Got a Lumia 920: My thoughts after 48hrs

[JustGeorge]

I had read about the phone before buying it. Nothing has been a deal breaker really and plan on keeping the phone. Had considered a Galaxy SIII, but its been out for a while now and there are rumblings about the S4. That plus what I've heard about Samsung's upgrade support were enough for me to drop it from consideration.

[Twiddle]

I do actually use my phone as an alarm, and it works great. These speakers are pretty loud, so I am not sure if that is just your phone or what... And I am deaf in one ear, so there is that. :rofl:

The battery life, after about 2 weeks now of having it is tolerable. Really isn't any different than my Galaxy S, maybe slightly less time. I just hate how you cannot, obviously, swap a spare battery.

[Dashel]

Does the 920 not have two speakers like the 8X (front/back)? Can't seem to locate that on its spec sheets.

[Twiddle]

Does the 920 not have two speakers like the 8X (front/back)? Can't seem to locate that on its spec sheets.

The speakers are actually on the bottom of the phone, where the charger plug is. That does bother me, considering when you hold the phone sideways, playing a game or something, you end up covering the speakers with your hands.

[Dashel]

I prefer the 'cupping' method on my Focus for phat bass. :p (Its a single rear speaker too)

[siah1214]

Don't worry about charging it every night, that's best practice for these phones. I've been doing that to my trophy for a year and the battery life is getting better, not worse. I used to top it off in the afternoon, now I don't worry about it.

[tsupersonic]

Don't worry about charging it every night, that's best practice for these phones. I've been doing that to my trophy for a year and the battery life is getting better, not worse. I used to top it off in the afternoon, now I don't worry about it.

No, battery life won't get better after a year. If you charge your smartphone everyday, battery life will deteriorate over time. This is true for any Lithium-ion battery.

[JustGeorge]

Some here suggested disabling NFC. Where's the setting located on the 920?

[chrisl]

Is the battery issue on the Lumia 920 a US thing? Got mine a couple of weeks ago and the battery was fine straight out of the box (I'm in the UK). The volume in the earpiece is fine, only issue I have with volume is the ring volume seems quite low but to combat this I just turned it up a bit.

The windows store may lack some of the apps that iOS and Android have but the inbuilt office trumps all of that for me.

When I first got the phone it did seem heavy but I soon got used to it, although if I pick up my g/f's Omnia 7 you can definitely tell the Lumia has quite a bit of heft to it.

The camera is brilliant.

Overall very happy with it.

[Shadrack]

Having to charge the battery nightly is pretty much across the board standard with most smartphones. iPhones and maybe Samsung Galaxy Note 2's being the small exception of phones where light use might get you through 2 days. I can go 2 days between charges on my iPhone, but I charge it pretty much every evening regardless if it is only down to 70%.

If you are coming from a feature phone then you will see a dramatic difference in battery life, no doubt. I remember my last feature phone I could go 4-5 days before charging.

As far as wearing out the battery goes, charging it nightly should be fine. The battery life will degrade but I think it should get you through 3 years of use without needing to be changed. What would be detrimental to the battery is letting it discharge fully or charging it in elevated temperatures (like leaving it on the charger in your vehicle on a hot summer day).

[JustGeorge]

Hmm....I was just about to reply with my 920, and it just rebooted by itself. I've read of this happening to other people. Software glitch or hardware problem?

[MorganX]

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

I use my 920 as my main alarm. It's plenty loud. Music player however leaves a lot to be desired and phone volume on speaker could be louder. it can be fixed with an update since other apps are quite audible from a distance.

[Arceles]

Having to charge the battery nightly is pretty much across the board standard with most smartphones. iPhones and maybe Samsung Galaxy Note 2's being the small exception of phones where light use might get you through 2 days. I can go 2 days between charges on my iPhone, but I charge it pretty much every evening regardless if it is only down to 70%.

If you are coming from a feature phone then you will see a dramatic difference in battery life, no doubt. I remember my last feature phone I could go 4-5 days before charging.

As far as wearing out the battery goes, charging it nightly should be fine. The battery life will degrade but I think it should get you through 3 years of use without needing to be changed. What would be detrimental to the battery is letting it discharge fully or charging it in elevated temperatures (like leaving it on the charger in your vehicle on a hot summer day).

My phone last max 5 days.... on 2g networks (RAZRi)

[FiB3R]

This was on TV tonight...

http://gadgetshow.channel5.com/gadget-show/videos/gadget-test/christmas-high-end-smartphones

[JustGeorge]

Just an update: Everything is going well with the phone. The only issue that's really bothering me at this point is that it suffers from the random reboot issue. I've reversed all the changes I made in the device settings, and uninstalled all extra applications that I put on after purchase. So far, no more reboots. I hope Microsoft pushes a fix for this problem this month, like they're claiming.

[George P Global Moderator]

I dunno about the 920 but my 8X hasn't rebooted at all since I got it over a week now. I've also installed a good deal of apps and games etc so I don't think it's a specific app problem but more of a quirky firmware/driver problem that should get fixed soon.

[JustGeorge]

I dunno about the 920 but my 8X hasn't rebooted at all since I got it over a week now. I've also installed a good deal of apps and games etc so I don't think it's a specific app problem but more of a quirky firmware/driver problem that should get fixed soon.

I predict the fix will get pushed just before Christmas day.

[Bizkit]

Battery life is always a tricky thing. I had the original HTC Incredible, and it lasted me about 6 hours listening to podcasts from the phone. There are LOTS of tricks to extending the battery: turn off LTE if your not using the phone much, turn off NFC, turn off auto sync or updates on apps you don't care about, stuff like that.

Even after those tricks, don't be surprised if you have to charge it every night. Welcome to the world of smartphones.

[majortom1981]

Nfc is under tap & send

also having Nokia drive running in the background is known to cause battery issues.

[JustGeorge]

UPDATE: I'm having battery drain problems. My wife also has a 920. Charged them both to 100%, mirrored settings/apps on each and left them on over night (screen off). As of this morning, her phone has 96% battery left and mine was @ 71%, so its not my imagination.The day before, it ****ed away nearly half its charge in 10hrs being on standby with no use at all. Phone won't make it through half a day if I actually used it at this point.

Also, Her phone also has the following apps enabled:

Screen brightness = Auto

Tap/Send =on

Nokia Drive background tasks = on

Wi-Fi =on

4G-LTE (can't be disabled on At&t)

location =on

Weather Channel background tasks = on

*Mine has an XBL account, but I've already tried disabling its connection and it makes no difference in battery life.

I've been told to let the phone die, then charge to max, turn off all background tasks, disable Nokia Drive etc. and while I appreciate everyone's help, I believe these tips are simply myths. Basically whats being suggested is to increase battery life by disabling every feature of the phone and don't use it. The more likely scenario here is that a certain number of phones have shipped with faulty batteries. I'm going to swap mine out for another 920 tomorrow if I come home today and see the phones eaten through its battery again. It was on 65% @ 6am when I left, so we'll see....

[JustGeorge]

Well.....I think I'm done. The phone has been on standby for 9.5 hours and has drained itself from 65% down to 13%. This thing has lost 52% of its charge doing nothing but sitting around, unused with the screen off. No one has called it or touched it. Absolutely unacceptable! Life is too short to dick around with a phone and I'm not entirely sure I'm getting another 920 seeing as how my local walmart is completely out and none are in transit, meaning it could be awhile. They told me I could keep it beyond the 14 days and exchange it when more arrived, but given the wide-spread nature of this problem, I might get another dud. Besides, why hang onto a phone I can't even use? Love WP8 as a platform and would love the phone if I could use it, but MS and Nokia need to get their act together and address this!

That Samsung Galaxy SIII is looking pretty good right about now. I know they'll probably abandon it update-wise by summer but what the hell. At least I can swap the battery if it decides to act like this phone.

[articuno1au]

I'm not having that issue.

I went 1 day 10 hours from 85% -> 10% with medium to heavy usage.

The big thing you can do to improve battery life is turn off location aware for applications that don't need it (i.e. Angry Birds). Also turn off background permissions for those kinds of apps.

Mine's running nicely :\

[Draconian Guppy]

That Samsung Galaxy SIII is looking pretty good right about now. I know they'll probably abandon it update-wise by summer but what the hell. At least I can swap the battery if it decides to act like this phone.

Even if they officially abandon it, custom roms usually go 2+ years or more !

[the420kid]

so glad I went with the Nexus 4!!

and as a Surface user I can attest to the empty app marketplace.

[JustGeorge]

I'm not having that issue.

I went 1 day 10 hours from 85% -> 10% with medium to heavy usage.

The big thing you can do to improve battery life is turn off location aware for applications that don't need it (i.e. Angry Birds). Also turn off background permissions for those kinds of apps.

Mine's running nicely :\

But as mentioned, my wife has the exact same phone with all that crap enabled and she's not having any problems with battery drain.