Nokia Lumia 930 Review and Specification

The number of high-end flagship smartphones is quickly increasing and with the Nokia Lumia 930 the latest offering from the Finnish firm the total for 2014 now stands at four. Replacing the Lumia 925, the Lumia 930 is looking to take on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z2 and HTC One M8 this year and it's got some new software to aid it.  It is available in green, orange, black or white. Made from a polycarbonate material, the back has a smooth but sturdy feeling and an attractive matte surface.

Display : The Lumia 930 offers a full HD (1080p) 5-inch OLED display. It seems particularly bright and colorful as images such as live tiles and photos really popped. Even at 90 degree angles, these colors didn’t fade at all. In a demo station at its press event, Nokia showed how the Lumia 930′s screen stays colorful even under simulated sunlight.  The Icon’s screen, which is likely the same panel, measured an eye-burning 475 lux on our lightmeter which is extremely bright but not quite as high as the Samsung Galaxy S4 (480 lux) and iPhone 5s (525 lux).

Camera : Nokia prides itself on its smartphone camera technology and the Lumia 930 continues that trend with a 20MP Pureview snapper on the rear with dual LED flash, OIS (optical image stabilisation) and Carl Zeiss lens. The Lumia 930's 20 MP camera includes many of the algorithms and other optimizations from devices like the Lumia 1020, with its 41 MP camera, according to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop. You'll also find the Nokia camera application which has a simple user interface for those who just want a point and shoot offering, but there are professional controls available too. Just slide the on-screen shutter key to the left and a whole series of settings including ISO, white balance and exposure will appear allowing you to fine tune your image capturing.

Performance : It comes with pentaband LTE (bands 1, 3, 7, 8 and 20), quad-band HSPA+ (up to 42.2Mbps) and quad-band GSM/EDGE, so you should be able to get solid speeds nearly anywhere you go, even if you're not getting LTE in your neck of the woods. It also comes with a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800, which is definitely powerful but unfortunately is no longer the latest and greatest Qualcomm chipset -- that honor now belongs to the Snapdragon 801. The phone packs a 2,420 mAh battery which Nokia says will provide up to 9 hours of video playback.  The Lumia Icon, which has the same battery and components, lasted a strong 7 hours and 2 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery test, which involves continuous surfing over 4G.

Interface : Many of the newest features for the 930 are ones afforded by changes to the core software, rather than hardware tweaks. The message coming from both Nokia and Microsoft around this launch focuses on integration and cross-platform convergence. On the home screen, for example, there’s now the option for an extra row of icons and the ability to set a custom image as your backround. Thanks to Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 syncing options, which ensure that any devices registered to the same Microsoft email address share passwords, history, apps and more across devices, there’s also now the option to share your Start screen image across devices too. The other biggest change is the addition of a notification panel at the top of the screen. As with Android, just pull down from the top to reveal quick access to frequently used settings, and the option of clicking through to the full options screen.
There’s also a pretty impressive Swype-like keyboard too that’s about as accurate as any I’ve seen and as fast as you could want. A definite improvement over the previous stock Windows Phone keyboard. Also on board is Internet Explorer 11, which will now pull in your favorites from any tablets or PCs running Windows 8.1 as well as easily allowing you to pick up and carry on browsing sessions across different devices.

Apps : The 930 will come with Nokia Cyan pre-installed, which is essentially the phone maker's build of Windows Phone 8.1 bundled with a few pieces of Nokia's own software. There’s also password syncing across devices too – and an option within the OS for easily sharing WiFi passwords with friends or family. Other Nokia apps like MixRadio, Xbox Radio and XBox Video are also on board, alongside its range of camera-specific apps and features like Storyteller.

Nokia Lumia 930 Specification

• Display : 5-inch OLED display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Protection
• OS :  Microsoft Windows Phone 8.1
• RAM : 2 GB 
• Processor : 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800
• Rear Camera :  20 MP
• Front Camera : 1.2 MP
• Internal Memory : 32 GB
• Cloud Space : 7 GB
• Battery : 2,420 mAh
• Connectivity :  USB OTG, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, GPS, NFC and 3G, 4G, NFC