Microsoft is buying Nokia?s mobile phone unit, with the acquisition set to be completed by April 2014. Till then, Lumia and Asha phones will be sold as Nokia products. After that, the Microsoft name will take over. With the deal, Microsoft and Nokia can better challenge Android and iOS. PureView is Nokia?s innovation that helps phone cameras perform well in low light. Nokia Lumia 925 features PureView and is the first Lumia phone with a metal casing.
Build and Design
Like most Lumia phones, the 925 is very good-looking. The metal casing gives it a premium feel. Design-wise, the phone is identical to the Lumia 920 but for two major changes. It weighs 139 grams, much lighter than the 920 (185 grams), and its camera is placed close to the centre of the back panel. The phone feels good to hold and fits well in the palm. Its four corners are not rounded and some users may find that uncomfortable.
Display
This is one of the stellar features of the Lumia 925. The 4.5-inch touchscreen is very responsive. It responds to the faintest of touches, which may lead to users opening apps inadvertently. The resolution is 1,280×768 pixels and the screen is excellent for reading and watching videos. It works well outdoors too; there were no problems checking emails and texts in bright sunlight. Those who have used other Lumia phones will notice that the blacks are deeper and colours more vibrant on 925. This is probably Nokia?s best display so far.
Camera
PureView technology gives the 925 an edge over competitors in low-light photography. The 8.7-megapixel camera captured very detailed images in low light. However, in normal lighting conditions, the 925 fails to beat competition. The colour reproduction was excellent, but details were lost, making pictures look flat.
One great feature is image stabilisation. If you have shaky hands or are taking a picture from a moving vehicle, the 925 will help you click good photographs. This feature works with videos too.
On the application front, Nokia has introduced the Smart Camera app with its ?Amber? software update for Lumia phones. This app introduces several modes, such as Bing Vision (to scan QR codes), Panorama, Cinemagraph, etc. The Smart Camera app clicks 10 pictures in quick succession and automatically picks the best frame. It can also combine the 10 frames to create an action picture. The camera takes good videos too, as it supports 1,080p recording.
Performance and Software
Windows Phone 8 is a smooth operating system that complements 925?s hardware quite well. Apart from a couple of lags in the music app after downloading around 6 GB of music, the phone ran smoothly. There were no performance issues while using multiple apps and switching between games. The battery lasted a day on moderate to heavy usage. The speakers are average, but audio quality is excellent with a good pair of headphones.
With the Amber update, Nokia has introduced the Glance Screen to Lumia phones, which ensures that you can check the time without unlocking the phone. It would have been better if this screen also showed notifications or summaries of texts, emails and reminders.
Windows Phone Store still lacks quality apps, but Nokia and Microsoft have made some good apps for the platform. Nokia Music is great for buying and playing music, Here is a solid maps and navigation app, and Microsoft Office works very well on Windows Phone.
Overall, Nokia Lumia 925 is a very good phone for Rs 33,499. Before you buy it, keep in mind that it doesn?t support expandable storage, so you?ll be stuck with 16 GB internal memory and whatever you have on the cloud.
SPOTLIGHT
MapMyIndia Locate , Windows Phone
MapMyIndia Locate is a people-tracking app. It lets you add up to 10 people from your contact list, so that you can track them. You can also send tracking requests to other Locate users. If they accept it, you can see a map with their locations marked. Users can restrict tracking to certain days or time periods. For instance, if you don’t want to be tracked three days a week or between 9 am and 5 pm every day, you can disable tracking.
