We reviewed the Nokia Lumia 820 a while back, but as part of my Windows Phone experiment I thought I’d give it a go. So thanks to the nice people at Vodafone I got to have a play with one. I’m not going to review it again so don’t panic I’m just going to compare it to my other Windows Phone 8 devices and hopefully help you make a choice over which one to buy. I currently have an HTC 8X and a Nokia Lumia 620, the Lumia 820 is probably closest to the Lumia 620 in spec, yet in reality it is a rival to the HTC 8X.
The HTC 8X feels light in the hand. The Nokia Lumia 820 feels heavier. As to which is better is almost personal preference, I always do prefer a slightly heavier sturdier feeling device and both the Lumia 820 and 920 are both solid feeling devices.
The Lumia 820 feels a whole lot faster and smoother than the Lumia 620, I guess this is where the higher speed CPU and extra RAM come into play. Although the small size of the Lumia 620 does have it’s benefits, the larger screen of the 820 makes typing and viewing websites easier. The screen is clearer and brighter than the other two screens as well, certain apps and images don’t look as good as the 8X but the AMOLED Clearblack screen really is a joy to use.
I do wish the Lumia 820 had a higher resolution screen, browsing the web in desktop mode is a little scroll and zoom intensive, browsing the web on the Lumia 620 is even harder. In this respect the HTC 8X wins with it’s 720P screen wins.
What Nokia have done right over the last few years is to create and keep adding to the Nokia Collection of apps. It is a great selling point and a major reason to get a Nokia Lumia device over any other manufacturer. One could argue that you can easily find equivalent apps, but in my experience the Nokia apps are pretty decent quality without adverts.
Camera wise the Lumia 820 has an 8.7MP camera and it is really quite good, here are a few examples taken with the HTC 8X, the Lumia 620 and the Lumia 820.
Lumia 620
Lumia 820
HTC 8X
Here I’d say that the Lumia 820 took the best picture, all three were took using touch focus rather than the hit and miss half press method.
Lumia 620
Lumia 820
HTC 8X
Again the 820 just does it, producing the most realistic colours.
Lumia 620
Lumia 820
HTC 8X
Here the Lumia 820 did the best at not getting huge amounts of flare from the sun.
Lumia 620
Lumia 820
HTC 8X
No idea here, I think the 820 has took a better pic.
Cconclusion
Overall I liked the camera on the Lumia 820, as long as you turn off the flash assist focus and use touch focus instead of the shutter button you get nice pictures. Being able to store your pictures on a memory card as well is useful, which is an area where the two Lumias win over the HTC. If the HTC 8X had a memory card it would have been an amazing device, as it is I have to keep checking what I’ve got on it and keep swapping stuff around.
The Nokia Lumia 820 is a great phone, the Nokia Collection of apps, the extra size, weight and wireless charging make it a great upgrade over the Lumia 620. As to which I prefer over the 820 and the 8X I just don’t know, long term the 820 would be more useful with memory slot and replaceable battery
Last of all a big thanks to Vodafone for lending us the Lumia 820, you can get a variety of contracts from £25 here
Thanks guys just what I have been waiting for, a comparison of the various Windows offerings. That will help when I get to my next upgrade
Ta