Gadgetory

it's been getting a lot of praise and has even been called one of the best phones of the year so this Android user wanted to know what all the fuss was about with this Windows Phone hey distress regard from Android 30 what's going on everybody and this is the Nokia Lumia 928 do you remember back in the day when Nokia phones were considered virtually indestructible their build quality was second to none and nowadays we have a lot of nostalgic jokes about it well it's been a long time since I've even held a Nokia phone and I have to say Nokia still got it although this entire device is made up of a glossy plastic it immediately feels very sturdy in the hand there's a very high build quality here that is alluded to by the rigid corners and almost completely flat profile it's not a heavy phone by any means but it does have a certain heft and because of the four and a half inch screen it is quite easy to handle in just one hand the front is made up of that screen front facing camera and the capacitive keys at the bottom coming around the back as a white body with just one black slit down the middle this is the carl zeiss powered camera next to the xenon flash and the speaker grille is on the bottom the microUSB port and SIM card slot are located up top while all of the buttons are on the right these are from top to bottom the volume rockers power button and finally the two-stage dedicated camera button all together this is a pretty thick device which helps with the handling though all in all it's an attractive device that is as nice in the hand as it is on the eyes okay quick story while I probably won't be doing a dedicated drop test for the Lumia 928 I will say that this device has actually been dropped unfortunately it was from a table heights it did land on concrete and it landed on the two corners right here but I'm happy to say that all those jokes you make about Nokia phones do actually hold up because instead of any real damage happening to the phone you only got a couple of scratches on the actual corners sometimes when you drop a phone on its corner the entire screen might end up shattering but in this case it's just a couple of scratches a couple of scuffs that you can't even see unless you make the effort to look so kudos to you know kia for making a pretty sturdy phone if you follow smartphone trends the first difference you might notice about the Lumia 928 is the fact that it doesn't have a 5-inch screen while some might have gone used to larger screens on smartphones by now the lack of one really shouldn't take away from the Lumia this is because the screen on the 928 is actually quite good coming in at 1280 by 768 resolution the AMOLED panel of the 928 is rated at 332 PPI this means that despite being a smaller screen you will still get grave saturated colors and good sharpness don't be fooled by the simplistic style of Windows Phone 8 the screen is very much capable of more than just primary colors over black and white a few issues come up though mainly the viewing angles are decent at best even at a slight angle you start to see a bit of a blue hue and in broad daylight the brightness is unfortunately not powerful enough all things considered though the new AMOLED display is great not just for adding vibrancy to the OS as elements but for almost anything else that the Lumia is capable of Lumia 928 sports the Snapdragon s4 plus not the pro this is the dual-core variant of the same processing package that clocks in at 1.5 gigahertz it might not be the fastest processor around but it still makes the 928 fly through its elements being backed by the audrina - 2 5 and one gigabyte of ram gives this phone just what it needs for multitasking and gaming while in the Android space this might be considered more of a mid-range package we have to remember how much our OS of choice sometimes requires that's not to say that Windows Phone 8 is overly simplistic it just doesn't demand as much as Android or even iOS more on that later Nokia kept the hardware offerings of the Lumia 928 pretty simple 32 gigabytes of onboard memory is available without expandability as this is a Verizon exclusive phone you get the very fast LTE network right at your fingertips Wi-Fi Bluetooth and GPS are available with NFC being in the mix for the most part the Lumia 928 is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of device call quality is pretty good as the call speaker is pretty dang loud even at three-quarter volume there was no problem hearing the person on the other line once that loud enough though it could muffle out some of the details of the call the rear mounted speaker is also adequately loud but also lacks richness and detail battery life of the Lumia 928 is backed by a 2000 milliamp hour unremovable unit and goes for a very decent amount of time an entire day is handled with ease by this device though nightly charging will still be required some of the power saving options that are available should be able to help you out as well and finally we get to the two big differentiators of the Lumia 928 the camera and the software we'll start with the camera the 8.7 megapixel F 2.0 rear Carl Zeiss optics aren't just a mouthful to say but they're actually pretty darn good performers the app itself is accessible primarily by pressing down on the shutter button until it is activated this can be done at any time even when the phone is locked the app is pretty standard although it does allow you to just ISO and exposure extra modes are only available through downloaded add-ons or so-called lenses carl zeiss 2.0 aperture and PureView stabilization all do their job to make the quality of the pictures very good it is certainly good for portrait shots happy graduation my friends the aperture brings depth of field while the Carl Zeiss optics bring vibrancy and detail finally peer view brings low-light performance everything from broad daylight to indoor lighting will look pretty great while lower light shots can definitely benefit from the xenon flash this is a nifty little camera that makes the best of a myriad of features added in to ultimately create good pictures and finally with the software as an Android user I might find a lot to like about a Windows Phone until I get to the user interface was that true here yes pretty much I will say this though there is a lot to like about Windows Phone 8 and I give it props because I remember what earlier versions looked like before this unified interface he used to be pretty bad what you get here is a black or white background behind all elements in a color of your choice these elements are customizable if not very simplistic but that is the point of Windows Phone 8 giving you just what you need in an easy way the home screen is made up of live tiles that are essentially your shortcuts to any and all apps they do more this time around in version 8 however when you resize pretty much any tile to a larger size it displays even more information for example the photo tile will show you previews of your most only taking pictures and the musics I will show you what song is playing it's a nice way of getting previews of what are otherwise your notifications swipe over to the right and you see your app list and here is your obligatory app ecosystem comments yes it is not as large as Androids much like what the BlackBerry z10 I reviewed I had trouble getting many of the same experiences I get from Android to translate over to this OS and also much like in the z10 the main solution was to use the mobile HTML versions I will say Spotify did just recently become available for Windows Phone though so that was nice what I did like was the social media integration the people app can use your Facebook account to display a built-in feed of your friends activities you don't have to get the dedicated Facebook app when this happens to do the trick already and as for messaging you can facebook chat straight from the messaging app as well the biggest appeal of Windows Phone 8 is its ability to do the basics in a very clean functional and unique way if you're not a big app person the Lumia 928 is a good phone to get because everything already baked in is very reliable many people including myself do like the simple color motif of the user interface it makes smart phone usage seem unique while remaining highly intuitive if you like the whole what-you-see-is-what-you-get idea with maybe a few extra bits put in Windows Phone is likely to make your day we end on price the Lumia 928 is only available on Verizon for the price of $99 on a two-year contract otherwise it is $499 for the device outright and so there you have it I made the notion earlier on that Lumia 928 can be considered a mid-range device when you look at it inside of the Android space and with the smaller screen and the lesser specs it can certainly seem that way but we also have to remember that the Windows Phone OS is a totally different beast it is still a fun and speedy experience that manages to be stylish and unique this time powered by Nokia's handset and just the right specs to give it the power that it needs so how does it stack up well let you come as no surprise that the Windows Phone ecosystem still has a long way to go and it's going to be quite some time before I can rival Android and iOS but to be honest it is nice to use something unique and from time to time it is nice to use something a bit different and the Nokia Lumia 928 is a great example of what else is out there for all of the best coverage make sure you stay tuned to the Android Authority YouTube channel drop us a like down below and then don't forget to subscribe and once you're done with all that jump on over to android authority comm because we're your source for all things Android