Nokia Lumia 820 Review : Its about the Right Balance
After having used Lumia 920 to a great extent, I had a chance to check out 820. Many find Lumia 820 to be priced a bit high, which is true partially but the phone does packing lot of good stuff. It’s a right balance between the High end Lumia 920 and the low end Lumia 620 series phone.
So below is detailed experience of what’s our impression of the phone. Enjoy!!
How good it is when it comes to display :
Lumia 820 comes with Clear Display technology, the same technology which is used in Lumia 920. This makes sure that not only your display looks crisp but also gives you less strain on eyes in sunlight. We tested in auto brightness mode and in direct sunlight, there was no issue while reading text or any webpage.
Technically the display is 4.3” OLED WVGA 800×480, ClearBlack, Super sensitive touch for nail & glove use. The OLED display gives the phone a colour boost, so if you find it more attractive, I wont blame you.
How easy is it to use:
Lumia 820 strikes a right balance between a heavy weight Lumia 920 and Sleeky HTC 8X. The phone is neither too big to hold nor its heavy. This makes sure that it fits into every hand.
The phone is curved on the corners and tapers a bit on the edges. If you remember HTC 8X gets an advantage on grip because of its steep tapering sides. The same advantage comes with Lumia 820 which gives you a very strong grip.
The phone is 4.3 inches in screen size which is just 0.2 inches less than Lumia 920. We found it wasn’t an issue reaching the edges with the thumbs except when it comes to the extreme corner.
Finger prints and Dirt :
The phone is addicted to getting marks. Dirt and finger impression continue to haunt the Lumia series. Now we know Lumia 820 Back Cover can be taken out and replaced with an exchangeable shell just for colour or for Qi Charging.
So what amount of dirt as getting inside? Luckily the dust inside the phone after 2 weeks of use was pretty less. The only are where I fond dust more was around the camera section. Thanks to the tight casing, dust doesn’t stand a chance.!!
How long does the Battery Last :
This time we tested the battery on both 3G network and the Edge Network. On 3G the battery lasted for an approx. of 15 hours while on Edge it went for awesome 24 hours. Both of these mark are for regular usage which involves a bit of gaming, web browsing, voice calls and apps like WhatsApp, Email etc.
In case you plan to play lot of games, the battery is going to drop dead in 3 hours -4 hours tops.
How much Storage Space :
Lumia 820 has an internal storage of 8GB of which you get 7.2 Gb of space. Though the space really sounds low ( Reminds me of Lumia 610) but it comes with microSD Card support. You can insert an SD card of maximum of 32GB size. This makes sure you have enough storage for Music, Videos and Pictures.
It is possible to Format SD card from the phone and release it before you physically take it out. This makes sure you have all your data safe.
Tip #1 : Learn how to manage SD card on Lumia 820.
Tip#2 How to install Apps from SD Card.
Even though SD card storage is not used for apps, It can be used to install apps from it. This is useful when you want to save mobile bandwidth.
The Changeable Back Cover :
This needs a special mention as unlike Lumia 920, Back Cover of Lumia 820 can be taken out and replaced with any different colour. In fact you can change it back covers which supports Wireless Charging.
The back cover is one complete unit which holds the buttons and cuts to access the Ports, Microphone etc. The best part of the case is the way it is attached so tightly to the phone that no dirt makes it way inside from there. Even then taking it out is matter of seconds if you know the trick.
Tip#3 : How to take out the Back Cover of Lumia 820
Since you will be applying pressure at one corner when taking out the case, Nokia made sure its of best quality. The case even though looks plastic its of good quality that can take pressure and bending kicks.
Voice Call Quality :
Again no complaints here. The audio was loud enough for anybody to talk through. Lumia 820 comes with two high dynamic range microphones which are of good quality. If you compare with 920, it comes with three microphones.
So yeah there is an obvious difference but unless you are using the phone to record lot of videos, you might just not notice it.
Camera (Video) Quality :
Below is a sample video where I captured few moments of Pigeons flying. This will help you estimate the video quality and how stable the video came out.
Music / Audio Quality :
Music sounds great on Lumia 820 but if you go full volume without headphones, it starts cranking up a bit. So if you set 30, it wont sound that great but if you do 20, it’s going to do just fine.
I tried with couple of headphones to see how much it gets different and yes it changed every time. I used the ear phones that came along with 820, Panasonic Headphones and then Nokia Monster headphones. Good thing is audio with the default ear phones are good enough to satisfy your music needs if you don’t want to buy anything extra.
Like Lumia 920, 820 comes along with an Equalizer, Dolby Settings and Audio levelling. If you use the correct settings for the song, you can increase the audio level to 25 and stay good.
Image Quality :
We will be coming out with a separate post on the image quality. It will also include a bit of comparison with 920. So stay tuned on that.
Game Performance :
The good part of Lumia 820 is that it does not get heated up like Lumia 920. I played a lot of gaming including the old age Asphalt and the modern Bullet Asylum. As a matter of fact I went on gaming for 2 straight hours but no heat. Below is a small video demonstrating the game play.
Exclusive Apps :
Its Nokia after all!! Like any other Nokia Lumia phone, this phone also gets the benefit of all the exclusive apps which you will never going to find it on any other Windows Phone. Nokia Maps, Drive, City lens and what not.
Also not only you can trust Nokia on the apps but also on getting updates on time. Windows Phone 7.8 is the biggest example.
Pricing :
Lumia 820 pricing is 27,999 INR in India. Though the price is not very high but the right price for the phone should have been 23,000.
Summary :
Overall its a good phone which has the right balance between its features (handling, quality and performance) and the pricing of Lumia 920. It’s an affordable phone which will not disappoint you.
