For the past several weeks, the Android market has been abuzz with news about the latest or soon-to-be-released flagship smartphones. The list is quite long and includes names such as the Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and Xperia Z2. But the mobile world extends beyond Android-powered devices; the Windows Phone segment is becoming quite popular, as well—thanks mostly to Nokia.
The Finnish smartphone manufacturer has recently lifted the veil on its latest top-tier device, dubbed the Lumia 930. Initially, the handset has been known in rumors and leaks by the codename “Martini,” but it is now officially the 930.
Hardware Specifications
One of the interesting things about the Lumia 930 is that, on paper, it’s pretty much the same phone as the Lumia Icon released exclusively through Verizon some months ago. Much like the Icon, the 930 packs a 5.0 inch ClearBlack AMOLED Super Sensitive Touch display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 and a pixel density of 441 pixels per inch, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The smartphone draws its processing power from a Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.2 GHz. The 930 makes use of an Adreno 330 graphics chip, 2 GB of RAM, and as far as storage goes, the device boasts 32 GB. Sadly, there are no options for expanding the storage via microSD.
The handset is being powered by a Li-Ion 2,420 mAH battery that should offer up to 432 hours of stand-by time, up to 15 hours and 30 minutes of 3G talk time, or up to 75 hours of music play.
Camera and Other Features
Nokia has managed to differentiate itself from the rest of the Windows Phone crowd (and indeed the rest of the smartphone manufacturers in general) by creating smartphones featuring powerful cameras. Of course, there are many other companies at this point that focus on the quality of their smartphones’ cameras, but we still expect greatness from the Finnish manufacturer.
The Lumia 930 does not disappoint, as it packs a 20 MP PureView camera with ZEISS lens, a dual LED flash, a 1/2.5 image sensor, an f/2.4 aperture, and auto-focus with a 2-stage shutter button. The unit also boasts optical image stabilization and 2x high-res zoom capabilities. All in all, then, the 930′s camera is quite similar to the Icon’s, and that is definitely a good thing.
The camera is also accompanied by a few interesting software additions, such as the “Nokia Storyteller.” The app allows the user to combine videos, images and a soundtrack, in order to create short clips similar to what you’d get from HTC’s highlight reels.
In the audio department, the smartphone is capable of stereo sound recording with directional sound, and it also appears to boast a HAAC microphone. Evidently, the gadget will offer Qi wireless charging capabilities out of the box.
Software – Windows Phone 8.1 Features
Interestingly enough, the Lumia 930 is also the first Nokia top-tier device to be announced with the new Windows Phone 8.1 OS on board. The new version of WP includes a pretty large list of new features, such as the Cortana, which is Microsoft’s response to Apple’s Siri. Cortana is designed to be a personal assistant that can learn from the user’s behavior, by accessing emails and location information, if allowed to do so.
Windows Phone 8.1 also introduces a very sought-after feature in the WP community: “Action Center.” In a nutshell, Action Center centralizes all notifications, similar to the way Android does it in the notification panel.
Other features include the ability to add wallpapers to the Start screen, a brand new lockscreen that can be further enhanced by third party developers, support for on-screen buttons, more options for customizing the Live Tiles, a new camera app layout featuring a new burst mode with auto-deletion, and “Wordflow,” which is a new means of keyboard input, similar to Swype.
Last but not least, WP 8.1 also comes with further improvements to Internet Explorer 11, as the browser can now remember your passwords and offers HTML5 support for YouTube. Tabs will also be shown separately when in multitasking view.
Price, Release and Availability
If you are interested in buying the Lumia 930, then the smartphone is set to hit the market in June. At that time, the 930 will be on the shelves in Europe, and India, the Middle East and Asia will follow. There’s no information on when or if the 930 will go on sale in the U.S., but State-side enthusiasts already have the Icon as an alternative.
The handset will go on sale at $599 off-contract, and it will be available through more than 100 mobile carriers.
This concludes our Nokia Lumia 930 overview, so as always, we invite you to join us in the comments section, and share your thoughts. Would you be interested in buying the Nokia Lumia 930? What are the features that you’re looking forward to the most?
Vlad Andrici is editor for gforgames.com and writes about technology issues. Follow Vlad on Google Plus.