Smart move: Nokia bets big on Lumia 920

“That’s a big phone.” “Isn’t it too bulky to carry around?” These are the first questions colleagues asked on seeing the Nokia Lumia 920, and the answer to both is in the affirmative. Yes, it is a big phone, and a bit bulky to carry around. But then, Nokia is betting big on this “big” phone to take on rivals Samsung, Apple and HTC. It weighs about 185g — far more than Samsung SIII (133g) and HTC One XL (129g) — but once you go behind the bulk and the weight, there’s a lot to like in the Lumia 920.
For starters, the 4.5-inch screen with 1,280x768 resolution is a delight. It’s a bit less than SIII, but bigger than the iPhone 5. Colours look more vibrant, and even in sunlight you don’t have to squint and read texts or punch in numbers. Watching videos on the Lumia 920 is far better than on the iPhone or the HTC. It certainly scores over its competition in terms of screen size and display.
The Lumia 920 is a Windows 8 phone and comes with popular apps like Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps and Nokia Music. The Nokia Drive map is exceptionally good and way ahead of its competition: Google Maps. If you’re not used to Android or iOS operating systems, you might take a liking to the interface of Windows 8 in the first glance only. But those accustomed to Android or iOS would find it a bit difficult to get used to it. In terms of multitasking, Windows 8 certainly is a bit slow, apps often take time to load and restart and, at times, it does get a bit frustrating.
The best part about the Lumia 920 is its camera, which comes with image stabilisation. In its class of smartphones, the 920 perhaps has the best camera. Be it low-light photography or indoor shots at night, it captures pictures to near perfection. The colours come out beautifully, thanks to the superior display, and it has concept camera lenses like Bing Vision, Panorama, Cinemagraph and Smart Shoot. It has an eight-megapixel Pure View camera at the back and, 1.3-megapixel camera at the front.
Some might say the app argument is an old, harsh and unfair stick to keep beating Windows phone with, but then a lot of people look for apps on smartphones, and it plays an important role in decision-making. The Lumia 920 disappoints on that front when compared to Android and iOS, as it doesn’t have a wide range of apps on the app store. If you aren’t one of those who wouldn’t care much about the apps as long as the phone delivers good performance, Lumia 920 fits the bill.
The battery life, a big bugbear among smartphone users, of the Lumia 920 is pretty good. It can last up to a day once charged fully, even when you use multiple apps. Just like the iPhone, there’s no room for additional memory, and the 920 comes with 32-GB storage capacity. The Internet Explorer browser is pretty fast.
At Rs 38,199, the Lumia 920 is priced to compete against SIII, iPhone 4S and 5, as well as the HTC. Does it actually match up? It certainly is an impressive phone, but doesn’t do enough to make you shell out the asking price. The camera and screen certainly give it an edge over other phones, but Android users will find it tough to switch to the Windows operating system. It is arguably one of the best Windows phones and will find a lot of loyalists picking it. However, Nokia, with Lumia 920, would find it tough to convince Android or Apple users to switch to Windows. At a lesser price point, perhaps it could have done the trick.

Nokia sells 15.9 mn smartphones in Q4, beats own forecast

Nokia Corp signaled Thursday its smartphone partnership with Microsoft was starting to reap rewards as it revealed that fourth-quarter mobile phone sales exceeded expectations and that its handset business would return to profitability.
The Finnish company’s share price surged 11 percent to close at €3.32 on Helsinki Stock Exchange.
Nokia said it sold 86 million devices in the last three months of 2012, including some 4.5 million Lumia smartphones, while revenues amounted to some €3.9 billion. A year earlier, it posted a fourth-quarter net loss of €1 billion with a 19-percent plunge in revenue.
The cellphone maker said it sold 15.9 million smartphones in the quarter, up from 6.3 million in the previous quarter.
Nokia has been struggling in the fierce top-end race against Apple Inc and Samsung and is now also losing ground to Asian makers in lower-end devices. Samsung overtook it as the world’s No. 1 cellphone maker early last year after Nokia led the field for 14 years. In 2011, Nokia announced that it would join forces with Microsoft to produce a smartphone that would run on Windows software. The latest Windows handset, the Lumia was launched last year.
CEO Stephen Elop said he was pleased with the company’s “solid” fourth-quarter performance.
“We are pleased that Q4 2012 was a solid quarter where we exceeded expectations and delivered underlying profitability,” he said. “We focused on our priorities and as a result we sold a total of 14 million Asha smartphones and Lumia smartphones while managing our costs efficiently, and Nokia Siemens Networks delivered yet another very good quarter.”
The company said operating expenses in the last quarter of 2012 had been lower than expected and that its devices and services sector saw operating margins of “between break even and positive 2 percent.” Elsewhere, its networks joint venture with Germany’s Siemens AG — Nokia Siemens Networks — had “record underlying profits and a third consecutive quarter of underlying profitability,” with operating margins expected to be 13-15 percent.
However, the company warned that seasonality and competition would have a negative impact on the handset division’s first-quarter profitability in comparison to the last three months of 2012. Nokia is due to report fourth-quarter earnings on 24 January.