Nokia Lumia 928 Review

Introduction:

When it came to Windows Phone from Nokia, it was pretty obvious that AT&T received the most love out of the major four wireless carriers. Back last fall, however, Verizon finally saw its first Windows Phone from the Finnish company in the form of the Nokia Lumia 822. Needless to say, it was regarded as a special occasion, seeing that Big Red’s Nokia lineup prior to the arrival of the Lumia 822 was non-existent. Even though it proved to be a great mid-ranger, especially with its fantastic $99.99 on-contract price point right from the get-go, it really wasn’t that super spec’d Nokia Windows Phone that diehard smartphone addicts crave – and when you look at it on paper, it paled in comparison to AT&T’s Nokia Lumia 920.

Fear not people! That’s because Verizon Wireless is getting its own variant of the 920, which should no doubt put Nokia’s name near the top of the ladder within the carrier’s Windows Phone selection. At its core, the recently announced Nokia Lumia 928 might seem like a subtle variant of the version that AT&T has been selling for some time now, but there are some notable differences that should make Big Red’s customers feel proud they’re getting something new. Most importantly, though, it’s priced aggressively at $99.99 on-contract to try and lure people away from some other recent entrants in the space. Armed with Nokia specialties such as a PureMotion HD+ display and PureView camera, it’s a small sampling of what this Windows Phone is packing along for the ride, but ultimately, it’s all about the real world performance that matters the most.

The package contains:

• microUSB cable
• Wall charger
• Start Guide
• Important Consumer Information Guide
• Global Support Calling Card Guide
• Product Safety & Warranty Information

Design:

Physically, it doesn’t surprise us that the Lumia 928 has the same distinct design DNA we all know and love by now. However, it makes some minor improvements that are noticeable over the Lumia 920, as it’s both thinner (0.4” thin) in profile and lighter (5.7 oz) in weight. Looking at it from its sides, we do recognize its thinner frame, which is partly due to the tapered design that’s been employed by many other contemporary handsets of late. However, despite its skinnier appearance from its sides, it progressively gets thicker towards the middle section of the chassis – and eventually flattening out. From the front, it looks a bit one-dimensional with its straight hard lines and 90-degree corners, which doesn’t particularly make for the best ergonomics when it’s held in the hand.


Constructed out of the same polycarbonate material from before, the Lumia 928 has the same sturdy feel in the hand just like the 920, but it’s still fairly weighty over other flagships we’ve been seeing. Meanwhile, the high gloss finish of the body makes it more susceptible to finger prints and smudges, but thanks to the white color of its casing, it does a better job of masking them. Overall, it’s not the most dazzling design we’ve seen, but at least it’s moving in the right direction of shaving off some stuff here and there to make it an incremental update.


In standard Windows Phone fashion, the Lumia 928 is sporting the same trio of Windows Phone buttons we’re accustomed to seeing below its display – the back, start, and search buttons. Naturally, they’re space away from one another to minimize accidental presses, but the backlighting on them is weak. On the other side, we spot its earpiece, light/proximity sensors, and front-facing 1.2-megapixel camera that’s enabled for 720p video recording.

Taking a tour around its edges, it’s quite clear that they’ve stuffed all of the handset’s physical buttons on its right side. Specifically, we find the power button, volume control, and two-level shutter key for quick access to the camera at any time when it’s long pressed. With all of them, they’re raised and have a distinctive feel, but they’re not as springy as we’d like them to be. Both the left and bottom sides of the phone are completely barren, but the top edge is home to the SIM tray, 3.5mm headset jack, noise cancelling microphone, and microUSB port for charging/data connectivity.

Sure to entice those individuals that take pride in snapping photos on the go, the Lumia 928 features an 8.7-megapixel PureView camera with Carl Zeiss f2.0 lens, optical image stabilization, and 1080p video recording. The Lumia 928 gets also gets a Xenon flash – to brighten up those shots when it’s just simply too dark for the camera, by itself, to deliver a balanced final product. Still, we’ll reserve our final thought in the camera performance a little bit later.

Display:

For us, it was a big departure to see the Lumia 920 opting to use an IPS LCD panel instead of the AMOLED we’ve been seeing used by Nokia’s devices since their Windows Phone venture, however, we see it back on this one. To be specific, it’s a 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ 768 x 1280 (WXGA) AMOLED display with Nokia’s ClearBlack filter and Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2 on top of it. So what’s the end result? Frankly, it’s typical of almost every AMOLED panel we’ve scoped out in the past – such as delivering saturated colors, wide viewing angles, and surprisingly enough, decent outdoor visibility as well. On paper, its resolution pales in comparison to most of its rivals, but nevertheless, it’s detailed enough at a pixel density of 332 ppi to make fine text in the web browser visible from a normal viewing distance.


Even though we’re nearing the summer season, the display on the Lumia 928 also features a super-sensitive panel that can recognize touch with gloves on. By default, the panel’s sensitivity is set at low in the display settings, but after setting it to high, it’s able to precisely recognize our touch and swipes. As much as we’d like to see at least 1080p resolution here with the Lumia 928’s display, we’re not all too bummed out because our eyes wouldn’t be able to differentiate it unless we’re looking meticulously up close to it. Don’t worry, it’s still an incredible looking display from all angles.

Interface:

What’s there to say about the Windows Phone 8 experience with the Nokia Lumia 928? Well, nothing really, because it’s the same platform experience we’ve seen time and time again. As always, the main drawing element of Microsoft’s platform is the dynamic looking live tiles on the start screen that gives the UI a bit of animation and pizzazz – and at the same time, it’s what distinctively separates its look from other rival platforms. As for the rest, it’s all the standard fanfare we’ve been exposed to with all the previous Windows Phones before this, so expect to find that Modern UI look sprinkled into nearly every aspect of the platform.


Being a Nokia Windows Phone, though, the Lumia 928 gets treated to the numerous Nokia branded apps that other Windows Phones from other manufacturers don’t see. Quite frankly, these apps drastically enhance the functionality of the smartphone to propel it over other Windows Phone from say, HTC and Samsung, that are on Big Red’s lineup. To be more specific, the listing consists of Nokia Drive, Nokia Music, HERE Maps, and HERE City Lens – and that’s not mentioning the handful of photo centric apps that it carries (more on that later).


Time after time, we continue to notice how Nokia’s set of Windows Phones appear to get the love from Microsoft, which is the case here with the Lumia 928. In fact, the arsenal of enhancements that these Nokia branded apps offer justifies succinctly how this smartphone offers more bang for the buck when it comes to merely the experience.

Functionality:

Well, as much as some people would like to see variation amongst the core set of organizer apps in Windows Phone 8, the consistency in the platform makes it easy to jump from one device to another. Therefore, when it comes to checking out the calculator, calendar, and people hubs on the Lumia 928, it doesn’t differ whatsoever to other past Windows Phones.

Being given plenty of real estate to work with, thanks to its 4.5-inch display, we have little issue typing away with its on-screen keyboards – whether it’s the portrait or landscape one. After using many different Android keyboards and the iPhone one, it’s always refreshing to go back to using the Windows Phone offering, seeing that it’s accurate, responsive, and boasts one of the best auto-correct features out there.


Considering that this is blessing Verizon’s lineup, it surely gets its fair share of preloaded apps from Big Red. Looking through the listing, it’s the usual crew that we find so commonplace with any other Verizon smartphone, so it includes things like My Verizon Mobile and VZ Navigator. Along for the ride as well, we find other third party apps such as CNN, ESPN, NFL Mobile, and The Weather Channel.



Processor and Memory:

When we see many Android smartphones packing mighty quad-core processors nowadays, some might be thinking that something is terribly wrong when a Windows Phone such as this one is running only a dual-core one. To tell you the truth, the Lumia 928 is utilizing the same processor as the Lumia 920 from before – a dual core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and an Adreno 225 GPU. Indeed, it’s not the most demanding piece of silicon, but regardless of that, the end result is the same. Simply, the phone performs handsomely with nearly all tasks, as every action is accompanied with that tangible level of responsiveness that the platform is known to deliver.

For the price and all, we can’t complain about its 32GB of internal storage, which basically boils down to 29.12GB out of the box. As much as it would’ve been nice to see expandable storage, that tally is sufficient enough for most people.

Internet and Connectivity:

Showing off consistency amongst Windows Phones in general, the Lumia 928 follows in suit to the others before it, since it features speedy 4G LTE connectivity combined with the flawless execution of Internet Explorer. In addition to the fast page loads we see with complex web sites, navigational controls and page rendering on the fly are also intact – so the experience is simply gratifying!


A few years ago, we rarely saw global ready devices from Verizon’s litter, but it’s becoming all too commonplace nowadays. Considering that the Lumia 928 is global ready, since it works on the CDMA bands domestically and GSM abroad, you’re sure to stay connected everywhere – plus, you get 4G LTE connectivity. For a Windows Phone, it’s packed with connectivity amenities such as aGPS, Bluetooth 3.0 with EDR, 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, NFC, hotspot functionality, and wireless charging.

Camera:

On the surface, the camera UI is pretty much stock Windows Phone 8, which is uncluttered with most of the controls and icons positioned towards the right edge of the interface. In addition to using the shutter key to control its focus, it also features the always handy touch focus system as well, which also seems to adjust the exposure as well. Perusing the lens options in the camera app, there are three that add some much-needed variety to an otherwise straightforward shooting experience:

• Smart Shoot: Essentially, it captures a series of photos and enables us to merge different aspects of the image, such as faces, so that that we’re given the best image possible. Also, there’s a remove function that comes in handy if you’re in a busy area with people randomly appearing in the shot. It’s definitely a nice addition, but it requires just a tiny bit of work on our part to deliver the best shot.

• Panorama: Just like many other smartphones, it stitches a series of photos to get a panoramic shot. Thankfully, the process is a breeze to handle, since bubbles in the UI point us towards the correct direction to steer the smartphone.

• Cinemagraph: Yet another camera feature that requires some tinkering to get the best results, cinemagraph allows us to add “movement” to different areas of our taken shot – so the result is similar to an animated gif.

So let’s get down to it! You know, the kind of raw picture quality we can draw from its 8.7-megapixel PureView camera, which features Carl Zeiss optics, an f2.0 lens, and optical stabilization. For starters, the Lumia 928’s PureView camera is incredible when it comes to snapping macro or portrait shots – in perfect lighting conditions, of course. In fact, there’s a nice bokeh effect that becomes prominent, which then focuses most of the attention and detail on the subject. For landscape scenery shots, we’re again happy with the balanced results, since it’s sharp in tone and colorful, but if we take a closer look, we recognize that fine details appear a little speckled.


By now, we’re well aware how this is advertised as a phenomenal thing to use under low lighting situations, since its f2.0 lens combined with optical image stabilization, allows it to draw more light from the environment. So how wonderful are the results? Well, we’ll mention that shots are significantly brighter than what most other smartphones can produce, but at the expense of casting softer details and a little bit of noise. It’s not terrible, and we appreciate its ability to draw out some details that are otherwise lost.

Proving itself as a contender in the still shot category, the Lumia 928 also manages to closely do the same in the 1080p video recording quality department. However, there are still some minor distracting elements that sometimes stand out – like its speckled-like details, sensitive/jumpy exposure, and long time to adjust focus. On the other hand, the biggest attention grabber is its optical image stabilization, which so happens to wonderfully cast a flowy, yet pleasing appearance to the entire package. The captured sound is also of very high quality compared to other phones.

Nokia Lumia 928 Sample Video 1:



Nokia Lumia 928 Sample Video 2:



Nokia Lumia 928 Nighttime Sample Video:



Multimedia:

Jumping to the music player, which is typical Windows Phone fashion, it’s still visually pleasing seeing that it employs many of the elements in the platform’s Modern UI. In contrast, there’s also Nokia Music, which is an alternative for those who prefer streaming functions. Cranking its volume level to its highest, there’s no shortage of pounding tones emanating from its speaker, but there’s a subtle amount of crackle that can be heard.

Supporting different video codecs out of the box, like DivX, H.264, MPEG-4, and Xvid, it’s wonderful watching high-definition 1080p videos in all of their glory on the Lumia 928. Naturally, its vivid colors, large real estate, and strong brightness output help to contrast its smooth playback.



Software:

To expand upon some of the handset’s app goodies that we mentioned briefly earlier in the review, we have the following highlights about some of them.

Starting with Nokia’s HERE City Lens, it’s one of those apps that are great for sniffing out local points of interests. Being an augmented reality app at its core, we find it extremely useful to visualize nearby locations with it.


With Nokia Drive and Maps, the two are here for all our navigational needs. Therefore, whether it’s searching for an address or getting voice-guided directions, the apps are extremely useful in getting us around. To be honest though, Nokia Drive isn’t as comprehensive compared to other dedicated GPS apps (think Navigon or Magellan), but at least it has the basics to get us from point A to point B in one piece.


And lastly, there’s Nokia Music for those who want to surround themselves with an array of music. One part a free radio station service, similar to what you’d experience with Pandora, Nokia Music also provides us access to any purchased content that are bought from Microsoft’s Music Store. Additionally, it integrates a bunch of social networking aspects to its functionality, like sharing songs you like on Facebook or reading about tweets regarding specific artists.

Call Quality:

Through the earpiece, voices are more than audible thanks primarily to its strong output – albeit, there’s just a small hint of muffle with the quality. Despite that, conversations as a whole is more than bearable on both end of the line, since our callers didn’t have any difficulty comprehending us. Better yet, the noise cancellation feature works exquisitely well, as our callers couldn’t even distinguish the difference with our voice under windy conditions. Switching to the speakerphone, it delivers nearly the same results with its near deafening output.

Battery:

Stuffed with a 2000 mAh battery, the Nokia Lumia 928 produces nearly the same amount of battery life we got out of the Lumia 920. Fully charging its battery and using it strictly as a mobile hotspot with LTE connectivity, it produced a little under 9 hours before it was dead. On another occasion, using the handset with our normal usage, which consists of mostly web surfing, text messaging, and sending emails, it produced 15 hours of juice. For an LTE enabled device, it isn’t bad at all, but it’s nowhere close to the class leader in the Motorola DROID HD MAXX.

Conclusion:

Somehow in the back of our minds, we can’t help but think about why it took so long for the Lumia 928 to arrive – even more when it’s essentially a remodeled Lumia 920, which AT&T customers have been presented with since the fall of 2012. Granted, it’s nice that it’s finally here and complements Big Red’s existing Windows Phone lineup, especially when it’s flaunting a tantalizing price point of $99.99 with a 2-year contract, but it just seems, you know, late to the game. Despite that, it’s undoubtedly the best Windows Phone that’s on the lineup – for now, that is. Who knows when we’ll see another Windows Phone, but let’s not think ahead of ourselves right now, seeing that the Lumia 928 is a wonderful offering that delivers the goods in making it a very well-rounded choice for those conscious on a budget.

Software: Windows Phone 8
OS Version: 8.0.10211.204

Nokia Lumia 928 Video Review: