On Easter Sunday 2012, Nokia and Windows Phone attempted to rise from the near-dead with what was supposed to be a major push for both companies. A few months earlier, the Lumia 900 running Windows Phone 7.5 earned raves at the Consumer Electronics Show, igniting hope that Nokia could pull out of its downward spiral and also that there would finally be a worthy competitor to Android and the iPhone.
Things didn't go so well. First was the fact that the Lumia was on just one of the four major US carriers, AT&T. Then within months, word came that the next major iteration of Windows Phone would not be compatible with existing hardware.
Faster than you can say 'dead in the water,' the Lumia line was. That's what's known as The Osborne Effect; what happens when a product on the market loses all momentum because details leak out on a newer version that make it so appealing, no one wants the old version.
Finally in November came the Lumia 820, 822 and 920, as well as the HTC Windows Phone 8X, all running Windows Phone 8. Could they stop the lost momentum and give consumers a viable alternative to Google Android and Apple iPhone?
Speaking only as a Lumia 920 owner, I'd say the answer is yes. The bumps in hardware push it well past the iPhone and it is at just the right spot for size, neither too big like the Samsung Galaxy S III or too small like my retired-except-for-games iPhone 4S.
It corrects some deficiencies of the 900 but not all of them, and has a few problems of its own.
Build & Design
Out of the box, you get the phone, the AC-16 Nokia Fast USB charger, CA-190CD Nokia charging and data USB cable, WH-208 Nokia Stereo Headset, and a SIM door key. The WH-208 headset is decent, but unexceptional. I use a Plantronics Blutetooth headset, which paired with the phone.
The Lumia 920's design continues the "Fabula" design first seen in the Nokia N9 and replicated with the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 900. The overall shape and look, with the rounded plastic edges and seamless integration of the screen remains, giving it a unique look amidst all the "chocolate bar" designed phones. Yes, that's the term people use to describe smartphones.
At 185 grams, it's one of the heaviest smartphones out there, yet it sits in my pocket while out and about completely unnoticed. It's not like I need to stop and take a seat because my phone is too heavy. On the contrary, I like a phone with some heft. The iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III are so light as to be insubstantial; I'm afraid I'll throw them out by accident.
In our Lumia 900 review, Grant Hatchimonji dinged the phone for being slippery. The smooth polycarbonate body was so smooth, the phone slipped from his hands. This has not changed, and the phone has proven a bit slippery for me, too. Don't swing your hands around whole holding this thing.
Display
The Lumia 900's screen was a deceptively beautiful 800 x 480 that looked better than it had any right to. Well, if you liked that, wait until you see the 920's 4.5-inch IPS LCD touch screen with PureMotion HD+ designation. With 1280 x 768 resolution, it is absolutely gorgeous, free of aliasing or any jagged edges. The Live Tiles of Windows Phone 8 rotate smoothly and images displayed are near picture quality.
This screen is slightly larger, 4.5-inches, vs. the 4.3-inch screen on the 900 but retains the 15:9 aspect ratio of Windows Phone, so apps will not be broken. At 332 pixels per inch, it's one of the densest displays out there.
The 920 introduces something Nokia calls overdriven pixels, which improves the response rate of the screen in changing from one color to another. The typical IPS-LCD screen has a transition time of around 23ms, according to Nokia, but the Lumia 920 Nokia has a response time of just 9ms.
Keyboard
The Lumia 920 retains the virtual keyboard from the previous model with the same autocorrect technology that won't embarrass you like iPhone AutoCorrect. At the same time, you have to pick proper spellings. It won't fix the mistakes for you.
The one thing that has not changed from the 900 is the annoying tendency of the keyboard to stay up while filling out forms. On the iPhone, for example, the form would scroll down so you could see the next entry box. The Lumia does not do this. I had to close the keyboard and scroll down to the next box to fill it out.
Other Buttons and Controls
Like the 900, the right side is host to a volume up/down rocker, the power/standby switch, and a dedicated camera key. The bottom of the device is where its primary speaker can be found, and the backside features a camera with a Carl Zeiss f/2.0 lens and its LED flash.
In a merciful change, the micro USB port for charging has been moved from the top of the phone, where it was right next to the headphone jack, and is now at the bottom of the phone. The SIM card is also at the top, just like before.
Performance
This is where the Lumia 920 makes up for its predecessors. The 900 was criticized for being a little pokey. With the 920, everything is doubled: we went from a single core 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm to a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon, and from 512MB of execution memory to 1GB of memory.
The result? Very little waiting. Most apps load instantly. Only games, like the hefty Angry Birds or Battleship take a few seconds to load. Thanks to plunging flash memory prices, you now get 32GB for your $99 phone, whereas the 900 had 16GB for the same price.
Microsoft has already pushed out a fix to Windows Phone 8 in December, which were delivered over the air. The update includes a promised fix for random reboots, an always-connected WiFi capability and some new SMS-focused capabilities, such as select all, draft saving and call rejection.
Communication
Four years ago, I was the proud owner of an iPhone 3G but never got to use the 3G because AT&T's coverage was so bad, I actually turned it off and got better performance on the 2.5 Edge network.
History repeats itself. AT&T's 3G network has gotten much better. With my iPhone 4S, I could get decent indoor 3G reception. AT&T calls its HSPA+ network 4G, as does AT&T, but for my money, 4G is LTE. Anyway, it didn't matter if I was in Best Buy, the supermarket, Costco or any other store, the iPhone would pick up 3G and get something resembling a signal.
Fat chance on both the Lumia 920. Its indoor performance is just atrocious. It repeatedly fails to pick up a signal, and it doesn't fall back to 3G very well, either.
My fix was to to disable LTE. Dial ##3282 to access the Field Test menu. Hit the three periods at the bottom right and tap Settings. Under the menu for Network Type, select "3G Only" and then toggle ENS Off, and restart. That will keep you on AT&T's 3G network, which has better coverage than its LTE network. I've gotten a signal in places where the 4G was useless.
Another cool discovery: the Lumia 920's texting feature works with my Toyota Camry's Bluetooth phone. Both my iPhone and the Lumia supported the 2012 Camry's hands-free phone system, which displays your contacts on a screen in the dash and lets you make and receive calls using a microphone in the car and the stereo speakers.
But in addition to calls, the Lumia 920 will actually read text messages to you. So if you are driving and a SMS message comes in, it will be read aloud for you and you can respond.
Software
The Lumia 920 builds on the Windows application features from the 900. In addition to Microsoft Office and OneNote integration, you now have SkyDrive integration, so you can access files on the go.
Adding email clients is a snap, but it is silly to have two separate mail applications, one for my Exchange server and one for Gmail. The iPhone's integrated mail client was a step ahead in that regard.
Nokia's City Compass is a nice utility. As you rotate in place 360 degrees, it will show you on screen stores and businesses in the direction you are facing, and how far. So if you want a bite to eat, as you spin, it will find all the places to eat and tell you how far.
Likewise, there's Nokia Drive+ Beta, a free navigation application based on maps from Navteq, which Nokia owns, the same maps you probably have in your car GPS. Select the maps you need -- in my case, I selected just California maps to save space -- and you can mount the phone in your car as a GPS. Because it's Navteq, it's quite thorough and accurate and the Lumia is a lot faster than the sluggish, pokey GPSs on the market.
Not so great is Internet Explorer 10. It doesn't have multiple tabs like Safari on the iPhone nor does it have Safari's neat feature where you tap at the top of it and it jumps to the top of the page. Its SunSpider benchmark was terrible -- 935 vs. 1835 for iPhone 4S -- but Microsoft and Java have never meshed well.
Battery Life
Despite a 2,000mAh battery, battery life on the 920 just stinks. You can kill this thing with just a short round of gaming. And it retains the dumbest trait of Windows Phone: you can't leave it connected to a power cable when the phone is powered off. If you do, the phone will restart.
I have powered the phone down at night on a full charge, only to awaken, power it on and see the battery is down by about 10 percent. That takes me back to the good old days of early phone batteries. As it is, part of my motivation to move to 3G-only was to save power on LTE, since I wasn't getting an LTE connection anyway.
Just playing iHeartRadio for one hour drained the battery by 8%. A half hour of "Where's My Water?" resulted in a 20% drain. That's just not acceptable for a modern phone.
Conclusion
This is a beautiful phone with a few flaws, most of which can be fixed through software updates. Ignore the complaints about how heavy it is. You can slip it into your pocket and never know it's there. The integration with contact lists from Facebook and LinkedIn is so nice it alone makes me want to stay with WP.
That said, this is my new phone. For its battery flaws, once I shut off LTE, it's as reliable as any 3G phone. I can't tear my eyes off the screen. I was at the iPhone 4 launch when Retina Display was introduced and Steve Jobs wouldn't stop gushing over it. Well, Retina Display just took a sharp stick in the eye.
I live in an extremely iPhone-dense region, but you wouldn't believe how many people have stopped to crane their neck at the Lumia when I've used it in a public place.
With its 4.5" screen, it suits my fat fingers just fine. The main reason for replacing the iPhone is the screen is too small, and I am not alone in feeling this way.
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