Nokia has officially lifted the curtains on its latest flagship Windows Phone offering; the Lumia 928. Boasting a feature-packed 8.7-megapixel Pureview camera with Carl Zeiss optics, a 4.5-inch OLED screen and 4G/LTE connectivity, it’s shaping up to be one of the best Windows Phone on the market. But will it be enough to convert the Android and iOS faithful? The answer will likely depend on whether you prefer processing grunt or a great camera.
The Lumia 928 comes with a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory which is slightly under-specced compared to the latest high end smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S4. Where it really stands out though is in the photography stakes: it’s clear Nokia is putting a lot of effort into its Pureview technology in a bid to win over the social-snapper demographic.
The Pureview cameras’ main claim to fame are their ability to smooth out pixellated images and improve the quality of the camera while zooming. Like its 920 predecessor, the Lumia 928’s sensor has been optimised to excel in low-light.
Check out this video of a roller coaster ride at night that was allegedly taken with a 928 camera — assuming the footage is authentic, this could be one of the best low-light performers on the market. It also comes with a xenon flash (as opposed to the dual-LED flash found on the 920).
The solid video capture is additionally enhanced by the Lumia 928′s 4.5-inch OLED display which has a resolution of 1280×768 pixels and 334 ppi. The luminance of the display is measured at 300 nits, which can be boosted to 500 nits via the phone’s High Brightness Mode. Nokia also lists a “sunlight readability mode” in the specs, which is good news for us squinting Aussies.
On the downside, the Lumia 928 isn’t as powerful as its Android rivals — as mentioned, it comes with a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 1GB of RAM which puts it on par with its Lumia 920 predecessor. It would have been nice to see at least a little extra grunt beneath the hood, although to be fair, the 928 is being marketed as an incremental upgrade rather than a completely new phone. The 928 is also a bit lighter than the 920, although we’ve never found weight to be an issue with our smartphones.
There has been no word on whether Nokia plans to release the 928 in the Australian market, but if it does make an appearance it will probably go for a similar price as the Lumia 920.
Additional reporting by Luke Hopewell
Comments
16 responses to “Nokia Lumia 928: A Windows Phone Worth Migrating To?”
I suggest you to try Windows Phone before you write a review about it. There is no need for the extra RAM/Processor as WP doesn’t eat as much power as Android. Try it, you love it.
1. This isn’t a review.
2. Regardless of how zippy the WIndows Phone OS is, it’s still disappointing to see lots of identical specs in a ‘new phone’ upgrade.
It isn’t an upgrade, it’s a phone primarily for Verizon so they can have a high end Lumia along with AT&T’s 920. EOS is their next upgrade and that’s rumoured to have Quad Core CPU 1080P screen ad 2Gb of RAM.
The phone’s not the next flagship but its the Nokia flagship for Verizon. And yeah, they’re not making the *same* device. There are improvements over the 920. Not just Nokia but other companies do have different versions of the same device in different locations/carriers. Samsung has the Galaxy S3 and S4 in different variants. So, why don’t you blame them too?
And yeah, its way better than the Galaxy S4 if you’re looking at the predecessor just like you do now. What is different in Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4? Atleast the 928 is identifiable. :/
That’s all well and good but why do you assume that the base OS must somehow be the resource hog? What about all the intensive games I’d want to play? 1GB and dualcore chips aren’t going to cut it in 2013 when developers are continuing to push the envelope of what they can utilise. But I guess if they’re not coming to WP in the first place, then it’s probably not a problem you have.
really? my iPhone 4S is as fluid or sometimes better than my Nexus 4 when I play games. Seriously there is no significant difference between the two. When you comparing with the same games.
So not sure what are you on about. I tried WP, it’s actually more fluid and smooth than Android even the JB.
Unfortunately a lot of people just look at the numbers. Have you noticed they’re marketing TVs now based on the cores in the processor? I’ve had a Lumia 920 since December last year and while it’s not perfect it is by far the best phone I’ve ever had (it replaced my iPhone 4S) and almost daily I get a little thrill from something I’ve discovered… and I never need to use a standalone camera ever again. The 928 looks like a very slight step up from the 920 (I’d love an OLED screen) but stuff like the daylight readability thing is in the 920 (and makes everything look funky). Also, Xbox achievements.
Someone please note this is not really next gen… it is just a version of the 920 for Verizon…
There is still the yet to be announced “Catwalk” and “EOS” handsets to be announced in the current weeks.
It’s already noted there in the article: “the 928 is being marketed as an incremental upgrade rather than a completely new phone.”
I’m a big fan of windows phone. I’ve had an LG optimus 7 for close on 18 months now, and while there are issues, most of it is with the manufacturing rather than the OS.
If you’ve however got a sizable android or iOS collection of paid apps its probably not worth the switch. I find i use my tablet (nexus7) a lot more for apps and really just use my phone for email/texts/calls/nav and the occasional photo.
The OS is however super fast and very straight forward (great as I am a generally intoxicated university student) and best of all easy for people not familiar with the system to use. Its a lot cleaner than android/iOS too.
Apps, especially games/always used things are missing noticeably.
The marketplace is clunky and poor as well. the Zune (i think its called music app now) in 7.8 feels difficult to use but its far nicer than android (in my opinion)
major 3rd party apps such as FB are horrendous, which is actually completely fine because the OS has by far the nicest integration built in (I never really need to use the app or mobile site). I don’t use twitter but I’ve heard its integration is pretty damn good as well.
Er.. For the record – the 928 isn’t an “upgraded” 920 or anything.. It’s just the CDMA/LTE variant for a certain US carrier (the give away is the bands it supports). It will not be released in Australia more than likely.
There ARE differences, like it has an OLED rather than IPS screen, the 928 is quoted as getting up to nearly double (13-16 hours depending who you ask) the battery life – which is quite likely due to the fact it does not appear to have 2G radios (as it has no use for them), and a few other smaller changes (the 928 is slightly thinner, but slightly wider or longer (I forget which), it also is said to have an LED *and* a xenon flash.. But really the changes aren’t that major.
I do quite like the boxy design of it though – and given my 920 is literally falling to pieces (since about a week after getting it) and a full refund (or else legal action) pending from/against Nokia it’d be tempting to see if they got THIS one right if they ever did release it with the appropriate radios for the general Australian market.
[Oh and further for the record, I love my Lumia and am heartbroken it’s already in incredibly bad shape in at least 5 aspects of its fundamental design – and I also love windows phone 8. It had a bad start because devs were making apps as fast as possible, mainly for the developer cash bonuses Microsoft was offering prior to release – but now that big name apps are coming to it and custom building (rather than porting between like happens with ios and android) apps to take full advantage of the feature set – it’s getting really awesome]
Be that as it may, I’d argue that the Lumia 928 still qualifies as an upgrade — it comes with some hardware improvements, has a different chassis and a bigger number in the model name. (Glad to hear you like the OS btw.)
Chris Jager said – “the 928 is being marketed as an incremental upgrade rather than a completely new phone.”
:-p
Not sure what your point is here? I’ve been arguing all along that the phone qualifies as an upgrade (just not a major one).
Just stirring because the comment I was replying to you said “I’d argue that the Lumia 928 still qualifies as an upgrade”
An incremental upgrade is still an upgrade 😉