Before I start this review, I just want to say that I am in no way a technology expert. The only experience I have with phones and technology is through the various electrical things that I own therefore this review is based purely on personal opinion and personal experience. This is also obviously going to be a lot different from my usual posts as I'm not going to be blabbering on about beauty and fashion.
Now that that's out of the way let's get this ball rolling. A few weeks back I was contacted by the team at Nokia Connects and asked if I would be interested in testing out one of their new Nokia Lumia 925 mobile phones. Now I've seen the advert for the Nokia Lumia 925 (it's the one where they are taking photos in the dark and the photos are coming up better than other phones) so I knew what they were talking about and I sort of understood why they wanted me to test it. Being interested in photography (although not very good at it), doing a University course in Moving Image and having this blog, I felt like I could get great use out of this phone and it's many special features.
The Nokia Lumia 925 is a Windows phone which uses Windows 8 as it's platform. It is basically the slightly better brother of the Nokia Lumia 920, being slimmer, sleeker and faster. At first glance though it reminded me of a Samsung Galaxy phone although more square in shape, with it's crystal clear screen and size - I own the Samsung Galaxy 3 so it was an obvious comparison. It's a beautiful looking phone one that I would be proud to call my own.
My only sort-of problem with it was the use of Windows 8, I am not a Windows 8 girl in general. I refuse to own a laptop with it on because although they keep telling me that it's easier to use I just can't use it. On a laptop it confuses me, there's no way of turning it off without using the keyboard and frankly, the square boxes all over the place are bloody awful looking. That being said, on a phone the Windows 8 platform doesn't bother me as much, and although at first I was confused I eventually managed to navigate myself around it. Windows 8 is definitely better on a phone, it looks like it was made for a phone and it works insanely quickly. The standard functions of the phone are great and work well, it rings, it texts, it sends emails and does everything that a smart phone should and more. You can download apps and basically use this phone to do whatever you want.
My favourite part about the Nokia Lumia 925 is obviously going to be the camera. I am a self confessed Instagram freak, and I'm constantly taking photos, snapchatting and making videos on my Samsung so getting to do all of these things on a different type of phone was really exciting for me! I found the camera to be exceptional. The Nokia Lumia 925 comes equipped with a 8.7 mega pixel camera, it is a Pure View Carl Zeiss Tessar lens which has a fixed F2.0 aperture. It has a great autofocus feature and the photograph produced is always crystal clear each time. Not only this but the camera is absolutely fantastic at night time which is one of the main selling points for the Nokia Lumia 925 and because of this it really does make the phone stand out from the rest. The camera really shows the true colours of the photo, sometimes I find especailly with my Samsung that the photos I take can be a bit overly yellow or blue and it really annoys me, but with the Nokia Lumia 925 I didn't find that at all and I was really happy with the colouring of my photographs. Another fabulous feature is that you can edit your photos on the phone. It has absolutely loads of features and "lenses" to use to edit and transform your photographs and they where all really useful. The smart-cam app is also brilliant and you can make loads of different types of photographs using it, images that you wouldn't be able to make with any other type of smart phone.
Example of photograph from Nokia Lumia 925
As you can see in this cute little photo of my Max, the quality from the camera is so good. This was taken without flash, in natural lighting and I really think that it shows all the colours correctly and the image perfectly. It's so clear and you can really see all of the details brilliantly. For a mobile phone this camera is top-notch!
Overall I'm really happy with this phone and would definitely consider purchasing it when my contract runs out. It's a great phone for apps and photography, that works ridiculously quick and looks really nice. I've read other reviews that have stated that this is the best smart phone around at the moment and I have to say that I do agree. I really feel quite sad that I'm going to have the send this phone back in a few days!
Specifications
Main camera sensor: 8.7 MP PureView
Display size: 4.5''
Processor name: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4
Maximum standby time (3G): 440h
Video playback time: 6.6h
Maximum music playback time: 55h
Touch screen technology: Super sensitive touch
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