Lumia 920, the fastest phone

The Nokia Lumia 920 has a fast edge over the iPhone 5, at least in Europe. This is because the European LTE (Long Time Evolution) technology uses a different frequency than its US counterpart. As the Lumia 920 is fully compatible with the European system it is able to use the maximum speed offered by the network. Also the Lumia 900 has 4G compatibility. Of course the user has to make sure he has a provider contract with sufficient network resources. At least in Finland one has to choose between various network speed options.

For this reason I chose for the Lumia 920, I ordered it last week, and am waiting for delivery. This might take some time due to the unprecedented high demand for the device. 

Lumia 920, the fastest phone

The Nokia Lumia 920 has a fast edge over the iPhone 5, at least in Europe. This is because the European LTE (Long Time Evolution) technology uses a different frequency than its US counterpart. As the Lumia 920 is fully compatible with the European system it is able to use the maximum speed offered by the network. Also the Lumia 900 has 4G compatibility. Of course the user has to make sure he has a provider contract with sufficient network resources. At least in Finland one has to choose between various network speed options.

For this reason I chose for the Lumia 920, I ordered it last week, and am waiting for delivery. This might take some time due to the unprecedented high demand for the device. 

Reviews and tests

Testers and critics

I just read a review of the new Nokia Lumia 920, which was very positive indeed. However, my attention was attracted by e single point in the article. It stated that the Lumia 920 had no micro-USB port protection like the Lumia 800, and this was considered to be a negative issue. This is interesting, because I remember the criticism the Lumia 800 received because it has a protected micro-USB port. It was considered too fragile! Now I own a Lumia 800 and the little flap protecting the USB has worked flawlessly. It has a magnetic surface which keeps it perfectly in place.  Sometimes one wonders if it makes any sense to listen to those guys! Anyway the Lumia 920 seems to be a pretty cool thing, and perhaps a major plus is the possibility to use it with your gloves on, as that will make it much easier to use it during wintertime, at least here in Finland.

Actually the Lumia 800 has become very popular due to the attractive price at the moment. It is more compact then the larger 900 version and the Microsoft Office connection makes it very useful for business users.

It seems to me that the more you use the Windows Phone interface the more you like it,  Android and iPhone just feel old fashioned and confusing.

A Secret App

If you are interested in your Lumia’s internal wellbeing, battery status, and other diagnostics, there is a ”secret” application which can be unlocked easily and free of charge. To get the diagnostics just application just dail ##634#. You can test your device, check battery charge an a lot more.

Many new applications have been added to marketplace, gMaps, or Google map which supports street view is very handy. Another nice one, Blood Pressure (Free) can be used to store blood pressure data, draw a graph and send the data by email. A nice Live Tile Clock app is Uno Clock, it gives you a tile with a one handed clock, updated every ten minutes. 

Lumia 900 supports GLONASS , what does it mean

Global Positioning System (GPS) has been integrated in mobile telephones for a long time; Nokia was the first to experiment with integrating GPS and mobile phones. I still have one of the first, it used and GPS cover which was sold separately. With this phone you could get the location in latitude and longitude degrees and store it for later use, pretty much as basic GPS devices, it was slow and needed open space to get a reliable position. Since, the devices have become smarter, faster, and more important global map coverage is standard. All phones have been using the US GPS system, as it is available for free, accurate and reliable. The 24 GPS satellites give 24 hours global coverage.

So what is GLONASS? GLONASS is the Russian counterpart of GPS, and the Nokia Lumia 900 supports both systems. GLONASS has an additional 21 satellites with global coverage, and by using both the amount of available satellites nearly doubles, which greatly enhances positioning capability. 

Theoretically one can calculate a position using three satellites, but for better accuracy a minimum of four is needed, high buildings, forest or other objects can blocks satellite visibility, and that is why adding 21 GLONASS satellites is important.

Europe is building its own global navigation system, Galileo, but this is still under construction, and will be operational somewhere around 2020, adding 30 satellites to the present GPS and GLONASS platforms. 

More Windows phones

HTC HTC has unveiled two new WP 8 phones, and this is a good sign for Microsoft and also for Nokia, as the Windows Phone group is growing. More phones, more users, more applications, it will be good for the market. The HTC devices look very much like the Nokia Lumia series, and some may think this is bad for Nokia. However, if you look at the specifications one notices that the HTC has a lot less to offer in comparison to the new Lumia WP 8 devices.  

The HTC phones have no 4G (LTE), a smaller screen, the camera has on optical image stabilizer (OIS), only one flash LED and less resolution.  Also the memory of the HTC is also 50 % less than its Nokia counterpart. And also only the Nokia has downloadable maps for car navigation. And this is till the greatest advantage of Nokia, be it the Symbian or Lumia series devices.

Lummia 920 and iPhone 5, now we know

So now we know, iPhone 5 and Lunia 920, different design, different operating system, but otherwise pretty much the same. Both have 4G, although it is not certain in which countries it will work. Basically it depends upon the operators, how fast they can build their 4G networks. Actually 4G is very limited in most countries, and there are a lot of different systems all being marketed under the same 4G name. And at the moment many areas are lacking even 3G connections, and for normal phone calls GSM is actually sufficient. And as 3G and 4G even more needs a denser network due to the shorter range I think GSM and 3G will be here for quite some time.

As many have notices the iPhone 5 is not very revolutionary, a bit thinner, wider and lighter and a better camera, but no OIS, (optical image stabilizer), a feature the Nokia Lumia 920 has. The iOS probably has the same problem as Symbian, it is getting older and it will be difficult to create something really new. WP 8 is new and will evolve and get better all the time.

At the moment I am using two phones, a Nokia E7, with a query flip keyboard and a Lumia 800. I just updated the E7 with the new Belle refresh version, and I still have the opinion that it is great, the email widget shows me when and what new emails I received. No widgets in iOS or WP! On the other hand the Lumia is very easy to operate, has a great audio quality and has many Apps you do not get for the Belle version.

What I would like is a Lumia WP8 with a real keyboard, like the E7, this would be a productive piece of equipment. I have an iPad so I do know what the iOS is like, and it is ok, but not the system I would prefer to work on, however, at the moment it is the only viable tablet option. But I will not buy an iPhone, why? As I have an iPad, I really do not need to use a small screen for mailing or web surfing, I can just check if I have any important messages and answer them on the iPad. No need to buy an epensive phone for that. These expensive phones are often quite easy to break, a bit of water and it’s a gonner.

So I will wait until I can see and feel the 920 and make up my mind if ti is worth to change my 800 for a 920.