Review: Nokia Lumia Icon

Every new Lumia phone seems to top the previous model and earn the title of “best Windows Phone.” So, Nokia and Verizon set out to create the Lumia Icon. The new Lumia Icon offers a lot of compelling features but can the new flagship for Verizon Wireless continue the trend?

Specs:-

• Processor: 2.2 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU
• Display: 5″ Full HD AMOLED display, with 1920 x 1080 resolution at 441 ppi
• Memory: 2 GB of RAM
• Storage: 32 GB
• Camera: 20 MP camera, PureView rear-facing camera, HD 1.2 MP wide-angle front-facing camera
• Battery: 2,420 mAh battery
• OS: Windows Phone 8.0

Review

Hardware

Design & Build Quality

Weighing at 167 g, the Lumia Icon has a square design with the back of the device having an aluminum finish while the surrounding edges having a ceramic finish for strength.

Along the right edge, there’s a volume rocker, a power button and a dedicated camera shutter button. Up top, there’s a 3.5 mm headphone jack alongside a nano-SIM slot and at the bottom, there is a micro-USB port for charging and syncing.

Overall, we really like the build quality of the Lumia Icon, which we consider it as one of the better build quality Nokia device; though it is a little on the heavier side.

Display

The Lumia Icon features a 5″ OLED display, which packs a full 1080p HD display that offers an amazing 441 ppi, similar to the HTC One (M8). The display is protected against scratches using Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

Like most of the other Lumia devices, the Lumia Icon’s display also has a neat feature that allows users to adjust the display’s sensitivity option so they are able to use the device with a pair of gloves.

Performance

The Lumia Icon is powered by the older generation of Qualcomm processor, Snapdragon 800. Even with the older processor, the device feels smooth and snappy with very little to no lag at all.

Benchmarking with AnTuTu, the device scored a rating of just over 27,000. Note that the benchmark on Windows Phone is different than that of Android, so this is by no mean of a comparison to Android’s AnTuTu benchmark. However, we tried a couple resource-intensive games and they were buttery smooth.

Battery Life

The Nokia Lumia comes with a non-removable 2,420 mAh battery. We ran our usual battery test in which we run continuous video while the device is connected to LTE and Wi-Fi with Bluetooth is turned on but not connected. We also leave the GPS on and set the display to 1/2 brightness. We were able to get almost 10.5 hours out of it. We managed to get about 1.5 days of mixed usage out of the device, which includes mixed network usage (part 4G, part Wi-Fi).

The Lumia Icon also has wireless charging, which means users can just drop the device on a charging pad and do not have to worry about plugging it in to a cable.

Camera

The Lumia Icon features the same 20 MP PureView camera as the Lumia 1520. A 20 MP camera with optical image stabilization and a dedicated camera button makes it simple to take a photo on the Lumia Icon.

The Nokia software adds all sorts of easy to access adjustments that make taking a professional photo relatively easy. It also allows RAW shooting, which will give users more comfort when editing photos.

Photos seem to be crisp and more detailed. Low-light photos with flash look especially nice.

Audio & Call Quality

We’ve had no trouble connecting to Verizon’s network on the Lumia Icon. The same goes for making or receiving calls on the device.

We did notice that in a noisier environment, it tend to be difficult to hear the other party on the call.

One feature that Nokia is touting the most on the Lumia Icon is the audio capture. The Lumia Icon has four mics (two in front, two in back) to capture great audio but we did not notice any noticeable difference in our video recordings.

Software

The Nokia Icon comes preloaded with Windows Phone 8. Users get individual app icons, called Tiles, on their only home screen. Each Tile can be used as a Live Tile, which displays information related to that Tile when it comes through. For example, instead of having a widget for the weather, users just have the weather Tile on the home screen and it will display the current weather. If iOS is too simple but Android is too complicated, Windows Phone 8 is a nice middle ground.

Windows Phone 8 makes the Lumia Icon a great device but with the upcoming update to Windows Phone 8.1, it will only make the user experience on the Icon even better with Cortana integration.

Final Thoughts

For the Verizon customer that wants a Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia Icon is definitely the one to go for. The design of the device is a little simple but it definitely has the quality.

Everybody has their own tastes but we feel as though the Windows Phone has been unfairly overlooked by most people. The Windows Store continuous growth coupled with the Lumia Icon’s build quality and hardware should make people consider it as a viable option but since it doesn’t have the widespread popularity, it gets set aside as if it were a second tier option.