• Michael
• On August 10, 2014

Review Overview

Design

6

Display

8.5

Camera

8

Performance

9.5

80%

Rating

A new Windows Phone flagship… from 2013

Nokia Lumia 930 is the newest high-end smartphone contender developed by the former Nokia hardware team – now a major part of the technology giant Microsoft. This smartphone will probably not disappoint you – the 930 is a stable, powerful and stylish device, and it runs the latest version of Windows Phone full of improvements and new features. With the 8.1 update Microsoft’s platform seems to be in a stronger position to compete for a significant share of the smartphone market.

Design

With this model, which is almost an exact copy of Verizon’s Lumia Icon from 2013 but offered in more color options, Nokia slightly deviates from the traditional design approach used for most of the Lumia smartphones. Instead of a 100% polycarbonate body, Nokia/Microsoft has used a nice looking aluminium frame around the sides. This small piece of metal adds a premium feel to the smartphone and the 930 feels more comfortable to hold. There was one major disadvantage of the standard polycarbonate design – the phone could slip from your hand and fall to the floor. This tiny metal band ensures greater grip but you can add some better protection in case of accidental drops onto a rigid surface.

Lumia 930 feels quite solid and premium to touch but it is a bit bulky. It measures 9.8 mm in thickness, so it is noticeably thicker than competitors like the Galaxy S5 or LG G3. At the same time, the 930 is a slight improvement over its predecessor Lumia 920 in terms of both thickness and weight, and despite the larger screen. The Lumia 930 uses a gorgeous 5-inch screen with Full HD resolution for excellent colors and wide viewing angle. Unfortunately, this phone does not support the Glance Screen feature which is available for most of the current Windows Phones. The Glance Screen displays important information such as time and notifications without the need to wake the phone up. There are three metal buttons on the right side of the phone – on/off, camera, and volume button. In the front, just below the screen, you will see three capacitive Windows Phone buttons.

Inside

The new Windows Phone is a powerful device. Even though the processor is not the fastest amongst its class, the four cores clocked at 2.2 GHz and 2 GB of RAM are more than enough to handle all resource-intensive tasks, apps, and games. The internal storage is 32 GB and the phone does not include a MicroSD slot, but you can use 7 GB free storage on the OneDrive cloud.

Nokia Lumia 930 comes with built-in wireless charging support. In terms of battery power the 930 is a mixed bag, so if you want the battery to carry you throughout the day you’d better set the screen brightness to low and monitor your daily usage.

Camera

The Lumia 930 uses Nokia’s PureView technology. We have a 20MP 1/2.5-inch sensor and an f/2.4 lens from CarlZeiss for high-quality pictures in all lighting conditions. The pictures taken with the 20MP camera are much better than those from an average smartphone camera, and outperform most of the competitors on the market including Galaxy S5, but the Lumia 1020 is still the king of the cameraphones. Lumia 930’s PureView camera comes with full manual control, optical image stabilization for excellent low-light photography and a slew of software gifts such as Living Images, Nokia Camera and Creative Studio. Living Images is a new functionality that creates nice short animations when snapping a photo. One of the strongest points in the Lumia 930 is the superior audio quality when shooting videos thanks to four independent microphones.

Performance & Software

Nokia Lumia 930 is one of the first phones running Windows Phone 8.1 platform by default. The 8.1 update is a great improvement over its predecessor, with many new features like additional tiles on the start screen, flow keyboard, more personalization options, notification centre, digital assistant, and much more. Cortana voice assistant is about on par with rivalling services (Google, Siri) and Microsoft has just enabled it for more countries – in the U.K as a beta, in China, Australia and Canada as an alpha. The fast Snapdragon 800 processor and the well-optimized Windows software ensure smooth performance with no lags or stutters.

Conclusion

Nokia Lumia 930 is one the best WP8.1-powered smartphone you can find right now. As a rebranded version of the Lumia Icon from the late 2013, this smartphone offers very competitive hardware. Its screen, display, camera, fast processor, and the latest Windows operating system, make the 930 appealing not only for Nokia fans, but also for all customers who want to try something different. The latest Nokia-branded smartphone will not disappoint most of the users but we really hoped to see a more solid warrior for the high-end segment. Microsoft badly needs to launch a new phone that really stands out among the competition – a handset with a slim aluminum body and premium camera. Lumia 930 could be a good option for new Windows Phone users, but if you own some of the old high-end devices like the Lumia 1020, 925 or 920 you might need to wait for a true high-end Windows Phone flagship

Pros:

+ Premium build quality, aluminium frame

+ Great PureView Camera

+ Great audio thanks to four microphones

+ Much improved Windows 8.1

+ Free HERE navigation

Cons:

-Bulky design

-No Glance Screen

-No microSD slot

-Battery power