Nokia’s Windows Phone march made a bold new step forward today, as the Finnish company took to the stage in New York to unveil the Nokia Lumia 920. Is it the best phone Nokia’s ever made?
The Lumia 920 is the first Windows Phone 8 device to be announced, which immediately separates it from the rest of the Windows Phone pack and allows it all the goodies that Microsoft’s overhauled OS allows. As well as the redesigned Start Screen, theres support for VoIP and multi-core processors.
The Lumia 920 at a glance
The Lumia 920 boasts a 4.5-inch ClearBlack display and a polycarbonate unibody design. That display is as pin sharp as you’d expect from the same company that made the Lumia 800 with its curvy, jet black screen. ‘PureMotion HD+’ tech keeps fast-moving images blur-free, and everything pops even under direct sunlight – Nokia claims it’s the brightest HD smartphone display ever, and on first sight we’d be inclined to agree.
Specs-wise, we’re looking at a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, which is a 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A5 beast. While not quad-core, that S4 should provide enough power to make Windows Phone 8 run like melted butter.
The camera
And then there’s PureView. The camera tech that packs in an absurd amount of Megapixels into one sensor and as first seen on the Nokia PureView 808, is here, albeit in a slightly tweaked way. That means that the Nokia Lumia 920 not only has the best camera of all Windows Phone handsets, it arguably has the best smartphone camera full stop.
PureView in this instance captures between five and ten times as much light as any competitor with the same shutter speed, which – combined with a floating camera that stabilises you – should remove any blur from your shots and HD video. The shots we’ve seen (while not as detailed as the ones from the bulkier 808) are genuinely stunning.
Extra, extra
Rounding things off are Nokia’s bizarre charge-pads – the Lumia 920 has wireless charging built in, based on the Qi wireless standard. Nok aims to provide a solution for charging on the go by way of deals to put charge pads in places like coffee shops and Virgin Atlantic lounges. The conductive tech nestled inside allows these Lumias to power up simply by laying on top of their big, stylised homes. There’s also NFC built in.
Bonus software includes Nokia CityLens – an AR-powered app for scanning your surroundings, and an updated Nokia Maps that now boasts offline maps.
All-in-all, the Lumia 920 is a very strong effort from Nokia, and could well give the iPhone 5 a run for its money when it launches. Nokia’s ‘Switch to Lumia’ strapline may be bold, but this isn’t a bad start if it intends to rip people from their current ecosystem. There’s no release date or price, yet, sadly, but we’ll keep you posted.
Oh yeah, and Windows Phone 8 now supports screenshots, which caused a bit of a stir with the masses here at the New York keynote.
