Monday, 26 August 2013
When Nokia released the Lumia 920, it was packed with some of the best hardware you could find in a Windows Phone, such as the fantastic optically-stabilized camera, PureMotion HD+ display and an OS fresh from Microsoft’s update center. But many reviewers, including myself, found that the thick and heavy design wasn’t representative of Nokia’s best effort, and didn’t give the fantastic hardware the body it deserved.
Nokia Lumia 925 - $590 (unlocked)
4.5-inch, 1280 x 768 AMOLED display (334 ppi)
Super sensitive touch, Gorilla Glass 2
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 chipset
1.5 GHz dual-core CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, 1 GB RAM
16 GB internal storage
8.7 MP camera, Zeiss f/2.0 lens, dual LED flash, OIS, 1080p video
2,000 mAh, 8.4 Wh internal battery
LTE, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC
Windows Phone 8
139 grams, 8.5mm thick
Enter the Lumia 925, Nokia’s answer to the complaints. It ditches the thick polycarbonate shell, hefty slab of glass and space-consuming LCD display for a mostly aluminum body with an AMOLED screen. In the process of changing a few components and materials, the Lumia flagship has shed some weight, dropping to 139 grams and 8.5mm thick (from 185g/10.7mm), giving it an all new breath of life.
Aside from the size, a few other aspects of the phone have been optimized, including a some cool software tweaks by Nokia, and revamped camera firmware that should take better advantage of the 8.7-megapixel rear camera. But are the changes too late? Is this the Lumia we should have had at the launch of Windows Phone 8?
The Nokia Lumia 925 unit used in this review was kindly provided by MobiCity. Check them out for the latest smartphones unlocked and off-contract.
Design
When I first pulled the Lumia 925 out of its retail packaging, I was somewhat disappointed in what I was holding, after using the HTC One for the better part of a month. The ‘aluminum’ design is in some respects strange, as the back panel is a soft touch plastic while the only actual metal is around the edges of the phone. At a first glance it looks odd, not as solid as the Lumia 920’s design or as refined as the even better Lumia 720.
All the ports on the phone are crammed into the top section, which also looks a little strange. Right next to a somewhat loose SIM card tray (it pushes in like a button) is the microUSB charging port and the 3.5mm headphone jack, leaving the bottom panel completely blank. It’s not of great importance, but the top section of the phone looks crowded for a design that otherwise is well spaced.
The front panel is dominated by a remarkably smooth Gorilla Glass 2 panel protecting the 4.5-inch display; a panel which also protects the three soft-buttons, front-facing camera and a few sensors. Compared to other high-end phones available today, the display doesn’t use as much of the device’s face as you might like: it’s just 8mm shorter than a Galaxy S4 and is actually a few millimeters wider, but has a display half an inch smaller.
The back panel is a piece of plastic that you can’t remove, and mainly houses the rear camera situated unusually far down from the top. The camera module protrudes from the phone’s back by around 1mm, delivering a maximum thickness of 10.2mm. Nokia deceptively advertises this phone as being 8.5mm thick, but as far as my measurements go the body is actually mostly 9.2mm thick, and the back panel exhibits around 0.5mm flex, so it’s likely the piece of plastic isn’t laying flush against the internal components.
On the right hand side of the phone are the physical buttons: the volume rocker, the power button and the camera button going top-to-bottom. It’s a typical Nokia arrangement that works best on a phone of this size, as the power button is in a very comfortable position. Unfortunately the camera button isn’t as solid as I’ve seen in some of Nokia’s past designs, making it a little hard to distinguish between the focusing and capturing stages.
I mentioned earlier that initially the phone disappointed me with its design as it looks a little strange. But as I put it through its paces as my daily driver for a week or so, the design and construction began to grow on me. It’s not as nice as the Lumia 720 I’ve used previously, but the Lumia 925 is a significant step-up from the Lumia 920; the lightness and relative thinness is refreshing, making it feel like a phone having undergone a rigorous weight-loss routine.
Most importantly, though, is that the design is very comfortable. The curved edges don’t lend themselves well to making the phone look slim, but they really help with making the phone ergonomic. Combine this with materials that feel really nice in the hand and Nokia has drastically improved the usability of their flagship Windows Phone offering with the 925. After a week of use I basically forgot about the design’s visual oddities, because it’s simply a great phone to hold.
I tested the black model of the Lumia 925, which uses aluminum that isn’t quite black, tending towards purple. If I was selecting a color of 925 to purchase, the others being white and grey, I’d likely choose white as it uses aluminum’s natural color for the metal edges, which looks a little better. Unfortunately the use of aluminum means Nokia couldn’t produce the phone in their usual range of vibrant colors, though optional wireless charging backs do come in red and yellow.
Compared to the Lumia 920, the Lumia 925 is a huge step forward in the design department, producing a phone that’s ergonomic and decently attractive. The loss of weight and thickness improves how the device feels in your hands and pockets, although I still lean towards the Lumia 720’s polycarbonate unibody as having the nicest Lumia body thus far.
Display, Software
In order to cut down on the Lumia 925's thickness Nokia changed the display type, replacing the IPS LCD for an AMOLED. Despite this change, most of the key stats remain the same: you’re getting a 4.5-inch panel with a resolution of 1280 x 768 (WXGA) for a pixel density of 331 PPI. The same Nokia technology seen in the Lumia 920 has been ported over to the new phone including PureMotion HD+ (60 Hz refresh rate), ClearBlack (a series of polarization filters) and high-sensitivity touch that allows you to use the touchscreen with gloves on.
The IPS LCD display on the Lumia 920 was pretty decent, with this AMOLED being largely the same. However there are some differences and tradeoffs associated with switching to OLED-based technology, one of which is the necessity to use a PenTile subpixel matrix at this display density. The PenTile RGBG arrangement reduces the subpixel resolution but not the technical resolution of the display, resulting in sometimes grainy and less sharp images than a panel that uses the usual RGB stripe arrangement.
The denser a display is, the harder it is to notice the PenTile matrix. At 330 PPI it’s very hard, but not impossible to notice its effects; it’s most obvious around the edges of text which can appear not as crisp as the equivalent LCD panel. Generally speaking though you won’t be closely scrutinizing the display, and so you’ll be more than likely pleased with the density you’re getting. It’s not as crisp as the paper-like 1080p displays on high-end Android devices, but nevertheless very good for a smartphone.
The other main tradeoff with the switch to AMOLED is in white balance and brightness, as the technology can’t really compete with LCD panels in this area. The Lumia 925’s display is one of the best AMOLEDs I’ve seen recently for white balance, with only very slight tinting towards the yellow end of the spectrum. However, brightness is still several notches behind the top LCD panels, and while a selection of filters built into the panel help improve the outdoor readability of the phone’s display, it’s not quite as good as I experienced with the Lumia 920.
Having that said, in some respects I prefer this display type for Windows Phones because of one key aspect: black levels. As AMOLED displays have no backlight they have fantastic contrast and black levels as the display effectively turns off when it has to display black. The Windows Phone UI features large blocks of black and so strong performance in displaying blacks is a perfect match. AMOLED panels also have a power consumption advantage in some circumstances, which becomes especially handy for a few of Nokia’s software features.
Some types of AMOLED panels and their firmware configurations can oversaturate colors, but Nokia puts the control of color quality in the hands of users. In the Display+Touch settings you can change the color profile by adjusting the saturation and temperature of the display. The default settings are very solid, producing vivid but not too oversaturated colors, and I moved the temperature slider one bar to the left (from neutral towards cool) to improve the slight tinting.
Out of the range of displays used on Windows Phones I would say this is one of the best, improving on the IPS panel of the Lumia 920 with a few tradeoffs. It’s not the best smartphone display I’ve seen – I still prefer the Super LCD 3 panel used on HTC devices – but it’s still very good.
Software
As with all of Nokia’s Lumia smartphones, the Lumia 925 is running Windows Phone, which comes out of the box with GDR2, the latest software release. Despite the latest update, the experience between Windows Phones is largely the same, so I’ll point you to my Windows Phone 8 review so you can get an idea of what to expect from the phone’s software.
Since then Nokia has introduced a few handy software features that are exclusive to their Lumia line. One of my favorites, and newly introduced with the 925, is the option to display the time on the display even when the phone’s screen is “off”. With a setting to have it only display for the first 15 minutes after the screen is turned off, it strikes a perfect balance between battery life and handy information. While charging, the time is always displayed, and as I charge my phones beside my bed it provides a quick, easy glance all the time.
FM radio support also comes handy for those who enjoy listening to the radio as opposed to downloaded music on your phone. Another new feature keeps the touchscreen on all the time. If you enable it, you can double-tap the touchscreen to turn on the phone. The double-tap requires perfect timing, as the Lumia 925 won’t turn on the display if you’re too quick or too slow with the two taps, so around half the time I found it didn’t work as desired.
While the Lumia 925 has a strong feature set from both Windows Phone and Nokia’s enhancements, there’s still an app problem. Windows Phone, even with over 100,000 apps in the Store, simply doesn’t have the same abundance of quality apps as with other platforms. Yes, there’s technically some third party alternatives to big services such as Instagram, and yes there are first party apps for even larger services like Facebook and Twitter, but there’s a distinct lack of quality.
Many multiplatform apps that are available for Windows Phone are simply better on Android or iOS, Twitter being one example that wastes a phenomenal amount of vertical space on Windows Phone to make it a mediocre client compared to their other efforts. Third party apps for Instagram and Snapchat allow you to use the services, but again they’re not as good as official apps. And the mentality of developers to create apps for Android and iOS first, with Windows Phone only a maybe is seriously hurting the platform.
If you’re not an app person, or have faith that during your time with the Lumia 925 the situation will get better, then the features available in the OS of Windows Phone may appeal to you. Otherwise, it may be best to consider other high-end phones that either use iOS or Android.
Performance
The Nokia Lumia 925 features a tried-and-true Windows Phone chipset: the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 225 GPU and a dual-channel LPDDR2 memory controller. It’s not the latest generation of Qualcomm silicon, which has its disadvantages in graphics performance and energy efficiency, but it still performs reasonably well when it comes down to it.
Windows Phone is an operating system that relies heavily on graphics processing to deliver a smooth, 60 frames per second experience and during my time with the 925 I never experienced OS slowdowns despite the underpowered CPU compared to current-gen high-end Android devices. With 1 GB of RAM, multitasking is also reasonably fast, as I only saw the dreaded “Resuming…” screen briefly when reloading applications.
Performing basic tasks in applications is also very fast on the MSM8960, including scrolling lists and panning. I only experienced very minor slowdowns in the camera app when attempting to access the settings, but usually Microsoft’s efforts in optimizing the OS have resulted in a smooth, lag-free and quick operating system, especially on Windows Phone’s top hardware. High-end phones like the HTC One are probably a small step above the Lumia 925 in terms of app quickness, but by no means is the Lumia 925 a slouch.
In games the Lumia 925 with its Adreno 225 GPU provides necessary grunt to drive 3D rendering on the phone’s 1280 x 768 display. The Adreno 225 is currently the fastest GPU you can get on a Windows Phone, so games developed for the platform don’t demand resources higher than what you can get on the 925.
I tested a few of the latest games on the Lumia 925, including Halo: Spartan Assault, and found no slowdowns or issues on the performance side. Some of the top-end games aren’t of the same caliber as available on Android or iOS, which have devices with more powerful GPUs, but Windows Phone has a decent range and Xbox integration is always a nice feature.
To compare the performance of the Lumia 925 to other smartphones on the market, I ran two benchmarks: WPBench that tests CPU, GPU and memory against other Windows Phones, and Futuremark’s Peacekeeper in-browser benchmark.
The Lumia 925 performs as expected, which is exactly the same as other MSM8960 smartphones such as the Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8X by HTC. It’s around 25% faster than the lower-range Windows Phones that use the MSM8227 chipset, and slightly slower than the Lumia 820 which features a lower-resolution display with the same MSM8960 chip as the 925.
Here the Lumia 925 falls well behind other smartphones in browser performance, but it keeps itself in the cluster of other Windows Phones. Faster phones such as the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 and Apple iPhone 5 gather a score of more than twice that of the 925, and in general browser usage they are faster with less checkerboarding. The scores seen in this benchmark are likely heavily affected by the browser each phone runs, and Internet Explorer 10 on the Lumia 925 isn’t the best performer here.
Aside from chipset performance, the connectivity options available on the Lumia 925 and their performance is not of any concern. I had no issues connecting the device to my 5 GHz 802.11n network, while both Blutetooth and A-GPS performance was strong. Mobile network performance was a little weaker than some other devices I tested recently, as data connections tended to drop in low-signal areas where the Galaxy S4 or HTC One wouldn’t, but downstream and upstream speeds were both good.
One of the more pressing issues relating to the Lumia 925 is its internal storage. Nokia only put 16 GB into this flagship Windows Phone, which is less than the Lumia 920’s 32 GB, and there’s no microSD expansion slot. Of the 16 GB, around 13 GB is accessible to the user out of the box, which can quickly fill up once you start loading apps, games, movies and music onto the smartphone.
Update: A 32 GB model is available, but not as widely as the 16 GB model; in some territories it's exclusive to a certain carrier, and in others it's not available at all.
Nokia assumes that the cloud is a perfect substitute for low on-device storage, but many people including myself prefer to conserve mobile data and have large music collections on my device. After loading a small portion of my music collection (around 9 GB) onto the 925, there was just a small fraction left for other data, which is not what you want to see from a phone trying to compete with the Galaxy S4, HTC One and iPhone 5.
While the storage issue is of some concern, overall the performance of the Lumia 925 is excellent thanks to Microsoft and Nokia’s efforts into optimizing the OS for a chipset that isn’t current generation. Thanks to GPU acceleration every aspect is extremely smooth and fluid to use, and gaming performance is pretty solid as well. It’s not quite as fast as some top-end Android devices on the market today, but in everyday usage you probably won’t notice.
Camera: Nokia's stronghold
When the Lumia 920 was released, undoubtedly one of the selling points was the camera, which featured optical image stabilization to deliver fantastic low-light images. However, a number of issues with Nokia’s camera firmware meant that the full potential of the camera wasn’t seen at its release, often producing less-than-awesome shots in daylight.
With the Lumia 925, Nokia has tweaked the firmware to help mitigate some of these issues, but the camera remains the same. You’re getting an 8.7-megapixel 1/3.2” true-16:9 backside illuminated sensor with 1.4µm pixels, a Zeiss 26mm (effective) f/2.0 lens with optical stabilization, and a dual-LED flash. There’s also a 1.2-megapixel f/2.4 front facing camera, but that’s less important.
As soon as I started capturing images using the ‘PureView’ camera, it was obvious that Nokia had addressed my concerns with the Lumia 920’s camera. No longer are daytime images heavily tinted in the presence of one strong color, and photos appear sharper with better white balance. The tweaks make this phone camera one of the best available on the market today, only behind the monstrosity that is Nokia’s 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 camera phone.
Images taken with the Lumia 925 are very sharp for a smartphone, with the advantages of the Zeiss optics showing in the final results. The six-element lens is able to not only focus very close – up to 8cm from the subject – but looking at 100% crops reveals impressive crispness and clarity, likely with the help of some sharpening in post-processing. Bokeh from the f/2.0 lens is weak and grainy, but the large aperture allows a lot of light to pass in, and you can get decent background blur (for a smartphone) in the right conditions.
I was perhaps most impressed with the color accuracy from the Lumia 925’s camera, which reproduces scenes with colors close to what the photo is trying to represent. Objects appear vibrant without being oversaturated, and greens in things such as grass and leaves look particularly great from the 925’s photos. Sometimes, depending on what the phone was capturing beforehand, you can get two photos of the same subject with different white balances, but this is only a minor issue.
Where there are regions of high-contrast, such as a partially shadowy area with strong background lighting, the phone’s camera again surprises with remarkably good dynamic range. It’s not quite as good as the Galaxy S4’s fantastic HDR mode, but photos that require a high dynamic range are captured quite well by the Lumia 925. Again, the usual limitations of a smartphone are seen, such as grainy dark areas and occasional range compression (especially in photos featuring the sky) that can result in a slight washed out look, but otherwise photos can be impressive.
Indoors, the phone’s combination of a BSI sensor, large aperture lens and optical stabilization produce some very good photos. Grain is kept to a minimum even in lower-light situations, such as artificial indoor lighting at night, with colors that can look just as good as outdoor shots. I didn’t once have to touch the (few) camera settings in an attempt to produce decent indoor, moderate-light photos, as the Lumia 925 was capable of that in auto mode.
Optical image stabilization (OIS) really shines in low-light, nighttime photography, where darkness literally comes to light in the photos you take. The 925 uses a slow shutter speed with a moderately high ISO to deliver spectacular nighttime images, although part of the process still lies with the photographer: if you don’t have a steady hand at night, images will be blurred as OIS can’t compensate for all shakes. I barely ever relied on the powerful dual-LED flash, which in itself is quite good, but unnecessary most of the time when attempting low-light photography.
Alongside the HTC One, the Lumia 925 is a phone that you will be able to use to capture your friends at that party or nighttime event, for photos of food at restaurants, or for images of that lit-up city street at night. If you’re a true photographer I’d be hoping that you’re using a DSLR for low-light photography, but for the casual user that doesn’t demand many manual controls – because there aren’t many at all – the Lumia 925 is very capable of the quick low-light shot.
Just on the camera controls, with Nokia relying on their Pro Camera app (which isn’t yet available for the 925) and Windows Phone’s Lenses feature, there are essentially no ways to enhance your camera photography. Luckily the camera is very good, because out of the box there’s no HDR mode, no panorama, no slow motion video and no filters like I’ve come to expect from Android flagships.
Nokia has bundled Cinemagraph and Smart Cam for creating GIFs and burst shot photography respectively, but using the Lenses feature simply isn’t as fast as switching camera modes on, say, the Galaxy S4.
Finally, video mode on the Lumia 925 is very solid again thanks to the inclusion of OIS. The phone’s 1080p video is sharp and able to compensate well for shakes while panning and moving around, and the dual microphones capture decent audio. The overall quality of the focus, white balance, vibrance and color quality is very similar to still captures, and that’s great to see. A sample of the video recording can be found in our video review on page one.
Best Windows Phone Yet? Is it enough?
Battery Life
Inside the Lumia 925’s non-removable back cover lays a 2000 mAh, 8.4 Wh internal battery. For this class of phone it’s not a massive battery that will see you through multiple days, but thanks to a range of software- and hardware-side optimizations it’s capable of lasting all day. Most importantly, it doesn’t seem to be plagued by random battery drain issues that were seen on a few of the first Windows Phone 8 devices.
Throughout my usage I found the Lumia 925’s battery life to be adequate, but not amazing. Like a few other Nokia phone’s I’ve used, it doesn’t seem to handle low-signal power-gaiting as well as I’d hoped, meaning power consumption can be higher when you’re in a low signal 3G or 4G area; an issue I haven’t experienced as much on Android phones. Also, the battery seems to be drained especially quickly while using GPS for things such as Here Drive, so watch out for that if you plan on doing a lot of navigation.
The few random occurrences of high power drain due to gaming, GPS, low mobile network signals and the AMOLED display’s brightness boost aren’t of a huge concern because at the end of most regular days I still had charge left in the 925. These days would include a few messages and calls, some camera shots, maybe some internet sharing and a few hours of general internet and social media usage.
Interestingly, the option to display the time on the screen even when it’s ‘off’ doesn’t seem to have a huge effect on battery life. The phone uses the proximity sensor to detect when the phone is in your pocket and so turns off the time display, saving battery life, and whether I had the feature enabled or disabled didn’t have a measurable effect on battery consumption. I’m sure this feature wouldn't be feasible if the 925 had an LCD display instead of AMOLED.
Comparing the Lumia 925’s battery life to other phones in a media playback test (phone in airplane mode, 75% brightness, looping 720p video, sound off) reveals this phone performs alongside a range of other Windows Phones. It didn’t manage to live for longer than eight hours, which if it did would signal the phone has great battery life, but nevertheless its score of over six hours isn't the worst I've seen.
Closing Thoughts
The Lumia 925 is what the Lumia 920 should have been at launch: a device with some fantastic technology packed into a design that isn’t a massive, heavy slab of plastic. If you’re after a Windows Phone, this is the high-end device you should be looking at, as it’s simply the best one out there.
The camera is undoubtedly the major selling point, and thanks to tweaks from Nokia it delivers in every department. Photos are crisp, vibrant and generally outstanding, and that’s without even venturing into the stellar low-light realm enhanced by optical image stabilization.
Where the 920 fell short somewhat, the 925 is a great all-round performer.
Aside from the camera, the switch from LCD to AMOLED screen has its advantages, and I really liked the feature that shows the time on the screen when the device is ‘off’. Performance is still very good from Qualcomm’s MSM8960 chipset; although not quite as fast as the latest Androids, Microsoft’s Windows phone optimizations make for a very smooth experience.
It’s just a shame that the smartphone world has seen some huge launches since the 920 was released, as the 925 is only really a minor update. The Lumia 925 is still a good handset, but its technology in some aspects is one step behind the big Android guns: the HTC One, the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Sony Xperia Z and so forth.
Apps are also still a huge problem for Windows Phone as we approach a year after the platform’s revitalization, and although the feature set of Windows Phone is reasonably strong, third-party developers continue to let the platform down by withholding apps or producing shoddy ones.
All the improvements that Nokia has made with the Lumia 925 still make it a good recommendation for those wanting a change from Android or iOS, and a no-brainer versus the rest of the high-end Windows Phone competition including Nokia’s own Lumia 920. But if you’re after a device with the absolute latest in technology in a polished, well-rounded package, it may be wiser to explore elsewhere.
Pros: Outstanding all-round camera, slimmer and lighter than the Lumia 920, decent performance and display.
Cons: Windows Phone ecosystem is still somewhat weak. A small update to a year-old phone.
Nokia Lumia 925 - $590 (unlocked)
4.5-inch, 1280 x 768 AMOLED display (334 ppi)
Super sensitive touch, Gorilla Glass 2
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 chipset
1.5 GHz dual-core CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, 1 GB RAM
16 GB internal storage
8.7 MP camera, Zeiss f/2.0 lens, dual LED flash, OIS, 1080p video
2,000 mAh, 8.4 Wh internal battery
LTE, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC
Windows Phone 8
139 grams, 8.5mm thick
Enter the Lumia 925, Nokia’s answer to the complaints. It ditches the thick polycarbonate shell, hefty slab of glass and space-consuming LCD display for a mostly aluminum body with an AMOLED screen. In the process of changing a few components and materials, the Lumia flagship has shed some weight, dropping to 139 grams and 8.5mm thick (from 185g/10.7mm), giving it an all new breath of life.
Aside from the size, a few other aspects of the phone have been optimized, including a some cool software tweaks by Nokia, and revamped camera firmware that should take better advantage of the 8.7-megapixel rear camera. But are the changes too late? Is this the Lumia we should have had at the launch of Windows Phone 8?
The Nokia Lumia 925 unit used in this review was kindly provided by MobiCity. Check them out for the latest smartphones unlocked and off-contract.
Design
The front panel is dominated by a remarkably smooth Gorilla Glass 2 panel protecting the 4.5-inch display; a panel which also protects the three soft-buttons, front-facing camera and a few sensors. Compared to other high-end phones available today, the display doesn’t use as much of the device’s face as you might like: it’s just 8mm shorter than a Galaxy S4 and is actually a few millimeters wider, but has a display half an inch smaller.
The back panel is a piece of plastic that you can’t remove, and mainly houses the rear camera situated unusually far down from the top. The camera module protrudes from the phone’s back by around 1mm, delivering a maximum thickness of 10.2mm. Nokia deceptively advertises this phone as being 8.5mm thick, but as far as my measurements go the body is actually mostly 9.2mm thick, and the back panel exhibits around 0.5mm flex, so it’s likely the piece of plastic isn’t laying flush against the internal components.
On the right hand side of the phone are the physical buttons: the volume rocker, the power button and the camera button going top-to-bottom. It’s a typical Nokia arrangement that works best on a phone of this size, as the power button is in a very comfortable position. Unfortunately the camera button isn’t as solid as I’ve seen in some of Nokia’s past designs, making it a little hard to distinguish between the focusing and capturing stages.
I mentioned earlier that initially the phone disappointed me with its design as it looks a little strange. But as I put it through its paces as my daily driver for a week or so, the design and construction began to grow on me. It’s not as nice as the Lumia 720 I’ve used previously, but the Lumia 925 is a significant step-up from the Lumia 920; the lightness and relative thinness is refreshing, making it feel like a phone having undergone a rigorous weight-loss routine.
I tested the black model of the Lumia 925, which uses aluminum that isn’t quite black, tending towards purple. If I was selecting a color of 925 to purchase, the others being white and grey, I’d likely choose white as it uses aluminum’s natural color for the metal edges, which looks a little better. Unfortunately the use of aluminum means Nokia couldn’t produce the phone in their usual range of vibrant colors, though optional wireless charging backs do come in red and yellow.
Compared to the Lumia 920, the Lumia 925 is a huge step forward in the design department, producing a phone that’s ergonomic and decently attractive. The loss of weight and thickness improves how the device feels in your hands and pockets, although I still lean towards the Lumia 720’s polycarbonate unibody as having the nicest Lumia body thus far.
Display, Software
In order to cut down on the Lumia 925's thickness Nokia changed the display type, replacing the IPS LCD for an AMOLED. Despite this change, most of the key stats remain the same: you’re getting a 4.5-inch panel with a resolution of 1280 x 768 (WXGA) for a pixel density of 331 PPI. The same Nokia technology seen in the Lumia 920 has been ported over to the new phone including PureMotion HD+ (60 Hz refresh rate), ClearBlack (a series of polarization filters) and high-sensitivity touch that allows you to use the touchscreen with gloves on.
The IPS LCD display on the Lumia 920 was pretty decent, with this AMOLED being largely the same. However there are some differences and tradeoffs associated with switching to OLED-based technology, one of which is the necessity to use a PenTile subpixel matrix at this display density. The PenTile RGBG arrangement reduces the subpixel resolution but not the technical resolution of the display, resulting in sometimes grainy and less sharp images than a panel that uses the usual RGB stripe arrangement.
The denser a display is, the harder it is to notice the PenTile matrix. At 330 PPI it’s very hard, but not impossible to notice its effects; it’s most obvious around the edges of text which can appear not as crisp as the equivalent LCD panel. Generally speaking though you won’t be closely scrutinizing the display, and so you’ll be more than likely pleased with the density you’re getting. It’s not as crisp as the paper-like 1080p displays on high-end Android devices, but nevertheless very good for a smartphone.
The other main tradeoff with the switch to AMOLED is in white balance and brightness, as the technology can’t really compete with LCD panels in this area. The Lumia 925’s display is one of the best AMOLEDs I’ve seen recently for white balance, with only very slight tinting towards the yellow end of the spectrum. However, brightness is still several notches behind the top LCD panels, and while a selection of filters built into the panel help improve the outdoor readability of the phone’s display, it’s not quite as good as I experienced with the Lumia 920.
Having that said, in some respects I prefer this display type for Windows Phones because of one key aspect: black levels. As AMOLED displays have no backlight they have fantastic contrast and black levels as the display effectively turns off when it has to display black. The Windows Phone UI features large blocks of black and so strong performance in displaying blacks is a perfect match. AMOLED panels also have a power consumption advantage in some circumstances, which becomes especially handy for a few of Nokia’s software features.
Out of the range of displays used on Windows Phones I would say this is one of the best, improving on the IPS panel of the Lumia 920 with a few tradeoffs. It’s not the best smartphone display I’ve seen – I still prefer the Super LCD 3 panel used on HTC devices – but it’s still very good.
Software
As with all of Nokia’s Lumia smartphones, the Lumia 925 is running Windows Phone, which comes out of the box with GDR2, the latest software release. Despite the latest update, the experience between Windows Phones is largely the same, so I’ll point you to my Windows Phone 8 review so you can get an idea of what to expect from the phone’s software.
Since then Nokia has introduced a few handy software features that are exclusive to their Lumia line. One of my favorites, and newly introduced with the 925, is the option to display the time on the display even when the phone’s screen is “off”. With a setting to have it only display for the first 15 minutes after the screen is turned off, it strikes a perfect balance between battery life and handy information. While charging, the time is always displayed, and as I charge my phones beside my bed it provides a quick, easy glance all the time.
FM radio support also comes handy for those who enjoy listening to the radio as opposed to downloaded music on your phone. Another new feature keeps the touchscreen on all the time. If you enable it, you can double-tap the touchscreen to turn on the phone. The double-tap requires perfect timing, as the Lumia 925 won’t turn on the display if you’re too quick or too slow with the two taps, so around half the time I found it didn’t work as desired.
While the Lumia 925 has a strong feature set from both Windows Phone and Nokia’s enhancements, there’s still an app problem. Windows Phone, even with over 100,000 apps in the Store, simply doesn’t have the same abundance of quality apps as with other platforms. Yes, there’s technically some third party alternatives to big services such as Instagram, and yes there are first party apps for even larger services like Facebook and Twitter, but there’s a distinct lack of quality.
Many multiplatform apps that are available for Windows Phone are simply better on Android or iOS, Twitter being one example that wastes a phenomenal amount of vertical space on Windows Phone to make it a mediocre client compared to their other efforts. Third party apps for Instagram and Snapchat allow you to use the services, but again they’re not as good as official apps. And the mentality of developers to create apps for Android and iOS first, with Windows Phone only a maybe is seriously hurting the platform.
If you’re not an app person, or have faith that during your time with the Lumia 925 the situation will get better, then the features available in the OS of Windows Phone may appeal to you. Otherwise, it may be best to consider other high-end phones that either use iOS or Android.
Performance
The Nokia Lumia 925 features a tried-and-true Windows Phone chipset: the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Krait CPU, Adreno 225 GPU and a dual-channel LPDDR2 memory controller. It’s not the latest generation of Qualcomm silicon, which has its disadvantages in graphics performance and energy efficiency, but it still performs reasonably well when it comes down to it.
Windows Phone is an operating system that relies heavily on graphics processing to deliver a smooth, 60 frames per second experience and during my time with the 925 I never experienced OS slowdowns despite the underpowered CPU compared to current-gen high-end Android devices. With 1 GB of RAM, multitasking is also reasonably fast, as I only saw the dreaded “Resuming…” screen briefly when reloading applications.
Performing basic tasks in applications is also very fast on the MSM8960, including scrolling lists and panning. I only experienced very minor slowdowns in the camera app when attempting to access the settings, but usually Microsoft’s efforts in optimizing the OS have resulted in a smooth, lag-free and quick operating system, especially on Windows Phone’s top hardware. High-end phones like the HTC One are probably a small step above the Lumia 925 in terms of app quickness, but by no means is the Lumia 925 a slouch.
In games the Lumia 925 with its Adreno 225 GPU provides necessary grunt to drive 3D rendering on the phone’s 1280 x 768 display. The Adreno 225 is currently the fastest GPU you can get on a Windows Phone, so games developed for the platform don’t demand resources higher than what you can get on the 925.
I tested a few of the latest games on the Lumia 925, including Halo: Spartan Assault, and found no slowdowns or issues on the performance side. Some of the top-end games aren’t of the same caliber as available on Android or iOS, which have devices with more powerful GPUs, but Windows Phone has a decent range and Xbox integration is always a nice feature.
To compare the performance of the Lumia 925 to other smartphones on the market, I ran two benchmarks: WPBench that tests CPU, GPU and memory against other Windows Phones, and Futuremark’s Peacekeeper in-browser benchmark.
The Lumia 925 performs as expected, which is exactly the same as other MSM8960 smartphones such as the Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8X by HTC. It’s around 25% faster than the lower-range Windows Phones that use the MSM8227 chipset, and slightly slower than the Lumia 820 which features a lower-resolution display with the same MSM8960 chip as the 925.
Here the Lumia 925 falls well behind other smartphones in browser performance, but it keeps itself in the cluster of other Windows Phones. Faster phones such as the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 and Apple iPhone 5 gather a score of more than twice that of the 925, and in general browser usage they are faster with less checkerboarding. The scores seen in this benchmark are likely heavily affected by the browser each phone runs, and Internet Explorer 10 on the Lumia 925 isn’t the best performer here.
Aside from chipset performance, the connectivity options available on the Lumia 925 and their performance is not of any concern. I had no issues connecting the device to my 5 GHz 802.11n network, while both Blutetooth and A-GPS performance was strong. Mobile network performance was a little weaker than some other devices I tested recently, as data connections tended to drop in low-signal areas where the Galaxy S4 or HTC One wouldn’t, but downstream and upstream speeds were both good.
One of the more pressing issues relating to the Lumia 925 is its internal storage. Nokia only put 16 GB into this flagship Windows Phone, which is less than the Lumia 920’s 32 GB, and there’s no microSD expansion slot. Of the 16 GB, around 13 GB is accessible to the user out of the box, which can quickly fill up once you start loading apps, games, movies and music onto the smartphone.
Update: A 32 GB model is available, but not as widely as the 16 GB model; in some territories it's exclusive to a certain carrier, and in others it's not available at all.
Nokia assumes that the cloud is a perfect substitute for low on-device storage, but many people including myself prefer to conserve mobile data and have large music collections on my device. After loading a small portion of my music collection (around 9 GB) onto the 925, there was just a small fraction left for other data, which is not what you want to see from a phone trying to compete with the Galaxy S4, HTC One and iPhone 5.
While the storage issue is of some concern, overall the performance of the Lumia 925 is excellent thanks to Microsoft and Nokia’s efforts into optimizing the OS for a chipset that isn’t current generation. Thanks to GPU acceleration every aspect is extremely smooth and fluid to use, and gaming performance is pretty solid as well. It’s not quite as fast as some top-end Android devices on the market today, but in everyday usage you probably won’t notice.
Camera: Nokia's stronghold
When the Lumia 920 was released, undoubtedly one of the selling points was the camera, which featured optical image stabilization to deliver fantastic low-light images. However, a number of issues with Nokia’s camera firmware meant that the full potential of the camera wasn’t seen at its release, often producing less-than-awesome shots in daylight.
With the Lumia 925, Nokia has tweaked the firmware to help mitigate some of these issues, but the camera remains the same. You’re getting an 8.7-megapixel 1/3.2” true-16:9 backside illuminated sensor with 1.4µm pixels, a Zeiss 26mm (effective) f/2.0 lens with optical stabilization, and a dual-LED flash. There’s also a 1.2-megapixel f/2.4 front facing camera, but that’s less important.
As soon as I started capturing images using the ‘PureView’ camera, it was obvious that Nokia had addressed my concerns with the Lumia 920’s camera. No longer are daytime images heavily tinted in the presence of one strong color, and photos appear sharper with better white balance. The tweaks make this phone camera one of the best available on the market today, only behind the monstrosity that is Nokia’s 41-megapixel Lumia 1020 camera phone.
Images taken with the Lumia 925 are very sharp for a smartphone, with the advantages of the Zeiss optics showing in the final results. The six-element lens is able to not only focus very close – up to 8cm from the subject – but looking at 100% crops reveals impressive crispness and clarity, likely with the help of some sharpening in post-processing. Bokeh from the f/2.0 lens is weak and grainy, but the large aperture allows a lot of light to pass in, and you can get decent background blur (for a smartphone) in the right conditions.
Where there are regions of high-contrast, such as a partially shadowy area with strong background lighting, the phone’s camera again surprises with remarkably good dynamic range. It’s not quite as good as the Galaxy S4’s fantastic HDR mode, but photos that require a high dynamic range are captured quite well by the Lumia 925. Again, the usual limitations of a smartphone are seen, such as grainy dark areas and occasional range compression (especially in photos featuring the sky) that can result in a slight washed out look, but otherwise photos can be impressive.
Indoors, the phone’s combination of a BSI sensor, large aperture lens and optical stabilization produce some very good photos. Grain is kept to a minimum even in lower-light situations, such as artificial indoor lighting at night, with colors that can look just as good as outdoor shots. I didn’t once have to touch the (few) camera settings in an attempt to produce decent indoor, moderate-light photos, as the Lumia 925 was capable of that in auto mode.
Optical image stabilization (OIS) really shines in low-light, nighttime photography, where darkness literally comes to light in the photos you take. The 925 uses a slow shutter speed with a moderately high ISO to deliver spectacular nighttime images, although part of the process still lies with the photographer: if you don’t have a steady hand at night, images will be blurred as OIS can’t compensate for all shakes. I barely ever relied on the powerful dual-LED flash, which in itself is quite good, but unnecessary most of the time when attempting low-light photography.
Alongside the HTC One, the Lumia 925 is a phone that you will be able to use to capture your friends at that party or nighttime event, for photos of food at restaurants, or for images of that lit-up city street at night. If you’re a true photographer I’d be hoping that you’re using a DSLR for low-light photography, but for the casual user that doesn’t demand many manual controls – because there aren’t many at all – the Lumia 925 is very capable of the quick low-light shot.
Just on the camera controls, with Nokia relying on their Pro Camera app (which isn’t yet available for the 925) and Windows Phone’s Lenses feature, there are essentially no ways to enhance your camera photography. Luckily the camera is very good, because out of the box there’s no HDR mode, no panorama, no slow motion video and no filters like I’ve come to expect from Android flagships.
Nokia has bundled Cinemagraph and Smart Cam for creating GIFs and burst shot photography respectively, but using the Lenses feature simply isn’t as fast as switching camera modes on, say, the Galaxy S4.
Finally, video mode on the Lumia 925 is very solid again thanks to the inclusion of OIS. The phone’s 1080p video is sharp and able to compensate well for shakes while panning and moving around, and the dual microphones capture decent audio. The overall quality of the focus, white balance, vibrance and color quality is very similar to still captures, and that’s great to see. A sample of the video recording can be found in our video review on page one.
Best Windows Phone Yet? Is it enough?
Battery Life
Inside the Lumia 925’s non-removable back cover lays a 2000 mAh, 8.4 Wh internal battery. For this class of phone it’s not a massive battery that will see you through multiple days, but thanks to a range of software- and hardware-side optimizations it’s capable of lasting all day. Most importantly, it doesn’t seem to be plagued by random battery drain issues that were seen on a few of the first Windows Phone 8 devices.
Throughout my usage I found the Lumia 925’s battery life to be adequate, but not amazing. Like a few other Nokia phone’s I’ve used, it doesn’t seem to handle low-signal power-gaiting as well as I’d hoped, meaning power consumption can be higher when you’re in a low signal 3G or 4G area; an issue I haven’t experienced as much on Android phones. Also, the battery seems to be drained especially quickly while using GPS for things such as Here Drive, so watch out for that if you plan on doing a lot of navigation.
The few random occurrences of high power drain due to gaming, GPS, low mobile network signals and the AMOLED display’s brightness boost aren’t of a huge concern because at the end of most regular days I still had charge left in the 925. These days would include a few messages and calls, some camera shots, maybe some internet sharing and a few hours of general internet and social media usage.
Interestingly, the option to display the time on the screen even when it’s ‘off’ doesn’t seem to have a huge effect on battery life. The phone uses the proximity sensor to detect when the phone is in your pocket and so turns off the time display, saving battery life, and whether I had the feature enabled or disabled didn’t have a measurable effect on battery consumption. I’m sure this feature wouldn't be feasible if the 925 had an LCD display instead of AMOLED.
Comparing the Lumia 925’s battery life to other phones in a media playback test (phone in airplane mode, 75% brightness, looping 720p video, sound off) reveals this phone performs alongside a range of other Windows Phones. It didn’t manage to live for longer than eight hours, which if it did would signal the phone has great battery life, but nevertheless its score of over six hours isn't the worst I've seen.
Closing Thoughts
The Lumia 925 is what the Lumia 920 should have been at launch: a device with some fantastic technology packed into a design that isn’t a massive, heavy slab of plastic. If you’re after a Windows Phone, this is the high-end device you should be looking at, as it’s simply the best one out there.
The camera is undoubtedly the major selling point, and thanks to tweaks from Nokia it delivers in every department. Photos are crisp, vibrant and generally outstanding, and that’s without even venturing into the stellar low-light realm enhanced by optical image stabilization.
Where the 920 fell short somewhat, the 925 is a great all-round performer.
It’s just a shame that the smartphone world has seen some huge launches since the 920 was released, as the 925 is only really a minor update. The Lumia 925 is still a good handset, but its technology in some aspects is one step behind the big Android guns: the HTC One, the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Sony Xperia Z and so forth.
Apps are also still a huge problem for Windows Phone as we approach a year after the platform’s revitalization, and although the feature set of Windows Phone is reasonably strong, third-party developers continue to let the platform down by withholding apps or producing shoddy ones.
All the improvements that Nokia has made with the Lumia 925 still make it a good recommendation for those wanting a change from Android or iOS, and a no-brainer versus the rest of the high-end Windows Phone competition including Nokia’s own Lumia 920. But if you’re after a device with the absolute latest in technology in a polished, well-rounded package, it may be wiser to explore elsewhere.
Pros: Outstanding all-round camera, slimmer and lighter than the Lumia 920, decent performance and display.
Cons: Windows Phone ecosystem is still somewhat weak. A small update to a year-old phone.
