Gadgetory

in America the windows phone picture is very different across the top to nationwide carriers of those AT&T packs the wider Windows Phone selection topped by the high-end Nokia Lumia 920 but say red is more your color on Verizon Wireless your Nokia selection is topped off by the mid-range Nokia Lumia 822 each of these devices has its own particular strengths and weaknesses so let's explore them I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is Nokia Lumia 822 versus Nokia Lumia 920 now here we've got the white version of both of these devices on the left is the Lumia 920 and on the right is Lumia 822 we're gonna put these head-to-head as quickly as we can in five categories specs build display software and camera on the spec side even though we're looking at a mid-range device stacked up against a high-end one there's not much different in the guts at least at the core they both run on a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 running at 1.5 gigahertz and backed up by a gig of ram crucially and interestingly since the 8:22 is a lower range model both devices feature support for LTE on their respective carriers that is a huge plus obviously the 8:22 also features support for a microSD expansion to boost its onboard 16 gigs of storage with the Lumia 920 you're stuck with a non expandable 32 gigs speaking of non removable items the 920 features an embedded 2000 milliamp hour battery while the 822 takes a slight amp-hour hit to 1,800 in exchange for the option to remove it although these devices are very clearly from the same manufacturer and look quite similar on video they're quite different in the hand the 920 at 185 grams as one of the beefier phones we've encountered heavier even than the Galaxy Note 2 and at 10 point 7 millimeters it's not winning any awards for thinnest of the bunch but it also boasts not just the best build quality we've seen on Windows Phone but one of the most premium builds we've seen on smartphones in general it feels and looks like a luxury device the Lumia 822 is lighter at 142 grams but thicker at 11 point two millimeters thanks to these sheer sides that remind us of a tumblehome hull shape on an old battleship you feel every millimeter of that thickness in the hand now whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on you but the combination of lightweight thick ungainly design and the prominent chin below the display makes the 8:22 feel every bit the mid-range device its model number conveys that lower tier status is further reinforced by the display is chosen for these models the 822 is fitted with a 4.3 inch 800 by 480 AMOLED panel while the higher-end 920 features a 4.5 inch 1280 by 768 LCD the blacks are deeper and the colors a bit more saturated on the 822 and both devices feature Nokia's clear black technology as well as its glove friendly super-sensitive touch the 822 is also more visible edge-on but the higher resolution larger panel on the 920 puts out a pixel density of 332 PPI and that combined with the smooth 60fps rendering of the pure motion HD plus technology makes the Lumia 920's panel the winner in our book since it debuted two years ago one thing has remained fairly consistent about Microsoft's new mobile platform a windows phone is a Windows Phone by that we mean that performance including UI fluidity and app launch speeds is about the same no matter what device you pick and that seems to hold true for Windows Phone 8 as well boot time is identical between these units and app launch times are so close to identical that it's impossible to call a winner we'll try a few here just so you don't have to take my word for it we like to make sure the phone launches on time 1 2 3 boom almost identical as we say see if we can hop into messaging SMS 1 2 3 boom almost identical once again hop back to the home screen here email application 1 2 3 once again almost identical and the camera will use the shortcut key on the side here you may be detecting millisecond differences in these launch times but that's just because of my inability to hit the button at the same time these are really really too close to call 1 2 3 boom viewfinders are up the 822 beating the 9:20 by maybe a tenth of a second really nothing that's going to make a difference in day-to-day use finally we'll take a look at the browser on each starting with D 9:20 coming to the 9:20 specs page go ahead and zoom out zoom in we've seen this in our full Lumia 920 review which you can find elsewhere at pocketnow.com the very responsive doesn't take a long time for the text to re-render when you zoom in quickly and of course flick and pass action in the browser is just fine let's check it out on the 822 loaded to the comparable page for the 822 specs DoubleTap zoom in once again excellent responsiveness with the page fully loaded swiping there's a little bit less inertia on the a 22s display it doesn't there's no it's difficult to explain but it doesn't cover as much ground when you flick but that is not a knock on the device that's just it just handles touch input differently certainly no surprises here Windows Phone continuing to behave the same across different models even from high tier to mid tier comparison points using the Windows Phone benchmarking app WP bench shows us similar results as well with the 8:22 scoring 245 0.02 and the 920 scoring - 33.5 in its performance test both of these devices feature cameras in the 8 megapixel class 8.0 on the 822 and 8.7 on the Lumia 920 the 920 of course features the special PureView optical stabilization technology whereas the 822 does not both cameras perform very well though their output varies based on lighting conditions sometimes the 920's camera delivers colors more true to life but other times it favors more brilliant colors with higher saturation the 920's camera did perform better in low-light situations as expected given its optimization in the end you're looking at two excellent but very different Windows Phone 8 devices on Verizon the Lumia 822 is the highest end Nokia Windows Phone you can get for now and though it's screen is low res and its body is clunky it still delivers a solid software experience a good camera and LTE plus it's got expandable memory and that's not a bad feature set for $49.99 on contract if you can stomach the design on AT&T the Lumia 920 is $50 more expensive on contract it's heavier and it's got non removable battery and no expandable storage but in exchange there is a much bigger better display beautiful hardware design and one of the best smartphone cameras around if you've got solid AT&T LTE coverage and no beef with America's number 2 wireless carrier the Lumia 920 is undoubtedly the classier contender here as always though it all comes down to what works for you each of these at the end of the day is a very capable smartphone in its own right folks hope you enjoy the comparison between the 822 and the 920 we have a lot more on these devices at pocketnow.com including a full review of the nokia lumia 920 and a forthcoming review of the Lumia 822 to make sure you don't miss it follow us on Twitter pocket now tweets is the official account you can follow me I'm at captain 2 phones as well visit us at pocket dog calm leave a comment there if you have something to say leave is a thumbs up here on youtube if you liked what you saw and thanks again for watching we'll see you next time