Saturday, February 28, 2015
HP introduced line of laptops EliteBook Folio 1020 for business users
HP has unveiled the new EliteBook Folio 1020, oriented laptop thinner and lighter business world market. It has two editions (EliteBook Folio 1020 and EliteBook Folio 1020 Special Edition), both with just 15.7 mm thick and 1 kilogram of weight, but still provide the best features for the business.
HP has managed to make the EliteBook Folio 1020 so light using an alloy of magnesium and lithium with carbon fiber in its structure, so that the result is a rugged and portable yet lightweight. Has said Alex Cho, General Manager of the business division of HP, “The HP EliteBook 1020 represents the innovative use of materials and mechanical engineering in which HP has been working. The result is the thinnest and lightest laptop in the world, in a form factor that will allow users to be more productive in more places, thanks to its great portability “.
HP EliteBook Folio 1020HP designed the EliteBook Folio 1020 with a battery that provides up to 9 hours of battery life, thanks to the use of the new Intel Core-M processors. On the other hand, is designed to withstand bumps, drops and exposure to extreme temperatures, has a fanless operation, fingerprint reader, and if that were not enough, incorporates a 12.5-inch screen qHD resolution. It also integrates a webcam 720p HD Audio with DTS Studio Sound.
What HP has not said is the date of availability or price, but able and imagine that just will not be cheap.
HP introduced line of laptops EliteBook Folio 1020 for business users
Nokia Lumia 925 Review
Nokia has done what we asked: released a Windows Phone handset in metal. Except its not all metal. And its very similar to the Nokia Lumia 920. And its in the high-end price bracket... but does a stunning camera warrant the extra cost?
Last years Lumia 920 was a decent handset. It married striking looks to a quality screen and an even better camera. However, while it was undeniably good there was still some room for improvement, as being a flagship phone many hoped for better specs, less weight and a more premium build.
Now the Finnish phone-smiths are back with the Nokia Lumia 925. Its only seen a small number boost in its name, and if you assumed that meant that not much had changed, well, youd be right.
While Nokia has equipped the Lumia 925 with a similarly brilliant camera and gone some way to addressing the build of its flagship, it hasnt really improved the specs, leaving the Nokia Lumia 925 in the curious position of feeling more like a tweaked handset than an all new one.
This could be a problem, since its priced at a wallet-bothering £500 (around US$785/AU$820) SIM free, while the Nokia Lumia 920 can be had for around £150 less.
With a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and just 1GB of RAM the Nokia Lumia 925 matches the Lumia 920 for horsepower and trails some way behind the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or Sony Xperia Z - both of which have double the RAM and quad-core processors.
Arguably Nokia didnt need to go all out, since it doesnt have a huge amount of competition in the Windows Phone space - only the HTC Windows Phone 8X really poses much of a threat. But it seems like a missed opportunity to compete on a level playing field against the wider phone world.
At first sight you might almost not recognise the Lumia 925 as a Nokia handset. It has the same sharply rectangular shape that the Nokia Lumia 920 has, but where that was all brightly coloured plastic, the Nokia Lumia 925 has a shiny aluminium band running around the sides. It gives it a premium edge that is sorely lacking from other Nokia handsets, and it looks good for it.
Unfortunately Nokia hasnt gone the whole hog and made a completely metal handset like the HTC One, and instead made the back from polycarbonate. It still looks decent and the fairly conservative colour options (black, white or silver) mean that it looks a lot classier and more grown up than the Nokia Lumia 920, but it doesnt come close to the premium look or feel of the HTC One.
Despite incorporating metal into its design, the Nokia Lumia 925 is actually lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920, coming in at 139g (4.9oz) compared to the 185g (6.5oz) Lumia 920. The weight was one of our key qualms with the Nokia Lumia 920, so its good to see that its been addressed.
At a sleek 8.5mm (0.33 inches), the Nokia Lumia 925 is quite a bit thinner than its 10.7mm (0.42-inch) predecessor too, while the length and width remain almost identical at 129 x 70.6mm (5.08 x 2.78 inches).
It feels nice in the hand and its generally quite comfortable to hold, though there are a couple of caveats to that. Firstly the position of the camera lens on the back makes it very easy to accidentally put your fingers over it, which is uncomfortable and could leave marks on the lens.
And secondly, the corners arent very curved, which means they can dig into your hand if you hold the phone in a certain way. On the plus side, the polycarbonate back feels soft and warm against your palm, which is a comforting sensation.
The front of the Nokia Lumia 925 is dominated by the 4.5 inch 768 x 1280 AMOLED screen. Its not quite edge to edge but its not far off at the sides - although theres reams of plastic above and below, which seems a trifle unnecessary. Its a good size too in our opinion, big enough to use easily without becoming unwieldy.
At 332 pixels per inch it also has a pretty good pixel density, though not one that will bother the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4. And in fact its exactly the same size and resolution as the previous model, which is a little disappointing. However it does use the same impressive PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack technology as the Nokia Lumia 920.
Above the screen theres Nokias logo, the earpiece and the 1.3 MP front-facing camera, while below the screen there are three soft touch buttons with icons for Start, Back and Search.
Flip the Nokia Lumia 925 over and youll find another Nokia logo stamped across the middle of the polycarbonate back, while above that theres an 8.7MP Carl Zeiss camera lens and flash, and near the bottom of the handset theres a speaker.
The plastic around the lens is raised, leaving the lens itself slightly indented. That gives it a little protection when putting the phone down, but it also makes the phone less comfortable to hold as your fingers will often stray over the raised area.
The left edge of the phone consists of a strip of metal with no real features on it, while the right edge has the power button in the middle, a volume rocker just above it and the camera button near the bottom. The buttons are all quite raised and responsive, making them easy to press and easy to find by touch alone. Theyre also spaced out enough that theres no confusion over which is which.
The top of the Nokia Lumia 925 houses the micro SIM card slot at the left, the micro USB port and 3.5mm headphone port near the centre and the microphone to the right.
The bottom edge is left unadorned, with just the metal band running along it.
You cant remove the back cover so theres no getting to the Nokia Lumia 920-matching 2000mAh battery and theres also no microSD card slot, so unlike some lower-end Nokia handsets (such as the Nokia Lumia 520), the storage isnt expandable. This leaves the Nokia Lumia 925 with just 16GB of memory, which is half what the Nokia Lumia 920 offers - although 32GB options are apparently going to be available.
The Nokia Lumia 925 is slimmer and lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920. It also has a more premium build and a slightly improved camera (more on that later) but with the same core specs, less storage space and a much higher price tag its got an uphill struggle on its hands.
The first thing youll see when using the phone is the lock screen. This displays a wallpaper in the background, then overlays that with the time, day and date in large white writing.
Below this youll see your latest calendar event or reminder or missed calls, texts or emails, depending on how you set it up in the Settings screen.
At the top theres a battery bar, signal strength indicator and additional icons for any active data connections.
Swipe up to clear the lock screen and land on the start screen where youll find the familiar tile-based layout that makes Windows Phone handsets stand out from the crowd.
Each tile corresponds to an application and you can tap on it to launch the app or long-press it to move, resize or remove the tile.
Many of the tiles arent just static images, instead displaying relevant pictures or information.
For example your email app might tell you how many unread messages you have, while the People app has a slideshow of contact images.
Its an attractive and stylish design, but beyond that it makes the tiles more useful than the mere shortcuts that most apps on Android or iOS use. Each tile can almost be considered a widget in its own right.
Another way in which Windows Phone 8 is different from competitors is that rather than having a series of distinct home screens that you swipe horizontally between, it has one long start screen that scrolls seamlessly up and down.
Aside from launching apps and rearranging icons there are a few other things that you can do here.
The top-right of the Nokia Lumia 925s screen displays the time in small white writing, but if you want to see anything else - for example the battery level or signal strength - then a quick tap at the top of the screen will momentarily reveal these things.
It keeps the start screen tidy but its not something that youd necessarily discover very quickly the first time that you use the phone, so we wish it was a bit more intuitive.
The soft touch buttons below the screen each have at least one use.
The Back button enables you to scroll back through previous screens if you tap it, but if you long-press it youre presented with an overview of all your recently used apps and can just tap one to return to it.
Similarly, the Start button also has two uses. Tapping it will return you to the start screen if youre anywhere else, while holding it for a second will bring up a voice-based personal assistant.
You can ask it to open apps, make calls, send texts or look something up on the web, and it does a good job too - though if you know your way around the phone its not really any quicker than just doing things by hand.
Finally, the Search button brings up a Bing web search if youd rather type your search queries than speak them. Unlike the other two buttons this one only has a single use.
Swipe right from the start screen and youll find a list of all your apps laid out in alphabetical order.
While you can make start screen tiles for everything, you dont have to, and this list will give you access to things whether or not theyre on your start screen.
If you do want to add something new to the start screen just long-press it, while tapping it will launch it as you might expect.
Theres also a magnifying glass at the top that enables you to type in a search for a specific app, although as its laid out alphabetically anyway there shouldnt be much need.
Youll find a link to the Settings screen near the bottom of this, and its a screen that looks rather different to the start screen. Gone are the bright colours and tiles, so instead its just a black and white list of options.
Its basic but looks nice enough, and more importantly its easy to navigate and actually get to the options you need, which include everything from changing your ringtone to adjusting how long the screen will stay on for.
Theres also a Kids Corner option, which enables you to set up a child-friendly user area on the phone, with restricted access to apps.
While things are easy to find once youre on the Settings screen, there are certain things that we wish there was a shortcut to, for example turning 3G and Wi-Fi on and off.
If you leave the screen to time out on its own then rather than turning off completely it displays a Glance Clock, which is a screen with the time on it.
This isnt a lock screen as such, in fact its not a screen that you can really interact with at all - so swiping achieves nothing, though a double-tap will take you to the actual lock screen.
That in itself can take a bit of getting used to, but on the whole we quite like it.
Phones are increasingly replacing watches, and if you just want to check the time then having to turn the screen on feels like an unnecessary extra step.
Thankfully if you dont like it you can disable it from the Settings screen. Youll also find options there to have it dimmed (and a rather natty red) at certain times, such as night, or set it to turn off after 15 minutes.
Actually operating the Nokia Lumia 925 is a dream, because its generally very fast and smooth to navigate despite the fairly low specs.
Saying that though, when using the Settings screen youll sometimes have to wait a second or two for it to load a menu, which is just not on, since things like that should be instant.
Its also mostly very intuitive, and at 4.5 inches the screen is a comfortable size to use.
It looks good too, with bright and colourful images, though the resolution isnt quite a match for many recent Android handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the difference is noticeable, with neither images nor text looking quite as sharp on Nokias handset.
On the other hand, the screen on the Nokia Lumia 925 does have some things going for it, thanks to the return of the clever PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack technology used by the Nokia Lumia 920.
Among other things this makes the screen impressively viewable in direct light.
It still looks a bit washed out, but its perfectly useable and thats an improvement over most phones.
It can also be used with gloves on, or at least in theory it can be. In practice we tried three different pairs of gloves of different thicknesses, and it only responded to the very thinnest, so if you have visions of taking this on the slopes and using it with ski gloves on, then think again.
Contacts are found in the People app, which itself has three different main screens.
The most important one is an alphabetical list of all your contacts, complete with display pictures pulled from connected social networks.
Theres a plus button at the bottom of the screen that enables you to add new contacts, and there are fields for not just name, number and email but also address, anniversary, job title and more besides.
Theres also a search button at the bottom of the screen that enables you to type out a contacts name to find them.
To the right of that there are three little dots that you can tap to go to the Settings screen. This contains options to sort contacts by first or last name, add accounts and choose which accounts to show contacts from.
Back on the main People screen, if you long-press someones name youll get options to edit their details or pin them to your start screen, making it quicker to call them in future.
A quick tap on a contact will open their details, displaying their phone number and any other information that youve filled in or thats been imported from Facebook and the like.
Speaking of Facebook, the Nokia Lumia 925 and indeed Windows Phone 8 in general do a great job of integrating it into the handset.
From a contacts screen you can see their display picture and most recent status update, and you can even write on their Facebook wall without leaving that screen.
If they have any addresses listed you can also tap on them to bring them up on a map. Thats in addition to more expected options such as being able to call, text or email them by tapping on the relevant field.
At the bottom of this screen there are options to pin them to the start screen, link them to another contact - which is useful if you have more than one entry for a single person from different social networks - or edit their information.
Swiping left or right will bring you even more in-depth social network integration, since you can view Whats New on their Facebook timeline or Twitter feed and reply to or like any status updates. You can also see photos theyve uploaded and view any recent calls or text conversations between the two of you.
Back on the Nokia Lumia 925s main People screen again there are similar things to be found if you swipe left or right from here.
You can see a combined view of recent updates from all your contacts on a Whats New screen, as well as seeing a list of any contacts that youve recently interacted with.
Finally theres a rooms and groups screen, which enables you to create separate groups for contacts, for example Friends or Family, and if you make a room for them you can share calendars, notes and photos and have group chats with everyone in the room.
All in all its a superb implementation, its intuitive, requires minimal set up since most of the data is pulled from accounts that you already have and enables you to stay in touch with people through multiple channels all in one place.
Unfortunately this is one of the few failings of contact integration on the handset, because the dialler doesnt support smart dialling, so even if youre calling a number thats already in your phone book it wont bring up suggestions as you type, or even link the number to a contacts name once youve typed it in full.
Similarly, although the dial pad does list letters next to each number, you cant use them to type a contacts name in.
Its not Nokias fault, its just how Windows Phone 8 is, but its a fairly large oversight by Microsoft.
Aside from the dial pad, the Nokia Lumia 925s Phone screen also has an icon that you can tap on to call your voicemail, one that takes you to your phonebook on the People screen and a search button that enables you to search for a contact or number in your call history or phonebook.
Speaking of call history, thats whats displayed whenever you launch the phone app, and tapping on an entry in the history will take you to the callers profile where you can then call or text them back.
Call quality on the Nokia Lumia 925 is just as good as it was on the Nokia Lumia 920.
There was never an instance when we couldnt hear the person at the other end of the line clearly, and they always reported that they could hear us fine too.
Even the speaker phone worked quite well, though some of the clarity was lost. We didnt suffer any dropped calls either, so all in all the handset put in a good performance.
From there you can see a list of conversation threads, and if youve linked your phone up to Facebook youll even get access to your Facebook chat conversations here.
At the bottom of the screen there are options to send a new message, delete conversations, change your chat status or go into a Settings screen where you can enable delivery reports for messages.
If you swipe right you can see which of your contacts are currently online on Facebook chat and tap on them to chat over the internet.
Of course if youd rather be anti-social you can either change your own status to offline or turn off Facebook chat altogether.
Back on the threads screen, if you long-press a conversation youll find an option to delete it or you can tap on it to open it and view all the messages between you and that contact.
These are displayed in coloured speech bubbles, the colour of which will match the colour theme of the phone - which in itself can be changed from the main Settings screen.
Theres an empty speech bubble at the bottom of the screen that you can tap on to bring up the keyboard and type out a new message.
Just below that speech bubble (and the keyboard if its open) there are several little icons. The one on the left is used to send a message once youve composed it, and next to that theres a paperclip that enables you to attach a picture, video, voice note or contact to the message.
And to the right of the paperclip icon theres a microphone icon that you can use to dictate a message rather than typing it. This works well, but - call us old-fashioned - wed always rather just tap the message out anyway.
The other form of messaging on offer is email, and the email app looks remarkably similar to the text message one, with a black and white inbox listing all your emails, which you can then tap on to read.
The emails themselves are fitted to the screen, making them easy to read with minimal scrolling. There are also clearly labelled icons to reply to an email, delete it or move on to the next one.
Rather than viewing your whole inbox you can also filter emails by unread, flagged or urgent, plus its possible to view any other folders in your email account too.
Icons at the bottom of the screen enable you to compose a new email, refresh the page, delete emails or search for a specific email. You can also get to the email Settings screen by tapping on the three white dots at the bottom-right. This has options to change your sync settings or add a new email account.
When sending an email on the Nokia Lumia 925, things are as simple as youd hope, with a subject box, address box and an area to enter the body of the email. You then just add an attachment (if you want) and tap Send.
As with text messages, theres also an option to speak the content of the email to the phone rather than typing it yourself. Its an elegant app and it works well.
The other factor to messaging is the keyboard itself, which in the Nokia Lumia 925s case is very accurate and big enough to not be a struggle to use. It will also suggest words as you type, and take a good stab at auto-correcting any typos.
Our only real issue with it is the lack of haptic feedback, since that can really help to give the sense that youre actually pressing a button, though it has little bearing on the accuracy or overall usability of the keyboard.
Your main outlet for all these data connections will be Internet Explorer, since thats the browser that ships with the phone, and there arent really many alternatives available on the store.
That alone might be a deal breaker for some, but if you can stomach Internet Explorer its not actually all that bad.
Theres an address bar at the bottom of the screen, which doubles as a search bar, while to the left of that there is the choice of a Stop/Refresh button, a Tabs button or a Favourites button.
Which of these there is depends on how you configure the browser in its Settings screen, but it defaults to a Stop/Refresh button. In one sense its nice to have the choice, but one of our qualms with the mobile version of Internet Explorer is that you can only get quick access to one of these at a time, which is annoying because theyre all things that we use a lot.
To the right of the address bar there are three little dots, which when tapped on display a pop-up menu with options for tabs, Favourites and/or Refresh, since whichever one has been given a shortcut on the main screen is understandably not listed here.
Additionally, there are options to add a page to your Favourites, share the page, pin it to the start screen, search for a certain word or phrase on the page or go to the main browser Settings menu.
As we mentioned above, the Settings menu enables you to toggle what action the button to the left of the address bar performs, but it also enables you to pick whether you want websites to default to mobile or desktop pages, delete your history, block cookies and pick whether your default search provider should be Bing or Google.
The Favourites screen is just a black and white list, enabling you to tap on pages to go to them. The tabs page is slightly more attractive, because it displays small snapshots of all your open tabs. It also has an option at the bottom to open a new tab.
Scrolling around pages on the browser is generally fast and smooth, and text tends to be perfectly readable, though if its not you can pinch or double-tap to zoom in and out. If you tap on a link it will open it, while if you long-press it a little box will appear with options to open it in a new tab, copy it or share it.
Text and image-heavy pages make the failings of the screen quite clear, since its resolution is just not up to the standards that wed expect from a flagship phone. Were not in eye strain territory and its not even particularly ugly, but things are noticeably less sharp than they could be.
Its not the fastest at loading pages either, since desktop sites often took over 20 seconds to fully load using Wi-Fi.
In fairness you can start reading them while theyre still loading, and its often just adverts that are taking the time, but it still seems slow.
However, mobile sites only take around six seconds to load on the Nokia Lumia 925, which is much more tolerable.
Using 3G caused mobile sites to take about twice as long to load (so roughly 12 seconds), though surprisingly the impact on desktop sites was minimal, only adding two or three seconds to the overall load time. Unfortunately we werent able to test it on 4G, since we didnt have a compatible SIM card available.
Ultimately the Nokia Lumia 925 delivers a solid browsing experience, but one thats held back from excellence by a slightly underwhelming screen resolution and a lack of browser choice.
Theres a dedicated hardware camera button that makes taking photos a breeze and minimises camera shake when you take them. It can also be used to launch the camera from any screen on the Nokia Lumia 925 - even the lock screen - so youll never miss the chance to capture a moment.
Its worth noting also that the ability to see the screen in bright sunlight can help no end with taking photos, because it makes it a lot easier to compose a shot when you can actually see how things look on the screen.
If you just launch the main camera app things look fairly normal. You can tap to focus and there are a few scene modes to choose from such as sports, night, close-up or auto.
You can also turn flash on or off, change the ISO, exposure value, white balance and aspect ratio, but thats all become more or less a staple of smartphone cameras. That said, its quick and easy to change options and settings and it takes pretty good pictures even when you stick to this mode.
Things get a lot more interesting, though, when you delve into the Lenses menu. This is nothing new for Windows Phone 8 - essentially each lens setting adds new features or options to the camera - but the Nokia Lumia 925 comes with more than most.
First up theres Bing Vision, which can be used to scan barcodes and QR codes - so it doesnt actually take photos but it can be quite useful in its own right, and in our experience it quickly and easily scanned anything we threw at it.
Then theres Cinemagraph, which combines photo and video to create a short clip. Essentially it captures several seconds of footage that then loops to make a moving photo. You can tweak it by adjusting the start and end point, changing the speed or adding filters and then you can share it over social networks or by email.
Its undoubtedly a gimmick, and were not sure it will get much serious use as the result is pretty lo-res, but it has the potential to add an extra element to photographs - bringing life to an otherwise static image.
Up next theres Panorama, which creates a wide panorama shot of your surroundings by taking multiple photographs and stitching them together. It works quite well too.
Finally theres Nokia Smart Cam, and thats really the headline feature of the camera. Essentially it takes a series of images in quick succession and then chooses the best for you to save. This is really handy, since your first picture isnt always any good, and it means you dont have to manually take several pictures of the same thing.
But thats not all. If your pictures contain movement it can also create an action shot by splicing the images together to create a sort of motion trail where you can see the same action at different points. So far example if you made an action shot of someone riding a bike it would feature them and their bike several times over in different places.
In practice it seems to require quite a lot of movement for it to even think about creating an action shot, and if theres even a small amount of camera shake it can mess up the image. But its still a nice feature.
Nokia Smart Cam can also pick out faces to ensure that the image you end up with always captures the moment when people have their eyes open and are smiling.
Finally it can also remove unwanted movement from a shot, so if for example theres a car or cyclist in the background of your picture - which not only might be in the way of the view but could also be causing motion blur - the camera can remove them.
You can choose to have Smart Camera enabled by default, which helps to get the best out of the top-end features. Its the same as HTCs Zoe feature in a way, which snaps three-second clips instead of a photo and allows you to do the same thing - albeit far more effectively.
One insanely annoying feature is that the Smart Camera will show you previews of removed objects or action shots, and yet when you tap to open them, the Lumia 925 decides it cant do it. We wanted to scream JUST SAVE THE PREVIEW, YOU STUPID CAMERA, but we might have been judged by passers-by.
The biggest problem with all of these lenses is that it can take a while to capture images with them, and even longer to process them afterwards, which can be a pain. We cant help but wonder if the mediocre processing specs in the Nokia Lumia 925 are partially to blame for this.
Once youve taken a photo you can edit it in the Creative Studio. As well as giving you options to crop, rotate and remove red eye this also features a number of filters that you can add to an image, and even enables you to remove colour from certain sections while retaining it in others, and to blur parts of the image to draw focus to the non-blurred areas.
For a bundled piece of software, theres a lot more to it than youd expect.
Theres also a secondary 1.3MP front-facing camera, which is likely to be of more use for video than photos, since it can be used for Skype and other video call services.
All in all the camera on the Nokia Lumia 925 is one of, if not the, best weve ever come across on a smartphone. The combination of a wealth of shooting modes and editing tools alongside strong general performance and particularly impressive low light and night time performance makes it a great all-round shooter.
Cinemagraph shots are basically short looping videos. Were not sure how useful they are, but they work.
Panoramas come out well, but not really any better than on most other phones that can take them.
When you launch the camera app youll find options to adjust the white balance, turn continuous focus on or off and switch the video quality between 1080p and 720p. You can also turn the video lamp on or off.
Unlike the main camera there arent any scene modes or fancy features, but thats fine, since such things are less often used on videos.
As with the stills camera, you can use the hardware camera button to start and stop recording, which is a lot easier than tapping around on the screen, particularly as doing the latter can cause camera shake.
The biggest problem it faces is that theres only 16GB of built-in storage and no option to expand that (although a 32GB option is available), meaning that youll have to think very carefully about which songs and videos you want to store on your phone, because it wont fit many.
There are two places to listen to music from.
First up theres Microsofts Music + Videos app, in which youll find all of your music sorted alphabetically by artist, song and album and you can also view and create playlists.
The player supports MP3, WAV, eAAC+ and WMA files.
Its not the most attractive media player weve ever seen, since everything is laid out in simple lists, but you do get album artwork in the album view, and it is very easy to navigate.
You can tap on a song to play it, and there are then further options to favourite a track or shuffle the order that songs will play in.
Tapping an icon at the bottom-right of the screen will enable you to share the song over Hotmail or save it to a playlist, and if you have an Xbox Music account you can also start a smart playlist of similar music.
There are also basic lock screen controls enabling you to pause or skip the track without unlocking your phone, though we wish there was a way to control the music from any screen, like the notification screen controls on Android smartphones.
When playing music through the Nokia Lumia 925s speakers you can get it up to a decent volume, but as with most phone speakers outside of the HTC One the quality just isnt all that, leaving music sounding flat and lifeless.
Also, because the speakers are on the back youll probably want to place the phone face-down when listening to music to maximise the volume.
However, the vibrations coming from the speakers at this orientation cause the phone to slowly shuffle along whatever surface its on, which could end in a fall if its on a table or other raised surface.
Listening to music through headphones leads to much better sound quality and also gives you access to a bunch of audio settings that arent otherwise available.
These include the ability to choose a preset for the equaliser or customise it yourself, along with an enhancement that you can enable if youre using Dolby headphones.
Thats all well and good, but to actually get to these settings you need to leave the player, go into the main Settings menu and scroll all the way down to Audio. A shortcut from the player would be much appreciated.
Thankfully the other player - Nokia Music - does have in-built access to these settings.
Aside from that its both visually and functionally very similar to the Music + Videos player, though it has its own store and Mix Radio.
This has loads of radio mixes, such as Rock or Dance, and also enables you to create your own mix of music thats similar to that of a specific artist.
It doesnt just use your own music for these mixes either, it uses Nokias own library of songs and you can listen for free.
There is also a premium version of the service - called Nokia Music+ - that enables you to download mixes, skip as many tracks as you want and more for £3.99/US$3.99 per month.
Back in the main Music + Videos app there are a few other options too, such as a link to the store where you can buy new music, with individual tracks usually going for around 99p / US$1.29 / $2.19, while albums tend to cost around £7-8 / US$8-12 / AU$13-15.
Theres a reasonable selection on offer and its easy enough to navigate, plus youre not locked in to using it as its perfectly possible to hook the phone up to your computer and copy music across or buy music from Nokias store.
Theres also an FM radio option in the Music + Videos app, which will work just as long as youve got some ear or headphones plugged in.
Its very basic though, so you can swipe across the tuner to find stations and once you do you can add them to your favourites for easy access later.
But thats it, theres no easy to navigate list of stations, stations arent named even once you tune in to them, it cant record and there doesnt appear to be any way to listen to it through the phones speakers.
The phone supports MP4, H.264, H.263 and WMV video files, and once playing something you can pause it, skip to the next video or fit it to the screen, but thats all you get.
There arent any real options to play with and you cant download movies or anything from the store, so youll have to either film them yourself or copy them across from a computer.
The Nokia Lumia 925 is not a bad little device to watch videos on, but weve definitely seen better. At 4.5 inches the screen is a reasonable size, but while it strikes a good balance between usability and portability its obviously not quite as good for video as the likes of the 5-inch Samsung Galaxy S4, let alone the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
Were also left wishing once again that the screen was just a little higher resolution to give us a better HD experience. However, the ability to view the screen in direct sunlight does give it an edge as a portable media player, since youre only likely to use your phone for video when youre out and about.
The lack of storage could be a bit of a killer for video though, since with only 16GB to split between everything youre not going to fit many films on it. At least thats not a problem for streaming videos over YouTube or Netflix, but there arent any built-in streaming services, so youll have to turn to the store to get them.
Plus you can also quickly view any favourites, see any new photos uploaded to Facebook by friends or launch any photo apps that you have installed on your phone.
When viewing a photo you can share it via picture message, social network or email, rotate it, fix it, crop it, save it to SkyDrive, set it as your lock screen background, add it to your favourites or delete it.
Photos look quite good on the screen, with bright yet generally quite natural colours, but yet again we long for a higher resolution.
Out of the box there are two additional photo apps installed on the Nokia Lumia 925. Theres PhotoBeamer, which enables you to display your images on a friends phone.
Then theres Creative Studio, which enables you to edit the photos that youve taken beyond the basic cropping and fixing options found in the gallery. There are quite a few options available here, to start with you can add a filter to your photo - for example Silver or Opal.
Then you can add blur to certain areas of the image or focus in on a specific part. You can also make part of the image black and white while retaining colours in other areas using a tool called Colour Pop.
You can make a collage of multiple images, change the colour balance, brightness, clarity and vibrancy, and you can crop and rotate images and remove red eye.
Its definitely one of the fullest featured photo editing studios that weve ever seen on a phone and its quite easy to use too, enabling you to make fairly precise alterations by zooming in to the area you want to edit. With Creative Studio onboard, the Nokia Lumia 925 handles photos well.
The good news is that in practice we didnt find the battery to be too much of a problem. Its not brilliant but we reckon its an improvement over the Nokia Lumia 920.
The battery stats released by Nokia support that too, since they claim it can manage up to 440 hours of 3G standby time or 12 hours 40 minutes of 3G talk time, both of which are higher than the corresponding figures for the Nokia Lumia 920.
Curiously though, it apparently cant manage to play music for quite as long, coming in at 55 hours compared to 67 hours on the Nokia Lumia 920.
When testing the Nokia Lumia 925 we found that the battery would just about get through the day, but only just. To be fair though we were using it a lot more than most people probably use their phones on a day to day basis.
With more frugal use you might get a day and a half, but wed be surprised if you manage more than that unless you really dont touch it. Nokia has seen fit to include a battery saver option though, which when activated will turn off most background processes to conserve battery.
We played a 90 minute video on the handset with Wi-Fi turned on, the screen at full brightness and emails and social networks set to automatically push to the phone. The Nokia Lumia 925 started at 100% battery and dropped to 83% by the end, which is reasonable but not amazing. It matches the likes of the Galaxy S3 though, which many have found to be an adequate companion for all-day use.
Wed say the battery isnt really a liability, but if youre a power user youre going to want something with more juice.
Then theres NFC support, enabling you to share images, websites and more with other NFC-enabled devices by tapping them together, or more precisely by turning NFC and Bluetooth on, selecting Share, then Tap + Share, then tapping them together, so its not quite as seamless as wed like.
The only features notable for their absence are an infrared port - which we werent really expecting but which some other high-end handsets, such as the HTC One, have started including - and wireless charging, which was a feature of the Nokia Lumia 920 so its a shame that its not included here too. However, removing it likely helped get the weight down, which was probably a worthwhile trade off.
All the connectivity options can easily be turned on and off from the Settings screen, though we wish that it was possible to toggle some of the more frequently used ones either from the Start screen or better yet from anywhere, since its a pain to have to dig into the Settings screen every time you want to turn something on or off.
Getting content on and off the phone is made as straightforward as possible, since its basically just plug and play - connect the phone to a computer then you can copy and paste or drag and drop to your hearts content. A massive improvement over Windows Phone 7.
Its a pretty good offering, with options to get directions, view traffic data, public transport information or a satellite view of an area.
It will also list nearby places, and you can download maps for offline use, which is very handy when youre travelling. It never had any problem locking on to our location either.
Alongside it theres also HERE Drive, which is a free sat nav app, and is similarly useful.
Like the maps app it can download maps for offline use, plus it can also display maps in either a 2D or 3D view.
Once you set a destination and start driving it will give you both spoken and written instructions, as well as displaying an estimate of your current speed and even an estimated arrival time.
You can change between metric and imperial units, and there are useful extra features such as the ability to show petrol stations and car parks on the map or set an alert to go off if you exceed a certain speed. All in all, for a free offering its a hugely accomplished app.
Completing the triumvirate of HERE apps, Nokia has also included HERE City Lens on the Lumia 925, which uses your phones camera and compass to overlay the outside world with markers for places of interest and lead you to them, be they restaurants, museums or shops.
Nokia loves this app, but were less impressed. We dont need to see where it is, just a list of whats around - the augmented reality element seems more gimmick than useful. Its no better than Google Maps at giving local treasures, so wed like to see more from the app in the future for us to call it a boon.
Similarly useless is World of Red Bull, which presents news and videos about athletes and sporting events that are sponsored or hosted by Red Bull.
Extreme sports enthusiasts may get some enjoyment out of it but we doubt many people will ever even open it. Plus it doesnt include Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull Racing in F1. What? Why?
Its not a total app write-off though with the Lumia 925, because you also get Data Sense, which is a handy tool for keeping track of how much data you use and ensuring that you dont go over your monthly limit.
Theres also Microsoft Office and OneNote, the mobile versions of which while not quite as full featured as their desktop counterparts are still as much as you could ever hope to get from a phone app.
Since many businesses use the desktop versions, having the same software on your phone could come in handy for working on the move.
The biggest problem with apps on the Nokia Lumia 925 is the app store itself, since its just not all that well stocked.
If we hadnt been spoiled by Apples App Store and Google Play we might not have minded, but we have and we do.
A lot of major apps are covered, for example you can get YouTube and Facebook, but theres nowhere near the number or variety of apps that wed like to see.
As we explained in the Introduction page, the way apps are organised on the Nokia Lumia 925 is impressive, though.
Apps are represented by Windows Phone 8 tiles, many of which display live information or pictures, such as the number of unread emails in your inbox or a slideshow of your contacts photos.
Tap on a tile to launch the app or long-press it to move, resize or remove it.
The specs are for the most part identical to last years model and are really starting to feel a bit dated in the face of quad-core powerhouses such as the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
In fact, in a few ways its actually worse than the Nokia Lumia 920, because it has less built-in storage and no wireless charging.
There have been a few improvements, for example the build quality is now much more premium (though still not up to the standards of the HTC One) and the already great camera has been slightly improved. But that only amounts to two real changes, which isnt much at all for a new flagship phone, let alone one commanding such a high price tag.
The camera is superb too, not only in terms of its raw performance but also in the sheer number of options, modes and effects you can play with. Some of it is gimmicky, sure, but theres so much there that youre bound to find something to love. Its not re-inventing the wheel though, as Nokia has lobbed this functionality in with the 920. It is better-packaged, though.
Nokias HERE Maps and HERE Drive navigation apps are brilliant additions to the stock Microsoft offerings, while Nokia Musics Mix Radio puts millions of tracks at your fingertips for free.
Like all Windows Phone 8 handsets, the Nokia Lumia 925 also does a great job of contacts, messaging and social network integration. And its a minor point, but we are quite fond of the Glance Clock, despite feeling like a lock-screen-on-top-of-a-lock-screen.
That aside, theres little else to dislike beyond the fact that it just hasnt seen much of an upgrade from the Nokia Lumia 920. By far the biggest improvement is build quality, but its also a departure from the bright iconic colours Nokia has become known for, so it might not be to everyones taste.
Even if you love the new build its questionable whether thats really enough to justify the premium price tag, especially when the Nokia Lumia 920 can now be had for a lot less.
Were also really disappointed to see that in some ways the Nokia Lumia 925 is actually inferior to the 920, since its storage has been halved to just 16GB and wireless charging has been removed.
Theres no microSD card slot either, despite the fact that even low-end models such as the Nokia Lumia 520 feature one, so you really are stuck with just 16GB of memory.
With dated specs the Nokia Lumia 925 is definitely a case of style over substance. If it was priced around the same as the Nokia Lumia 920 that would be fine, but it isnt. And while its still one of the best Windows Phone 8 handsets available, its still got a long way to go to catch up to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One and even the iPhone 5, unless youre a particular fan of Windows Phone.
Some call Windows Phone refreshing, but it does still come with limitations and lacks a certain fluidity that Nokia hasnt managed to fix with the Lumia 925. This is a good phone, sure, but as a flagship we need to have our socks blown off, and at last check they were still firmly on our feet.
Next: Read Nokia Lumia 925 Tips and Tricks.
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Last years Lumia 920 was a decent handset. It married striking looks to a quality screen and an even better camera. However, while it was undeniably good there was still some room for improvement, as being a flagship phone many hoped for better specs, less weight and a more premium build.
Now the Finnish phone-smiths are back with the Nokia Lumia 925. Its only seen a small number boost in its name, and if you assumed that meant that not much had changed, well, youd be right.
While Nokia has equipped the Lumia 925 with a similarly brilliant camera and gone some way to addressing the build of its flagship, it hasnt really improved the specs, leaving the Nokia Lumia 925 in the curious position of feeling more like a tweaked handset than an all new one.
This could be a problem, since its priced at a wallet-bothering £500 (around US$785/AU$820) SIM free, while the Nokia Lumia 920 can be had for around £150 less.
With a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and just 1GB of RAM the Nokia Lumia 925 matches the Lumia 920 for horsepower and trails some way behind the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or Sony Xperia Z - both of which have double the RAM and quad-core processors.
Arguably Nokia didnt need to go all out, since it doesnt have a huge amount of competition in the Windows Phone space - only the HTC Windows Phone 8X really poses much of a threat. But it seems like a missed opportunity to compete on a level playing field against the wider phone world.
At first sight you might almost not recognise the Lumia 925 as a Nokia handset. It has the same sharply rectangular shape that the Nokia Lumia 920 has, but where that was all brightly coloured plastic, the Nokia Lumia 925 has a shiny aluminium band running around the sides. It gives it a premium edge that is sorely lacking from other Nokia handsets, and it looks good for it.
Unfortunately Nokia hasnt gone the whole hog and made a completely metal handset like the HTC One, and instead made the back from polycarbonate. It still looks decent and the fairly conservative colour options (black, white or silver) mean that it looks a lot classier and more grown up than the Nokia Lumia 920, but it doesnt come close to the premium look or feel of the HTC One.
Despite incorporating metal into its design, the Nokia Lumia 925 is actually lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920, coming in at 139g (4.9oz) compared to the 185g (6.5oz) Lumia 920. The weight was one of our key qualms with the Nokia Lumia 920, so its good to see that its been addressed.
At a sleek 8.5mm (0.33 inches), the Nokia Lumia 925 is quite a bit thinner than its 10.7mm (0.42-inch) predecessor too, while the length and width remain almost identical at 129 x 70.6mm (5.08 x 2.78 inches).
It feels nice in the hand and its generally quite comfortable to hold, though there are a couple of caveats to that. Firstly the position of the camera lens on the back makes it very easy to accidentally put your fingers over it, which is uncomfortable and could leave marks on the lens.
And secondly, the corners arent very curved, which means they can dig into your hand if you hold the phone in a certain way. On the plus side, the polycarbonate back feels soft and warm against your palm, which is a comforting sensation.
The front of the Nokia Lumia 925 is dominated by the 4.5 inch 768 x 1280 AMOLED screen. Its not quite edge to edge but its not far off at the sides - although theres reams of plastic above and below, which seems a trifle unnecessary. Its a good size too in our opinion, big enough to use easily without becoming unwieldy.
At 332 pixels per inch it also has a pretty good pixel density, though not one that will bother the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4. And in fact its exactly the same size and resolution as the previous model, which is a little disappointing. However it does use the same impressive PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack technology as the Nokia Lumia 920.
Above the screen theres Nokias logo, the earpiece and the 1.3 MP front-facing camera, while below the screen there are three soft touch buttons with icons for Start, Back and Search.
Flip the Nokia Lumia 925 over and youll find another Nokia logo stamped across the middle of the polycarbonate back, while above that theres an 8.7MP Carl Zeiss camera lens and flash, and near the bottom of the handset theres a speaker.
The plastic around the lens is raised, leaving the lens itself slightly indented. That gives it a little protection when putting the phone down, but it also makes the phone less comfortable to hold as your fingers will often stray over the raised area.
The left edge of the phone consists of a strip of metal with no real features on it, while the right edge has the power button in the middle, a volume rocker just above it and the camera button near the bottom. The buttons are all quite raised and responsive, making them easy to press and easy to find by touch alone. Theyre also spaced out enough that theres no confusion over which is which.
The top of the Nokia Lumia 925 houses the micro SIM card slot at the left, the micro USB port and 3.5mm headphone port near the centre and the microphone to the right.
The bottom edge is left unadorned, with just the metal band running along it.
You cant remove the back cover so theres no getting to the Nokia Lumia 920-matching 2000mAh battery and theres also no microSD card slot, so unlike some lower-end Nokia handsets (such as the Nokia Lumia 520), the storage isnt expandable. This leaves the Nokia Lumia 925 with just 16GB of memory, which is half what the Nokia Lumia 920 offers - although 32GB options are apparently going to be available.
The Nokia Lumia 925 is slimmer and lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920. It also has a more premium build and a slightly improved camera (more on that later) but with the same core specs, less storage space and a much higher price tag its got an uphill struggle on its hands.
Interface
The Nokia Lumia 925 runs Windows Phone 8, which is the latest version of Microsofts mobile operating system, but its also the same version the Nokia Lumia 920 runs, so its another area where were getting a sense of déjà-vu.The first thing youll see when using the phone is the lock screen. This displays a wallpaper in the background, then overlays that with the time, day and date in large white writing.
Below this youll see your latest calendar event or reminder or missed calls, texts or emails, depending on how you set it up in the Settings screen.
At the top theres a battery bar, signal strength indicator and additional icons for any active data connections.
Swipe up to clear the lock screen and land on the start screen where youll find the familiar tile-based layout that makes Windows Phone handsets stand out from the crowd.
Each tile corresponds to an application and you can tap on it to launch the app or long-press it to move, resize or remove the tile.
Many of the tiles arent just static images, instead displaying relevant pictures or information.
For example your email app might tell you how many unread messages you have, while the People app has a slideshow of contact images.
Its an attractive and stylish design, but beyond that it makes the tiles more useful than the mere shortcuts that most apps on Android or iOS use. Each tile can almost be considered a widget in its own right.
Another way in which Windows Phone 8 is different from competitors is that rather than having a series of distinct home screens that you swipe horizontally between, it has one long start screen that scrolls seamlessly up and down.
Aside from launching apps and rearranging icons there are a few other things that you can do here.
The top-right of the Nokia Lumia 925s screen displays the time in small white writing, but if you want to see anything else - for example the battery level or signal strength - then a quick tap at the top of the screen will momentarily reveal these things.
It keeps the start screen tidy but its not something that youd necessarily discover very quickly the first time that you use the phone, so we wish it was a bit more intuitive.
The soft touch buttons below the screen each have at least one use.
The Back button enables you to scroll back through previous screens if you tap it, but if you long-press it youre presented with an overview of all your recently used apps and can just tap one to return to it.
Similarly, the Start button also has two uses. Tapping it will return you to the start screen if youre anywhere else, while holding it for a second will bring up a voice-based personal assistant.
You can ask it to open apps, make calls, send texts or look something up on the web, and it does a good job too - though if you know your way around the phone its not really any quicker than just doing things by hand.
Finally, the Search button brings up a Bing web search if youd rather type your search queries than speak them. Unlike the other two buttons this one only has a single use.
Swipe right from the start screen and youll find a list of all your apps laid out in alphabetical order.
While you can make start screen tiles for everything, you dont have to, and this list will give you access to things whether or not theyre on your start screen.
If you do want to add something new to the start screen just long-press it, while tapping it will launch it as you might expect.
Theres also a magnifying glass at the top that enables you to type in a search for a specific app, although as its laid out alphabetically anyway there shouldnt be much need.
Youll find a link to the Settings screen near the bottom of this, and its a screen that looks rather different to the start screen. Gone are the bright colours and tiles, so instead its just a black and white list of options.
Its basic but looks nice enough, and more importantly its easy to navigate and actually get to the options you need, which include everything from changing your ringtone to adjusting how long the screen will stay on for.
Theres also a Kids Corner option, which enables you to set up a child-friendly user area on the phone, with restricted access to apps.
While things are easy to find once youre on the Settings screen, there are certain things that we wish there was a shortcut to, for example turning 3G and Wi-Fi on and off.
If you leave the screen to time out on its own then rather than turning off completely it displays a Glance Clock, which is a screen with the time on it.
This isnt a lock screen as such, in fact its not a screen that you can really interact with at all - so swiping achieves nothing, though a double-tap will take you to the actual lock screen.
That in itself can take a bit of getting used to, but on the whole we quite like it.
Phones are increasingly replacing watches, and if you just want to check the time then having to turn the screen on feels like an unnecessary extra step.
Thankfully if you dont like it you can disable it from the Settings screen. Youll also find options there to have it dimmed (and a rather natty red) at certain times, such as night, or set it to turn off after 15 minutes.
Actually operating the Nokia Lumia 925 is a dream, because its generally very fast and smooth to navigate despite the fairly low specs.
Saying that though, when using the Settings screen youll sometimes have to wait a second or two for it to load a menu, which is just not on, since things like that should be instant.
Its also mostly very intuitive, and at 4.5 inches the screen is a comfortable size to use.
It looks good too, with bright and colourful images, though the resolution isnt quite a match for many recent Android handsets such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the difference is noticeable, with neither images nor text looking quite as sharp on Nokias handset.
On the other hand, the screen on the Nokia Lumia 925 does have some things going for it, thanks to the return of the clever PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack technology used by the Nokia Lumia 920.
Among other things this makes the screen impressively viewable in direct light.
It still looks a bit washed out, but its perfectly useable and thats an improvement over most phones.
It can also be used with gloves on, or at least in theory it can be. In practice we tried three different pairs of gloves of different thicknesses, and it only responded to the very thinnest, so if you have visions of taking this on the slopes and using it with ski gloves on, then think again.
Contacts and calling
Contacts
In general were quite fond of the way Microsoft handles contacts with Windows Phone 8, and the implementation on the Nokia Lumia 925 is no different.Contacts are found in the People app, which itself has three different main screens.
The most important one is an alphabetical list of all your contacts, complete with display pictures pulled from connected social networks.
Theres a plus button at the bottom of the screen that enables you to add new contacts, and there are fields for not just name, number and email but also address, anniversary, job title and more besides.
Theres also a search button at the bottom of the screen that enables you to type out a contacts name to find them.
To the right of that there are three little dots that you can tap to go to the Settings screen. This contains options to sort contacts by first or last name, add accounts and choose which accounts to show contacts from.
Back on the main People screen, if you long-press someones name youll get options to edit their details or pin them to your start screen, making it quicker to call them in future.
A quick tap on a contact will open their details, displaying their phone number and any other information that youve filled in or thats been imported from Facebook and the like.
Speaking of Facebook, the Nokia Lumia 925 and indeed Windows Phone 8 in general do a great job of integrating it into the handset.
From a contacts screen you can see their display picture and most recent status update, and you can even write on their Facebook wall without leaving that screen.
If they have any addresses listed you can also tap on them to bring them up on a map. Thats in addition to more expected options such as being able to call, text or email them by tapping on the relevant field.
At the bottom of this screen there are options to pin them to the start screen, link them to another contact - which is useful if you have more than one entry for a single person from different social networks - or edit their information.
Swiping left or right will bring you even more in-depth social network integration, since you can view Whats New on their Facebook timeline or Twitter feed and reply to or like any status updates. You can also see photos theyve uploaded and view any recent calls or text conversations between the two of you.
Back on the Nokia Lumia 925s main People screen again there are similar things to be found if you swipe left or right from here.
You can see a combined view of recent updates from all your contacts on a Whats New screen, as well as seeing a list of any contacts that youve recently interacted with.
Finally theres a rooms and groups screen, which enables you to create separate groups for contacts, for example Friends or Family, and if you make a room for them you can share calendars, notes and photos and have group chats with everyone in the room.
All in all its a superb implementation, its intuitive, requires minimal set up since most of the data is pulled from accounts that you already have and enables you to stay in touch with people through multiple channels all in one place.
Calling
Calling someone can be done in one of two ways on the Nokia Lumia 925. Either just tap on a contacts phone number from the People screen or head to the Phone screen, where you can use the dial pad to type in a number.Unfortunately this is one of the few failings of contact integration on the handset, because the dialler doesnt support smart dialling, so even if youre calling a number thats already in your phone book it wont bring up suggestions as you type, or even link the number to a contacts name once youve typed it in full.
Similarly, although the dial pad does list letters next to each number, you cant use them to type a contacts name in.
Its not Nokias fault, its just how Windows Phone 8 is, but its a fairly large oversight by Microsoft.
Aside from the dial pad, the Nokia Lumia 925s Phone screen also has an icon that you can tap on to call your voicemail, one that takes you to your phonebook on the People screen and a search button that enables you to search for a contact or number in your call history or phonebook.
Speaking of call history, thats whats displayed whenever you launch the phone app, and tapping on an entry in the history will take you to the callers profile where you can then call or text them back.
Call quality on the Nokia Lumia 925 is just as good as it was on the Nokia Lumia 920.
There was never an instance when we couldnt hear the person at the other end of the line clearly, and they always reported that they could hear us fine too.
Even the speaker phone worked quite well, though some of the clarity was lost. We didnt suffer any dropped calls either, so all in all the handset put in a good performance.
Messaging
The Messaging app is the go-to location for text messaging on the Nokia Lumia 925.From there you can see a list of conversation threads, and if youve linked your phone up to Facebook youll even get access to your Facebook chat conversations here.
At the bottom of the screen there are options to send a new message, delete conversations, change your chat status or go into a Settings screen where you can enable delivery reports for messages.
If you swipe right you can see which of your contacts are currently online on Facebook chat and tap on them to chat over the internet.
Of course if youd rather be anti-social you can either change your own status to offline or turn off Facebook chat altogether.
Back on the threads screen, if you long-press a conversation youll find an option to delete it or you can tap on it to open it and view all the messages between you and that contact.
These are displayed in coloured speech bubbles, the colour of which will match the colour theme of the phone - which in itself can be changed from the main Settings screen.
Theres an empty speech bubble at the bottom of the screen that you can tap on to bring up the keyboard and type out a new message.
Just below that speech bubble (and the keyboard if its open) there are several little icons. The one on the left is used to send a message once youve composed it, and next to that theres a paperclip that enables you to attach a picture, video, voice note or contact to the message.
And to the right of the paperclip icon theres a microphone icon that you can use to dictate a message rather than typing it. This works well, but - call us old-fashioned - wed always rather just tap the message out anyway.
The other form of messaging on offer is email, and the email app looks remarkably similar to the text message one, with a black and white inbox listing all your emails, which you can then tap on to read.
The emails themselves are fitted to the screen, making them easy to read with minimal scrolling. There are also clearly labelled icons to reply to an email, delete it or move on to the next one.
Rather than viewing your whole inbox you can also filter emails by unread, flagged or urgent, plus its possible to view any other folders in your email account too.
Icons at the bottom of the screen enable you to compose a new email, refresh the page, delete emails or search for a specific email. You can also get to the email Settings screen by tapping on the three white dots at the bottom-right. This has options to change your sync settings or add a new email account.
When sending an email on the Nokia Lumia 925, things are as simple as youd hope, with a subject box, address box and an area to enter the body of the email. You then just add an attachment (if you want) and tap Send.
As with text messages, theres also an option to speak the content of the email to the phone rather than typing it yourself. Its an elegant app and it works well.
The other factor to messaging is the keyboard itself, which in the Nokia Lumia 925s case is very accurate and big enough to not be a struggle to use. It will also suggest words as you type, and take a good stab at auto-correcting any typos.
Our only real issue with it is the lack of haptic feedback, since that can really help to give the sense that youre actually pressing a button, though it has little bearing on the accuracy or overall usability of the keyboard.
Internet
Not only does the Nokia Lumia 925 support 3G and dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, but its also 4G enabled.Your main outlet for all these data connections will be Internet Explorer, since thats the browser that ships with the phone, and there arent really many alternatives available on the store.
That alone might be a deal breaker for some, but if you can stomach Internet Explorer its not actually all that bad.
Theres an address bar at the bottom of the screen, which doubles as a search bar, while to the left of that there is the choice of a Stop/Refresh button, a Tabs button or a Favourites button.
Which of these there is depends on how you configure the browser in its Settings screen, but it defaults to a Stop/Refresh button. In one sense its nice to have the choice, but one of our qualms with the mobile version of Internet Explorer is that you can only get quick access to one of these at a time, which is annoying because theyre all things that we use a lot.
To the right of the address bar there are three little dots, which when tapped on display a pop-up menu with options for tabs, Favourites and/or Refresh, since whichever one has been given a shortcut on the main screen is understandably not listed here.
Additionally, there are options to add a page to your Favourites, share the page, pin it to the start screen, search for a certain word or phrase on the page or go to the main browser Settings menu.
As we mentioned above, the Settings menu enables you to toggle what action the button to the left of the address bar performs, but it also enables you to pick whether you want websites to default to mobile or desktop pages, delete your history, block cookies and pick whether your default search provider should be Bing or Google.
The Favourites screen is just a black and white list, enabling you to tap on pages to go to them. The tabs page is slightly more attractive, because it displays small snapshots of all your open tabs. It also has an option at the bottom to open a new tab.
Scrolling around pages on the browser is generally fast and smooth, and text tends to be perfectly readable, though if its not you can pinch or double-tap to zoom in and out. If you tap on a link it will open it, while if you long-press it a little box will appear with options to open it in a new tab, copy it or share it.
Text and image-heavy pages make the failings of the screen quite clear, since its resolution is just not up to the standards that wed expect from a flagship phone. Were not in eye strain territory and its not even particularly ugly, but things are noticeably less sharp than they could be.
Its not the fastest at loading pages either, since desktop sites often took over 20 seconds to fully load using Wi-Fi.
In fairness you can start reading them while theyre still loading, and its often just adverts that are taking the time, but it still seems slow.
However, mobile sites only take around six seconds to load on the Nokia Lumia 925, which is much more tolerable.
Using 3G caused mobile sites to take about twice as long to load (so roughly 12 seconds), though surprisingly the impact on desktop sites was minimal, only adding two or three seconds to the overall load time. Unfortunately we werent able to test it on 4G, since we didnt have a compatible SIM card available.
Ultimately the Nokia Lumia 925 delivers a solid browsing experience, but one thats held back from excellence by a slightly underwhelming screen resolution and a lack of browser choice.
Camera
The Nokia Lumia 925 has an 8.7MP snapper. That might be some way south of the 13MP Samsung Galaxy S4, but dont count it out yet. For one thing, it uses Carl Zeiss optics, which should be enough for camera fans to sit up and take notice. But it also has a bunch of clever options and features. Its also excellent - and we mean excellent - at low light snaps.Theres a dedicated hardware camera button that makes taking photos a breeze and minimises camera shake when you take them. It can also be used to launch the camera from any screen on the Nokia Lumia 925 - even the lock screen - so youll never miss the chance to capture a moment.
Its worth noting also that the ability to see the screen in bright sunlight can help no end with taking photos, because it makes it a lot easier to compose a shot when you can actually see how things look on the screen.
If you just launch the main camera app things look fairly normal. You can tap to focus and there are a few scene modes to choose from such as sports, night, close-up or auto.
You can also turn flash on or off, change the ISO, exposure value, white balance and aspect ratio, but thats all become more or less a staple of smartphone cameras. That said, its quick and easy to change options and settings and it takes pretty good pictures even when you stick to this mode.
Things get a lot more interesting, though, when you delve into the Lenses menu. This is nothing new for Windows Phone 8 - essentially each lens setting adds new features or options to the camera - but the Nokia Lumia 925 comes with more than most.
First up theres Bing Vision, which can be used to scan barcodes and QR codes - so it doesnt actually take photos but it can be quite useful in its own right, and in our experience it quickly and easily scanned anything we threw at it.
Then theres Cinemagraph, which combines photo and video to create a short clip. Essentially it captures several seconds of footage that then loops to make a moving photo. You can tweak it by adjusting the start and end point, changing the speed or adding filters and then you can share it over social networks or by email.
Its undoubtedly a gimmick, and were not sure it will get much serious use as the result is pretty lo-res, but it has the potential to add an extra element to photographs - bringing life to an otherwise static image.
Up next theres Panorama, which creates a wide panorama shot of your surroundings by taking multiple photographs and stitching them together. It works quite well too.
Finally theres Nokia Smart Cam, and thats really the headline feature of the camera. Essentially it takes a series of images in quick succession and then chooses the best for you to save. This is really handy, since your first picture isnt always any good, and it means you dont have to manually take several pictures of the same thing.
But thats not all. If your pictures contain movement it can also create an action shot by splicing the images together to create a sort of motion trail where you can see the same action at different points. So far example if you made an action shot of someone riding a bike it would feature them and their bike several times over in different places.
In practice it seems to require quite a lot of movement for it to even think about creating an action shot, and if theres even a small amount of camera shake it can mess up the image. But its still a nice feature.
Nokia Smart Cam can also pick out faces to ensure that the image you end up with always captures the moment when people have their eyes open and are smiling.
Finally it can also remove unwanted movement from a shot, so if for example theres a car or cyclist in the background of your picture - which not only might be in the way of the view but could also be causing motion blur - the camera can remove them.
You can choose to have Smart Camera enabled by default, which helps to get the best out of the top-end features. Its the same as HTCs Zoe feature in a way, which snaps three-second clips instead of a photo and allows you to do the same thing - albeit far more effectively.
One insanely annoying feature is that the Smart Camera will show you previews of removed objects or action shots, and yet when you tap to open them, the Lumia 925 decides it cant do it. We wanted to scream JUST SAVE THE PREVIEW, YOU STUPID CAMERA, but we might have been judged by passers-by.
The biggest problem with all of these lenses is that it can take a while to capture images with them, and even longer to process them afterwards, which can be a pain. We cant help but wonder if the mediocre processing specs in the Nokia Lumia 925 are partially to blame for this.
Once youve taken a photo you can edit it in the Creative Studio. As well as giving you options to crop, rotate and remove red eye this also features a number of filters that you can add to an image, and even enables you to remove colour from certain sections while retaining it in others, and to blur parts of the image to draw focus to the non-blurred areas.
For a bundled piece of software, theres a lot more to it than youd expect.
Theres also a secondary 1.3MP front-facing camera, which is likely to be of more use for video than photos, since it can be used for Skype and other video call services.
All in all the camera on the Nokia Lumia 925 is one of, if not the, best weve ever come across on a smartphone. The combination of a wealth of shooting modes and editing tools alongside strong general performance and particularly impressive low light and night time performance makes it a great all-round shooter.
Cinemagraph shots are basically short looping videos. Were not sure how useful they are, but they work.
Panoramas come out well, but not really any better than on most other phones that can take them.
Video
The main camera on the Nokia Lumia 925 can shoot video in 1080p at 30fps. It also has a front-facing camera capable of shooting 720p video at 30fps. Thats all par for the course on a flagship phone, and video in general doesnt impress quite as much as stills, but it puts up a reasonable performance.When you launch the camera app youll find options to adjust the white balance, turn continuous focus on or off and switch the video quality between 1080p and 720p. You can also turn the video lamp on or off.
Unlike the main camera there arent any scene modes or fancy features, but thats fine, since such things are less often used on videos.
As with the stills camera, you can use the hardware camera button to start and stop recording, which is a lot easier than tapping around on the screen, particularly as doing the latter can cause camera shake.
Media
The Nokia Lumia 925 makes a fairly good media player, with a big screen for video content and some solid built-in media apps.The biggest problem it faces is that theres only 16GB of built-in storage and no option to expand that (although a 32GB option is available), meaning that youll have to think very carefully about which songs and videos you want to store on your phone, because it wont fit many.
Music
Wed wager that music is the multimedia activity that will get the most action on the Nokia Lumia 925, and were pleased to report that its handled well.There are two places to listen to music from.
First up theres Microsofts Music + Videos app, in which youll find all of your music sorted alphabetically by artist, song and album and you can also view and create playlists.
The player supports MP3, WAV, eAAC+ and WMA files.
Its not the most attractive media player weve ever seen, since everything is laid out in simple lists, but you do get album artwork in the album view, and it is very easy to navigate.
You can tap on a song to play it, and there are then further options to favourite a track or shuffle the order that songs will play in.
Tapping an icon at the bottom-right of the screen will enable you to share the song over Hotmail or save it to a playlist, and if you have an Xbox Music account you can also start a smart playlist of similar music.
There are also basic lock screen controls enabling you to pause or skip the track without unlocking your phone, though we wish there was a way to control the music from any screen, like the notification screen controls on Android smartphones.
When playing music through the Nokia Lumia 925s speakers you can get it up to a decent volume, but as with most phone speakers outside of the HTC One the quality just isnt all that, leaving music sounding flat and lifeless.
Also, because the speakers are on the back youll probably want to place the phone face-down when listening to music to maximise the volume.
However, the vibrations coming from the speakers at this orientation cause the phone to slowly shuffle along whatever surface its on, which could end in a fall if its on a table or other raised surface.
Listening to music through headphones leads to much better sound quality and also gives you access to a bunch of audio settings that arent otherwise available.
These include the ability to choose a preset for the equaliser or customise it yourself, along with an enhancement that you can enable if youre using Dolby headphones.
Thats all well and good, but to actually get to these settings you need to leave the player, go into the main Settings menu and scroll all the way down to Audio. A shortcut from the player would be much appreciated.
Thankfully the other player - Nokia Music - does have in-built access to these settings.
Aside from that its both visually and functionally very similar to the Music + Videos player, though it has its own store and Mix Radio.
This has loads of radio mixes, such as Rock or Dance, and also enables you to create your own mix of music thats similar to that of a specific artist.
It doesnt just use your own music for these mixes either, it uses Nokias own library of songs and you can listen for free.
There is also a premium version of the service - called Nokia Music+ - that enables you to download mixes, skip as many tracks as you want and more for £3.99/US$3.99 per month.
Back in the main Music + Videos app there are a few other options too, such as a link to the store where you can buy new music, with individual tracks usually going for around 99p / US$1.29 / $2.19, while albums tend to cost around £7-8 / US$8-12 / AU$13-15.
Theres a reasonable selection on offer and its easy enough to navigate, plus youre not locked in to using it as its perfectly possible to hook the phone up to your computer and copy music across or buy music from Nokias store.
Theres also an FM radio option in the Music + Videos app, which will work just as long as youve got some ear or headphones plugged in.
Its very basic though, so you can swipe across the tuner to find stations and once you do you can add them to your favourites for easy access later.
But thats it, theres no easy to navigate list of stations, stations arent named even once you tune in to them, it cant record and there doesnt appear to be any way to listen to it through the phones speakers.
Video
As you probably guessed, video is also handled by the Music + Videos app. Theres a lot less to this than there is to the music - all you get are images of any videos on your device, which you can then tap on to play.The phone supports MP4, H.264, H.263 and WMV video files, and once playing something you can pause it, skip to the next video or fit it to the screen, but thats all you get.
There arent any real options to play with and you cant download movies or anything from the store, so youll have to either film them yourself or copy them across from a computer.
The Nokia Lumia 925 is not a bad little device to watch videos on, but weve definitely seen better. At 4.5 inches the screen is a reasonable size, but while it strikes a good balance between usability and portability its obviously not quite as good for video as the likes of the 5-inch Samsung Galaxy S4, let alone the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
Were also left wishing once again that the screen was just a little higher resolution to give us a better HD experience. However, the ability to view the screen in direct sunlight does give it an edge as a portable media player, since youre only likely to use your phone for video when youre out and about.
The lack of storage could be a bit of a killer for video though, since with only 16GB to split between everything youre not going to fit many films on it. At least thats not a problem for streaming videos over YouTube or Netflix, but there arent any built-in streaming services, so youll have to turn to the store to get them.
Photos
Photos are handled by the Nokia Lumia 925s Photo app, funnily enough. This sorts photos by album, date or people in them, or gives you the option to just view everything on your camera roll.Plus you can also quickly view any favourites, see any new photos uploaded to Facebook by friends or launch any photo apps that you have installed on your phone.
When viewing a photo you can share it via picture message, social network or email, rotate it, fix it, crop it, save it to SkyDrive, set it as your lock screen background, add it to your favourites or delete it.
Photos look quite good on the screen, with bright yet generally quite natural colours, but yet again we long for a higher resolution.
Out of the box there are two additional photo apps installed on the Nokia Lumia 925. Theres PhotoBeamer, which enables you to display your images on a friends phone.
Then theres Creative Studio, which enables you to edit the photos that youve taken beyond the basic cropping and fixing options found in the gallery. There are quite a few options available here, to start with you can add a filter to your photo - for example Silver or Opal.
Then you can add blur to certain areas of the image or focus in on a specific part. You can also make part of the image black and white while retaining colours in other areas using a tool called Colour Pop.
You can make a collage of multiple images, change the colour balance, brightness, clarity and vibrancy, and you can crop and rotate images and remove red eye.
Its definitely one of the fullest featured photo editing studios that weve ever seen on a phone and its quite easy to use too, enabling you to make fairly precise alterations by zooming in to the area you want to edit. With Creative Studio onboard, the Nokia Lumia 925 handles photos well.
Battery life and connectivity
Battery life
The Nokia Lumia 925 has a 2000mAh battery, which is exactly the same size as the battery found in the Nokia Lumia 920. Unfortunately we werent too thrilled with the battery life of the Nokia Lumia 920 and you cant remove the battery either, so if you had thoughts of carrying around a spare that wont be an option.The good news is that in practice we didnt find the battery to be too much of a problem. Its not brilliant but we reckon its an improvement over the Nokia Lumia 920.
The battery stats released by Nokia support that too, since they claim it can manage up to 440 hours of 3G standby time or 12 hours 40 minutes of 3G talk time, both of which are higher than the corresponding figures for the Nokia Lumia 920.
Curiously though, it apparently cant manage to play music for quite as long, coming in at 55 hours compared to 67 hours on the Nokia Lumia 920.
When testing the Nokia Lumia 925 we found that the battery would just about get through the day, but only just. To be fair though we were using it a lot more than most people probably use their phones on a day to day basis.
With more frugal use you might get a day and a half, but wed be surprised if you manage more than that unless you really dont touch it. Nokia has seen fit to include a battery saver option though, which when activated will turn off most background processes to conserve battery.
We played a 90 minute video on the handset with Wi-Fi turned on, the screen at full brightness and emails and social networks set to automatically push to the phone. The Nokia Lumia 925 started at 100% battery and dropped to 83% by the end, which is reasonable but not amazing. It matches the likes of the Galaxy S3 though, which many have found to be an adequate companion for all-day use.
Wed say the battery isnt really a liability, but if youre a power user youre going to want something with more juice.
Connectivity
The Nokia Lumia 925 has most of the connectivity options you could hope for. Theres dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA support, the ability to set up a Wi-Fi hotspot, GPS, 3G and even 4G. Theres obviously also Bluetooth, though its version 3.0 rather than 4.0, which excludes any future low-power BT sensors.Then theres NFC support, enabling you to share images, websites and more with other NFC-enabled devices by tapping them together, or more precisely by turning NFC and Bluetooth on, selecting Share, then Tap + Share, then tapping them together, so its not quite as seamless as wed like.
The only features notable for their absence are an infrared port - which we werent really expecting but which some other high-end handsets, such as the HTC One, have started including - and wireless charging, which was a feature of the Nokia Lumia 920 so its a shame that its not included here too. However, removing it likely helped get the weight down, which was probably a worthwhile trade off.
All the connectivity options can easily be turned on and off from the Settings screen, though we wish that it was possible to toggle some of the more frequently used ones either from the Start screen or better yet from anywhere, since its a pain to have to dig into the Settings screen every time you want to turn something on or off.
Getting content on and off the phone is made as straightforward as possible, since its basically just plug and play - connect the phone to a computer then you can copy and paste or drag and drop to your hearts content. A massive improvement over Windows Phone 7.
Maps and apps
Maps
The Nokia Lumia 925 comes with HERE Maps, which is Nokias own mapping solution.Its a pretty good offering, with options to get directions, view traffic data, public transport information or a satellite view of an area.
It will also list nearby places, and you can download maps for offline use, which is very handy when youre travelling. It never had any problem locking on to our location either.
Alongside it theres also HERE Drive, which is a free sat nav app, and is similarly useful.
Like the maps app it can download maps for offline use, plus it can also display maps in either a 2D or 3D view.
Once you set a destination and start driving it will give you both spoken and written instructions, as well as displaying an estimate of your current speed and even an estimated arrival time.
You can change between metric and imperial units, and there are useful extra features such as the ability to show petrol stations and car parks on the map or set an alert to go off if you exceed a certain speed. All in all, for a free offering its a hugely accomplished app.
Completing the triumvirate of HERE apps, Nokia has also included HERE City Lens on the Lumia 925, which uses your phones camera and compass to overlay the outside world with markers for places of interest and lead you to them, be they restaurants, museums or shops.
Nokia loves this app, but were less impressed. We dont need to see where it is, just a list of whats around - the augmented reality element seems more gimmick than useful. Its no better than Google Maps at giving local treasures, so wed like to see more from the app in the future for us to call it a boon.
Apps
The Nokia Lumia 925 doesnt fare quite so well with other, non-mapping, apps. Most fall into the category of the expected - such as a calendar, a calculator and an alarm clock, all of which are perfectly functional but dont do anything out of the ordinary, or the useless - such as Angry Birds Roost, which is basically just Angry Birds news, ringtones and wallpapers.Similarly useless is World of Red Bull, which presents news and videos about athletes and sporting events that are sponsored or hosted by Red Bull.
Extreme sports enthusiasts may get some enjoyment out of it but we doubt many people will ever even open it. Plus it doesnt include Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull Racing in F1. What? Why?
Its not a total app write-off though with the Lumia 925, because you also get Data Sense, which is a handy tool for keeping track of how much data you use and ensuring that you dont go over your monthly limit.
Theres also Microsoft Office and OneNote, the mobile versions of which while not quite as full featured as their desktop counterparts are still as much as you could ever hope to get from a phone app.
Since many businesses use the desktop versions, having the same software on your phone could come in handy for working on the move.
The biggest problem with apps on the Nokia Lumia 925 is the app store itself, since its just not all that well stocked.
If we hadnt been spoiled by Apples App Store and Google Play we might not have minded, but we have and we do.
A lot of major apps are covered, for example you can get YouTube and Facebook, but theres nowhere near the number or variety of apps that wed like to see.
As we explained in the Introduction page, the way apps are organised on the Nokia Lumia 925 is impressive, though.
Apps are represented by Windows Phone 8 tiles, many of which display live information or pictures, such as the number of unread emails in your inbox or a slideshow of your contacts photos.
Tap on a tile to launch the app or long-press it to move, resize or remove it.
Verdict
The Nokia Lumia 925 is something of an oddity. For a phone that is presumably meant to be Nokias latest flagship - as the name and £500 (around US$785/AU$820) price tag would suggest - its been approached rather conservatively.The specs are for the most part identical to last years model and are really starting to feel a bit dated in the face of quad-core powerhouses such as the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4.
In fact, in a few ways its actually worse than the Nokia Lumia 920, because it has less built-in storage and no wireless charging.
There have been a few improvements, for example the build quality is now much more premium (though still not up to the standards of the HTC One) and the already great camera has been slightly improved. But that only amounts to two real changes, which isnt much at all for a new flagship phone, let alone one commanding such a high price tag.
Pros
The Nokia Lumia 925 is a great looking phone. Its slimmer and lighter than the Nokia Lumia 920, the metal band running around the edge does wonders for it and its the first phone the Finnish company has made in a long time that looks like it was designed for adults.The camera is superb too, not only in terms of its raw performance but also in the sheer number of options, modes and effects you can play with. Some of it is gimmicky, sure, but theres so much there that youre bound to find something to love. Its not re-inventing the wheel though, as Nokia has lobbed this functionality in with the 920. It is better-packaged, though.
Nokias HERE Maps and HERE Drive navigation apps are brilliant additions to the stock Microsoft offerings, while Nokia Musics Mix Radio puts millions of tracks at your fingertips for free.
Like all Windows Phone 8 handsets, the Nokia Lumia 925 also does a great job of contacts, messaging and social network integration. And its a minor point, but we are quite fond of the Glance Clock, despite feeling like a lock-screen-on-top-of-a-lock-screen.
Cons
The processor and screen resolution on the Nokia Lumia 925 are both distinctly lacking. Neither has seen any upgrade since the Nokia Lumia 920 and both are starting to feel decidedly mid-range. Its noticeable in use too, where things just dont look as sharp as they could and the phone will sometimes struggle with even minor things, such as navigating the Settings menu or rendering Nokias Smart Camera... the latter particularly frustrating.That aside, theres little else to dislike beyond the fact that it just hasnt seen much of an upgrade from the Nokia Lumia 920. By far the biggest improvement is build quality, but its also a departure from the bright iconic colours Nokia has become known for, so it might not be to everyones taste.
Even if you love the new build its questionable whether thats really enough to justify the premium price tag, especially when the Nokia Lumia 920 can now be had for a lot less.
Were also really disappointed to see that in some ways the Nokia Lumia 925 is actually inferior to the 920, since its storage has been halved to just 16GB and wireless charging has been removed.
Theres no microSD card slot either, despite the fact that even low-end models such as the Nokia Lumia 520 feature one, so you really are stuck with just 16GB of memory.
Final verdict
The Nokia Lumia 925 is undeniably a great phone in its own right, but its just not a big enough improvement over the Nokia Lumia 920 for there to be any reason to buy it if you own last years model. Even if you dont, you might be better off buying the Nokia Lumia 920, since its substantially cheaper at around £330/US$400/AU$420 SIM-free.With dated specs the Nokia Lumia 925 is definitely a case of style over substance. If it was priced around the same as the Nokia Lumia 920 that would be fine, but it isnt. And while its still one of the best Windows Phone 8 handsets available, its still got a long way to go to catch up to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One and even the iPhone 5, unless youre a particular fan of Windows Phone.
Some call Windows Phone refreshing, but it does still come with limitations and lacks a certain fluidity that Nokia hasnt managed to fix with the Lumia 925. This is a good phone, sure, but as a flagship we need to have our socks blown off, and at last check they were still firmly on our feet.
Next: Read Nokia Lumia 925 Tips and Tricks.
Microsoft is working on a new smartphone five inches
The US Company Microsoft has just begun its journey in the mobile telephony market. It started with the acquisition of Nokia’s mobile division, following the recent launch of Microsoft Lumia 535; Microsoft seems to be involved in the production of a new smartphone from the Lumia range. At the moment we only have a few leaked photos that appeared a few hours ago on the net, some pictures where you can see a new mobile with Windows Phone which seems to incorporate a screen between 4.9 and 5 inches.
Although it is early to draw hasty conclusions from these leaked photos in the network has already begun to speculate about the possibility that we are facing a new Microsoft Lumia 1030, a smartphone that would happen to Nokia Lumia 1020 which reached stores late last year 2013.
If true information about Microsoft Lumia 1030, we are talking about a new smartphone that incorporate technical specifications of high-end consist of features such as a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor, a display with a resolution of at least 1280 x 768 pixels and Adreno 420 graphics processor, in addition to the Windows Phone operating system in the latest version of Windows 10.
Beyond these initial data, there is currently no accurate information on the new smartphone, which appears in these images. In fact, do not rule out the possibility that it is a phone with Windows Phone from a foreign company to Microsoft, because in the parts shown in the pictures there is no trace of the Microsoft logo.
Even assuming that Microsoft is actually working on a new Microsoft Lumia 1030, it is likely that the introduction of this new terminal will not become a reality until mid-2015. Keep in mind that Windows Phone 8.1, the operating system under which today operate mobile from Nokia and Microsoft, is getting closer to being relieved by Windows 10. And Windows 10, short, will be a before and after in the Windows Phone operating system for the simple reason that this new version will absolute compatibility between all devices from Microsoft, so actually an application that runs on so will the computer on a smartphone or tablet with the same OS.
Therefore, in the event that Microsoft had intended to launch a high-end new smartphone, it is likely to contain launch to distribute it to the Windows 10 version of Windows Phone operating system installed as standard. And since Windows 10 will not be ready until next year 2015, it seems that we still have to wait a few months to find accurate information about the new flagship of Microsoft.
Microsoft is working on a new smartphone five inches
Friday, February 27, 2015
Videocon Launches Range of 4K UHD LED Smart TVs Starting Rs 91 000
Videocon on Wednesday announced the launch of its new range of 4K ultra-high definition (UHD) LED Smart TVs. The lineup includes 5 new TV models in different sizes between 40-inch to 85-inches, and starts from Rs. 91,000.
The company revealed that the new 4K UHD LED Smart TVs will be available across markets by next month. Videocon in a statement claimed that the company aims to increase its market share in the Flat Panel Display (FPD) segment to 20 percent from the current 16 percent. The company also revealed that it is targeting TV sales of 1 million units this festive season.
Videocon with the launch of its new range of 4K UHD LED Smart TVs is behind other Indian electronics brand Mitashi, which earlier this month unveiled its first 4K resolution (Ultra HD) LED television under the Rs. 1 lakh price point.
The all new range of Videocon 4K UHD LED Smart TVs feature 3D gaming with motion sensor, and also comes preloaded with an app store (no details mentioned at this point). Further, the new range of TVs come with N Screen feature, which Videocon says uses the home Wi-Fi network to connect Android or iOS smartphones to control or even share media with the TV. This screen mirroring feature also lets users push TV content onto their Android or iOS smartphone.
Other features of the Videocon 4K UHD LED Smart TVs include MHL interface, touch pad remote, face recognition, gesture control, Home Cloud, inbuilt Wi-Fi, and SD card support.
Commenting on the launch, Anirudh Dhoot, Director, Videocon said, "In our constant efforts to enhance TV viewing experience, we have expanded our remarkable UHD 4K LED range and added 5 new models. With this launch we are targeting a 50 percent increase in our TV sales when compared with last year. As 4K is the future, we will continue to expand in this segment to deliver unmatched products and premium experience to our customers."
Samsung had announced its 2014 Curved TV range including two range of curved TVs - one with UHD (4K) display, and the other with standard full-HD resolution in May.
Early indications spotted for Samsung Galaxy Tab 5 – Tablets Magazine
It is still very premature but possibly this week spotted the first signs of the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 5. The expectation is that the Korean manufacturer already fifth generation Galaxy Tab officially announced somewhere in the next two or three months.
The Galaxy Tab 4 tablets from Samsung are been awhile for sale and so the rumors about stabbing the next generation of its head. The first indications of the new series have been spotted on the Indian website Zauba. This website keeps the import and export to India in the holes and shows more new tablets entering or leaving the country.
The model number SM-T555 appears in the documents of Zauba and besides the fact that this tablet Samsung comes we can pick out the model number it comes to a new generation. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 after all four went as SM-T535 through life. Furthermore, the tablet according to the documents would have a 10-inch display, a 64-bit 410 Snapdragon processor and Android 5.0 Lollipop software. The document is called a converted price of approximately 290 euros.
Much more we do not know about this new model from Samsung and it seems unlikely that the Korean manufacturer’s new series about 1.5 weeks announces at CES 2015. Samsung usually organize their own events or presents tablets at IFA 2015, the fair which takes place in late February in Barcelona.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Adcom A35 With 3G Android 4 4 2 KitKat Launched at Rs 2 799
Adcom on Tuesday launched the A35 smartphone with Android 4.4 KitKat in India, priced at Rs. 2,799 with an MRP of Rs. 4,000.
The smartphone is yet-to-be-listed on the companys website, but is listed on exclusive online retailer Homeshop 18 with an October 3 availability. The smartphone will later be made available via other online retailers.
The dual-SIM Adcom A35 features a 3.5-inch HVGA (320x480 pixels) display and is powered by a 1.2GHz processor (unspecified) alongside 256MB of RAM.
Running on Android 4.4.2 KitKat, the budget smartphone sports a 2-megapixel rear camera with flash, while it also houses a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The A35 includes 512MB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).
While the measurements and the weight of the smartphone are not yet known, the handset packs an 1400mAh li-ion battery. It also features gravity and proximity sensors which consume less battery when compared to conventional sensors, according to the company.
The A35 comes with 3G, GPRS/ EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Micro-USB connectivity options. It will be available in Black, White, Yellow and Red colour variants. The smartphone would also come with a free screen guard worth Rs. 399.
"Adcom is pleased to announce the launch of its latest smartphone - Adcom KitKat A35. With the advent of our latest, Adcom now has a growing range of budget Android Smartphones and has put a strong foothold below the 5K category we aim to provide users with devices that enhances their smartphone experience whilst providing value for money" stated Sanjeev Bhatia, Director, Adcom.
Notably, Adcom announced its first Android KitKat powered smartphone, the Thunder A440+, earlier this month at Rs. 3,499.
Video Comparison HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 – NieuweMobiel NL
HTC and Samsung users are often poles apart. They laugh together because of their mobile phones and find their own phone by far the best of the moment. But what is really the best? We watched the video quality of the two flagships.
After we made between the M8 One and Galaxy S5 rather a camera comparison though it is now time to test the video quality. Like the photo comparison, we posted two devices together and shot a movie. And after some cut-and-paste job, we get the video belowWe want to be honest here.; HTC One M8 is in automatic mode. This is automatically the HDR mode is activated. Galaxy S5 we have that off. Moreover shoot the S5 in Full HD, while the highest recording quality is much higher 4K. It is therefore difficult to compare here and there, but not impossible. The Galaxy S5 filming a lot more detail, but the colors of the One M8 get better again. The way, we also have a video of the Samsung Galaxy S5 with the highest video resolution of 4K (UHD). Here we have the HDR mode handle it.
Put it on a demo for the highest quality of 4K
People we before the movie already showed were divided. A similar response we saw at the camera comparison between the two models. The one’s One (M8) is significantly better, while the other favors the Galaxy S5. Whichever you go, it is bad in any case, but in some ways just different.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Sprint Prepaid Plans Reconfigured To Mirror Boost Mobile Plans
Sprint’s experiment in a branded prepaid plan outside of its prepaid group continues and it seems that common sense has prevailed rather than the previous two attempts that made Sprint Prepaid the least attractive prepaid service in the industry. Starting today, the three Sprint Prepaid plans will now start at $35 for 1GB of data, $45 for 3GB, and the $55 plan will now include 6GB of data per month. However, Sprint Prepaid is one of the few branded prepaid services that does include taxes and fees in its monthly rates, which is something to keep in mind when shopping for prepaid service.
That Sprint sees fit to continue its branded prepaid service despite having ancillary prepaid brands means that Sprint still sees a value in having a branded prepaid service and the latest plan realignment means that Sprint wants to genuinely make an effort to offer service at all levels, which means that Sprint may indeed stick with this offering permanently. However, in order to truly differentiate the service from its Prepaid Group siblings, it must find a way to bring back the unlimited data access and off-network roaming that was a hallmark of the first attempt in Sprint As You Go, while attempting to find a way to keep the new plans and included taxes and fees of the latest offering in order to make it truly compelling to those shopping around for prepaid service.FreeTone App Review
Free Tone App Review: A free calls and chat application with hidden costs
Free Tone App Review-Positive (FreeTone give you a secondary number so you can call and send text messages to others for free). Negative (This application is filled with advertisements on every occasion. Currently there is no synchronization for those who install it on multiple devices, then Text messages can not be relied upon). Important (If youre looking for a backup to deal with people from Craigslist or similar service, FreeTone can do it all very well, but the problem with synchronization and so many advertisements).
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Free Tone Application |
FreeTone (iOS / Android) is a cross-platform application that allows you to call or send a text for free without eating into the minutes included in your service plan, but it can only be used with a US phone number. Instead, FreeTone act as a VoIP solution, using a data connection to facilitate voice and video calls, along with text messaging.
Think of it as an instant-messaging platforms like Skype, but not just rely on your user name but uses the phone number as well. With unlimited free calls and SMS to any number in the US, including FreeTone generator application is interesting and is a competitor of Google Voice, or even the means to change your phone number.
Preparation
Setting up FreeTone requires you to create an account. You can choose to enter your information by filling it manually again or can connect your Facebook or Google + application in order to speed up the process. We use Google+ account and find the application requests permission to post to my circle. Try it, we still have not found a plausible reason for this particular application that needs to post to our circle. Nonetheless, we still can adjust certain settings and continue.
After creating an account, the application will ask for the area code and phone number you assigned to your number. The whole process only takes a few minutes, depending on the method you used to register.
SMS and Call
FreeTone interface feels similar to WhatsApp (iOS / Android) or Kik Messenger (iOS / Android). When launched FreeTone you will immediately be taken to your inbox. From there you can see your message, compose a new message, as well as your address book or start the phone part of the application to make a call.
In a text conversation, free tone can send pictures, videos, voice notes, and your current location and attach multiple files from cloud services like Dropbox. But one thing to note, that when sending a picture or video in a conversation on FreeTone application will create a link to a picture or video was then sent to the recipient. So unlike other chat applications such applications mymail email, you can not receive picture or video messages online using FreeTone services.
As far as expertise, on several occasions when the message of our partners, then we will receive duplicate messages, even though he only sends a message once. Some time later his message was never sent to us at all. Obviously, you want a reliable messaging application, whether the application message it free or paid, making it difficult to recommend FreeTone become popular chat application as we have stated above.
Calling a little different. Placing a call to the familiar process: open the dialpad and enter or select the contact you want to call. One thing we liked was that we could use FreeTone to create a separate phone numbers for services such as Craigslist, where it is wise not to give too much information.
Not Some Synchronization Device
One selling point for cross-platform application that aims to replace the traditional phone numbers is that it can be used from your device to install the application. FreeTone fulfill this promise, but the problem is in sync.
We have installed the application on Android devices, as well as the iPad and iPhone. The only problem is, any message we send from one device will stay there, while messages sent from another device will be locked in there. More complicated to use multiple devices with this application is that the received message is sent only to one device.
In other words, if you are a person SMS from your iPad, then leave it on your desk and go with the iPhone, the new message will continue to be sent only to your iPad. I was not able to figure out how to determine the service message is sent to the device. At one point I think it is the last device to send the message from, but my theory was debunked after sending a message from your iPhone and watch the light of different devices as I received a reply.
This application simply does not work efficiently on multiple devices, which is very unfortunate and inexcusable for communications applications in 2014. At least just have to allow you to get into one device at a time, similar to how the Blackberry Messenger to handle multiple devices, which means the service will know which device youre currently using and where to give a new warning. However, FreeTone not.
Get Credit
Make or receive both text messages and phone calls on the US to another number from the same origin completely free, although the app makes it confusing to ensure in its infancy. Even with free calls and messages are advertised on the list of the App Store, after first launching the application and look at credit reference and methods to check how much credit will cost calls make us guess that the claim freely.
So why should the credit? For starters, the only reason you have to credit is if you plan to call or send a message to someone overseas. Credit can be obtained by watching video ads, completing offers like installing (and launch certain applications) or watch the "premium" video. Option to purchase credits ranging from 99 cents / 69p / AU $ 1.29 (for 40 credits) are also possible through in-app purchase.
Credit can also be exchanged with a sticker package, sound package for the warning and the color theme through FreeTone Shop. So basically, aside from a distance, the currency used credit for cosmetic changes.
In other words, your credit balance prominently displayed at the top of your message inbox. While you will need it for a few things, you will be able to make free texts and calls as advertised.
Ads and More Ads
Remove the ads at all possible through in-app purchases. For 99 cents, you can remove the ads for a month, or $ 4.99 (£ 2.99 / AU $ 6.49) will throw an ad for a year. We think nothing is really free, but just be aware that advertising can be very aggressive.
Android 4 4 KitKat review
What is Android 4.4?
Android 4.4 is the latest version of Googles mobile operating system. The first phone it features in is the Google Nexus 5, and weve been using that mobile to find out whats new in Android 4.4, known as KitKat.
Android 4.4 – Interface
New features win most of the spotlight in any Android update, but one of the most important changes in Android 4.4 KitKat is its new approach to interface design.
The software doesnt look radically different, but there are some quite fundamental, important alterations. The line that used to separate the shortcut icon dock from the rest of the home screen has disappeared, and so have the apps/widgets tabs in the apps menu.
It may sound trivial, but makes Android 4.4 much simpler, visually, than Android 4.3. And this change has clearly been made following some careful thought about how people actually use the system.
The blunt truth – people dont change widgets much. You generally find a clock you like, and perhaps one or two more utility widgets if youre a bit of a techy fan, and youre done. By filing the widgets menu away, out of plain sight, Google has made the system look a lot more rudimentary, in a good way.
Adding widgets is still easy, though. Hold a finger down on an empty part of a home screen and a wallpaper/widgets menu pops up. Were not yet sure if the widgets tab will remain in the Android 4.4 tablets, though.
Youll also notice that app icons have been given a refresh. Theyre now a bit curvier, a little bit more cartoony.
Android 4.4 KitKat 7
Android 4.4 KitKats friendlier look should make it easier for technophobes to get on with. And its pared-back style is marginally better to use all-round. However, anyone whos used Android recently will feel at home. Basic navigation hasnt changed – it has just been given a bit of an intelligent spring clean.
The notifications bar is very simple compared with that of most custom Android user interfaces, though. There are no feature toggles and no brightness slider on the top level – features we find pretty useful. Instead, getting to these things takes a couple of taps.
Android 4.4 Hangouts
Like iOS, Android is also continually merging with its desktop relatives a bit.
Theres deep integration with Drive – Googles cloud storage service – and SMS text messaging has been folded into Google Hangouts, the online chat side of the Google Plus social network.
Its a pretty aggressive move that wants to nudge things like Whatsapp out of the picture, but it is terribly easy to use and dead handy if you already have a pretty Google-centric digital life (i.e. you use Gmail).
However, Google has hedged its bets on this one. In the Settings menu theres a separate entry that lets you specify the SMS app you want to use.
As standard, theres only Hangouts in this menu, but you can download others from Google Play. Handcent SMS is a popular one.
Android 4.4 - Google Keep
Its not just chat clients that Android 4.4 is trying to squish, either. The pre-installed Google Keep app also wants to take down Evernote.
It lets you make coloured virtual post-its, complete with pictures and audio clips.
Its easy to use, and also lets you create reminders for future events or tasks as well as basic notes. Keep was introduced in March 2013, but it only got more advanced features in August 2013.
For example, you can now set location-based reminders – itll give you a buzz with the reminder once your phones GPS realises youre in the right spot.
Android 4.4 – Google Quickoffice
The most important new-ish app thats pre-installed in Android 4.4, though, is Quickoffice. Its a Microsoft Office-style suite that wipes away the sheen of one of Windows Phones key boasting points – its Office integration.
Quickoffice was acquired by Google in 2012, but this is the first time the app has been packed into a version of Android as standard. Its bad news for third-party Office apps like Polaris and OfficeSuite.
Just as important as offering a place for people to edit or create work documents, it also gives the browser somewhere good to open up things like PDFs. Google is rapidly stripping away the need to download third-party apps for everyday purposes. Quite how much an Android 4.4 phone can do without any additional apps is pretty impressive.
But is Quickoffice any good? Embrace Google Drive, where its files are saved, and its extremely handy for light editing and reading of your documents. You get 15GB of Cloud storage as standard too (all free), which is enough for shedloads of documents.
When decent Android Office apps are some of the most expensive on Google Play, its great to see this functionality included for free.
Android 4.4 KitKat – Other assimilations
Android is quietly getting smarter and more invasive, and its something thats even seen in the dialler of Android 4.4. It now offers a feature called Caller ID by Google.
This clever little extra searches the web for unknown numbers, and will display company names where applicable.
Its the sort of invisible feature thats designed to be taken for granted, but is also something that shows the kind of improvements next gen mobile operating systems should be making.
Its a bit scary too – but hey, this is Google after all.
The all seeing eye effect is what Android 4.4 is all about, and it reaches down into the way the system is made. The new interface isnt actually part of a separate home screen app as it was in the past – its all run by the Google Search part of Android.
Android 4.4 – Google Now
Google Now, the closest thing Android has to a digital assistant like the iPhones Siri, is featured much more prominently this time around. You can access it by holding down the home button rather than dragging up to the Google pop-up, or simply by swiping left-to-right on the first home screen.
As before, the main Google Now view is a series of cards telling you relevant location-sensitive information such as weather, the various ways you can get home from where you are and nearby restaurants.
Google claims to have increased voice features in Android 4.4, but at present theyre still much more low-key than in iOS. You can apparently awake a Nexus 5, or send it to the Google Now screen when awake, by saying OK Google, but this simply didnt work in our testing – it may require an update we dont have.
Advancements in the Google Now search also arent apparent yet. Google is releasing an API that will let app content become searchable through Google Now. An obvious example is that you could be directed to a recipes app when searching for a chicken korma recipe. It sounds great, but at present searches still direct you to the web. Well be keeping an eye on how this one develops.
Android 4.4 KitKat – Printing
Another new feature of Android 4.4 is the Printing section in Settings. This makes it easier to print directly with Wi-Fi enabled printers.
Its nothing drastically new – printer manufacturers offer apps that do the same thing – and only dedicated HP support is offered from the off. It is likely to alert more people that wireless printing from a phone is something you can actually do, though.
Android 4.4 KitKat – Tap & Pay
One of the most interesting new features in Android 4.4 KitKat is Tap & Pay, but its pretty useless in the UK. Its a hub that collates NFC wireless payments services. However, the main one - Google Wallet - is not available in the UK yet.
Android 4.4 KitKat – Performance
Performance was never a problem with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. It was, and is, a super-snappy system that makes complaints about the slickness of Android outdated.
Android 4.4 KitKat carries on this performance. Its fast, with the only significant lag caused by the camera app – which is likely as much down to the Nexus 5s camera hardware as the software that makes the thing work.
Should I upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat?
If you have a phone that can be upgraded to Android 4.4 KiKat, theres no real reason not to upgrade. The new design alone makes it a far more attractive interface, and it doesnt really restrict the system.
However, if youre using a non-Google phone, its likely that many of the changes made in Android 4.4 will be hidden or altered by the custom interface laid on top.
Verdict
Android 4.4 KitKat is an excellent update that gives the Google OS more of the user-friendly gloss that people rave about in iOS and Windows Phone.
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