Article: Our live coverage of the Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 launch.

Here's my report on Nokia's Lumia 820 and 920 launch.

I'm here in New York where Nokia is launching 2 new Windows Phones. The Lumia 920 and Lumia 820.


The Lumia 920 is the higher end phone with a 4.5" 1280x768 600 nit IPS LCD, 8.7MP Pureview camera with optical image stabilization, a polycarbonate unibody and a 2000mAh battery. I noticed during the demo that Joe Belfiore's 920 was connected to LTE whereas someone else who looked like they were from Europe had 4G. According to the Forum Nokia page the 920 supports LTE Band 1 (2100), LTE Band 20 (800), LTE Band 3 (1800), LTE Band 7 (2600), LTE Band 8 (900). Not sure if this one version of the 920 supports all these LTE bands or if they're mentioning all the bands the different 920 variants support. Note that LTE on AWS isn't listed - so I'm guessing those specs are for the 'Euro' variant.

Powering all this is a 1.5Ghz dual core Snapdragon S4 processor (like some Samsung GS3 and HTC One X variants along with the Motorola ATRIX). You get 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The storage is not expandable.

The screen has a brightness level of 600nits. Just for reference the Xperia ION (another extremely bright phone) measures 500nits so the 920's screen will probably work amazing even in direct sunlight.


Like I said it's a 8.7MP camera with optical (not just digital) image stabilization. The entire camera assembly is mounted on a spring so it can help cancel camera shake. This allows for smoother videos plus it allows you to hold the shutter open longer (less noise). The camera has a f/2.0 lens. I can't wait to try this camera out on my daughter.



There's NFC support along with wireless charging which supports the Qi wireless charging standard. Inside is a non-removable 2000mAh battery.

It will be available in Yellow, Red, Black, White, Gray.

With it's 4.5" display it's a little bit bigger than the Lumia 900 though the size is still pretty manageable.



The Lumia 820 is a upper-midrange device. While it has a 4.3" LCD display I'm a little disappointed that the resolution is only 800x480 (like the Lumia 900). Still, it's powered by a Snapdragon S4 processor so I'm guessing the graphics performance is going to be incredible with so few pixels to push.

Like the 920 forum Nokia says that there's support for LTE Band 1 (2100), LTE Band 20 (800), LTE Band 3 (1800), LTE Band 7 (2600), LTE Band 8 (900). Very impressive is this is from just one version of the device.

There's 1GB of RAM and a paltry 8GB of storage. Still, you can expand it using MicroSDHC cards so the small amount of storage isn't really an issue.



the back covers can be exchanged. The battery, SIM card and MicroSDHC are located behind the cover.

There's NFC and support for Qi wireless charging via an optional cover.

Inside they'll be running Windows Phone 8. It's an evolution of Windows Phone. The biggest difference is that the 'home screen' supports new smaller tiles. They look really cool and make better use of the larger displays. Still, it will be interesting to see what impact more tiles have on battery life.

Nokia Lumia Windows Phone will ship with Nokia's Location Suite which includes augmented reality support from Nokia maps. Being in New York right now it can sometimes be disorienting when you come out of a subway station and have to get your baring. The guidance support along with augmented reality should make this a snap.



I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about the new devices. Windows Phone desperately needed fancier hardware and these new Lumia's look fantastic.

You can find more pictures of the 820 and 920 here and here.