Latest Lumia Smartphone: High Quality But It's Heavy

 

Both Nokia and Microsoft were once titans in the smartphone world, but the pair have struggled to find favor with consumers, carriers and developers in the iPhone-Android era. Now, the two companies, which have become close partners, hope they've finally found the formula for success. The product on which their hopes rest is Nokia's new flagship smartphone, the Lumia 920, running Microsoft's revamped operating system, Windows Phone 8.

I've been testing the Lumia 920 and consider it a handsome, high-quality phone with attractive features that worked well for me. Not only that, but it costs half of what most other top-of-the-line smartphones set you back, and yet gives you twice the typical memory. It is greatly improved from the first flagship Lumia, last spring's Lumia 900.

While this isn't a review of the new Windows Phone 8 software, I can say that it also has improved in the past year. Its underlying architecture has been rebuilt, it is faster and more reliable, it now has smaller icons so you needn't scroll as much to find what you want, and it still offers a fresh, engaging interface that sets it apart.

But the Lumia 920 has two big drawbacks: It is heavy and thick and, like all Windows Phones, it has a much smaller app selection than the iPhone or Android phones.

This new Lumia, which costs $100 with a two-year contract from AT&T, has a sharp, vibrant 4.5-inch screen, a very good 8.7-megapixel rear camera, and is fast and fluid. It supports LTE, the most consistently speedy U.S. cellular-data technology, and has 32 gigabytes of memory for storage. It is made of plastic, but it is a solid-feeling plastic in bright colors -- including red, yellow and blue -- that are injected into the material.

The phone also has some unusual features. Its screen responds to fingernails and even fingers clad in regular thin gloves (though winter-weight gloves didn't work for me). And it can be charged without plugging in a cable, by merely placing it on a charging plate that plugs into the wall. (The charging plate, normally a $49 option, is being included with the phone for an unspecified period.)

While I didn't do a formal battery test, this Nokia lasted me through a day of mixed use. Voice calls were reliable and clear, and the phone's speakers sounded great. Photos and videos looked very good.

In my tests, the LTE speeds were very good, averaging 17 megabits per second downstream. But AT&T's LTE network is only in about 100 cities.

However, the Lumia 920 has a few characteristics that may turn off potential buyers. The biggest downside is its sheer size. This may be the heaviest modern smartphone I've tested, and it's one of the thickest.

To give you an idea, it's 65% heavier than Apple's iPhone 5, and 40% thicker. We're in an era of smartphones with larger and larger screens, but most phone makers take care to keep these bigger-screen phones relatively light and thin, something Nokia didn't do here. For instance, compared with the latest high-end Android phone, Google's Nexus 4, which has an even larger 4.7-inch screen, the Lumia 920 is 33% heavier and 17% thicker.

The second major downside is app selection on the Windows Phone platform. The number, quality and variety of apps has improved considerably in the past year. But developers still either ignore Windows Phone or write for the platform well after they've launched on Android or Apple's iOS mobile operating system. The Lumia 920 has about 120,000 apps, versus some 700,000 for the iPhone and the latest Android phones.

Sheer numbers of apps may seem irrelevant after a certain point. In fact, important apps like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Kindle, Yelp, the New York Times, and Words With Friends are available on the Lumia 920 and worked in my tests. Plus, only Windows Phones have smartphone versions of Microsoft Office programs.

But my searches of the app store on the new Lumia failed to turn up plenty of popular apps available on the Apple and Google platforms, such as Instagram, Dropbox, Google Drive, YouTube, HBO GO, Spotify, Pandora radio, MLB, Scrabble and Starbucks.

Some other annoyances turned up in my tests. An update to one of the built-in settings features has remained stuck in the app store for days (Nokia can't explain why). The camera, which claims superior image stability and low-light performance, generally did very well for me. But it sometimes had a tendency to take over-bright shots. For instance, an orange wine label came out as yellow.

Voice recognition is a weak point on the Lumia 920. Its ability to answer spoken questions and commands lagged far behind Apple's and Google's in my tests. And its dictation capability for things like email and texts was atrocious, never coming close to accurate.

The wireless charging plate worked every time for me. But it has a gigantic wall adapter and takes about an hour longer to charge the phone fully than the included standard charger cable.

All in all, though, the Nokia Lumia 920 is worth considering, if you can live with a heavy device -- especially given its combination of low price and strong features.

Walter S. Mossberg

诺基亚(Nokia)和微软(Microsoft)曾经都是智能手机业界大佬，但是在iPhone-安卓(Android)时代，两家企业明争暗斗，争夺客户、电信运营商和技术开发人员。现在，两家公司已经变成了亲密搭档，希望自己已最终找到了成功的秘方。他们寄予希望的产品是诺基亚最新的旗舰智能手机Lumia 920，该机运行的是微软改进了的操作系统Windows Phone 8。

Nokia颜色鲜艳的Lumia 920比苹果iPhone 5重65%。我最近一直在测试Lumia 920，感觉这是一款外观漂亮、品质优秀的手机，各种吸引眼球的功能在我的测试中都运行良好。不仅如此，这款手机的价格只相当于其它大多数高端智能手机的一半。它在去年春天推出的第一代旗舰手机Lumia 900的基础上进行了明显的改进。

虽然我的测试针对的不是新的Windows Phone 8软件，但是我可以说它在过去的一年里也有所改进了。基础架构已经重新打造，运行速度更快、更稳定。现在的图标比过去更小，因此你不必过多滚屏去找需要的东西，而且它依然拥有一个与众不同的清新迷人的界面。

但是Lumia 920有两大缺点：又厚又重，而且就像所有的Windows Phone手机一样，可选择的应用程序比iPhone和安卓手机少很多。

这台新款Lumia售价100美元，条件是与美国电话电报公司(AT&T)签约承诺在网两年。它拥有一块清晰、鲜亮的4.5英寸显示屏，一个非常出色的870万像素的后置摄像头，运行速度既快又流畅。这款手机支持LTE制式网络，LTE是美国目前速度最快的蜂窝数据技术。Lumia拥有32G的存储空间。手机材质为塑料，但是是那种感觉很坚固的塑料，色彩艳丽──包括红色、黄色和蓝色。

Nokia把它放到一个接通 上插座的充电板上就能充电。这款手机还有一些不同寻常的功能。它的屏幕能够对手指甲、甚至戴着普通薄手套的手指头做出反应（不过戴冬天御寒的厚手套无效）。充电的时候它可以不用连接线，只需把它放到一个接通 上插座的充电板上（该充电板一般是一个选配件，售价49美元，但是现在销售手机时它是免费配置的，免费期限尚不得而知）。

尽管我没有对电池进行正式测试，但是这款诺基亚手机在我将其用于各种用途的过程中电池支持了一天。语音通话声音清晰稳定，扬声器效果非常好。照片和视频的效果看上去都相当不错。

在我的测试中，LTE的速度非常理想，平均下行速度为每秒17M。但是AT&T的LTE只覆盖了大约100个城市。

然而，Lumia 920有少数几个特征可能会让它失去一些潜在买家。最大的不足就是它太大的块头。这部手机可能是我测试过的现代智能手机中最重的一款，也是最厚的一款手机之一。

具体一点说，它比苹果(Apple)的iPhone 5重65%，也比iPhone 5厚40%。如今智能手机的屏幕尺寸越来越大，但是多数手机厂商都特别用心把大屏幕手机做得相对轻薄，这是这部诺基亚手机没有做到的。比如，与最近新出的高端安卓手机、谷歌(Google)的Nexus 4（拥有更大的4.7英寸屏幕）相比，Lumia 920的重量多了33%，厚度多了17%。

第二大不足是Windows Phone平台上应用程序选择有限。在过去的一年中，智能手机应用程序的数量、质量和种类都有相当程度的增长。但是程序开发员要么仍然忽视Windows Phone手机，要么依旧是在开发安卓系统或苹果的iOS移动操作系统程序软件之后很久才开始着手Windows Phone平台程序的开发。Lumia 920拥有大约12万个可用的应用程序，而iPhone和最新的安卓手机可使用的应用程序达到了大约70万个。

在应用程序数量达到一定程度之后，纯粹巨大的数字也许就没那么重要了。实际上，像脸谱(Facebook)、推特(Twitter)、网飞(Netflix)、Kindle阅读器、Yelp、纽约时报(New York Times)、填字游戏(Words With Friends)这些重要的程序在Lumia 920上都已经安装了，而且在我的测试中运行良好。此外，只有Windows Phone手机才拥有微软办公软件(Microsoft Office)程序的智能手机版本。

但是我在新款Lumia上搜索应用软件商店，没有找到很多在苹果和谷歌平台上非常流行的软件，比如Instagram（照片分享软件）、Dropbox（网路空间站）、Google Drive（谷歌云存储服务）、YouTube（视频网站）、HBO GO（HBO电视网在线服务）、Spotify（音乐播放器）, Pandora radio（潘多拉音乐盒）、MLB（美国职业棒球大联盟）、Scrabble（拼字游戏）和Starbucks（星巴克）。

在我的测试中还出现了其它一些麻烦。对一项出厂设置进行升级时，升级过程卡在软件店好几天无法继续（诺基亚无法解释其原因）。号称具有超级稳定成像能力和低光条件拍照性能的摄像头在我的测试中总体表现相当不错，但是有时它拍的照片有点曝光过度。比如，橘色的葡萄酒标签拍出来变成了黄色。

语音识别能力是Lumia 920的一个弱点。在我的测试中，它对口头问题和口头指令的反应远远落后于苹果和谷歌的手机。它对口述电子邮件和文本的听受能力很差，还达不到精确的水平。

在我测试期间，无线充电板每次都运行良好，但是它有一个巨大的 上适配器，给手机充满电的时间比用所配的标准连接线充电要多大约一个小时。

不过总的说来，如果你能接受一部笨重的手机的话，诺基亚Lumia 920值得考虑──尤其是考虑到它低廉的价格和强大的功能。

Walter S. Mossberg