Nokia Lumia 925: One Week Of

It’s been about a week for me using the Nokia Lumia 925, and I must say I’m pleased (though I miss the in-built wireless charging that comes with the Lumia 920).

To start off, I love the Glance feature and so do many I show it off to. I currently have Glance set to Peek mode, that is, “Hover your hand over your phone to see your glance screen.”, and Night Mode is set on for 10 PM to 5 AM. Coupled with the double tap to wake feature, it has made the smartphone experience that much better. No kidding. The Glance screen will show the time and also the battery level when it is charging or low, and if the phone is on Vibrate Only or Silent. Hopefully Nokia will find some way to show notifications on this screen as well, though API limitations will be hard to get around, methinks.

My only complaint about Glance is that Night Mode’s redness can look a little… Ominous at night. The difference that Night Mode makes at night is highly noticeable though, and I recommend that one turns it on if they can’t sleep in the presence of any light (like me).

So far, the battery level for me has been satisfactory, even with double tap to wake turned on (which supposedly uses more battery). With all my Windows Phones, I have always disabled many of my Background Tasks to save battery and I’ve done the same for my Lumia 925. I recommend that others do the same and frequently check their Background Tasks and disable what they do not use.

I’ve found that Nokia’s Smart Cam app is really useful, especially with taking moving subjects. The Best Shot feature that comes with it has been really helpful these past few days. After taking your shots, you can save your selected one (after making your edits or choosing the best one) which will be saved to Camera Roll under a file name such as “WP_YYYYMMDD_HH_MM_SS_Smart.jpg”. All 10 shots are saved under Camera Roll (but hidden to the phone outside of Smart Cam) in a .nar file with a similar file name.

After some poking around on the PC I found that you can open the .nar file in a ZIP utility such as WinRAR, or rename the .nar extension to .zip and open it as a .zip. In it will be your 10 photos (numbered 0-9.jpg), and XML files containing settings and information for Smart Cam to process the photos. Very useful to extract the photos this way if you’re looking to get many of the shots.

At one stage my Lumia 925 ran out of battery, and I connected it to a charger. Previously, when a Nokia Lumia device runs out of battery and is connected to charge, it would show a low battery screen and subsequently cut off. On the Lumia 925, the Windows key starts to flash at intermittent intervals, apparently to tell the user that the phone is indeed charging. It’s a neat new feature, and I’d love (and so would many, according to the feedback I’ve come across) to see the button used as a notification light, for when there are unread texts or emails perhaps. Maybe someday such a feature will be implemented.

Build-wise, I feel that the Lumia 925 has been a joy to hold. Having come from the Lumia 920 I miss the sturdy grip, but the Lumia 925 does carry a sense of professionalism. There are two elevated dots on the bottom of the back at the speakers, though, that feel out-of-place when touched.

The Lumia 925 using Gorilla Glass 2 but being paranoid I got myself a screen protector. It’s hard to find somewhere that sells screen protectors for Nokia Lumia devices in Singapore but I’ve always gone to Adix82, a shop at #01-08 Burlington Square, next to Sim Lim Square. So far they’ve the best protectors (and cases, though I don’t use cases) I’ve seen, especially for the Nokia Lumia range.

I’m looking to get the wireless charging cover but it would appear that practically all of the Nokia Stores and Solution Partners in Singapore are out of stock due to the high demand. Many of the Stores I visited only had Red left in stock, but I’m looking to get a White one. Hopefully they’ll be back in stock soon, I can’t wait to get wireless charging on my Lumia 925! (Note: Wireless Charging covers for the Lumia 925 are available in White, Black, Yellow, and Red)

To conclude, I’m really happy with the Nokia Lumia 925 and would definitely recommend it, especially since it’s far cheaper than other flagship devices. The Nokia Lumia 925’s RRP is S$799, compared to the iPhone 5 (16GB) at S$948, HTC One at S$968, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 at S$998 (though it should be noted that the HTC One and Galaxy S4 have 32GB of internal storage compared to the Lumia 925 at 16GB).

Prices via HardwareZone.com.sg’s Price Guide.

 

For my initial review of the Nokia Lumia 925, see: Nokia Lumia 925 in Singapore