Nokia Lumia 730 Review

Design
The Lumia 730 inherits the pillow-shaped design of the Lumia 800, and this means an excellent-quality construction with great ergonomics and a pleasant, soft plastic body.

The Nokia Lumia 730 comes with a pillow-shaped design that will remind those who follow the Windows Phone history of the first Nokia handset on the Microsoft’s platform: the Nokia Lumia 800 from early 2012. Luckily, this design that was once considered premium now comes to affordable handsets, and we’re impressed with the quality feel of the Lumia 730.

With no sharp lines, the phone sits very comfortably in the hand, and it has a welcoming soft feel to it. It’s made of plastic, with a removable, wrap-around plastic shell, but the material is a well-treated plastic that does not feel or appear cheap. The thickness of the phone is 0.34” (8.7mm), but it does not feel as thick as that number suggests because of the curved edges of the device. All in all, the phone is well fit for single-handed use, and it can safely be considered one of the best designs in the affordable phone class. You also have a choice of black, white, red, and green colors for the Lumia 730, and we appreciate having these color options as opposed to having just the more conservative black and white.

The Lumia 730 features on-screen navigation buttons, while all physical keys are conveniently within reach of the thumb on the right. The lock key is in the middle, and the volume rocker above - both are made of glossy plastic that contrasts with the matte grey of the body, and are clicky and responsive.

Display
The 4.7” 720p AMOLED display features overblown colors in the default mode, but you have the option to fine tune it to your liking.
The Nokia Lumia 730 features a 4.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 720 x 1280- pixels (720p). It uses AMOLED technology, which is still rather rarely found in affordable phones. It comes with the advantage of perfect black color, excellent contrast, and great viewing angles. On top of it, is a Nokia ClearBlack filter with polarization that filters out reflections nicely, which makes it easier to use the phone outdoors.

Looking at sharpness, we have a pixel density of 312ppi on the Lumia 730, which sounds great for such an affordable phone, at least on paper. In reality, however, some pixelization is noticeable. The reason for this is not the resolution per se, but rather the PenTile Diamond pixel arrangement used in the phone. PenTile features less sub-pixels, and this results in noticeable jaggedness, especially noticeable on larger patches of a single color.

Colors on the Lumia 730 are not bland at all: quite the contrary, we have a rich, vibrant image and looking at our display measurements one can see why. The 4.7” AMOLED panel covers a wider color gamut than the industry standard sRGB, and all the color saturations are overblown. As a result we have the aforementioned vivid colors that are rather unrealistic. This effect is multiplied by the fact that the screen’s gamma response at 2.48 is above the standard 2.2, which results in a darker, even more contrasty and unrealistic picture. Some people like those punchy colors, but we have seen better calibrated displays even in this affordable class of devices.

Keep in mind that those display measurements apply for the default standard color profile (you can change color profiles from Settings -> Display -> Color Profile). The Lumia 730 features an even more oversaturated ‘vivid’ color mode, a ‘cool’ one with preference for colder tonalities and a colder white point, and finally, one big surprise. That big surprise comes in the form of the ‘advanced’ color profile that allows you to tweak key aspects of the color performance of the display: you can set color temperature (from warm to cold, with a slider), tint (from green to neutral to purple), and color saturation (from natural to vivid). Those obsessed with color purity will be able to use these settings to calibrate the screen to near perfection.

Our measurements show that the Lumia 730 can reach peak brightness of around 294 nits. Keep in mind that AMOLED displays reach different brightness levels depending on the colors that are displayed (we measure brightness on an all-white display, while in real-life usage the brightness output might be a bit higher). We find the Lumia 730 bright enough for use outdoors.

We’re happy to see that the screen can also be used with gloves (something Nokia calls ‘super sensitivity mode’). We did not have to trigger any option to enable this - it works right out of the box, which is nice.

Interface and Functionality
Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim is the most mature version of Microsoft’s platform, with improvements to camera and stability, but it still lacks the apps.
The phone sports Windows Phone 8.1 with the Lumia Denim update on top. Windows Phone is a platform that remains visually largely unchanged from its inception, and Windows Phone 8.1 on the Lumia 730 is no exception to this rule.

You have the typical animated Live Tiles, a suite of core Microsoft apps, and all the improvements from the 8.1 update: the Action Center with quick toggles and all your notifications, the Cortana voice assistant, the ability to set wallpapers, and all the nice added functionality to the lockscreen that is now fully customizable by developers.

Basic functionality is well covered: Microsoft includes a solid phonebook that integrates deeply with Facebook, you have one of the fastest virtual keyboards out there, and free Office on board is a nice addition. HERE Maps with free offline maps and navigation has also long been one of the hidden advantages of the Windows Phone platform, and even though we now have the app in beta on other platforms, it’s still nice to have the best optimized version of the app on Windows Phone.

Then, you have the former Nokia (now - Lumia) apps and Lumia camera, which has become faster with the Denim update. Lumia camera gives you a full manual ride with control over shutter speed, ISO, white balance, and manual focus.

Even though Windows Phone is constantly growing, though, we still feel there is a sore shortage of apps. Recently, Chase withdrew its mobile banking app from Windows Phone because of ‘lack of interest’, and many other apps are missing or underdeveloped (Viber, one of the most popular VoIP/IM clients, for instance, does not register incoming voice calls when the app is not running). Still, the app situation is worst when it comes to games that often come late or never to the Windows Phone platform.

Processor and Memory
With Snapdragon 400 and 1GB of RAM, the Lumia 730 features the same specs as many of its Android rivals, but performance is not butter-smooth and app loading times are long.
The Lumia 730 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 system chip, a quad-core SoC with clock speeds reaching up to 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM, and an Adreno 305 GPU. The Snapdragon 400 is one of the most widespread chips for affordable devices, and we’ve already seen how it performs on Android.

Unfortunately, we are seeing quite a bit of lag on the Lumia 730. Windows Phone is still tediously slow with opening apps, and this does not even touch on more CPU-intense tasks. Seeing a screen freeze for a few seconds at the loading stage is a common view, and we’re also often seeing dropped frames.s

Looking at actual performance benchmarks, we’re seeing very typical Snapdragon 400 scores, on par with the performance of the Moto G (2014 edition), for instance, an Android phone that runs on the same chip.

We’ve already mentioned that the lack of games is an issue on Windows Phone, but those that are available do tend to run fairly well. You can’t expect much from a mid-range chip - it will handle most games (even Asphalt 8), but frame rates might be a bit lower than ideal.

One serious issue with the Lumia 730 is the scant 8GB of internal storage that you get. This is not enough storage for even the most conservative of users. Luckily, you have a microSD card slot that you can use to expand memory by up to 128 gigs.

Internet and Connectivity
The Lumia 73x gets served in two versions: the dual SIM Lumia 730 and a 4G LTE single-SIM Lumia 735.
The Lumia 730 features Internet Explorer as the browser of choice. On mobile, it is a fairly fast browser, and one of just a few that have their address bar at the bottom, within easy reach of the fingers. Loading up web pages is zippy, and surfing the web, zooming in and out, and scrolling around happen with a very slight stutter, but nothing too irritating.

In terms of connectivity, we should once again point out the difference between the Lumia 730 and Lumia 735. The Lumia 730 is a dual SIM model that does not support 4G LTE connectivity, while the Lumia 735 sports a single SIM card, but does have 4G LTE. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS. Both versions of the phone come with an NFC antenna and full NFC functionality.

Camera
The selfie cam lives up to the promise - it takes great-looking selfies, and the rear camera is also fairly good.
The big highlight of the Nokia Lumia 730 are its capabilities as a ‘phone for selfies’. The main, rear camera is still the more capable one: a 6.7-megapixel auto-focus shooter with a small, 1/3.4” sensor, but a very wide f/1.9 lens aperture, a key advantage for low-light shooters in particular, while the 5-megapixel front cam is of a fixed-focus variety.

As all recent Lumia smartphones, the 730 comes with two camera apps: the default Windows Phone camera application, and the much more capable Lumia Camera. The default camera is not particularly rich in options, but it does get the job done. Lumia Camera is more interesting with its precise control of ISO, white balance, shutter speeds, and manual focusing. It’s become faster to capture multiple shots in succession, and that’s a big improvement over earlier Lumias. Still, there is no way to quick-start the camera app from the lockscreen, and a cold start of the app is a bit on the slow side, enough to miss that shot of that-funny-thing-your-toddler-just-did.

What about image quality? You can’t expect much from this affordable shooter, and that’s a good thing as the Lumia 730 is not a stellar performer, but it ranks around or even above average with fairly decent images: pictures turn out sharp, with sufficient detail, and nice dynamics. Colors, however, are definitely on the cold side, resulting in pictures that lack the joyfulness of warm tonalities.

Indoors, image quality is still decent, but it deteriorates with noise noticeable, plus there are more issues with white balance, and the single LED flash is not sufficiently powerful, and cannot illuminate indoor scenes good enough (unless you use it from a very close distance).

The front camera, on the other hand, tailor-made for meeting the ever-growing obsession with selfies, does more than well to capture you in the best light. Selfies come out rich in detail and a step above many other smartphones. It’s not just selfies, of course, with deep integration for Skype, video calls look gorgeous with this camera as well. It’s not perfect, and if we had to nitpick, we’d say there are slight issues color balance and again, a preference for colder colors.

The Lumia 730 records video in a 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution and 30 frames per second (you can also choose 25fps, and 24fps), with a fairly high bitrate of 19Mbps. Video quality is good: recordings have a nice smoothness to them, and even with quicker movements there is very little rolling shutter. The lack of optical stabilization, however, can be noticed, as handheld footage turns out noticeably shaky. Good news is that HAAC mics are present on the Lumia 730, and this results in some great audio recording quality. You have a bass filter as well, so that you can record with your phone at concerts without the bass ruining the sound picture.


Multimedia
Windows Phone is a mixed bag when it comes to media consumption. On one hand, you have some clever built-in apps with great design like the Photos application that uses images from your camera roll to present you with a fresh look everytime you open the app. Also, you have Lumia’s Creative Studio that offers some nice image editing capabilities and filters, but then, you lack the much richer image editing applications of iOS and Android - apps like VSCO Cam, and Snapseed.

The phone is also capable of playing back videos of even 1080p resolution (above the 720p native for the screen) without much effort, and the only commonly used format that we could not play back was MKV.

The music app, on the other hand, integrates with Xbox Music, but for all else is a fairly barebones creation that gets the job done with no bells and whistles. The loudspeaker is of a disappointingly low quality, producing hissy sound that is unable to reproduce lower frequencies at all, which makes many modern tracks sound bad on it.

Call Quality
Call quality is good on the Lumia 730. Voices in the earpiece come out very loud, so you’d have no problem making calls in even noisier environments. Clarity in the earpiece is not perfect, there are slight distortions, but those are minor issues that don’t get much in the way of understanding your caller.
On the other end of the line, the situation is a bit better with a bit cleaner sound.

Battery life
The Nokia Lumia 730 sports a 2,220mAh battery that can be easily removed by the user. Quoted talk time is 17 hours on 3G, which is above the average, while official stand-by time ratings are for 25 days.

Our initial impressions are that the phone has very good battery life, easily lasting us a full day, and when not using the phone too much even two days off the charger.

Conclusion
The Nokia Lumia 730 lives up to the promise of being a great phone for those who like to take selfies. It’s not just that, though: with one of the best designs among its peers and an improved camera app it is a good phone overall. On the downside, Windows Phone just does not feel as snappy as Android does on a similar configuration, and you’d see apps loading too long too often. We’re also not perfectly happy with the default display color mode on the Lumia 730, which comes with overblown, unreal colors. Luckily, those who care about accurate colors have the option to fine tune the screen to their liking.

At a price of $320 (€200 in Europe), the market is filled with rival Android phones, though. The Motorola Moto G (2014 edition) is a cheaper phone with a larger, 5” screen that offers the same Snapdragon 400 chip with a much smoother performance, and access to the richer Android ecosystem. Then, if you prefer a larger display, you can get the excellent HTC Desire 816 for around the same price, and you get a 5.5” 720p display, a Snapdragon 400 system chip, and a very capable 8-megapixel camera. Next, if you care about great design, you need to look no further than the iPhone 6-like Blu Vivo Air with its 4.8” 720p AMOLED display, and an equally capable MediaTek chip. Finally, you also have the LG G3 s, a 5” 720p phone with a Snapdragon 400 SoC. It’s a good performer with its physical keys on its back, which adds an interesting twist to usability.

If you feel an attraction for Microsoft’s Live Tiles and Windows Phone on the whole, though, and have an affinity for selfies, the Lumia 730 is a device that has more pros than cons. Microsoft is also promising to upgrade it to Windows 10 in the future, so you probably should not be worried about updates as much as someone owning an Android phone would.

Source: Phonearena

Nokia Lumia 830 Review

Design
One of the thinnest Lumias available, the colorful polycarbonate 830 feels solid in the hand, eschewing the traditional unibody with a replaceable battery design this time.

At first brush, the Lumia 830 is the typical Lumia Nokia's been churning out since the brand's inception, with a polycarbonate chassis that is available in numerous flashy colors. Here, however, we don't have the traditional unibody design, but rather an easy to pry off rear cover that reveals a swappable battery pack, as well as the nano SIM and micro SD card slots. We have to take points off for the nano SIM, however, as it will force you to cut or replace your micro SIM card if you buy it unlocked, but this trend is inevitable, it seems. At 5.49 x 2.78 x 0.33 inches (139.4 x 70.7 x 8.5 mm), however, and weighing 5.29 oz (150 g), it is somewhat tall and heavy for a 5-incher, and yet it utilizes a nano SIM slot, which should be reserved for slim and light design efforts.

Moving on, the Lumia 830's chassis feels very solid in the hand, the matte polycarbonate on the back prevents it from slipping, and the keys concentrated on the right-hand side, are all big enough, with good tactile feedback, and easy to find and press without looking. We also liked how the tapered cover glass slopes towards the sides to merge with the side rim for one uninterrupted look and feel. Nokia bragged that it takes hundreds of robotic movements to achieve the curved glass edges, and we have to say that the results of all that scrubbing are very pleasant to hold or simply look at. Overall, the Lumia 830 feels like one very solid piece of hardware that should serve you well a long time.

Display
While an HD resolution is nothing to write home about in this day and age, Nokia has put a good IPS LCD panel in the 830, with plenty of color modes and manual adjustments to choose from.

Lumia 830 sports a 5” 720x1080 pixels IPS LCD display with decent 294ppi pixel density. You have several display modes to choose from, like cool, vivid and advanced, with the latter letting you play around with color temperature, tint and saturation sliders, until you've reached the desired results. Color saturation can be adjusted from “natural”, all the way to the gaudy “vivid” level. Color temperature goes from warm through neutral to cold, while the tint slider lets you emphasize individual colors – from green to purple.

The color accuracy of the screen in the default mode is excellent, too. Lumia 830 returned 6558 Kelvin white point in our display measurements, which means that the hues are neither too cold nor too warm, but rather cover almost perfectly the reference 6500K mark. Scoring another good point, the color distribution chart returns accurate representation, with no oversaturation or off-kilter tonalities.

Nokia cites “sunlight readability enhancements” for the Lumia 830, which consist of boosting the display brightness significantly when outdoors under direct sunlight, but doesn't list it as having the Clear Black filter on top that diminishes reflectivity. Thus, while the 830 fares well outdoors, it's contrast is not as good then as the one on the Lumia 930, for instance, so you'd have slightly subpar experience reading the screen under the bright sunlight, compared with the flagship. Still, at 478 nits, the phone's display is bright enough to be used comfortably outdoors.

Covered by sculpted Gorilla Glass 3, the Nokia Lumia 830 screen should withstand more than a few bumps and scratches, and, as usual, it also features a supersensitive touch layer, meaning that you can operate it with your gloves on.


Interface and functionality
Windows Phone 8.1 is a richer mobile OS now, to which Nokia adds a laundry list of exclusive apps like HERE Maps and MixRadio, and Win 10 is on the horizon.

The Lumia 830 sports all the bells and whistles that Microsoft's mobile platform can currently offer, and was already promised to be in line for the upcoming Windows 10 upgrade. Windows Phone 8.1 introduced a host of new features including a drag-down notification center (Action Center) that is home to all your notifications, and also to four toggles that you can conveniently use to quickly adjust brightness, switch Wi-Fi on or off, etc (you can customize the function of the four toggles from settings). The brightness toggle is particularly useful, since you can quickly change between low, medium, and high brightness levels without needing to go into settings every time, like before. In the Action Center, you can now also see the actual battery percentage, and the date, which is neat. As for notifications, you can swipe them away one by one to discard them, or you can clear them all in bulk, like the heads-up notifications style that is in Android Lollipop.

Windows Phone 8.1 has also gotten plenty of new customization options including the capability to finally have a wallpaper (Start Background) on your home screen. Well, kind of, as it is not plastered behind the tiles, like it will be in Windows 10, but rather works as a common tile background. How does it fit with all those Live Tiles? In fact, the wallpaper occupies space from the tiles, and scrolls live with them. A lot of those Live Tiles aren't transparent, and thus do not all show the wallpaper, so it looks a bit like a mosaic, but the achieved effect is still unorthodox.

There are lots of other, smaller improvements like the neat Quiet Hours feature. It is a do-not-disturb option in essence, that can automatically activate in certain hours. It also works with the calendar, and when you’re in a meeting, it’d automatically put your phone into silent mode. For the enterprise world, Windows Phones can have their passwords changed and remotely locked, certain functionalities can be restricted, and individual app installation can be allowed or denied on a case by case basis.

Basic functionality is - needless to say - well covered. Microsoft bundles in a bunch of useful apps - Travel, Sports, Finance, Food & Drinks and News are here, while Nokia also adds value with a rich Weather app. You have a rich phonebook, and the keyboard experience is one of the best out there with well-spaced keys and a reassuring clicky sounds when you type.

On the other hand, you have Nokia Cyan, a host of improvements to Windows Phone exclusive to Nokia. Those include apps like the Nokia Camera, Creative Studio and Storyteller for all Nokia phones, and a few features like Dolby Surround Sound recording available on select phones. Nokia also supplies the so-called Sensor Core feature with certain Lumias, which lets low-power sensor info trickle into the Health app in the form of a step counter, for instance. Add to these the excellent HERE Maps suite that lets you download whole geographical regions for offline voice-guided navigation, and as far as basics go we can say that Windows Phone os only a step below its two main contenders – Android and iOS – in out-of-the-box functionality. When it comes to third party apps, though, that's still another beer – half a million or not, some of the ones you are used to are still missing.

Processor and memory
It's good that Windows Phone is comparatively light on resources, as Lumia 830 carries a lowly Snapdragon 400 chipset, potentially marring game performance.

A quad-core Snadpragon 400 chipset clocked at 1.2 GHz only is nothing to get excited about in the Lumia 830. This processor is now at the low-end of Qualcomm's spectrum, and is coupled with 1 GB of RAM only.

Windows Phone doesn't ask for much in terms of processing power, so the interface runs quite smooth, but heavy 3D games might be a chore, not that there are much in the WP app store. Nokia supplied the handset with 16 GB of internal storage, plus a microSD slot for expansion.

Internet and connectivity
Just like iOS, Windows Phone doesn't let third party browsers spoil a veritable monopoly. The mobile Internet Explorer 11 browser has been updated in WP 8.1 to be faster and with tons of new features, though. Internet Explorer’s new options include an incognito mode that does not store browser history, reading mode that leaves only the text of a webpage in a nicely formatted document, and support for unlimited tabs. You also get the option to go back and forward in pages by just swiping left and right like on some other mobile browsers we know, which is neat.

Another option that is particularly nice is pinning webpages to the start screen. The pages then appear as live tiles showing you the page in its latest, most up-to-date state, serving as a living and breathing bookmark. The browsing experience itself is very smooth, and you can scroll around and zoom in and out of pages without lag.

The Lumia 830 supports both a pentaband 4G LTE modem, or speedy 42 Mbps HSPA+ download speeds, depending on the carrier you are on, and its network speed setup. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, DLNA and NFC.

Camera
Lumia 830 brings optical image stabilization and Nokia's Rich Recording to a lower price point.
The 10 MP PureView rear camera is not what your typical midranger comes equipped with. It sports six-element lens, optical image stabilization, and an LED flash. The 1.12 µm pixels are spread on a smallish 1/3.4'' sensor size, and the Lumia 830 has a middle-of-the-road f/2.2 aperture. The 0.9 MP frontal camera is wide-angle, and can record 720p video footage. Nokia pegs the minimal focus range to be about four inches (10cm), which is a pretty good number, though you'd have to enter the separate macro mode to achieve it. The phone comes with a two-stage shutter key on the side, and the shot-to-shot time may take 3-4 seconds, so it's not exactly a camera speed king. The camera app is a bit slow to start, too, especially cold-start, but once it’s loaded, navigating the interface is quick and ergonomic.

Nokia Camera has got a very convenient interface, rich in manual controls that don’t get in the way when you don’t need them. There are handy sliders for features like white balance, ISO, shutter speed (up to 4 seconds) and so on. In addition, you get Nokia's mode and effects set like Panorama lens, Nokia Refocus, Bing vision, Cinemagraph lens, and Nokia Glam Me.

Outdoors the photos' tonality sometimes leans on the warm, yellowish side a bit too much than it should, given the actual hues in front of the camera. The phone captures plenty of detail, or at least as much as we would expect from the camera's 10 MP resolution. There are no glaring exposure or white balance issues with the Lumia 830's camera, with the shadows highlighted enough even missing an HDR mode, and brighter objects like the sky toned down without overexposure.

Indoors the camera returns a rather realistic color presentation, which doesn't lean on the warm or cold side of the spectrum too much. In addition, the photos come out with well-defined objects, and the image is sharp throughout the frame. The Lumia 830 won't fire its flash unless it is pretty dark – like other phones with optical stabilization it uses pretty slow shutter speeds (like 1/15 sec) which often results in blurry image if there is any movement involved from your side, or the objects you are snapping. That's not the only issue with the Lumia 830, though, as the phone didn't fire the usual pre-flash, so our darkness test was ruined, returning only soft, unfocused shots. The handset did spot the scenes when there was at least some light around, but in complete darkness the measurement system sometimes can get fooled.

The Lumia 830 can shoot up to 1080p video with fluid 30fps, which runs smooth and uninterrupted by handshake, thanks to the OIS tech that is built in. Details are plenty, and exposure compensation rapid when panning around, but the colors are too warm and saturated to be called accurate, compared to what's actually in front of the lens. Lumia 830 has an ace up its video recording sleeve, though – the sound quality, thanks to the three HAAC microphones is very good. You have a few options – a normal stereo, surround sound (Dolby Digital Plus 5.1), or sound with noise filters applied. We tested all of them, and we'd have to say that the surround option with no filters applied captured the fullest sound range, as can be expected. Nokia's default setting recommends the 100Hz filter, though, which is a good compromise between capturing voices and eliminating background noise.

Multimedia
The video player was missing during the MKV lessons, but Nokia's MixRadio will take care of your musical ear for free.
With a good 5” display, the Lumia 830 has got the core asset for enjoying media on the go. It is also pretty conducive to pictures and video editing, and the Microsoft-Nokia duo are supplying free apps with rich functionality for both of those undertakings.

For music, Nokia’s MixRadio is traditionally a great option for enjoying tunes on the go. It has Spotify-styled on-demand music streaming at a very low price, but you can also use a lot of the functionality for free, with ready-made channels of your favorite artists. In addition, you have Microsoft’s standard Music application with tight integration for the rich Xbox Music catalog, where you can purchase tunes, but the equalizer presets are taken out in the general settings menu, rather than built into the music player's interface. Sound output via the loudspeaker is rather strong with its 79 dB, and sounds pretty decent, too.

The stock video player runs MPEG-4/DivX/Xvid files at up to 1080p resolution without a hitch, but the MKV container is a no-go, regardless of the footage resolution. The video player now also has subtitle and captions support.

Call quality
Middling earpiece performance can't be compensated with the three nice HAAC noise-canceling mics.
As you can expect from a Nokia phone that has three high amplitude HAAC mics, those we called reported stellar quality in their receiving earpiece, with clean and well-defined voice timbre, generous strength, and suppressed ambient noises. The earpiece of the Lumia 830 itself, however, is not good, as it sounds hollow, and way too muffled for telling out the caller's voice well, or hearing them on a loud street.

Battery
The 2200 mAh battery flaunts a decent capacity given the phone's specs and price range. Nokia cites 15 hours of talk time in 3G mode, and more than 20 days on standby. In addition, the screen-on time when browsing or watching videos is pegged at 10 hours, which is a good testament to the phone's longevity. In fact, we measured 9 hours and 19 minutes in our demanding battery benchmark test, which jibes with what Nokia cited for the handset, and is an excellent result. The rear cover also has a built-in Qi wireless charging system.

Conclusion
While a very decent Windows Phone device, the Nokia Lumia 830 has a steep hill to climb against midrange Androids with its current price bordering on 300 USD or EUR. Windows Phone 8.1 is now a better mobile OS, and the Lumia 830 is promised for a Windows 10 update, too. We certainly can't complain about the out-of-the-box software that comes with the handset, but the ecosystem still lacks in terms of app count, so if you are coming from an Android handset, or an iPhone, some applications you know and love might not be there.

The biggest advantages of the Lumia 830 against said Androids are the excellent sound recording ability that the three high-amplitude mics bring about, and the color-accurate display. Also, not many phones at that price point come with optical image stabilization for smooth and flawless videos. On the minus side, the earpiece call quality is not that good, flash shots are murky, and the chipset might stall at heavy 3D gaming.

At this price point you can find many a formidable Android competitor, like the LG G2 and Huawei's Honor 6 with 1080p displays, faster chipsets, and a lighter build, while a Benjamin more would get you the LG G3 now, for instance. The arrival of Windows 10 might change things for the Lumia 830, but for now, unless you need quality video sound recording on the go, we'd advise to wait for the inevitable price drop.
Software version: 8.10.14157.200

Source: Phonearena

Nokia N1 full phone specifications

After the array of smartphones and phones in the hands of ordinary Microsoft, the Nokia has turned to the tablet segment, and N1 is the first tablet of the Nokia-branded and runs on Android OS this is probably the most anticipated Nokia from a few years back.

Design
Aluminum unibody design, remarkable thinness, stereo speakers. Ring any bells?
The Nokia N1's design and appearance immediately attracted comparisons to Apple's iPad Mini 3, and for good reason. It's pointless sugar-coating the fact that, for the most part, it looks like a competent clone with little difference in design and dimensions to speak of.
However, this is no reason to cry wolf. While Nokia isn't to be respected for closely imitating a fine, successful design, the end result is, unarguably, one sleek Android tablet. And ultimately, this matters to the majority of customers more than enjoying an original creation. Besides, Nokia is in no position to take risks. After Microsoft acquired the company's smartphone business, its hardware venture is, essentially, a startup with the initial advantage of an established brand. We're not saying Nokia should be "forgiven", and neither are we blaming the company in the first place. We're just stating some clean facts - feel welcome to make what you want of them.

That aside, let's examine the Nokia N1 a little closer. This is a handsome tablet that measures a compact 7.90 x 5.46 x 0.27 inches (200.7 x 138.6 x 6.9 mm) at a weight of 11.22 oz (318 g). It is constructed from one plate of Aluminum and has the appealing advantage of a fully laminated display that sits completely flush with the body. This gives "unibody construction" a new meaning - the Nokia N1 is literally seamless. It is also comfortable to hold, owing to its portable dimensions and smooth edges. While waterproofing would have served the icing on the cake, the package is truly premium as a whole.

What else is there to point out? The button placement is the same as on the iPad Mini 3 - the power key and volume buttons are on the top right. On the very bottom, you'll find the punctures indicating the presence of 0.5W stereo speakers. There's also a microUSB port of the "reversible" type C kind. We can't tell you how much we want these to become the norm on all USB devices!

The Nokia N1 will be available in Natural Aluminium and Lava Gray finishes. We can't help, but wonder - is the Champagne Gold version coming anytime soon?

Display
A screen that meets this and next year's standards.
Zero-gap design and full lamination isn't all the Nokia N1's 7.9-inch display has to stand out with. We haven't seen the panel is person yet, but its technological profile sounds delightful - IPS LCD panel, 1536x2048 pixels resolution, 324ppi pixel densiy, all of that topped off with Gorilla Glass 3. If Nokia has gotten the colors, viewing angles and brightness levels right, reading, gaming, and multimedia will be awesome on this screen.

Interface
Nokia's Z Launcher redefines the Android experience.
The fact that Nokia's first tablet in a long while is powered by Android 5.0 is impossible to miss. What's even more interesting is the custom code that runs on top. Meet Z Launcher, quite possibly the simplest, most streamlined Android interface to come from a major brand. It offers a very different user paradigm compared to the typical desktop-like experience. Nokia touts Z Launcher as "the fastest way to access everything on your phone." Expect to see your homescreen dynamically change throughout the day, showing a choice of up to six apps, contacts and websites based on how and when you use your phone. The other interesting nugget is the gesture control that lets you "scribble" a sign or letter with your fingers to activate a certain feature.

Can't wait to see what Nokia is up to? Z Launcher is in beta mode and available freely from the Google Play store. You can download it and test it yourself right this second, if Google Play deems your device compatible. Owners of the Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, and Nexus devices have the best chances.

Processor and memory
Intel 64-bit processing and late 2013 PowerVR graphics inside mean business.
The Nokia N1 is a generously spec'd device. It is powered by a an Intel Atom Z3580 (Moorefield) quad-core 2.3GHz 64-bit processor. This is a top of the line processor with similar performance to current flagship solutions such as the Snapdragon 805 and NVIDIA Tegra K1 processors. It is paired with the PowerVR G6430 GPU. This graphics unit was announced back in September 2013, and it went right inside the iPhone 5S and iPad Mini 3. In other words, you are getting a unit that is outperformed by the NVIDIA Tegra K1 chip inside the Nexus 9, but is exactly the same as in the Nokia N1's direct competitor. While PowerVR's latest silicon, which went inside the iPad Air 2, is roughly two times more powerful, this chip will be able to keep up with the best of them a year or two from now on. The RAM memory is 2GB, and the storage space is 32GB (less in reality, due to how file systems address memory). This powerhouse is ran by a 5300mAh battery. Given Intel's energy-efficient processors, the battery life shouldn't disappoint. The lack of GPS and cellular connectivity is a tad disappointing, though.

Camera
An 8-megapixel main camera and 5-megapixel front camera
To old and budding tablet photographers, the Nokia N1 offers an 8-megapixel main camera with autofocus and 1080p video recording capabilities. The front cam is a 5MP unit, which means you'll look great in video chats and selfies. There are no flashes of any kind, though. One has to wonder whether Nokia will be able to bring its imaging expertise from PureView-branded Lumia phones onto the N1 and future products. Hopefully, the Finns will offer something to retain their photographic reputation.

Expectations
If Nokia markets it properly, the Nokia N1 will sell like hotcakes.
Priced at an aggressive $250 before taxes, we expect the Nokia N1 will sell like hotcakes to tablet enthusiasts, assuming the company markets it properly. The Nokia N1 is the fiercest Android competition to the Google Nexus 9 right now, with similar horsepower, but better design and much comfier pricing. However, the question when Nokia will launch this bombshell still looms over our expectations. Only a tentative release timeframe is provided - early 2015. The first country to get the tab will be China, possibly due to Foxconn acting as Nokia's manufacturing partner. If you have a million of these little wonders sitting in a warehouse in China, you might as well go about selling them.

Ahh, it's good to have Nokia back! We think the N1 is a sign of great things to come - especially when the company's contractual obligation to Microsoft to abstain from smartphone making expires. What's your opinion?

Source: Phonearena