Review Product I Review Hand Phone I Nokia Lumia 820 Review

Nokia Lumia vs iphone, Galaxy and friends

I have to say, I don't really understand the current need for mobile phones to double up as a lap tray. The size of some of the handsets on the market is silly and when looking for a new phone I struggled to find one that I didn't need both hands to hold it when using the keypad. Hopefully, with the ever increasing popularity of tablets, the people wanting the big screen will switch to these for the entertainment features and the mobile phone can return to a more pocket friendly size. For all it's over-rated, over-priced showyoffyness the iphone is actually one of the better out there for being compact, but I just can't justify the price tag, plus I don't really want one. My make of choice is usually a Samsung but my partner recently purchased the Galaxy S3 and it looks like someone's taken a rolling pin to a perfectly well proportioned phone. So putting features aside to start with, began my phone search based on holdability alone and hoped that one on my short list would also have all the features I desire... all for an affordable price tag. Not too much to ask? Well it was a struggle and I ended up surprisingly, favouring a number of Nokia handsets - a brand which had previously never appealed. The one I plumped for was the Nokia Lumia 820 - bizarrely not much in the spec to the newer 920 and nowhere near as pricey as the 1020, which seemed to want to be a camera 1st and a phone 2nd. The Lumia 820 is still chunky, but it's screen being 4.3" rather than the 4.5" of it's later sisters meant it was the slightly more compact. Rectangular with rounded corners and a slightly domed, smooth matt back, it's quite slick but on the downside of it not being of the super thin variety, it's a little on the heavy side.

Ok, so it looks good... what does it do?

Making calls

Well firstly, and most importantly, it makes calls. The good thing about touch screen keypads is the number are usually pretty big so it's pretty hard to misdial. On the home screen, the phone icon is the biggest and first on the screen (though you can personalise this). Easy to see how to use it's most important feature at first glance. This phone knows it's a phone. I like that.

The spec

The full spec can be found here htttp://www.nokia.com/global/products/phone/lumia820/specifications/ but just to sum up here are the key features, or at least the ones I was interested in when choosing a handset -Software platform - Windows 8
Screen size - 4.3"
Touch Screen
Removable battery - 15 days standby 15.4 hrs talktime
RAM - 1GB
Mass Memory - 8GB
Micro SD port, takes up to 64GB memory card
Camera 8.7MP with flash

Apps

It has in built a number of applications to get you started, such as maps, weather, train times etc. All of these can be removed if you wish, which is great as other handsets I've owned have their starter apps locked to the phone and even if you'll never use them, you can't get rid of them. Of course, you can also add new applications too and there's plenty of storage to keep going and going. Windows phones are very much geared to working on the move and a it has office software to create, download and view files on the go. I tend to only use it for viewing as I find creating emails tedious enough on a phone and personally don't have the patience to start making spreadsheets on a 4.3" touchscreen whilst sitting on the train. It is good though, to be able to view attachments to emails and the like and save them to your phone to have with you to refer to.

Adapting to your needs

Customising is very easy. It will look a little odd to start with if you've never used a Windows 8 phone before as the main 'start' or home screen menu is made up of blocks which act as the icons to which ever content you decide to keep there. To move the blocks around, you simply hold and drag, very similar to using a PC. A swipe to the left will bring up a list of all other applications and features on your phone and you can add or remove these to the home screen. I probably jiggle around the layout every month or so as I may start to use some features more than others.

The camera

Nokia makes a big thing about the cameras on their Lumia phones. This model has a high 8.7MP camera. I use my SLR to take 'proper' photos but obviously don't have it on me all the time. I was excited to have a reasonable quality camera on my phone so I could snap away in the 'aww I wish I had my camera on me' moments and still be good enough for prints.Unfortunately the camera promises more than it really delivers. Yes, the photos are of a good size but the quality is not really there unless it's perfect light and everything is still etc. The flash is very useful to have if you want to take a photo with minimal light, just for yourself or to record something, but you won't get anything you'd want to frame. Fine for night out Facebook pics though! It does have settings for low light, night portrait etc but none of them really achieve anything and often using the appropriate 'scene' only achieves a worse result than on auto. I have been quite impressed with the videos I've shot with the phone. You can zoom to begin with but not during shooting. It records well with sound, and can keeps going for as long as you have memory for.

Music and sound quality

It's very easy to download, or transfer music, video and games from a computer. The 'Music and Video' section stores your files under 'music', 'videos' and 'podcasts' for ease of finding everything. There is a useful 'most recent' feature for finding your current favourites rather then searching though everything. I have to say I haven't played around with the music section a great deal. I already have all my music on my ipod so don't really use my phone for this, however if my ipod ever gets dropped in the bath or trodden on the way it's predecessors have, I will probably avoid replacing it and use the phone instead. The storage capacity is more than ample, with being able to add up to 64GB of additional memory. Earphones are supplied with the phone which are black, reasonable quality ear bud type and, unlike the old days, they use the standard jack to plug into the phone so you can use any earphones you wish.
The sound quality overall is very good. Without the earphones, watching video / playing music the sound goes up to to 30 points and at home, I can easily watch a video with a sound on around 5 and even on the higher volume, the sound does not distort of go too tinny. Even still, please don't play your music out loud on the bus...it's really annoying. This good sound quality also means that the phone is easy to hear when it rings, and I don't tend to fiddle to much with the ring volume. If it's on loud it's on 30 and if it's on silent, it's on silent. You can choose to have the vibrate with the ring or just vibrate on it's on. I don't use the vibrate on silent as it makes more of a noise that a shake, which kind of defeats the purpose.
The built in ringtones range from dull to outdated to embarrassing, best to download some of your own. One exception is a cat meow alert, which is fun for me, not so fun for my dog who is still looking for that cat.

Internet

The Lumia 820 uses Internet Explorer 10 as the browser and there's not a lot you can do about that. It's not my browser of choice for my PC but actually, it's been more than adequate on my phone so far. It's simple to use and to flick between tabs, bring up history and favourites and you can pin links to your home screen for a nice shortcut. The search engine inbuilt is bing and this can be accessed by the magnifying glass hot key at the bottom of the screen. I use this so often, much more that I thought I would.

Charging

The phone uses the now standard charger, with the USB lead plugging into the 3 pin so no need for two leads. I'm so pleased they've standardised phone chargers, save money and hassle for everyone... but wait, Nokia have something else up their sleeves. The Lumia 820 is capable of wireless charging. There is a component in the back of the case which allows you to charge without plugging anything is. Neat and wire free. There is a catch... they don't supply the wireless charger, you'll have to buy that separately. Which I haven't on principle.

Accessories

The only extra I have been temped to buy is a different colour back for my phone. In all the ads they show the phone with a funky red or blue or purple surround but on the cheaper providers they tend to only supply the black option. Extra shells are fairly pricey - around £20. I bought what I thought was a cheaper copy on ebay but was in actual fact an extra case to go round the existing one rather than instead of. Using is made the phone very chunky and cheap looking so I ditched it in the end. It's very hard to tell from the pictures of a lot of the online products so best to buy on a shop or go for the official stuff.

Cost

This is not Nokia's latest handset, it was launched in 2012 and it still holds up to newer phone in terms of performance. A handset alone at the time writing will cost you around £200 but if you're going for a contract there are many deals where you get this phone chucked in. I got mine through Tesco Mobile around 4 months ago on a £20 per month 'free phone' contract. I think it's good value for money. I can't think of anything else I would want a phone to offer me right now to justify spending more on any of the newer models. The 820 ticks most boxes.

Overall, a good reliable phone, reasonable if not amazing camera, good sound quality, easy to use, attractive. The only downside for me is that it is on the heavy side given it's size. Recommended.

Advantages:
Stands up to newer models in terms of performance, easy to use 

Disadvantages:
Heavy 

Source : http://www.ciao.co.uk/Nokia_Lumia_820__Review_6108446