Saturday, September 08, 2012
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Nokia is pinning its hopes on its new Lumia handsets with Windows Phone 8 but how good are they? Matt Warman tries out the Lumia 920.
The Nokia Lumia 920 was announced in New York yesterday. Photo: Reuters
Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia
Nokia
The new Nokia Lumia
920 mobile phone is the best the company has ever made – its 4.5” screen
curves round a pleasingly solid body that contains a camera that’s so clever
it can even work out when people walked in front of your shot, or add some
moving elements to still photographs. Its maps now seamlessly add content
from the web to show the street you’re walking down in glorious ‘augmented
reality’. Wireless charging means that even your bedside table or desk will
look neater thanks to Nokia.
There is, of course, a ‘but’ – the operating system, Windows Phone, is
struggling to attract users and Microsoft’s overall market share is still
falling. Nokia couldn’t get its act together to release prices or release
dates for its latest, lovely handset. That basic blunder is not one that
Apple will make when it announces the iPhone 5 next week, or that Samsung
makes when it launches important new products.
The Windows Phone 8 software remains excellent – its start screen has been
upgraded to use space more effectively, live tiles continue to offer
constant updates. Nokia itself has worked hard with partners to build apps
that provide real enhancements for the camera, and the package comes
together to make sure consumers feel that they’re always using one coherent
device rather than a phone that is constantly having new apps bolted
uncomfortably onto it.
Offline maps, too, work so well that the satnav is even more redundant than it
was before, because they’re built in properly to the phone. In the short
time I had hands-on with the phone, all the camera features worked
effectively, and the wireless charging is a neat addition, but of course
stil relies on users being near to a charger, albeit one that is now
wireless in its connection to the phone.
