Distinctive design, decent camera, impressive performance
Some battery niggles, Windows Phone ecosystem not as developed as iOS and Android, on the chunky side
The Lumia 930 is the first flagship Nokia device to be unveiled since the company was absorbed by tech behemoth Microsoft. The typically colourful phone is a distinctive addition to the Nokia lineup and arrives running the latest version of Microsoft's operating system, Windows Phone 8.1.
It goes on sale 17 July in the UK, and if you buy it within the first two weeks you will get a portable wireless charger, a portable wireless speaker and a £20 app voucher. As well as being available in black, neon green and bright orange, you will also able to get your hands on an exclusive white version if you buy the 930 from Phones4U.
Design and screen
Nokia's Lumias have always set themselves apart from other smartphones with their colourful shells and bright, tiled interfaces. But the Lumia 930 sports undoubtedly the most polished look we've seen yet. Our review unit had a matte, rounded luminous green back that felt extremely smooth in the hand.
The rectangular chassis has a 9.8mm-thick aluminium rim running around the outside, which gives it a dash more finesse than previous Lumias. It's neither particularly slim nor light, weighing in at 167g, but the upside of this is that it feels reassuringly expensive and solid -- we have no issues with build quality whatsoever. The phone is such a size that we were just about able to operate it with one slightly smaller than average hand.
Running down the right-hand side of the phone are the volume, power and dedicated camera shutter buttons (in that order) and while being very discreet, they can be fiddly to grapple with at times.
As well as being bright and bold, the 5-inch screen has a real sense of depth thanks to the fact the whole front of the phone is covered by a layer of convex Corning Gorilla glass. It's nice and sharp too, with a resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, meaning it has an overall resolution of 441 pixels per inch.
Processor and features
For a Windows Phone device, the Lumia 930 has powerful innards that mean it can tackle pretty much any task you throw its way with aplomb. Under the bonnet you'll find a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM, which will see you nipping through
Six-Guns and use Microsoft's new free video-editing app Video Tuner without a single hitch. With an AnTuTu benchmark score of 26,500, the phone outperforms many mid-range Android devices, which run more demanding software -- although it's not a patch on the flagship Android smartphones, most of which now score over 30,000 on the same test.
With all the benefits of Windows 8.1 the 930 really is a pleasure to use with its cool, if slightly dizzying floating backgrounds and extra row of tiles. The Word Flow keyboard works seamlessly, which is excellent news for typo-prone smartphone users out there. Microsoft's voice assistant Cortana is lurking in the phone somewhere, but hasn't landed in the UK just yet -- we can't wait to try it out and give it a go when it does.
Regrettably, the Windows Phone Store is still lacking. Even though it now has many more key apps than it has ever had before -- and that is growing every day -- we still found there were apps that we'd use everyday on an Android or iOS device, which were either missing important features or missing completely. Windows Phone has demonstrated remarkable growth, but now that the conversation surrounding wearables and home automation are heating up, it faces brand new challenges.
The 930 has a unibody chassis with no microSD slot, which means you'll have to make do with the 32GB of in-built memory and 7GB free OneDrive cloud storage.
Despite having a 2,420mAh battery tucked inside it, we found that the Lumia 930 didn't have the level of stamina we'd expect.
Battery seemed to last fairly well for most of the day, but would suddenly drop off very quickly. Fortunately, having a wireless charging pad on the office desk all day meant that this did not take its toll on evening plans. It would be a shame to own this phone and not take advantage of the wireless charging capabilities.
The battery saver feature also allows you to see which apps are draining the 930's juice most quickly and stop them from running in the background.
Camera
The Lumia 930's 20-megapixel camera takes natural, well-balanced photos with plenty of detail. In our sample photo of an ice cream van we spotted on the streets of London you can make out the grooves on the ice cream cones when zoomed in, despite the shot being taken from some distance. In our shots of the London skyline, there's no evidence of overexposure and the phone copes well with light, clouds, sunshine and shadow. Close-up shots are bright and crisp and are fun to play with using the Nokia Refocus app -- just one of several tools that makes photography on Nokia phones a fun and rewarding experience.
If you've used the Lumia 1020 with its 41-megapixel camera, you may feel a little let down when it comes to the snaps you are able to capture with the 930 -- but that's not to say this phone doesn't take excellent photos. The only place it struggled was in low light and in capturing movement, where it didn't focus easily and often produced noisy photos.
Conclusion
It's hard to imagine anyone buying this phone and not loving it.
It's a pleasure to use and attractive to boot.
If you are well embedded in an alternative ecosystem already you may find there are apps missing that you'd otherwise use on a daily basis, and you will stumble upon the odd Windows Phone niggle that will frustrate you. However, you won't find a better Windows Phone device around and the experience of using the operating system will only keep getting better as time goes on.
Software: Windows Phone 8.1
Processor: Quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800
Memory slot: No
Display: 5-nch OLED, 1920x1080 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n/ac
Ports: microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 20-megapixel with auto-focus
Radio: Yes
Battery: 2,420mAh
Size: 137x71x9.8mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
