Nokia on Tuesday unveiled the Lumia 925, which it described as a “new interpretation” of its flagship Lumia 920 smartphone.
The Lumia 925 includes what the company claims is the most advanced lens technology and next-generation imaging software, which enables the phone to take the best low-light images.
It has a combination aluminum-plastic chassis which incorporates the smartphone’s antenna.
The device will be available through T-Mobile in the U.S. later this year. No price has been announced yet.
“Overall, the Lumia 925 looks like a solid, serviceable addition to Nokia’s smartphone portfolio, but given the carrier in the U.S., I don’t expect it to be any kind of game-changer,” Charles King, principal at Pund-IT Research, told TechNewsWorld.
Nokia did not respond to our request for more details.
What The 925 Offers
The Lumia 925 will run Windows Phone 8 on a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU.
It has a 4.5-inch AMOLED WXGA sculpted ClearBlack display with 1280 x 768 pixel resolution. The Super Sensitive Touch display is made from Gorilla Glass 2, and has a high brightness mode. It’s readable in sunlight.
The main camera is a PureView 8.7 MP camera with optical image stabilization, autofocus, a short pulse high-power dual LED flash, and advanced lens technology. It can take 1080p HD video at 30 fps. It includes the Nokia Smart Camera mode. The front-facing camera has a 1.2 MP wide angle lens.
The Nokia Smart Camera app lets users take 10 shots in a short burst at 5 MP and store them. The Best Shot feature will automatically find the sharpest picture from the shot. Smart Camera’s Change Faces feature lets users mix and match details from the shots, and a Remove Object feature lets users edit out anything blocking the subject.
The Action Shot feature combines all 10 pictures into a single master image. Smart Camera also has a Motion Focus feature that keeps the subject still while blurring the background.
Users can set Smart Camera as the default camera interface. Nokia recommends the regular camera mode for low-light shots and for best still picture quality.
The body of the camera is gently curved, and the frame consists of plastic and aluminum fused together.
The 925 comes preloaded with Nokia’s HERE Maps, Here Drive+ and Nokia Music.
Reaction to the Lumia 925
It’s difficult to see any innovation in the 925, and many of its features, such as Super Sensitive Touch, are already included in the 920.
“When I look at what’s happening here in terms of innovation, this is innovation only to Nokia,” Michael Morgan, a senior analyst at ABI Research, told TechNewsWorld. “It’s great that they’re pushing things towards low light, but that’s a technology vector being attacked by all. Outside of the so-called ‘Superman’ feature, I’ve seen everything else on other phones.”
For example, Nokia is using aluminum in its Lumia line for the first time with the 925. However, Apple used the metal in the very first generation of iPhones, and Nokia has done this with earlier models.
“Back in the days before Nokia made the Lumia, they used aluminum for their phone cases,” Julien Blin, a directing analyst at Infonetics, told TechNewsWorld. “They’re going back to their roots. That’s what they do best — make solid hardware.”
Implementing the antenna in the case, as Nokia does with the 925, is again following in Apple’s footsteps.
“Hopefully, Nokia and the rest of the industry learned enough from Apple’s ‘Antennagate’ to avoid embarrassing problems,” Pund-IT’s King said.
“The 925 is a pretty sweet phone, but when you have to compete against Samsung’s GS 4 and the iPhone 5, it’s tough,” Blin said. “People buy phones because there are unique services or an app ecosystem like Android and iOS have. Then there’s the momentum of Android and iOS to consider.”
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