Gadgetory

when the Lumia 830 broke cover at Aoife 2014 we were struck by its resemblance to the earlier Lumia 1020 a device which thanks to its huge camera stands alone as the only super shooter in the Windows Phone lineup microsoft out at the a30 is a kind of affordable successor a so-called mid-range flagship designed to compete on cost but with the Lumia 1020 available for a full hundo cheaper is newer really better in this case let's find out I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is Lumia 830 versus Lumia 1020 the 8in Lumia 830 puts the model on the high side of Microsoft's mid-range numbering scheme well below the four-digit flagship class of the 1020 but like looks numbers can be deceiving the Lumia 830 is over a year younger than the 1020 it replaces that 15-month edge is apparent in industrial design the 830 bares the aluminium edges and changeable back plates of more modern Nokia's and it's also thinner and lighter than the 1020 with a larger display much thinner bezels and a higher screen to body ratio that goes a little ways toward making up for the use of LCD instead of AMOLED technology in the newer phone with the accompanying loss of contrast the milkier blacks and the much less saturated colors overall to my eye this is one of the most visible compromises of the newer phone one that gets more pronounced the further off center you view the display all the hardware slimming makes the 830 more pleasant in terms of hand feel than the 1020 it doesn't seem quite as solid thanks to the removable and somewhat flexible back but you can change its color on the fly which is nice and it's easier to pocket hold and put on a table without the massive camera crater on the back I also think the 830 is a better-looking device but whether you agree will be up to you of course rounding out the spec sheet the newer phone also bears a more modern quad-core processor expandable storage that are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi compatibility and a larger removable battery that last bit is a big deal for road warriors and the integrated wireless charging capability is a win for convenience as well wireless charging is still kind of a novelty but you'll probably appreciate it more in the 830 so you can avoid using it's bizarre top mounted USB port with the 1020 can charge wirelessly to but not without an add on battery life is comparable between the two though to be fair our 1020 is a very old unit and our 830 is brand new check our full reviews of each phone for more detailed endurance impressions at pocket now while both of these run Windows Phone 8.1 the 830 brings an edge with a newer build of the Lumia extras package Lumia denim instead of the older cyan the Lumia 830 is also running the GDR one update for Windows Phone while our AT&T branded 1020 isn't the result is that the 1020 still doesn't have the newest improvements like Start screen folders though you can join the preview for developers program to get around this it's nice to have the latest Windows Phone improvements right out of the box and given the more modern processor in the Lumia 830 it's more future proof as well in terms of support that newer processor isn't enough to smooth out all the jitters in the day-to-day responsiveness it is a mid-range phone after all and in side-by-side testing the 830 is only marginally more speedy than the 1020 in app launch times and screen loads despite the jump from two cores to four we're now talking about a quantum leap in power here at least as far as responsiveness goes the 1020 does have a small edge in gaming at least with some titles while low demand apps like rise of glory run identically on each of these phones graphically intense games like asphalt 8 play more smoothly on the older hardware of the 1020 with fewer frame drops and skips in both video and audio whether you prefer the side firing speakerphone of the 1020 or the rear mounted driver of the 830 probably everyone can agree that front-facing speakers would have been a better call and speaking of audio there's not much here to distinguish these from one another in terms of phone calls just like the 1020 the 830 delivers adequate call quality there's nothing really remarkable in terms of noise cancellation or clarity one of the biggest differences in cameras here comes right at the startup more often than not the 830 beats the 1020 and launch time despite the newer phone having only half the RAM and when Lumia camera 5 lands for the 8:30 performances promised to get even faster while the 1020 is probably doomed to stay pokey forever that's because the 1020 packs a 41 megapixel camera producing shots too high in resolution for its old s4 processor to handle via background oversampling so the 1020 will probably be forever behind the 830 in terms of camera features and speed now as a 1020 owner none of this makes me happy so it's nice to be able to brag that the 41 megapixel sensor and my old warthog produces much sharper shots much more zoomable than the 8 megapixel or 10 megapixel output of the newer cheaper phone also there's the small matter of the xenon flash in the 1020 which is much better for capturing objects in motion and the 10 20s viewfinder tends to respect focal settings more with a shallower depth of field than the 830 in these respects the 1020 is more pseudo professional camera while the 830 is more your typical point-and-shoot that being said this isn't by any means a total Smackdown the a 30 actually improves on the 1020 in some respects with a minimum focal range of 10 centimeters versus 15 you can get much closer to a subject with the 830 also that greenish yellow tint of the 1020 partially corrected with software updates is nowhere to be found on the 830 and that goes double indoors under incandescent lighting given the almost comical color reproduction problems of the 1020 in some of these shots it's easy to forget just how much more capable its sensor is until you remember that you can take the raw 38 megapixel d NGS into your editing software of choice and tweak them to your heart's content again the 1020 a mess to be a semi-pro tool whereas the 830 capable as it is Falls much more into the mainstream and the broad truths in the cameras translate to the phones themselves at 450 bucks unlocked it's definitely weird for Microsoft to position the 830 is an affordable flagship and that's something we touch on in the full review too considering you can get the 1024 much less isn't that the phone to pick here the answer is yes but only if you're strictly talking about the camera even then you've got to want the pixels real bad the 1020 is the only 41 megapixel shooter on a major smartphone platform and that super high-resolution paired with digital zoom and a xenon flash mean you can get shots with the 1020 you still can't get anywhere else including the 830 in almost every other way though the 830 is the smarter buy here it's newer hardware means it's software - whilst a newer for longer and some of that software will power camera features even the 1020 won't get factoring the bonuses of the removable battery expandable storage changeable back covers integrated wireless charging yada-yada-yada you get the point well I won't be ditching my 1020 for the 8:30 anytime soon someone stuck choosing between them today will almost definitely best be served by the newer Albia technically lower end model keep in mind folks this is not pocket now's Lumia 830 review that video is linked above for your convenience also check out our other recent Windows Phone videos and visit us at the links in the description below till next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow captain - phones on twitter reminding you to keep your USB port in the right place here thanks for watching we'll see you next time you