Nokia Lumia 820 4G Smartphone Review

Feature set summary for Nokia Lumia 820 review

The eight-megapixel snapper features a Carl Zeiss lens and produces impressive pics. Nokia has included a good selection of apps, which helps to compensate for the limited choice available in Windows Market, plus the phone supports 4G.

Style and handling summary for Nokia Lumia 820 review

The handset is still quite weighty and chunky, although not as big as the Lumia 920. It’s got a nice coloured, rounded body, although it won’t be to everyone’s tastes.

Battery power summary for Nokia Lumia 820 review

You’ll get a day out of a full battery if you’re using the phone quite a bit, and if you’re streaming media expect it to die after about seven hours.

Performance summary for Nokia Lumia 820 review

Under the hood sits a 1.5 GHz dual-core chip which, teamed with 1GB of RAM, ensures games, apps and media play smoothly.

User friendliness summary for Nokia Lumia 820 review

The responsive touchscreen measures 4.3 inches. It’s vibrant and crisp and offers a good web browsing experience. The Windows Phone 8 OS is intuitive, and especially easy for smartphone newbies to use.

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When Nokia released the Lumia 920, one of the things that we noticed straight away was just how big and heavy it was. Now Nokia has produced a slimmed-down version of the phone in the shape of the 820 – it has a slightly smaller screen, but otherwise includes all of the 920’s best features in a neater chassis – and most importantly, it supports 4G.

Get online

If you’re after a 4G phone, the Lumia 820 will do the job for you – if you can afford the contract it will let you download data at fabulous speeds – so you can enjoy an HD movie without any stuttering. But even if you’re using 3G, the 820 offers a neat and speedy web browser. The 4.3-inch display is responsive, reacting to every poke and swipe, so that you can move around even complex websites easily. The screen is bright, offers great viewing angles and lets you read even the smallest of type under the harsh glare of direct light. The screen is vibrant, offering great colour reproduction for films and photos. 

Dual-core power

Under the hood, the Lumia 820 boasts the same chip as its bigger brother – a 1.5 GHz dual-core model which, combined with 1GB of RAM, offers really smooth performance. The operating system, Windows Phone 8, runs remarkably well, and we were able to load and run apps easily. The 820 also offered us a good day’s use out of a full battery, while streaming media saw it last a very decent seven hours. The handset is charged using MicroUSB, although there is also the option to charge wirelessly (if you buy a separate charging pad).

Social media fans will love Windows Phone 8, which offers the People hub, where you can aggregate all your contacts’ social updates into one place. The impressive Office app is useful if you want to work while out and about, and Nokia has included a good range of its own apps, including Nokia Maps, and Nokia Drive, which offers voice navigation if you’re driving. A good way to find local restaurants and so on is by using Nokia City Lens, and Nokia offers a way to download music and mixes for free and without adverts in the shape of Nokia Music. 

It’s just a shame that there’s not the great range of Windows apps on offer as yet, so if you’re switching from Android or iOS that could be a bit of a shock. But this will change in time. 

Do it bright

You can choose to have your Nokia Lumia 820 in all manner of colours – our review model was bright yellow – at least you won’t lose it easily! It’s a design you’ll either love or hate – it might look like a child’s toy to some. We rather like the bright finish and the curved body – it’s also quite scuff resistant, which is good news. It’s rather weighty as we said before, but at least it’s lighter than its predecessor.

Getting the back plate off was a tad difficult, but once inside you’ll see there’s a micro SIM slot plus removable battery. If you want to expand on the 8GB of onboard memory, there’s a Micro SD slot as well. If you want to download apps or carry some music around with you, you’ll definitely be wanting to buy a memory card.

Picture perfect

The Lumia 920 had a ‘PureView’ camera, but while the 820 doesn't it still boasts an eight-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens and produces decent images. There’s a dedicated shutter key on the right edge of the device, which fires up the camera app automatically. Hit it again and the snapper focuses and takes a picture. There’s a second lag between hitting the key and the shutter firing, so you need to have a steady hand, but nevertheless our snaps were vibrant and bright.

Low-light and night pictures showed little noise, although there was quite a bit of lens flare if our image included bright lights. A bit of tweaking would be needed to sort that out. There’s flash for low light indoor situations.

One feature we did like is SmartShoot, which takes a number of shots over three seconds, so you can choose the best one – handy if you’re taking a snap of a group of people and want to get the best one without anyone blinking or pulling a silly face.

Our conclusion

The Nokia Lumia 820 is a smaller version of the Lumia 920 that still includes its most impressive features, including Nokia’s great apps and wireless charging, as well as offering 4G support. Battery life is improved too – with a full day’s use on offer from a fully charged battery.

By Simon Thomas on 27th November, 2012

Tags: Nokia Lumia, Nokia, Nokia Lumia 820