Nokia Lumia 928

Nokia Lumia 928 Review

The Nokia Lumia 928 is a Windows 8 phone made for Verizon Wireless that is known for both its looks and for its high picture-taking quality. There is more to this phone than its appearance and its high-quality low-lighting pictures, and several other features are worth mentioning as well. Outward appearance is the first thing that most people notice, however, and the Nokia Lumia 928 draws the eye for a variety of both good and bad reasons.

Design

The Lumia 928 is an upgrade from the Lumia 920, although it shares many of the same features with that phone. This phone is smaller overall than the Lumia 920, although some users may still find this 5.71 ounce phone to be a bit heavy. Its size is 5.24 by 2.71 by 0.44 inches, which is small enough to operate and/or hold with one hand but large enough to irritate some users. The squared-off edges of the phone and less-rounded corners make the phone able to stand up vertically on a level surface without support, and the slight bulging of the back of the phone makes the phone easier to hold and use.

This phone only comes in black and white, which may disappoint some users who are used to the variety of colors available for the Lumia 920. The phone’s front is entirely black, though, so neither white nor black is a bad color option. The main criticism in terms of color is not that the options available are bad, but that they—especially when combined with the overall design of the Lumia 928 and compared to the other more stylish color options out there—are boring. The Verizon logo on the front of the phone is also unattractive, but there are worse flaws that a phone could have.

How Well Does the Phone Work?

Looks are not everything, and in terms of performance, the Lumia 928 often delivers. The AMOLED display screen measures 4.5 inches and has a pixel resolution of 1280 by 768. Colors appear vivid and vibrant—especially the blacks. This display screen has sunlight readability enhancements that do away with the screen glare that many other phones may be afflicted with when used outdoors on a bright day. “Glove mode” enables users to operate the touch screen through clothing.

The right edge of the Lumia 928 has the same button configuration as other Nokia Windows phones. A volume rocker button sits at the top; this can be difficult to hit in mid-call due to its location and is similar enough to the power button directly below it for the two to be mistaken if the user is going by feel alone. A two-stage camera button finishes off the array of buttons on the right side. The top of the Lumia 928 features a center-mounted Micro USB port with a noise cancellation mic located to one side of the port and a SIM tray on the other; the 3.5mm headphone jack is located in the corner.

Although modern phones have become more like mini-computers, they still need to function as telephones. The sound quality offered by the Lumia 928 is a mixed bag, and some features are better than others. The headphone jack produces high audio quality and the noise cancellation feature works well even in loud conditions. Unfortunately, the overall voice quality of the Lumia 928’s earpiece is low. Both the earpiece and the loudspeaker have high volume, but the loudness cannot make up for the lack of bass and the presence of sound-blurring.

The Lumia 928’s processing power is solid; its 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 dual-core processor runs the Windows Phone 8 operating system sufficiently well to keep the phone from experiencing the lagging and stuttering issues that some other similar phones have. This phone is configured to run on Verizon Wireless’s 4G LTE Network. It has 23.76GB of storage space, but does not have the option of adding a microSD card; the Lumia 928 also has 2GB of RAM.

This phone is also not overloaded with relatively useless apps like some other phones; the Lumia 928 comes with ESPN, My Verizon Mobile, NFL Mobile, VZ Navigator, and Weather, all of which may be uninstalled if the user prefers. It also has access to a series of exclusive Lumia apps like Nokia Drive+ Beta, which offers turn-by-turn GPS services enabled by voice. Here Maps is a set of interactive maps, and Here City Lens overlays nearby points of interest on the camera’s current view. Here Drive+ is a set of maps that works when the phone is in offline mode, and Here Transit helps users learn information about a city’s transit systems. Other app options are Nokia Music, which allows the user to buy music or listen to free pre-made playlists, and Data Sense, a Verizon-exclusive data monitoring app. The Windows Phone Store boasts over 100 apps, so users will have a decent variety of apps to browse through and/or purchase.

The battery life of any given piece of electronics is going to vary depending on usage, but the Lumia 928’s battery life is solid when compared to that of other phones. Basic usage results in approximately 27 hours per charge of the 2000 mAh battery, while other activities like music-streaming and certain types of communication can run the battery down in 4 or 5 hours. The Lumia 928 can also be charged wirelessly, which allows users to charge it frequently during periods of inaction if they have purchased a wireless charging pad.

Camera

While the Lumia 928 has some flaws, the PureView-branded 8.7-megapixel camera plus the built-in Xenon flash make up for many of them. This camera is especially suitable for low-light shots--especially action shots taken at night. The Xenon flash is great for these late-night action shots, but using the flash at other times can cause white imbalances. Since the Lumia 920 is already known for its high-quality low-light shots, adding the Xenon to the Lumia 928 does not enhance low-light pictures all that much. Given the overall high quality of the Lumia 928’s ability to take low light shots, however, the Xenon’s relative lack of use is not so much a knock on the camera itself as it is a compliment to the quality of the camera’s low-light capabilities.

A couple of complaints about the camera are that the shutter speed is fairly slow and that the pictures taken can blur if the user’s hand is not steady enough. Given the phone’s overall bulkiness, some users might have trouble positioning the camera and holding it still enough for long enough to take a high-quality picture in low lighting (although the built-in Carl Zeiss lens with optical image stabilization helps compensate for such issues). Taking video shots at night is not difficult as the Lumia 928 does come with a built-in white LED for illumination during low-light filming. The video camera records at 1080p at 30 fps, making for smooth captures. The Lumia 928 also has a front-facing 1.2MP camera that can record up to 720p resolution from video calls.

The phone’s camera also has a Smart Shoot feature that enables the camera to take a rapid burst of 5 pictures and then edit the 5 pictures into a single composite to get the best possible picture. The Panorama feature can take multiple pictures and put them together for instant sharing on facebook and Twitter, and the Cinemagraph feature takes still images and blends them with movie-like animation. 

Conclusion

The Nokia Lumia 928 Bluetooth Windows 8 phone is a solid option for the price, especially if a user needs a camera phone that can take great night pictures. Many may be disappointed with the somewhat dull and unwieldy design of the phone as well as the lack of color availability; the sound quality of many of the Lumia 928’s audio options also leaves a lot to be desired. However, if a user values picture quality, display screen vibrancy, overall performance, and relatively high battery life over outward appearance and sound quality, this may be the phone for him or her. Potential users who are not locked into a specific plan with Verizon may want to explore other Nokia Windows phones, such as the Nokia Lumia 925 from T-Mobile.