Gadgetory

so the same thing kind of always happens when a new phone is announced the media gets the device ahead of time maybe a couple days a couple weeks if we're lucky and we get to use it while we're preparing our review then the date and time of the press embargo arrives the embargo lifts everybody posts their review at once and it is a giant big frenzy of activity there's commenters going nuts and defenders and attackers and it's just a huge explosion for about a day and then everything disappears ensure there's follow-up coverage and stuff as people find bugs people have other stuff to say about the devices they wear a man over the course of a day or so but really nobody ever goes back and revisits these devices after that initial blast of review to see how they feel after a couple weeks so let's do something about it let's take a look at a Windows Phone that's not so fresh and so clean anymore the Nokia Lumia 920 I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is episode 12 of after the buzz the Lumia 920 was Nokia's chance to fix the shortcomings of the earlier Lumia 900 the screen size and resolution were bumped up taking advantage of the support for HD screens in Windows Phone 8 some build quality issues were addressed and the lackluster camera of the 900 was replaced with an optically stabilized PureView super camera in the 920 so how of all these enhancements held up over the intervening months let's take a quick dive into hardware and software to find an answer we covered this model's physical reliability in an earlier video called Lumia 920 durability report which you should check out in short our in-house unit has held up excellently over three months showing only a few scuffs and scrapes despite never being protected by a case and being dropped on hardwood floors repeatedly on its face despite no longer being the hottest ticket in town the Lumia 920 continues to draw curious glances especially our white version here the design which straddles the line between practicality and artistry continues to serve the phone well proving that a Windows Phone doesn't need to sacrifice aesthetics for functionality the battery still holds up fairly well under moderate use and the camera continues to do a wonderful job more on this in a minute in terms of hardware we're only worried about two things as the 920 gets a little gray around the temples the first is the dead horse issue of the devices weight while we like the substantial feel of the 920 the fact remains that anyone coming from another modern smartphone will absolutely feel that 185 grams of the Lumia 920 and not everyone will like it especially if the trend toward lighter smartphones continues in 2013 which we expect it to the other issue is the display which is lovely but at 1280 by 768 it's not poised to keep pace with the 1080p resolution screens it's Android competition will be bringing this here that's not a huge issue now as Microsoft still needs to enable 1080p support in Windows Phone 8 but the 920 will quickly find itself knocked down a few pegs once it does happen on the software side Nokia's flagship Windows Phone has aged much more gracefully than any of its competitors thanks in large part to its suite of Nokia exclusive apps the company has made some titles available to all windows phones like it's hit or miss Nokia Drive beta navigation app but many can still only be found on Nokia devices that includes apps ranging from the useful Nokia transit and Nokia express to the fun cinemagraph smart shoot and panorama camera enhancements as lens plugins those last few titles really enhance the shooting experience on the Lumia 920 further extending the ability of its already excellent camera when we're using other devices we really miss the Lumia 920's camera it's probably the component of the phone that will age the most gracefully going forward the app fun isn't limited to the Nokia collection either Windows Phone 8 recently got its own flavour of Spotify after a long wait and we expect other big titles like Pandora to come to the platform in the first half of the year and the core assets of Windows Phone that make it a pleasure to use it's fluid responsiveness stability and its modern interface design have remained unempioyed by software updates and our ever growing collection of apps and media on the device it runs just as smoothly as it did on day 1 back in November the Lumia 920's launched buzz was harshed by a sudden surprising wave of windows-based competition from HTC followed by a less impressive but still significant set of offerings from Samsung while Nokia still needs to keep an eye on those rivals the differentiation it's brought to Windows Phone 8 in both hardware and software has served it very well Nokia is still the manufacturer bringing the most value to Microsoft's ecosystem and building the devices with the most staying power as of now there's no finer proof of that than the Nokia Lumia 920 thank you folks that's gonna do it for this episode of after the buzz follow us in the links in the description below and check us out at pocketnow.com to see previous episodes of after the buzz and to ensure you don't miss future episodes follow us on social media throw us a like here if you liked the video and thanks again for watching we'll see you next time