Mobile Technology

Nokia unveils new flagship Windows Phone 8 handset: the Lumia 920

Nokia unveils new flagship Windows Phone 8 handset: the Lumia 920
The Lumia 920 looks to be a significant improvement over its predecessor, the Lumia 900
The Lumia 920 looks to be a significant improvement over its predecessor, the Lumia 900
View 7 Images
The Lumia 920 features an 8.7-megapixel main camera
1/7
The Lumia 920 features an 8.7-megapixel main camera
The Lumia 920 is available in yellow, red, white, grey, and black
2/7
The Lumia 920 is available in yellow, red, white, grey, and black
The Lumia 920 measures 70.8 x 130.3 x 10.7 mm (2.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches) and weighs 185 g (6.5 oz)
3/7
The Lumia 920 measures 70.8 x 130.3 x 10.7 mm (2.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches) and weighs 185 g (6.5 oz)
The BLD wireless charging speaker dock, compatible with the Lumia 820 and 920
4/7
The BLD wireless charging speaker dock, compatible with the Lumia 820 and 920
The Lumia 920 looks to be a significant improvement over its predecessor, the Lumia 900
5/7
The Lumia 920 looks to be a significant improvement over its predecessor, the Lumia 900
The Nokia City Lens feature is part of the Nokia Maps suite
6/7
The Nokia City Lens feature is part of the Nokia Maps suite
The Lumia 820 and 920 both feature support for wireless charging, in the form of the Qi wireless charging standard
7/7
The Lumia 820 and 920 both feature support for wireless charging, in the form of the Qi wireless charging standard
View gallery - 7 images

Nokia has added two new cellphones to its Lumia range: the budget-friendly Lumia 820 and flagship Lumia 920 – the latter handset boasting enough new features that, on paper at least, looks like it could be one of the most exciting Windows phones to be unveiled thus far.

Stylistically, the Lumia 920 retains the same bold look of its predecessor, the Lumia 900, and is available in yellow, red, white, grey, and black. The handset measures 70.8 x 130.3 x 10.7 mm (2.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches) and weighs 185 g (6.5 oz). It sports a 332 pixels-per-inch (PPI) 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ curved glass display, which just bests the iPhone 4/S’s famed 326 PPI.

The Lumia 920's rear-facing Nokia PureView camera isn't the same 41-megapixel monster we previously reported on, but features a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens with a resolution of 8.7 megapixels and Optical Image Stabilization, which is a piece of hardware that essentially "floats" the lens to cut down on shaky shots. The main camera is also capable of 1080p video recording, while a lower-quality camera resides on the front of the device to enable video calling.

Under the hood

The Lumia 820 and 920 both feature support for wireless charging, in the form of the Qi wireless charging standard
The Lumia 820 and 920 both feature support for wireless charging, in the form of the Qi wireless charging standard

Taking a look at the Lumia 920's hardware specifications, the phone packs a dual-core 1.5 Ghz Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon processor and 1 GB RAM, with 32 GB internal storage. The headline-grabber however, is the addition of support for wireless charging to both new Lumia models, in the form of the Qi Wireless charging standard. Aside from officially branded wireless chargers, the adoption of Qi could potentially allow the phones to dock with a variety of new wireless charging gizmos, though it's not yet clear if this will be the case.

When not charging, power to the Lumia 920 is provided by a 2,000 mAh battery, which Nokia rates as good for up to 67 hours of music playback or 10 hours of 3G talk time. Naturally, these figures should be taken with a dose of skepticism until we've had hands-on in order to put them to the test.

Software

The Nokia City Lens feature is part of the Nokia Maps suite
The Nokia City Lens feature is part of the Nokia Maps suite

The Lumia 920 comes running Windows Phone 8 and is integrated into Microsoft's ecosystem, with Office included. It also features support for the cloud-storage SkyDrive service and Nokia's own Nokia Music, both of which combine to help make the current sole option of 32 GB storage go further.

Nokia Maps additionally makes an appearance and includes offline storage, turn-by-turn navigation and Nokia City Lens: a feature which involves the user holding up the phone in order to view an augmented-reality display of what the immediate area has to offer.

Time to switch?

While the Lumia 920 should be a natural upgrade for existing Windows Phone users, Nokia and Microsoft face an uphill battle to convince users of Android, iOS and BlackBerry to make the switch to another ecosystem this late in the game – a fact tacitly acknowledged even in Nokia’s own promotional material, titled “It’s time to switch." Whether or not the pairing of Lumia 920 and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 is good enough to compel the public to make that leap remains to be seen.

The pricing and availability of the Lumia 920 are to be announced in the coming months. The promo video below highlights some of the phone's main features.

Source: Nokia

View gallery - 7 images
9 comments
9 comments
MasterG
Just not a fan of windows is all. It probably uses that gig of ram just too keep the os running.
Fahrenheit 451
So far Nokia's Windows OS phone entries have been less than inspiring and essentially gutless. I would love to put this model through the paces. Windows mobile OS is a natural flowing OS with the largest potential in the mobile OS world today. Period.
drsuperduper
Oh hell yeah, that's a damn nice phone.
Vince Pack
@MasterG - while Windows of the past have certainly been resource hogs, all that really began to change with 7. Having used 8 since the developer preview, one thing it isn't is resource heavy.
I've been a very happy iOS user since the first iPhone, but am also a pc user. This is the first smartphone that I find legitimately tempting. My biggest issue has been Nokia's blatant dishonesty in posting the misleading "PureView" sample that they soon after had to admit was actually filmed with an advanced DSLR rig. A very big blight on what appears to be a very good image stabilization system. Now I'm more eager to see how it shakes out. The result being that I'll probably go ahead with the iPhone 5...
tsibia
The 920 would be ideal if it had a memory card slot. Im going with Sasmsung as they have taken our needs into consideration.
Dawar Saify
I use android but I know that iphone is the most polished and the games and software all are better. I used windows till 6.5. Yes, it shows Nokia is trying. Even their new moto is good, time to switch. But again, what does the consumer want? Always the best of everything, high specifications. Why not the 41 mega pixel monster. Why not quad core Why not 2GB ram Why not ms office supporting power point creation And last but not least, I wish there was a physical keyboard. All this is possible for Nokia and MS, or am I wrong?
Tim Collins
Late in the game?
Oh please, this market is still in its infancy - and MS has not been unwise to let the early ultra-hype and hysterical dust to settle.
I bought an early android in 2011 and dropped it into the 2nd hand market after month of persevering with poor O/S and H/W, but I reckon the last quarter 2012 it is time to buy a real product. Right now my order of preference has MS/Nokia in front.
i5 what have you got to show us that you are still in the game??
Rocky Stefano
All you MS haters, do me a favour..pick up that Nokia handset and use it for a month. If you really want to go back to your shitty iPhone or Hackdroid set go ahead, but honestly after using using this phone, having used all the others, I'll never switch from it.
Sonya Jones
The ONLY thing I see wrong with the new phone is the lack of a micro-SD card slot. Otherwise, it looks great. You can always use a bluetooth keyboard if you need to type in a lot of data. Seems like a great phone for the average user. If they can make the Win8 bullet-proof and add the micro-SD card memory slot, they will definitely have a major winner.