• Diyan
• On June 20, 2013

Review Overview

Design

9

Display

8.5

Camera

9

Performance

9

89%

Rating

gorgeous design and excellent PureView camera

Introduction

Nokia Lumia 925 launched in June 2013 with the ambition to be the best Windows Phone handset to date. The successor to the Lumia 920 has an AMOLED display, an improved and refreshed design with round corners, a better camera and some software improvements. Except that, the new Nokia Lumia 925 is basically the same phone, but in a thinner and lighter shell made of polycarbonate with a thin aluminum frame. The question is whether Lumia 925 can go head to head with the other high-end devices – HTC One, iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4. Read on to find the answer.

Design

Nokia Lumia 925 is different the other Lumia models. It is thinner and lighter than Lumia 920. With its 8.5mm thickness and weight of 139g (25% less than the Lumia 920), the device is suitable for day-to-day use. Here, for first time Nokia has added an aluminum frame surrounding the phone, giving it more high-quality look and feel with a very smooth touch, while the back shell is made of polycarbonate. At the same time, there is a little gap between the edges of the polycarbonate flexes and the aluminum chassis. Actually, this is something very hard to notice and it won’t bother you much.

The 4.5-inch display does not look as curved as the entire device. The capacitive Windows Phone buttons are improved – unlike the yellow tint on the Lumia 920, here the lighting has been improved and now the buttons are more visible and with a white tint. When we flip the smartphone over we can find the PureView camera a little raised above the rest of the back shell. Except the camera, Nokia has decided to remove all the buttons and ports, which have been repositioned. The USB port can be found at the top, next to the headphone jack and the SIM slot. Overall, the Nokia Lumia 925 looks solid and one of the better looking smartphones on the market.

Display

Nokia has switched to the more attractive AMOLED display fading nicely into the bezel, which also help for a slimmer body design. The 4.5-inch screen has the latency reducing PureMotion HD+ technology and similar to the Lumia 920 it is very responsive and fast while exploring the Windows Phone 8 OS. Compared with the LCD panel of Lumia 920, the AMOLED display offers more accurate colors, a good customizable saturation and temperature balance, enabled for a first time in this new Smartphone.

The screen resolution is 1280 x 768 – the best Windows Phone display resolution at the moment. Hopefully the next flagship running WP8 will have a 1080p screen resolution, like the Samsung Galaxy S4. The 4.5-inch screen offers a good readability in direct sunlight and the new Glance option enables the clock on the home screen which uses only the pixels connected with these white areas of the clock. In addition to the clock, some other information is provided like the battery power and a silent mode indicator.

Camera

Pretty similar to the camera available in the Nokia Lumia 920, the 8.7-megapixel PureView sensor is augmented with an additional sixth lens element made of glass. There is a little difference in the picture quality; the PureView camera in the Nokia Lumia 925 delivers excellent results in low-light conditions. The optical stabilization allows the camera to be open for longer delivering brighter images in night shoots. The daytime pictures are not bad at all, but we can find many other good smartphones on the market with similar capabilities.

The important part in the Nokia Lumia 925 camera is the low-light capabilities and the PureView camera really shines. With the Smart Cam app you can make 10 pictures at a time with plenty of options for editing. After making these up to 10 pictures you will be able to apply many different Smart Camera effects, to remove objects, faces and more. Bear in mind that the Smart Cam will be enabled after the Lumia Amber update in July. Users can record a 1080p video with great audio especially during loud events. The negative side here is that you have only 16 GB of internal storage and no MicroSD slot.

Software and performance

The Nokia Lumia 925 runs the latest Windows Phone 8 operating system. Equipped with a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, clocked at 1.5 GHz, the device is fast and offers a seamless user experience. The operating system has some minor updates (added Data Center, FM Radio support and others), compared with the other devices running Windows Phone 8. There is also the new Glance Screen feature with a double tapped waking option. Besides that, the Nokia Lumia 925 is a traditional Windows Phone with not many customization capabilities and third party apps. We will hopefully see more third party apps in the coming months filling the gap.

The lack of applications could be frustrating if you are used to the Andorid or iOS and can’t find your favorite apps in the Windows Phone store. Fortunately, plenty of useful apps launched in the last weeks and it seems that the developers start to accept the Windows platform. Nokia Lumia 925 packs a non removable 2000 mAh battery with an average battery life. According to the WP Bench and the test designed to drain the battery as quickly as possible, the battery of the Lumia 925 is drained for 3h, compared with 2h and 22 min in the Nokia Lumia 920. The call quality and connection are good – the microphone is hidden at the bottom and it works well so you are audible. The only issue here is the speakerphone placed at the rear, which is not so clear.

Summary

Nokia Lumia 925 is the best Windows Phone on the market right now. Despite the fact that Nokia did a good job in the design process, the phone offers a similar Windows Phone experience like the previous Nokia, HTC or Samsung models. The reason is that Microsoft’s mobile Windows platform has not progressed much since its introduction and it is a drawback to Nokia’s smartphones. Nokia has tried to fill some of the gaps offering its own software solutions and some of them are very attractive, like the Smart Camera. Overall, the Nokia Lumia 925 is a great phone with good hardware characteristics. The PureView camera takes amazing shots during low-light conditions and captures high quality videos without audio distortion during loud concerts. If you don’t care too much about the apps available in the Android store and you like the simplicity of the Windows Phone system then Nokia Lumia 925 is for you and it can be a good alternative to the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One or iPhone 5.

Specifications:

• 4.5-inch 768 x 1280 AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass 2 protection
• Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait processor
• Adreno 225 GPU
• 8 MP PureView camera with Carl Zeiss optics and OIS
• 1.3 MP secondary camera
• 16 GB of internal storage
• 1 GB of RAM
• Li-Ion 2000 mAh battery
• 129 x 70.6 x 8.5 mm / 139 g

Pros:

• Gorgeous Design
• Light weight
• Excellent camera
• Distortion-free audio
• Responsive software
• Nokia software additions

Cons:

• Lack of apps in the Windows Store
• No microSD slot
• No wireless charging mode
• Average battery