The Nokia Lumia 920 is undeniably the shining star for the Windows Phone 8 launch. The phone is available in a variety of vibrant colors along with the more staid black and white options. For those who like a splash of color there's Nokia's signature cyan, yellow and red. Much like the very attractive Lumia 900, it has an iconic unibody polycarbonate design, Nokia exclusive apps that are truly useful and enjoyable and a surprisingly low $99 with contract price on AT&T ($449 without). That really puts the hurt on the Windows Phone 8 HTC 8X that sells for $199 in its 16 gig iteration on AT&T.
PureMotion HD+ Display
The 4.5" IPS display runs at 1280 x 768 resolution, making it extremely competitive with the top Android phones and iPhones with Retina display. The Nokia actually slightly edges past the iPhone 5 for pixel density by 6 ppi (332 vs. 326) and is significantly ahead of most big screen Android phones in terms of pixel density. Of course, you get a significantly larger display with the Lumia 920 vs. the iPhone 5, and one that's big enough to compete with today's giant 4.7 to 4.8 inch Android smartphones. The wrap-around Gorilla Glass is attractive, though it does induce glare, but thanks to polarizing filters and a very impressive 600 nits of max brightness, it's easily viewable outdoors. That's not the end of the Lumia display feature list: it's a super sensitive capacitive display that works with fingernails (in my tests this might take more than one tap if you have very long nails) and even gloves. Leave it to the folks from chilly Finland at Nokia to manage that feat! The LCD has a 60Hz refresh rate and deep, rich blacks. Colors are vibrant and it's a sheer pleasure to watch video and view photos. Though quite saturated, colors are more balanced and natural compared to AMOLED and Super AMOLED displays. Good going, Nokia. The bright, high contrast and saturated display make the HT 8X look a little bit dull in comparison.
The Lumia 920 has top of the line hardware, unlike the Lumia 900 that felt dated at launch because it was hobbled by Windows Phone 7's low-ball hardware requirements. Windows Phone 8 moves to modern hardware and everything about the Lumia 920 is competitive with high end Android smartphones. It runs on a dual core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Krait CPU with a gig of RAM and 32 gigs of storage. It has an excellent rear 8.7 MP camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and backside illuminated sensor that excels at low light photography. There's a front camera that you can use with the preview version of Skype for Windows Phone 8 that Microsoft added to the app store a few days after the 920's US launch. AT&T has a 6 month exclusive on the Lumia 920 in the US, so you'll either have to go with AT&T or use the unlocked version on T-Mobile (sorry Sprint and Verizon customers, the GSM Lumia 920 won't work on your networks).
The phone has dual band WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, a solid GPS and NFC. It supports wireless charging and early adopters will get a free wireless charging mat according to AT&T and Nokia (it sells for $50 otherwise).
PureMotion HD+ Display
The 4.5" IPS display runs at 1280 x 768 resolution, making it extremely competitive with the top Android phones and iPhones with Retina display. The Nokia actually slightly edges past the iPhone 5 for pixel density by 6 ppi (332 vs. 326) and is significantly ahead of most big screen Android phones in terms of pixel density. Of course, you get a significantly larger display with the Lumia 920 vs. the iPhone 5, and one that's big enough to compete with today's giant 4.7 to 4.8 inch Android smartphones. The wrap-around Gorilla Glass is attractive, though it does induce glare, but thanks to polarizing filters and a very impressive 600 nits of max brightness, it's easily viewable outdoors. That's not the end of the Lumia display feature list: it's a super sensitive capacitive display that works with fingernails (in my tests this might take more than one tap if you have very long nails) and even gloves. Leave it to the folks from chilly Finland at Nokia to manage that feat! The LCD has a 60Hz refresh rate and deep, rich blacks. Colors are vibrant and it's a sheer pleasure to watch video and view photos. Though quite saturated, colors are more balanced and natural compared to AMOLED and Super AMOLED displays. Good going, Nokia. The bright, high contrast and saturated display make the HT 8X look a little bit dull in comparison.
