Gadgetory

with the latest Lumia flagship Verizon looks to make up for lost time but is there enough here to make the new phone a success I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our quick review of the Nokia Lumia 928 it's impossible to discuss the Lumia 928 without taking into account the trail blazed by its predecessors particularly ATT's Lumia 920 indeed the 920 is the basis for the 928 and here in the states it's tempting to call the latter device simply Verizon's version of the 920 but there are significant changes here we'll get into that in detail in a future comparison video and follow us on social media and here on YouTube so you don't miss it but for now let's dive into what the Lumia 928 does and doesn't do well starting with hardware under the hood the Lumia 928 packs a familiar powerplant Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 at 1.5 gigahertz backed up by a gig of ram alongside 32 gigs of on-board storage battery capacity is a fairly middle-of-the-road 2000 milliamp hours and wireless charging a hallmark of the Lumia line works as well as it ever has in keeping with high-end Nokia and HTC trends though the battery is still not removable and the storage is still not expandable fortunately nokia has managed to address one of the biggest black marks against previous models the units mass the 928 weighs in at a respectable 162 grams now that's still heavier than its Super Lite flagship competitors but here the weight combines with Nokia's famously sturdy polycarbonate and the Gorilla Glass to display facing to lend the phone a decidedly high-end feel in the hand that's only moderately impacted by the glossy finish but we do wish there was a matte option in white though in terms of aesthetics the 928 is a fairly typical modern slab it's a little faster in terms of hardware design its aggressive sharp corners contrasting with its pillowy backside which balloons outward to 10.1 millimeters at its thickest point the casing is adorned with some interesting flares like the ever so slightly curved glass and the love it or hate it for head bezel above the display it also packs a busier backside than previous luminous with penetrate for the new xenon camera flash and a rear mounted speakerphone it we're not too pleased with the responsiveness or feel of the plastic side keys and the top mounted USB port is as weird as it was on the Samsung Focus and so there's ups and downs here probably the most visible change the 928 brings to the table though is the substitution of a 4.5 inch AMOLED display for its cousins IPS LCD here the change is welcome at least in our view well its dimensions a 15 by 9 aspect ratio and 1280 by 768 resolution are all familiar the 928 334 pixels per inch kick out heavily saturated colors with nearly perfect black reproduction this serves Windows Phone aids modern UI very well the tiles seeming to float across an expanse of dark glass in the default color configuration even those who dislike the larger-than-life color tones of AMOLED will likely appreciate the added side visibility of the 928 panel in terms of software Windows Phone 8 purrs along fairly well on the 928 we were occasionally stymied by a hiccup or a stutter here and there something we're not used to seeing from Microsoft smooth and consistent OS it by and large though the experience is slick and stable Verizon and Nokia have added their fair share of customization here but it seems unfair to call it bloat where as the titles are big-name apps that many users will find useful in addition to ESPN CNN and The Weather Channel Nokia has added many of its custom titles Maps City lens and nokia drive plus beta with the entire here suite available for download on the windows app store or via the prominently displayed at highlights hub this aggregator provides a nokia curated app shopping experience that does a good job of separating the wheat from the chaff in the Windows Store we should also note here that a customer investing in a Verizon Wireless Windows Phone today has a much larger selection of quality apps than he or she would have even half a year ago with Pandora Spotify and even Instagram represented the Instagram via a hack yes but the good one in many ways it's never been a better time to own a Windows Phone and the 928 arrived on Verizon at the perfect moment to take advantage of that we tested the Lumia 928 on Verizon Wireless over the course of six days between Long Island New York and the Greater Boston Massachusetts area LTE speeds were good to excellent in areas we had coverage though some more rural areas stymied even Verizon's efforts to provide ample 3G reception voice calling was a bit of a mixed bag the callers said we sounded just so-so on their end but on the plus side noise cancellation was outstanding we stood next to a moving train literally at one point which the caller on the other end couldn't hear at all we wish Nokia hadn't moved the speakerphone to the back side of the 928 it's repositioning doesn't result in clearer sound and that's a shame as we'd have liked some positive trade-off in exchange for dealing with yet another rear firing speaker that said it's still plenty loud for media viewing and listening and if you opt for the headphone route instead we can use Nokia's simple equaliser software and dolby headphone audio settings to hone your experience battery life was in line with most other Lumias and slightly above average for a high-end smartphone with moderate use including a fair bit of wireless tethering and quite a bit of travel across areas with minimal or no service the phone lasted us about 10 hours a more battery impressions in our written quick review add pocket now finally the thing that makes a Lumia a Lumia the camera we weren't expecting to see much improvement over the 920 and because the hardware is essentially identical we didn't but that doesn't mean the experience wasn't exemplary the 928 continues to excel in low-light shots and well-lit photos particularly outdoors often turn out even better the xenon flash is a nice add-on for those who like using the flash but on the 928 it's so rarely necessary that it's almost an academic addition the camera isn't perfect colors are occasionally a little washed out indoors and we sometimes wish we could tweak its low-light settings to get more dramatic contrast also Microsoft really needs to refit its viewfinder software to provide shooting mode indicators but these are minor quibbles over all the 928 s camera is outstanding easily topping nearly every other Windows and most other smartphones period the Lumia 928 is not the smartphone that's going to catapult Windows Phone to a massive gain in US market share it's too mild too iterative for that but what it will do of what it's already doing is bringing what remains of the buzz surrounding the Lumia 920 to the nation's largest wireless carrier is it a little light yes but is it a good thing also yes we give the Nokia Lumia 928 and eight point three out of ten that's going to do it for the video portion of this quick review read the full text at pocketnow.com toss us a like if you did enjoy the video leave us a comment if you have a question comment or a suggestion and please do subscribe to our Channel thanks for watching we'll see you soon