition to your personal beliefs, it is not the result of a grand conspiracy against these beliefs, but rather the actions of someone whose experience of the world around them is not the same as yours.

        So, when someone on the internet posts that they like a product that you despise, or a product made by a company that you use as a shorthand for everything that is evil in the world, there are several reasons for them doing this: of these reasons, by far the most likely is that they are telling the truth.

        1. Bob Vistakin
          Devil

          Re: Notifications

          @Kristian Do these "many people in the world" include Microsofts former mobile "partners"?

          http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/11/in-memoriam-microsofts-previous-strategic-mobile-partners/

          1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

            Re: Notifications

            No, those are corporations. Corporations aren't people, and they shouldn't be treated as people. Once you start ascribing human emotions to a legal construct, you're on the slippery slope.

            Google can't love you back, it doesn't deserve your loyalty. It's a corporation, and it exists only to take your money.

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