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Nokia Details How the Lumia 925 Defies the Antenna Death Grip

Aliqudsi — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:15:08 +0000

Back when the Lumia 925 launched some thought that having the antenna in the metal band around the phone would affect the reception, leading to a death grip as was the case with the iPhone 4. Thankfully as Jay demonstrated in one of the hands on videos, that is not the case with the 925

Video: Nokia Lumia 925, no iPhone 4 style death grip on external antenna (metal)

Nokia conversations have written a bit on the subject detailing why the 925 won’t be plagued with the same issues:

On the Lumia 925, the aluminium ring around the phone actually act as parts of the phone’s radio antenna system. The main antenna is located in the bottom area of the phone and two more towards the top of the phone. There are then stripes that separate the antennas from the other parts of the metal ring.

The end result is that you’ll get equally good radio performance out of the Lumia 925 as you would from a wholly polycarbonate phone, plus the most important benefit in the form of a stunning design.

Of course, if you deliberately use two hands to cover every edge of the phone, you’ll manage to reduce the signal. But that’s true of any other phone, too. You may also find it a little tricky to operate the buttons that way!

So technically you have nothing to worry about folks.

Nokia Conv

Video: Lumia 720 vs. 920 Software Comparison and Boot Speed

Aliqudsi — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:48:19 +0000

The one and only thing keeping me from using the Lumia 720 as my absolute daily driver is the ram limitation, the 512 Mbs although capable of running WP8 as an OS smoothly becomes an issue when some apps can’t run on the device due to it. Or even worse, some apps fail to resume properly (I don’t know why that is, but as mentioned in the video Whatsapp and Viber don’t resume from background tasks too well) which is weird seeing how I never had any issues like that on the Lumia 620.

Check out the video for a boot speed comparison and overall software performance comparison:

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_W0oUlmvNs

Serious Nokia Symbian Product Placement in Fast & Furious 6

Aliqudsi — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:54:18 +0000

So yesterday I watched Fast & Furious 6 at the movies, and at first I thought I was imagining things. I caught a glimpse of the plastic end caps of a N8; nothing too suggestive, but after that I knew something was up; without fail almost every single phone in the movie was a Nokia… running Symbian.

There were some obvious shots of the E6 (both in black and white), one where Ludacris lets his hand hover over the phone for a second or two so you can get a clear glimpse of the NOKIA logo.

Also there was a brief glimpse of either an N9 or a Lumia 800 (only the side buttons were visible). Either way it’s interesting to see these old phones in what looks like a paid placement; perhaps they filmed this a couple years ago?

Just thought it was interesting, anyone else watch the movie/spot the phones?

Verizon’s Lumia 928 is GSM Unlocked Out of the Box

Aliqudsi — Fri, 24 May 2013 09:28:27 +0000

According to multiple user reports, the newly released Lumia 928 on Verizon is shipping “sim unlocked” for GSm (4g not LTE) networks; meaning you can use it on At&t, T-mobile and other networks if you decide to travel. This is great news to everyone who is on the network (and has a 928) because it simply means that one “headache” of the carrier system in the US has been bypassed.

Got a chance to try it today..With an AT&T and T-Mobile micro sim.. After using the “Access point” app to apply the correct APN’s… it worked flawlessly (On HSPA 4G, not LTE)

Yay!

Technically this also means that you could buy a Lumia 928 from Verizon off contract and use it on your network of choice (provided you’re willing to give up LTE), or you could even import it where-ever you are outside the US. Xenon goodness for everyone!

Source

Lumia Tip: Use “Backlight” Scene as an HDR Mode

Aliqudsi — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:23:26 +0000

For some reason or the other Nokia have always insisted on NOT including “HDR” in pretty much all their phones, the 808 has “bracketing mode” but that’s about it. Of course HDR is kind of useful sometimes, and sometimes people have no idea what it is, but constantly have it set to on, on their iPhones. Well it turns out theirs actually a setting in your Lumia’s camera that should get the job done, selecting “Backlight” under the scenes option in the camera settings will get you some pretty good results in those tricky lighting shots.

Sure it’s not true HDR (where three different pictures are taken at different exposure levels) but it is close enough; in terms of every day performance; with the added benefit that you can use it directly from the camera without the need for a 3rd part app/lens. The image above was taken on the Lumia 720, the right one obviously being Auto mode, while the left was backlight; and the difference is huge (don’t ask why auto mode doesn’t adjust to the sun/shade). True the background in the left picture does look nicer with more accurate and deeper colors, but the tradeoff being that I was reduced to a silhouette. On the other hand the right picture taken with backlight mode did some magic with the exposures and got an acceptable outcome (minus my horrible smile and squinty eyes of course).

The two photos below were also taken once in auto mode (the first image) and once in backlight (both with the physical camera button, to avoid changing the focus area).The difference once again is obvious, and although the backlight one’s screen is horribly washed out you can see the difference in the background detail.

Hopefully Nokia will add a full auto-HDR mode soon (perhaps in the smart camera app?) but for now backlight mode is a useful trick to keep in mind.

Cheers.

Nokia Officially Announces Partnership With Man of Steel Movie; Release App and Exclusive Movie Content

Aliqudsi — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:42:25 +0000

Although it’s been obvious for quite some time, Nokia have officially announced their partnership with WarnerBrothers and the Man of Steel movie. This of course means loads of teaser material, exclusive wallpapers and fun apps.

Using the Lumia 925 on the new site will let you see “More than your eyes can see” thanks to the magic of OIS, after which you’ll be redirected to a page with exclusive related content.

http://www.nokia.com/global/manofsteel/?cid=ncom-scl-na-na-na-na-facebook-g0-en-1todtmx25f19c

Of course there’s also an app to get you in the countdown mood; which you can grab form the QR code down below:

Nokia Teases Man of Steel Superman Movie Inside a Steel Lumia 925 Frame

Aliqudsi — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:39:05 +0000

Nokia has a thing for superhero movies (or so it would appear), strongly associating themselves with the Dark Knight franchise and now the new Superman Movie “Man of Steel”. In their latest trailer/teaser they have a snippet of the new Man of Steel trailer playing inside a steel bodied Lumia 925 (I see what you did there). Check it out down below:

Or go ahead and watch the full trailer:

So is it just me or is anyone else super excited for this movie? (oh and The Wolverine also coming out this summer, gonna be awesome!)

-Maybe we’ll even see some product placement of one of the Lumias in it? Last time they made a fuss about the Dark Knight rises but there weren’t any Nokias in it at all.

Thanks for the tip Muerte

Nokia Gains In US Customer Satisfaction Polls, Ties With Samsung For Third Place

Aliqudsi — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:34:05 +0000

Although at the end of the day the only thing that really matters in the smartphone race is the number of phones you ship/sell, these numbers are of course influenced by a number of factors including customer satisfaction. In the latest poll Nokia have risen to 76% (tying with Samsung), while Apple who still hold first place slipped 2.4%.

Via Thanks for the tip @writeosahon

Video: Lumia 928 Verizon Advert Shows Off the Best of Low Light

Aliqudsi — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:28:26 +0000

In another (actually impressive) video promo by Verizon, they show off the Lumia 928′s abilities to take the perfect low light picture. plain and simple no bashing of the S3 or the iPhone, just showing how much better pictures come out; and I thought it was actually really nice:

What do you guys think?

Via

Thanks for the tip Viipottaja

Lumia 720 Video Capture Front & Rear Camera Vs. Lumia 920

Aliqudsi — Mon, 20 May 2013 09:17:13 +0000

One of the things that impressed me about the Lumia 720 back at MWC was the video quality, sure it only captured 720p but it was impressive, especially the front facing camera.

The FFC on the 720 has the same 1.3 mp sensor/720p capable as the Lumia 920 (with the same wide angle lens). So I thought it would be cool to compare the two; another factor I wanted to compare was the audio recording seeing how the HTC One uses the same microphone from the 720 it’s bound to be good right?

Check out the videos below for video samples and comparisons and let me know which one you thought did better, the 920 or the 720?

*I know the 920 records form the main camera in 1080p; so I filmed in full HD then compressed it down to match the 720′s output.

Lumia 720 vs. 920 front facing camera comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zOVY9FNRls

Lumia 720 vs. 920 Rear/Main camera comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noEq7ZCVi_M

Lumia 720 main camera uncompressed video sample (alone):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cZb7GB3lWc

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