Nokia Lumia 920 officially unboxed! Yay!

We’ve been waiting a loooooong time to get our hands on our own unit of Nokia’s flagship Windows Phone 8, the Nokia Lumia 920. After several months since the launch, Nokia Philippines finally brought it to our shores and we now have one here at the Unbox HQ! Boasting of a stellar camera that can capture beautiful photos in low-light conditions, a hefty but stylish and signature design, and competitive specifications under the hood, the Nokia Lumia 920 aims to carve out a piece of the high-end smartphone pie which is currently locally dominated by Apple and Samsung. We’ll put the Nokia Lumia 920 to the test in the next few weeks and we’ll report back to you guys with a full review. For now we’d like to share our unboxing!

Nokia Lumia 920 Spec Sheet

• 1.5GHz Dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon
• Adreno 225 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 32GB Storage
• 4.5-inches IPS LCD Capacitive Touchscreen, Gorilla Glass 2
• 768 x 1280 pixels, 332 pixels per inch, PureMotion HD+, ClearBlack Display
• 8.0-megapixels rear-facing camera with Carl Zeiss optics, OIS, autofocus, dual-LED flash
• PureView Technology (for amazing low-light photos)
• Can record 1080p@30fps video with stabilization (floating lens technology)
• 1.3-megapixels front-facing camera
• WiFi a/b/g/n, DLNA, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC
• 3G, HSPA+, LTE (to be activated via OTA update locally), GPS with AGPS support and GLONASS
• 2,000mAh Battery
• Microsoft Windows Phone 8 OS

What’s in the box?

It’s built like a modern-day tank, a bit bulky but definitely packing intense firepower and breakthrough engineering.

The Nokia Lumia 920 comes in your usual Nokia signature blue box with product image shots at the front and details at the back. We removed the tape, slid the inner box out by pulling the outer cover and we were immediately greeted by the Nokia Lumia 920. This device definitely went against the grain when it came to design. Unlike the usual Android smartphones that are gun to be thinner and lighter than anyone else, Nokia decided to cram as much technology as they can into the Lumia 920 making it a bit hefty and thick. It’s built like a modern-day tank, a bit bulky but definitely packing intense firepower and breakthrough industrial engineering.

Heft and weight isn’t always a bad thing and that’s what we found out with the Nokia Lumia 920. It’s personal preference but some people (like us) actually like that it felt solid in the hand. It gave us an impression that it was expensive (lol) and that it didn’t need any more bulky third-party accessory just to protect it.

We also say that it’s modern not just because of what’s under the hood but because of the design aesthetic. We love how the glass display doesn’t just abruptly connect to the body. With the Nokia Lumia 920 the glass flows seamlessly into the polycarbonate shell. Simply beautiful!

Initially we thought that it would be uncomfortable to hold given the size and what seemed like a squarish frame. However we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was quite pleasant to have in the hand. The back of the Nokia Lumia 920 is curved, almost pillow-like which lets it nestle in your hand without biting into your flesh.

Usual ports and buttons are there. Volume rocker, power lock, and dedicated camera shutter on the right. At the top you’ll find the headphone jack and the micro SIM tray (you need a pin to open). At the bottom is the microUSB port.

Nokia Lumia 920 on video at the Unbox Podcast!

To get a better feel of the Nokia Lumia 920, watch the latest episode of the Unbox Video Podcast below where we featured it. The Nokia Lumia 920 segment should start at around 32:34 so just fast forward to that if you want to skip everything else.

Cool eh? 😀 Watch the whole ep! Hehe.

Anyway, what else is in the box?

Once we took out the phone we saw the micro SIM tray pin, which was also branded “Nokia”. We lifted the phone tray to see what else was there and we found a wall charger, manuals, and earphones. By the way, Nokia made the earphones match the color of the unit. Since we had a red handset we got red earphones. Colin, our Movie Editor, got a yellow Nokia Lumia 920 and he received yellow earphones. Sweet.

You’re probably asking… where’s the wireless charger? Unfortunately it didn’t come bundled with the phone. We’ll have to buy it separately when it becomes available in the market. According to our sources though it should be out in a week or two.

Software Check!

Microsoft has really come a long way with the Windows Phone operating system. Their latest version, Windows Phone 8, is elegant, fast, and intuitive. We’re definitely digging the live tiles and how far we can personalize the home screen. We’ll delve deeper into this though during the full review.

Coming from a non-Nokia windows phone, we didn’t really think there was a big difference other than hardware design. However it turns out Nokia has a lot of exclusive apps on their side. Some of them are very useful like Here Maps, Here Drive, and Here Transit. Some are fun to have like their exclusive games like Bejeweled+. It’s good that Nokia understands that it’s not just a hardware play but software and apps are just as important as the body design. Hoping to see more apps from them in the future.

Camera is the best with lowlight

We’ll share the full shots during the review but we just had to include in this unboxing how impressed we were with the camera of the Nokia Lumia 920. It is, by far, the best camera on a smartphone we’ve used for low-light conditions. Perfect for taking photos indoors or when out during the evening!

Full Review Coming Soon!

As far as initial impressions go we’re very happy with the Nokia Lumia 920. The Windows platform remains to be a breath of fresh air and the over-all Windows experience is enhanced by the Nokia exclusive apps and the modern-day-tank-like hardware design.

Watch out for our full review next week!