Review Verizon Lumia Icon 929

Cos

Cos

Audioholic Samurai
I have a sickness... I love to upgrade :)

I have been with the Android Operating System since the original Sprint EVO Phone. To put things in perspective. I have had the EVO, EVO 3D (Junk) traded to the Motorola Photon, Motorola Droid Razor Max, to the HTC One. I have played around with unlocking, using custom roms, etc. Android is a great OS, tons of apps and a ton of phone choices. Given all this, why would I even consider switching.....I am bored

When it comes down to it, most of the apps I use now are mainly for work, when I want to play games, browse the web, etc I use my Ipad Air.

I wanted a phone for work and I wanted to try something new, so the Lumia Icon had the latest specs, so I decided to give the Windows phone a try. For me it's a hit, with a few misses

UNPACKING (7/10)
  • Your basic rectangular Verizon (orange) box nothing spectacular
  • inside it is well packed with the phone, wall charger and usb cable, small printed manual
  • This is version 8 of the Windows Mobile OS, 8.1 is not released yet
  • Phone is boxy, with a signficant amount of weight behind it, which detracts away from its excellent design, button layout, metal trim with polycarbonate back
  • Camera has Duel LED Flash in the back with Headphone jack up top and Charger at bottom
  • Phone feels heavy in your hands, but even with its larger bulk it fits well

DISPLAY (9/10)

This is where the phone shines, I really like the screen, it's AMOLED 1920x1080 screen. I agree with most of the professional reviews, colors are very vivid and bright, with excellent black levels, but fall a tad short on whites when compared to my HTC ONE. I do like the fact that you have a lot of customization when it comes to screen color brightness, etc. I put this phone next to my buddies Samsung Galaxy 4, and it just looked a tad bit better IMO. With the very thin border around the screen it give the illusion that the screen takes up the entire front. I did change the color scheme of windows, because the red was just to bright.

BATTER LIFE (8/10)

The battery life is quite good, I would say it's better than my HTC in that regards, but not by a lot. I do about 100+ emails a day, will watch an occasional Netflix program back and forth on the train and talk a lot for my job and still manage to finish the day with 25-30% left. This is only with 2 actual days of usage, but so far so good.

USER INTERFACE (9/10)

This is my first experience with the Windows 8 Mobile OS. If not for windows 8 on my PC, I probably would have never even tried this phone, because it looks like a big mess at first, but in the end, I was really won over by how much I could customize it vs. my HTC One.

When I first turned on my phone, its was the basic walkthrough setup process, then I got to the screen and thought, OK what the hell do I do now? Turns out I was able to do a lot and was able to pick up the OS in a very short period of time with no instruction. I was able to do/learn things quickly and have quickly grown to love the tile system as it is PERFECT for me and how I want to customize my screen vs. android widgets.

With high end specs it compares similarly to android devices in relation to speed, pinch zoom and scrolling, all work really well.

EXAMPLE: By adjusting the tile and location of the apps I use most I was better able to maximize screen real estate better than any android phone I have used. I have the Phone tile next to my two email address tiles with the next row being my calendar voicemail, and weather forecast. In the same amount of space I have my less used apps as tiny tiles which I can put 4 into the same size as one tile. To me this is the biggest advantage of the windows phone as I can get to more of my apps quickly. While android purists may say they can do the same on their device, the point for me was how easy it was to do this with almost no knowledge of the OS to begin with.

Additional observations, I think some of the same apps work better on the Windows OS. I definitely liked the linkedIN and Ebay apps much better than the android counterpart. That being said, there is often times I found the Android App to be the better choice.

I do prefer the Android app access (i.e. 4column x5 rows vs Window OS 1 column scroll down and give my HTC the advantage of having a better media player.

CALL QUALITY (8/10)

This one is difficult to judge as its T-Mobile vs Verizon and to be honest the HTC One is the King of Sound Quality with its 2 speaker system. As far as making calls, I found the call quality to be equal on both. On the flipside, the HTC's speakerphone is significantly better, as it is against pretty much any device. I know that Nokia changed out the Mics on these headsets and I have no complaints

APPS, APPS AND MORE APPS (6/10)

If you are an App whore, as I used to be, the Windows phone is NOT for you. They still have a long way to go to compete with either the Android or Apple ecosystem. I do NOT have HBOgo, VUDU, Amazon Prime Video, just Netflix. Other than that, it does have all the apps that I use for work (navigation, backups, Office) I like the Bing Finance app to track my investments and the Travel app for booking tickets.

CAMERA (9/10)

Lumia is know for the excellent camera's and this is an area where it doesn't disappoint. Picture quality is excellent. Compared to my HTC one it stays if focus a lot better when moving around and overall picture quality seems significantly better. I have not been able to do a low light comparison, but the double LED flash on the Nokia vs Single LED on the HTC makes a noticeable difference. I have not played around with the customization and overall features, but will update when I have had more time. This is an area on the Nokia that seems like it's going to take a little bit of learning.

NOTE: Shutter Speed, as reported on other sites is an issue, (i.e. Shutter Delay), but nothing is too significant for most general picture taking, but I could see having an impact on action shots.


I could go into a lot more detail, but with only two days of usability, I would rate this phone an (8/10)

Pros:
- Excellent Screen
- Easy to use and customizable interface and speedy
- Solid build Quality
- Good Battery Life (wireless charging works great)
- Clear call quality
- FANTASTIC Camera

Cons:
- A phone should not be this bulky in this day and age
- Speakerphone volume could be a little louder
- Apps....MS still has a ton of catch up

On a side note I am excited to see with the OS 8.1 brings, especially the Cortana (siri / Google Voice) competitor.
 
Last edited:
M

MrHeadGear

Enthusiast
- FANTASTIC Camera

thanks for your reviews. Nice review. I try Lumia once, i think its 720. And yes, lumia has a fantastic camera, wide open aperture, and sharp photos result!
 
Cos

Cos

Audioholic Samurai
Quick Update:

I have decided keep the 929 as my new phone. Even with the bulky size, I have really come to appreciate the value of the "tiled" interface, it just makes for quicker access to the features I use most. The phone OS is fast as any android device out there, call quality is excellent.

Windows OS is still behind Android and IOS in a lot of areas, but I am hoping that 8.1 starts to close that gap. My only real gripe so far is that the MyQ (internet Garage Door Opener) does not have the ap for Windows OS, so I have to use my Ipad.
 

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