Nokia Lumia 925 Review

The Nokia Lumia 925 was recently launched here in the Philippines but before that, I already got a chance to try it via Nokia Connects/Nokia Conversations. The Nokia Lumia 925 was introduced earlier this year. I thought that the phone will be their 2013 flagship phone but I was wrong, it was the Nokia Lumia 1020. Anyway, the Nokia Lumia 925 is a thinner and a more premium version of the Nokia Lumia 920. Why? Because the Nokia Lumia 925 now sports an aluminum design along with its serious colors — Black, grey and white. Why don’t you check out my full review after the break

Compared to the Nokia Lumia 920, this one has a much more solid and an attractive look. The sides are aluminum while the back is made up of polycarbonate. I really love the design of the Nokia Lumia phones but they’re getting too similar and old already. Actually, whenever you’re just looking on the front of a Nokia Lumia phone, it’s really hard to distinguish the exact model of the device. Nevertheless, the Nokia Lumia 925 isn’t that bad to hold. The thinner body and the curve sides made the phone more comfortable to hold than the Nokia Lumia 920. 

At the back, there are 2 bulges on the speaker grill. I think they added those bulges to prevent blocking of the surface to the speaker grill. You still need to have a special case to support wireless charging. Well, not everybody loves wireless charging. Not really a deal breaker for me. Oh and you don’t need to worry about losing the sim card tray anymore because you can eject it but you can’t remove it from the device. 

There’s the same display that you can see on the Nokia Lumia 920. It’s still the same 4.5” AMOLED display. Unfortunately, Nokia can’t go Full HD on their devices because the Windows Phone 8 limits them from doing that. But don’t worry, the display is still crisp and sharp just like the Nokia Lumia 920. There’s one feature that I really love on the Nokia Lumia 925 and that’s the Nokia Glance. So what does that do? it acts as a clock even when the device is on standby. Double tapping the screen will wake the phone. But don’t worry about the battery life because the Nokia Glance doesn’t really takes a lot of juice from the battery. If you’re not comfortable with it, you can turn it off in the settings.

Unfortuntely, the Nokia Lumia 925 is down to 16 GB internal storage with no MicroSD card slot. Yep, that’s one deal breaker right there. I’m happy to announce that the Nokia Lumia 925 will support the LTE bands of the Philippines. There’s NFC too if you have some NFC enabled accessories around the corner. I manage to have a 14 hours of average use before the battery rans out and yelled for more juice. Oh and the sound quality? It isn’t that great but I think it fared just fine.

Here we go again. Just like the other Nokia Lumia phones, one of the things that people hate and love about these phones is the Operating System. If you ask me, well, I think Windows Phone 8 is really great as an operating system for a phone but if you’re the type of guy who really loves to play games and use apps that aren’t on the Windows phone store then you might want to look at Android or iOS alternatives. But today, the app selection of the Windows Phone isn’t the same as last year. Today, 48/50 of popular apps joined the Windows Phone bandwagon according to Mr. Gary Chan, Nokia’s head of marketing for Pan Asia. Instagram wasn’t part of that 48 but don’t worry because there are 3rd party apps that enables you to upload photos and videos on Instagram. But I still feel that some apps that are already in Windows Phone lacks functionality and features like the Facebook app. They’ve revamped the app but you can’t send emoticons and images on the app. I hope Nokia and Microsoft could address that next time.

The Nokia Lumia 925 ships with the Nokia Lumia amber update. Yes folks, that’s the latest update for the Nokia Lumias. It will eventually arrive on other Nokia Lumia phones but Nokia Lumia 925 is the first one to have that update. That update brings the Nokia Smart Cam. Fancy name right? But it has some impressive features. With Nokia Smart Cam, you’ll capture burst images and then combine them or either remove them. With Nokia Smart Cam, you could do Best shot, Action Shot, Change faces, Motion Focus and remove objects. The Action shot lets you add a strobe effect on your photo while motion focus lets you emphasize the motion of the photo. A pretty nice app. Here are some photos that I took using the Nokia Smart Cam:

Don’t worry folks, the Nokia Lumia 925 is powered by a Dual-Core Snapdragon S4 processor along with the 1 GB RAM. It is enough to let you play all the games on the Windows Phone store. Just like its brothers, the Nokia Lumia 925 is lag-free. But after using the Nokia Smart Cam, I felt that the Nokia Lumia 925 needs something faster and much more powerful than its processor. It will take you a few seconds before they can process the Motion Focus and Action shots that you’ve done.

The Nokia Lumia 925 packs a Pureview 8.7 Megapixel camera. There was no upgrade in the megapixel count and the body of the Nokia Lumia 925 became thinner but the performance of the Nokia Lumia 925 hasn’t change. It’s still great at low light and yes, the OIS works really great. Unfortunately, I find it hard to determine the difference between the two. Both the Nokia Lumia 925 and the Nokia Lumia 920 rocks an amazing camera but the difference between the two isn’t dramatic. Check out the photos and that I took using the Nokia Lumia 925

In a series of unfortunate events, I lost my files on my hard disk including the video sample of the Nokia Lumia 925. But to give you some perspective, the Nokia Lumia 925 had almost the same quality of the Nokia Lumia 920. Sometimes, I prefer using the Nokia Lumia 925 over my Micro 4/3 camera. Actually, I used the Nokia Lumia 925 for JAM Online Weekly. Too bad, I didn’t rendered it as HD

The camera of the Nokia Lumia 925 is so amazing, sometimes it took better photos than my Micro 4/3 camera. When I was at the Philippine launch of the Nokia Lumia 925, I choosed the Nokia Lumia 925 over my Olympus camera because it took brighter and better images.

The Nokia Lumia 925 is a Nokia Lumia 920 that got out of the gym. It has a more attractive construction and a thinner design but it has the same prowess of the Nokia Lumia 925. It may not be the best camera smartphone but it can surely trump most cameras of the flagship smartphones out there. If you can’t wait for the Nokia Lumia 1020 (which will be more expensive) and If you’re feeling comfortable with the current app selection of Windows phone then better get this phone over the Lumia 920. The thinner and sleeker design is really worth the price. The Nokia Lumia 925 will be available at Nokia Stores on August 19 with a SRP of P23,500