Nokia Lumia 920 Hands-on and Initial Impressions

Nokia Lumia 920 on display at Electroworld, SM North Edsa

Hello there Nokia Lumia 920!

We stumbled upon a demo unit of the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone at Electrworld in SM North Edsa Annex (Cyberzone) last night. It was definitely a pleasant surprise since we’ve taken a keen interest in Windows Phone devices lately mainly due to our fascination with the HTC 8X. We spent a good 15 minutes play around with Nokia’s flagship smartphone and we stepped away impressed, excited, and hopeful. Read on for our initial impressions!

Shiny, shimmering, splendid… and bulky!

This ain't a small one folks — This ain’t a small one folks

From a distance the Nokia Lumia 920 looks like the previous generation of Lumia devices (900 and 800). This is understandable since it sports the same unibody construction and design philosophy as well as the gorgeous curved display. However when you get closer to it you’ll immediately notice several differences.

First is the finish of the body. The Lumia 920 has a glossier and more shiny finish compared to the previous Lumia devices. Personally I prefer the previous finish of the Lumia 900 and 800. I find the super glossy finish a bit too loud.

Next is the size. The Nokia Lumia 920 is the biggest Lumia to-date. It sports a 4.5-inch screen compared to the Lumia 900’s 4.3-inch screen. It’s also a little thicker (6.13 x 2.78 x 0.42 inches vs 5.03 x 2.70 x 0.45 inches) and heavier (185 g vs 160 g). You can get for a feel of how big it is by checking out the photo below:

Don’t get me wrong though, the Nokia Lumia 920 is still comfortable in your hand. We just had to point out that Nokia went against the grain here by not aiming for a super thin device which is what other phone manufacturers are gunning for. This is probably the compromise to pack the 8.7-megapixel PureView camera in there.

Another very noticeable improvement is the screen. The Nokia Lumia 920 has one of the best displays… ever! At 4.5-inch, it has a resolution of 768 x 1280 pixels which comes out to around 332 pixels per inch. No other way to describe it except for “absolutely stunning”.

Windows Phone 8 is a breath of fresh air

So how’s Windows Phone 8? It’s fast, modern, classy, elegant, and refreshing! It’s not as boring and clean as iOS nor is it as complex and techie like Android. We’re pretty impressed with what Microsoft has been able to do with their mobile operating system. We’ll save all the details though when we do the review for the HTC 8X (watch out for that) and hopefully the Nokia Lumia 920 when it comes out in the market.

A lot of things to look forward to!

We’re definitely excited for the Nokia Lumia 920! This device holds a lot of promise and the 8.7-megapixel PureView shooter is very intriguing (can’t wait to take it out for a spin). We’ll definitely do our best in either buying one ASAP or securing a review unit from Nokia Philippines.

Want one? According to our sources the Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 will be available locally starting January 13. There’s no SRP yet. It will probably around the Php27,000-Php30,000 range though.