Nokia Lumia 920 Review

The Nokia Lumia 920 probably isn't for the typical phone user. The Nokia Lumia 920 beautifully shows you all the features of the newly released Windows Phone 8 OS. It is big and bold, and it takes a dedicated smartphone user to fully appreciate the power of the Nokia Lumia 920. But if you are looking for the most powerful Windows Phone right now, this is the phone for you. Other than being currently the most powerful Windows 8 smartphone, it offers many features, such as wireless charging and many more make the Nokia Lumia 920 a step ahead of other Windows 8 phones, providing you with an incredible Windows 8 experience.

Just because the Nokia Lumia 920 is bigger, better, and more powerful, doesn't mean everyone will go for this phone, as some might even prefer an Android or another Windows Phone. The Lumia 920 boasts impressive specs and runs the Windows Phone 8 operating system silky smooth. And even though the Lumia 920 claims to have an impressive camera, you'll probably be a bit disappointed. The Nokia Lumia 920 is slightly larger, but significantly heavier than the previous version of the Nokia Lumia (the Lumia 900).

                      

The Lumia 920 has a "sculpted" body, which means it has a unibody design and the screen is a seamless part of the body. The Nokia Lumia 920 also has an impressive HD screen. Its screen has an impressive 1280 x 768-pixel resolution (WXGA) with an incredible amount of pixel density in other words, 332 pixels per inch. Nokia has improved its screen  technology to build the Lumia 920 with a modified 4.5-inch IPS LCD display. Nokia named it "PureMotion+ HD," because it can do some pretty cool stuff. For example, the sensitivity of the screen can be set to the max, so you can navigate it with your nail or in gloves. Most smartphones will not respond unless its a capacitive object.

Another feature included in the Lumia 920 is wireless charging. The wireless charging, in fact, does NOT have an internal battery, so you'll still have the trouble of wires, you have to plug something into it. The charging pad will only start a charge when you place the phone on the pad. The charging pad also does not have to be one made by Nokia, because anything with a "Qi" standard will work.  
Nokia also sports a high-resolution camera that uses Carl Zeiss optics at 8.7 megapixels, and most importantly, the PureView algorithms. Nokia defines the PureView software as its algorithm  however, the camera aperture is larger than on most smartphones, which gives it better performance in low light. The Lumia 920 takes amazing pictures.

Most of the time, the image quality was nice and fairly consistent -- pictures look crispier and have more contrast on other phones. Colors sometimes were not all the way you see it with your eyes; sometimes the camera has a pink or blue tint on the image. The Lumia's 1 MP front-facing camera does't take stellar shots (unfortunately), but it certainly is good for video-chatting. Videos taken on the Lumia 920 were great, colors were indeed  natural, and records 1080p video. The Nokia Lumia 920 is a great all-around smartphone, but because of its weight and size, this might not be the phone for everyone, though. Most of the features are near-perfect, and none of them are unfinished features to drive you away from buying this phone. 



Review by © 2012 Andy Chin

© 2012 Nokia Corporation

LG Optimus G Preview

The LG Optimus G is the first smartphone to utilize the quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, which is to offer state-of-the-art performance. From what we see, it is incredibly fast indeed.

It looks like the new LG Optimus G is going to be a great competitor to the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S3. The elegant phone sports a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro Processor paired with 2GB RAM, a 4.7-inch True HD IPS Plus display, a 13 or 8 megapixel camera depending on regions, and 32GB of internal storage.

With a 2-year contract the Sprint LG Optimus G will retail for only $199.99, which is in line with the most high-end smartphone launches, except for a few exceptions.

Although performance looks great on paper, exactly how good is it?

Technical highlights

	Optimus G/ Korea/Sprint	Optimus G/ AT&T	iPhone 5	Galaxy S3
Display	IPS Plus 1280 x 768	IPS Plus 1280 x 768	IPS (1136x640)	HD S-AMOLED (1280×720)
Display size	4.7"	4.7″	4.5″	4.8″
Display PPI	320	320	326	306
Processor	Snapdragon S4 Pro	Snapdragon S4 Pro	Apple A6	Snapdragon S4/ Exynos 4 Quad
Storage	32GB built-in	16GB+32GB microSD	32GB	32GB + 64 GB microSD
microSD	no	yes (up to 64GB)	no	yes (up to 64GB)
Battery	2100mAh	2100mAh	1430mAh	2100mAh
Width	2.71” / 68.9 mm	2.51″ / 132.95 mm	2.31″	2.51″
Rear Camera	13 MP	8 MP	8 MP	8 MP
Front Camera	1.3 MP	1.3 MP	1.2 MP	1.9 MP
Network	Sprint CDMA – EVDO Rev. A, LTE	SM Quad Band/UTMS Tri Band/LTE Dual Band	LTE	LTE
Height	0.33″ / 8.45 mm	0.34″ / 8.6 mm	0.3″	0.34″
Length	5.19″/131.9 mm	5.17″ / 131.3 mm	4.87″	5.47″
Weight	5.11oz / 145 g	5.19oz	3.95oz	4.69oz

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The industrial design is respectable. LG did a good product design, a hair thinner than the Galaxy S3. The slim body features a great build with a textured backside, covered with a smooth glass-based finish.

Display

First of all, the LG Optimus G is slimmer than both predecessors: 8.45 mm, versus 8.9 mm, for the Optimus 4X HD and the Optimus LTE 2. Although the Optimus G display is a tad bit smaller, it has a high resolution, therefore, the pixel density has improved. LG also introduced its new ZeroGap technology to make the device thinner and reduce glare, or the screen reflectivity.

Processor

The LG Optimus G is the first phone to be able to boast the Quad-Core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC with an Adreno 320 CPU.

Camera

The camera has been improved (compared to the LTE 2 and the LG Optimus Vu) on both the resolution side and on the quality side. The autofocus and shutter speed are much faster than on the LTE 2, for example. The management of dark and light zones are also improved.

Design

The LG Optimus G design is pretty good, and although it has a texture, it is better done than the LTE 2. The texture with the diamond pattern is only for visual purposes, at it is covered by a layer of glass. 

Review by © 2012 Andy Chin, revised by Grant Han
 
Photo Credit: Engadget

© 2012 LG Electronics