Nokia Lumia 920 First Impressions

This is in no way a review, it's simply the first impressions of a very lucky Nokia fanboy (well old git really, but don't think that's a trendy tech term at the moment ?) I don't do reviews very well as I'm not the most technical geek in the universe, I just try and give my opinions and post a few pictures and if I do attempt to do a review it takes me over 24 hours to fully investigate a new gadget, would hate to claim a phone didn't have the option to change the search engine on it's browser from Bing to Google for example, without first checking the settings on the phone ? (which by the way, you can chose the search engine on the Lumia, if you bother to check through the settings)

So on with the 'non-review', more of an initial ramble, lol. As a bit of info for those who have asked, I received my 920 via the Nokia Support Discussions forum, along with a number of other users, the idea being that we have a head start to help new users visiting the forum for help with the new phones and OS, Windows Phone 8, so I am amongst a small gang of very lucky guys who have become slightly ahead of the game with the new WP generation. I had some issues with WP initially, and so far I still do, they have however turned to minor niggles rather than issues and to be fair there appears to be virtually nothing that I can't live with on the OS now, I would love to be able to customise all my alert tones rather than just the ring tone and I would love to be able to adjust the font size system wide (although with a 4.5" screen this is somewhat less necessary) but other than that, the Phone and the OS are great. They are not perfect, but no phone or operating system is and people need choice.

With WP8 the use of the phone, for me at least, has been given enough flexibilty for most users and a lot more openness and customisation than some other operating systems. Issues that Symbian users had have been largely eliminated with the latest Lumia, I have transferred photos to and from my 920 via Bluetooth transfer, I have managed to connect it to my PC, see the file system and drag and drop my music and video collection onto it with little issue ( few problems to start trying to use a SW programme on PC to sync, but after a quick chat with Stephen Oiller, @psychomania666 on twitter, simple drag and drop worked great just using the file system on the PC) All my music works great and MP4 and AVI video looks good too and sounds great on the very loud high quality speaker fitted on the 920. Connecting my nfc enabled Nokia Essence headset worked faultlessly also, as did the simple set up of the phone. One thing I noticed in the settings was that you can now backup settings and apps on the New Lumias so restoring your phone should be extremely simple in future as the need to search for your apps has been removed, you can also back up your text messages, all good stuff, Hell, you can even take screen shots !!!

As always, Windows Phone itself is extremely quick and fluid, crank up the processor and memory and it becomes quicker and more fluid, best description for the 920's performance is bloody fast, any swipe or gesture produces instant results, apps load extremely quickly, the web experience is superb along with the usual fantastic mail client. I tried the Drive navigation this morning which worked fine, turned it off only to find twenty minutes later that I was getting speed camera warnings coming from my pocket on the drive home, so that obviously multitasks in the background and I'm also getting notification from Twitter and Facebook as quickly on the L920 as I do on my Nokia 808. From my first few hours of use I honestly believe this is the one that will turn Nokia's fortunes, even the most jaded Nokia /Microsoft hater will struggle to criticise it's performance. There may be a difference in application availability for now, but EVERYTHING I need is available and the core requirements for most users are well implemented and extremely pleasant to use. Customisation of the home screen with different sized tiles is great and as developers produce more 'Live Tiles' the larger option will be even more beneficial, to be fair I really haven't finished fiddling with my home screen, massive choice apparently isn't always the best thing, but I'm sure I can get the lumia 920 set up exactly as I want it after a few days's

A lot has been said of the physical size of the 920 and to be fair, it is a BIG phone, probably about the biggest handset I could comfortably use (i don't have massive 'Man Hands'), however I can actually use it one handed, I can touch my thumb and middle finger accross the phone, it fits in my pocket easily and feels great in the hand. The build quality is just what you'd expect from Nokia and everything works well, all the physical buttons feel solid and work great and the capacitive 'Windows' buttons work great as does the super sensitive screen with or without gloves or a Banana !

I'm going to stop rambling now and upload a few photos and carry on learning how this baby works and just how much it can do, interesting things keep popping up and there is more to this thing than meets the eye, it's great, try it as soon as you can, it's fresh , it's quick and pretty funky !

Thanks for reading

Stephen Quin

06/11/2012

People needing technical spec for the 920 can find it here on the Nokia web Site

Fastest Post Script EVER, Re Issue with Font size on WP just had it pointed out to me by @psycomania666 on Twitter that the ease of access menu allows font resize so my issues are being reduced by the minute and enjoyment of my Lumia being increased at the same rate !! Thanks Steve