Gadgetory

in a perfect world every carrier would get every Windows Phone flagship at the same time we don't live in that world so we get devices like these they seem very similar and in fact they are very similar but they're not identical so let's put them head-to-head I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is Nokia Lumia 928 versus Nokia Lumia 920 Nokia's Lumia 920 picked up the example set by the Lumia 900 and ran with it establishing a beefy well made Windows Phone with an excellent camera and a premium suite of Nokia exclusive apps and it was exclusive to AT&T now six months later Verizon Wireless finally gets a crack at a high-end device from the world's premiere Windows Phone manufacturer but there are some differences here besides carrier radios so let's dive in and take a look as you can see Nokia and Verizon have taken the opportunity to introduce a significant change in design language with the 928 gone is the Nokia smile that palm kissing backside married to rounded corners on the 920 in its place a much boxier build with brutal right angles and only the barest concessions made to curves in the form of the Gorilla Glass to display protection beneath the glass the display itself has been changed the size and resolution stays the same as does the very high pixel density of more than 330 PPI but the Lumia 920's IPS LCD has been replaced with an AMOLED panel on the 928 there's always been debate about the merits and shortfalls of each technology but we think Windows Phone is very well served by AMOLED the almost perfect blacks on the 928 make the tiles seem to float directly on the glass and because the clear black polarization process is different or absent on the 928 there's far greater sidon visibility here also the annoying color fringing evident in bright sunlight on the 920 is thankfully absent on the 928 unless you really hate the rich color saturation of AMOLED you'll find yourself loving this display underneath that display things get familiar again these devices are powered by the same Snapdragon s4 at 1.5 gigahertz backed up by the same gig of ram and they offer the same non expandable 32 gigs of on-board storage the battery remains NAM it's capacity remains 2000 milliamp hours and wireless charging stays put as well around back the hardware differences re-emerge where the Lumia 920 features a completely uninterrupted expanse of polycarbonate the 928 has penetrations galore the speaker has been moved from the bottom edge to low on the backside and the camera bezel has been extended the LED spotlight enhanced with a xenon flash there's also a noise cancelling mic up top flanked by another one on the top edge the USB port has also been relocated here an awkward but not unprecedented choice and the sim tray is now removable with just a thumbnail but it feels much more fragile cheaper than the one on its predecessor that's true also for the devices plastic side buttons which offer much less satisfying travel and click than the 920's metal keys in sum while the 928 s hardware is slightly slimmer and also more than 20 grams lighter than its 4runner standing next to the 920 it doesn't look like an evolution of the design it looks more like a step backward to a less developed prototype version now some people will prefer the 928 more aggressive look and we're not suggesting Nokia should be afraid of deviating from its existing design language bold moves are good we're just not sure the 928 exemplifies the flavor of bold the company should be exploring because with the exception of the display from buttons to back lights to bezels the whole thing just feels and looks cheaper comparing Windows Phones is always a fairly consistent experience in terms of software because the platform is optimized so well that it runs smoothly on pretty much any hardware you throw at it as you might expect that's doubly the case when that hardware is flagship grade and identical and indeed metrics like app launch times and benchmark scores confirm that these devices are very similar in terms of ones and zeros we did experience the occasional hiccup or stutter on the 928 but that's not unprecedented on some new carrier builds of even the normally buttery Windows Phone so it doesn't give us too much pause really the biggest takeaway from the software angle is just how consistent Microsoft has managed to keep Windows Phone with the exception of the typical carrier load the best example of useful software customization is the inclusion on the 928 of Microsoft's data sense metering and limiting app a staple of Verizon Windows Phone 8 devices that we'd like to see make it to other carriers soon Verizon's advertising push surrounding the 928 has been surprisingly robust here in the northeastern US and unsurprisingly almost all of it focuses on the devices camera the Lumia 920 already offered the best low-light shooting experience on an American smartphone and the 928 only improves on that by bringing a xenon flash to the 8.7 megapixel PureView sensor that flash is more powerful and more befitting a high-end smartphone shooter and great to have in a pinch most of the time though unless you're trying to capture fast-moving objects or people you're probably going to want to shoot without it the 928 night shots continue to be as stunning as the 920 s and both phones continue to shine in the daylight as well our only real complaint is in the occasional softness of focus and the Spartan viewfinder software which still lacks a stock HDR option and still suffers from an absence of a shooting mode indicator otherwise these are both outstanding class-leading smartphone cameras some of the other changes nokia made to the 928 have proved less than stellar as mentioned in hardware moving the speakerphone to the back resulted in an aesthetic compromise but it's one we would have been ok with if it had resulted in superior performance the thing is it doesn't compared to the Lumia 920 the 928 produces a louder sound but a raspier and tinnier one as well and we're not talking a minor difference here it's really much worse than the 920 s bottom edge output and the fact that it's now on the wrong side of the phone just stinks the sound problem continues in terms of voice calls at least on one side every single caller we spoke to during our test period said we sounded cleaner with less clipping on the Lumia 920 than on the 928 well that may well be a network effect of Verizon CDMA versus ATT's GSM it's one you're gonna have to deal with if you pick the 928 over the 924 tchen Utley callers on our end sounded quite clear in the 928 with nice rich side tone on our side and background sound suppression on the newer phone is stellar with its dedicated dual microphone array finally the 928 beat out its predecessor by 17 minutes in the WP bench battery test and our real-world experience bore that out with the 928 more likely to last for a night on the town than our Lumia 920 that may be because we've been using the latter as a daily driver since launch day last winter but the divergent performance is also reflected on Nokia's own estimates it's not likely to be a terribly significant difference for most buyers but it's worth a mention while the Lumia 928 is very much a quote Lumia 920 for Verizon unquote there isn't exact parity between the flagships some of the differences like the brighter more vibrant display xenon camera flash lighter weight build and superior noise cancellation favorite Verizon's version others like better voice call quality richer speaker phone sound and a higher-quality feel in hand favored the older AT&T flagship it's just a matter of choosing what compromises you want to make on each side and viewed through the lens of that contest it looks like the original flagship edges out its newer cheaper competitor by just a bit over all folks wave so much more on the Lumia 928 and the Lumia 920 at pocketnow.com and here on youtube so subscribe if you haven't already follow us on our various social media feeds that drop us a like if you enjoyed the video leave us a comment if you have something to say and as always thank you for watching we'll see you next time I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is Nokia Lumia 920 vs. Nokia Lumia 928 they're backwards