79 replies to this topic

[AR556]

The Good:

1. Well made
2. Modern UI concept/execution works well for phones
3. Stable, smooth running experience
4. Simple to figure out and use
5. Nice screen
6. Fits good in the hands
7. Lots of built in storage.

The Bad:

1. Battery life so far, sucks. Didn't make any calls the first day. All I did was spend a while adding contacts, customizing the start screen, add accounts and make one phone call. Had to plug it back in first thing on day two because batt was critically low. I set screen brightness to low full time and enabled battery saver in the phone options. If I have to charge the battery almost every day, I expect I'll have to send the phone off in a little over a year for a battery replacement.

2. Speakers are not loud enough. I made one phone call and noticed that with the speaker on and volume maxed, it was painfully hard to hear the person on the other end with any amount of background noise (Fan, porn DVD playing n the background, etc). No way on hell the alarm is going to wake me up in the morning, either.

3. No SD card slot or removable battery. Seriously, phone manufactures, removing useful features to be more simplistic like Apple is not a good thing! Given the current battery life I am experiencing with the 920, they should've provided a holster with a spare battery change!

4. Windows app store: Not really a knock against the phone, but there just isn't a lot in there yet. Android and Apple have the advantage here for the time being.

Overall, I like the phone and do not regret getting it. Hopefully Nokia gets an update out that can help the battery life issue. Other things like the absence of SD slot and volume problems are a disappointment however.

[Muhammad Farrukh]

AR556, on 03 December 2012 - 12:06, said:

2. Speakers are not loud enough. I made one phone call and noticed that with the speaker on and volume maxed, it was painfully hard to hear the person on the other end with any amount of backgound noise (Fan, porn DVD playing n the background, etc). No way on hell the alarm is going to wake me up n the morning, either.

How bad is it?
I heard that from my friend too.

[AR556]

Muhammad Farrukh, on 03 December 2012 - 12:08, said:

How bad is it?
I heard that from my friend too.

I can deal with the speaker phone issues, but get an alarm clock if you rely on your phone to wake you up.

[jakem1]

To be fair, you knew it didn't have an SD-card slot when you bought it.

Also, having to charge a smartphone once a day isn't too surprising. It's years since I've had a phone that lasted more than a day without needing to be charged.

[AR556]

jakem1, on 03 December 2012 - 12:28, said:

To be fair, you knew it didn't have an SD-card slot when you bought it.

Also, having to charge a smartphone once a day isn't too surprising. It's years since I've had a phone that lasted more than a day without needing to be charged.

True, I knew about the absence of an SD slot and accepted it, but its still a negative any way you look at it. As far as battery life goes I upgraded from an ENVY 2, so this is my first smart phone experience. I am not a heavy phone user by any means, so I can image what a power user goes through in terms of charging. From a consumer prospective, short battery life and non-removable batteries are a bad combination and why a phone maker would want to deal with replacing something that should serviceable by the end user is beyond me. Again, these design choices are influenced by Apple's iPhone.

[jakem1]

AR556, on 03 December 2012 - 12:33, said:

True, I knew about the absence of an SD slot and accepted it, but its still a negative any way you look at it.

I used to think this way too but got used to not having an SD slot when I bought my first Windows Phone. IMO, the Lumia 920 doesn't really need an SD slot because it already has 32GB of storage built in. At this point I think that's more than enough for most people.

AR556, on 03 December 2012 - 12:33, said:

As far as battery life goes I upgraded from an ENVY 2, so this is my first smart phone experience. I am not a heavy phone user by any means, so I can image what a power user goes through in terms of charging. From a consumer prospective, short battery life and non-removable batteries are a bad combination and why a phone maker would want to deal with replacing something that should serviceable by the end user is beyond me. Again, these design choices are influenced by Apple's iPhone.

Again, you knew the battery wasn't removable before you bought the phone so you can't really complain about it too much. The lack of replaceable battery might be an issue for some users but there are plenty of phones out there for them to choose from. To be honest, I think the number of people who need to swap batteries on a regular basis is probably pretty slim.

My main concern about the non-replaceable battery would be that you can't just pull the battery if the phone locks up. As long as there's a way to force a reboot (I believe there's a button combination you have to press to do this) then it's not a huge issue.

Unfortunately short battery life is the norm with smartphones so I think you should get used to it. You could always consider taking advantage of the wireless charging present in the Lumia 920 to make regular charging simpler but I'm sure you'll get used to having to remember to charge your phone more frequently.

[Dot Matrix]

AR556, on 03 December 2012 - 12:06, said:

1. Battery life so far, sucks. Didn't make any calls the first day. All I did was spend a while adding contacts, customizing the start screen, add accounts and make one phone call. Had to plug it back in first thing on day two because batt was critically low. I set screen brightness to low full time and enabled battery saver in the phone options. If I have to charge the battery almost every day, I expect I'll have to send the phone off in a little over a year for a battery replacement.

Well, fist day usage while you're adding contacts, downloading apps, etc are going to put a strain on the battery. Use it a while before you make this call , and see how the battery lasts then.

[AWKM]

Possibly LTE causing the battery issues?

I know my HTC Raider (getting a bit old by modern standards) would last about a day on LTE. Kicking back to HSPA+ basically doubles my battery life and in the end that was more important to me. I can deal with 10Mbit over 25-30Mbit tbh.

[V8nside]

Most battery driven devices get better after a week or 2 of charge cycles...

I find a lot of phones have poor in call volume performance, any one have a phone that has good-great call volume?

[+TCLN Ryster]

I've read that NFC drains the battery quite a lot too. As I'm not using it, and I prefer my phone not to make a little jingly tune when I put it near my wallet, I've turned it off :-)

[+patseguin]

I had the previous Lumia for a time and thought it was an exceptional device. I'm sure this one is no different from a build standpoint and probably even better with Windows Phone 8 as opposed to what was on the previous Lumia. Having used Windows Phone, Android, and iOS each for a good amount of time I give the edge to Android but that's not to take anything away from the 920. I'm wondering if some of your bads can be fixed in a firmware update.

[tsupersonic]

Congrats. Yeah, see how battery life becomes once it's broken in, and you move to a different usage pattern. I played with the Lumia 920 at a store, and I wasn't impressed at all. Had very high hopes for this device.

[Scorbing]

AR556, on 03 December 2012 - 12:06, said:

The Good:

1. Well made
2. Modern UI concept/execution works well for phones
3. Stable, smooth running experience
4. Simple to figure out and use
5. Nice screen
6. Fits good in the hands
7. Lots of built in storage.

The Bad:

1. Battery life so far, sucks. Didn't make any calls the first day. All I did was spend a while adding contacts, customizing the start screen, add accounts and make one phone call. Had to plug it back in first thing on day two because batt was critically low. I set screen brightness to low full time and enabled battery saver in the phone options. If I have to charge the battery almost every day, I expect I'll have to send the phone off in a little over a year for a battery replacement.

2. Speakers are not loud enough. I made one phone call and noticed that with the speaker on and volume maxed, it was painfully hard to hear the person on the other end with any amount of background noise (Fan, porn DVD playing n the background, etc). No way on hell the alarm is going to wake me up in the morning, either.

3. No SD card slot or removable battery. Seriously, phone manufactures, removing useful features to be more simplistic like Apple is not a good thing! Given the current battery life I am experiencing with the 920, they should've provided a holster with a spare battery change!

4. Windows app store: Not really a knock against the phone, but there just isn't a lot in there yet. Android and Apple have the advantage here for the time being.

Overall, I like the phone and do not regret getting it. Hopefully Nokia gets an update out that can help the battery life issue. Other things like the absence of SD slot and volume problems are a disappointment however.

Did you read the reviews all over the internet before buying it? The reviews clearly state that the battery is not very good at all compared to other units in its class. They also mention that it has no SD card slot or removable battery and they also say that the Windows App store is empty as far as good, useful apps is concerned (but that is not Nokia's fault).

Before you buy a phone you must really consider the pros and cons. To me personally, these are the rules I follow when buying a phone:

1. Battery Life must be excellent and must be removable.
2. SD or Micro SD Card Slot for expansion.
3. Excellent, clear, bright screen that is even bright and clear in sunlight.
4. Processor speed. No less than a dual core CPU.
5. Memory. No less than 2GB of RAM. Very useful when multi-tasking.

I have a friend who bought the Nokia and he regrets it now because he is having the same issues you are. Yes, the Nokia has 32GB of internal storage and it is a technological marvel but what good is that going to do you if it has no real useful apps and no battery life?

If you just got it and and can still return it, I would suggest a Samsung Galaxy S3 or better. Windows Phones have a long way to go before they can catch up with Android and iOS. The Windows Phone app store is really a shame.

Samsung Galaxy S3: http://www.samsung.c...lobal/galaxys3/

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: http://www.samsung.c....html?type=find

They both have 2GB of memory, removable battery and Micro SD Card slot. The U.S. AT&T S3 has a Snapdragon S4 Dual-Core and the Note 2 has a Quad-Core. The international version of the S3 has the same Quad Core as the Note 2.

I hope this helps.

[theyarecomingforyou]

The non-removable battery and terrible battery life are the main reason I'll pass on the Lumia 920, with the weight being a concern - otherwise it appears to be an excellent phone. I don't think that SD-cards are important on most phones and I barely use much storage on my phone, which only has 10GB in total.

The Galaxy S3 and Note 2 are my favourites at the moment but by the time my contract up in about 6 months I'm expecting there to be much better offerings.

[FrankJL]

Got a Lumia 920. EXCEPTIONAL phone I loved it.

But I personally dont want to feel or be part of a new system.
I didnt want to give up my cyan lumia 920.

I reverted back to iphone simply because oevrall it is more mature.
BUt honestly cant wait for WP8 to grow. I am ready to switch out of my iphone and into wp8.