Nokia Lumia 925: your questions answered
You wanted to know quite a lot, as it turned out. Our request for your questions about the brand new Nokia Lumia 925 elicited nearly 100 queries. Product manager Arja-Liisa Heikkila has put in a tremendous effort and answered nearly all of them.
Note that we have removed duplicates and questions that we can’t answer about availability in specific countries or future products. Also, in some cases, we’ve shortened the questions a bit to keep the overall length down.
Overall features
1) I was a 920 user but I’ve just switched to an HTC One. What can you say to tempt me back to Nokia with the Lumia 925?
The Lumia 925 is an outstanding package for any demanding smartphone user! It is beautiful, and feels good in your hand, thanks to the pillow-like soft shape and thinness. You can capture the best low light images as the best things tend to happen in dim lighting. And with Nokia Smart Camera mode you can really surprise your friends! You can take ten pictures at once and edit them with some amazing effects such as Action shot or Motion focus. As the original ten frames are automatically saved, you can edit your pictures at any time, all in one app. Nokia Smart camera can also be set as the default camera so you never miss a great moment!
2) Other than an extra lens in the camera module and an AMOLED screen, what features offer an upgrade from the Lumia 920?
We see that the Lumia 925 is another interpretation of the world’s most innovative smartphone, the Lumia 920. It introduces metal to the range with an aluminium frame around the body, new imaging features like the Nokia Smart camera and a beta version of the Nokia Glance screen bringing the clock back onto the standby screen. By the way, the two latter ones will be brought to the Lumia 920 too.
The Lumia 925 Camera
3) How does the camera compare with that of the N8?
The Nokia N8 was an amazing smartphone imaging innovation when launched and we’ve brought many new benefits to the market since. One of them is Optical Image Stabilization, also included in the Lumia 925, to remove the effect of hand shake in the pictures. The 8.7-megapixel camera on the Lumia 925 also includes six physical lenses as the first smartphone camera in the world, as far as I know. All of this makes the Lumia 925 capable of taking the best low light images!
4) When did you decide to include an extra lens in the Lumia 925 and what real impact has an extra lens in a phone camera at all?
We wanted to take imaging experience in smartphones one step further. Adding a sixth physical lens to the camera improves especially the image sharpness.
5) Should we be worried about the dust getting into the camera?
No, you shouldn’t. The camera window is designed so that dust can’t get inside the camera lens and thus the dust on the outer surface of camera window will not cause any harm. Clean it with a loose piece of material (e.g. the bottom of your shirt) before shooting, though for best results.
6) I have a lot of problems with the Lumia 920 for making beautiful pictures in the dark, the Phone makes most photos automatically at ISO 620 and shutter time 1/8 which is too slow and creates a lot of movement in the photos when you take a picture of people. Are you able to set the shutter time? How can I create better photos, what settings to use?
The Lumia 925 provides best-in-market images in low light especially thanks to the improved image quality algorithms. The default camera settings on the Nokia Lumia 925 are optimised but you can also easily adjust those, e.g. you can select ISO3200 if you wish. We also continue developing the imaging experience further.
7) What is the slowest shutter speed on the Lumia 925? Thanks in advance!
The longest exposure time of 1s is reached when night mode is used.
8) Can the phone upload video to SkyDrive at the same time when we recording lengthy videos?
You can upload video to SkyDrive after recording it, not simultaneously unfortunately.
Design related questions
9) Colours have become the Lumia’s signature, why weren’t any colours used for the backs of the phones? I can imagine deep red, dark blue or deep purple would have looked great!
With the Lumia 925 we are introducing metal for the first time to the Lumia portfolio and thus we want to celebrate the metal as a material and have very subtle elegant colors partnered with it. If you want to add a splash of color, the additional wireless charging covers are also available in bright colors like red and yellow.
10) No one wants a numbered phone. People easily get confused with numbers. Why not brand a line such as a name? It goes well with consumers.
All manufacturers have certain type of a system for their product naming and so does Nokia with our Lumia portfolio.
11) I have just ordered the black Lumia 925. I do have one concern about the black finish on aluminium, and this is based on the iPhone5 issues of wearing through with minimum contact. Is this likely to happen on the black Lumia 925?
The black version of the Lumia 925 comes with a dark grey aluminium frame, the color of which is made through an anodizing process. It is made to last and not to wear off in normal use.
12) This phone is as big as a HTC One and Galaxy S4, why could you not fit a larger screen with less bezel? Also why do all of your high-end devices have huge bezels?
The design and product size in general is a combination of several factors: components, technologies (e.g. display), features, all of which influence the outer visual elements. We believe that the elements we have chosen for the Lumia 925 are well in balance with the overall design.
13) Why hasn’t wireless charging been integrated in the phone?
As said here earlier, a phone is always a combination of certain technologies, components, features and design. Wireless charging is something we truly believe in and we also believe in the choice we’ve made with the Lumia 925. Wireless charging was selected to be enabled with an additional snap-on cover to give consumers a choice too.
14) Why I have not heard about the cream coloured 925 before seeing it accidently on pre-order page?
The Lumia 925 is available in white, black and grey colors. Cream color is not available.
15) Are there some 3-rd party Qi charging cases for the Lumia 720 and Lumia 925 planned? (Are they even allowed?)
Both the Lumia 720 and Lumia 925 support the Qi wireless charging standard and third-party suppliers may develop compatible charging cases.
16) Most business minded people like a hardware which is non-flashy but elegant looking. Why is Nokia adding all these unnecessary curves? And a general question about Lumias: Nokia used to experiment with different designs back in the days of Nokia 3650. Is Nokia still experimenting with other form factors or because of touch screen requirements it is limited in what it can do?
The design of the Lumia 925 is based on pillow-like human shapes which feel comfortable in the hand without any sharp edges. We are taking all the feedback into account when making future plans and are continuously developing our portfolio to meet customer expectations.
17) What explained the choice of plastic for the back of the phone vs. an all-aluminium body like the N8? Finally, why the tune down of the PureView branding on the back?
The Lumia 925 is the first product to introduce metal in our Lumia portfolio. We also believe strongly in the polycarbonate design we have had a few years now, and the Lumia 925 is a beautiful combination of both. The design and branding is also a combination of choices and we believe the Lumia 925 has all the elements which are working best for this specific phone.
18) The Lumia 920 is a very durable device – everyone has seen some testing on YouTube and forums. I guess no one will try to hammer nails with the Lumia 925, but can’t it compare with the Lumia 920’s very robust build, or maybe we should consider the charging cover for some extra protection?
The Lumia 925 fulfils the standard product reliability and durability requirements. Additional wireless charging cover provides some additional protection to the product, but it stands very well in the normal use also without it.
19) Is the phone made with conflict metals? Were steps taken to produce the phone in an environmentally friendly way? What steps were taken, if any, to ensure factory workers who produce this phone will receive fair working conditions?
We are continuously monitoring the working processes at our suppliers’ manufacturing sites. We have also ensured that all excess materials are circulated in an appropriate way to save the environment.
Tech specs talk
20) The one type of media that easily takes a lot of space is HD video. Suppose you are travelling with your Lumia and want to shoot a lot of video. In this situation a large phone memory, or even better, an interchangeable SD card, is a must:
A phone is always a combination of technologies, components, features, and design. We believe the combination chosen for the Lumia 925, including 16GB internal memory and 7GB of free SkyDrive storage is the best for this specific product when putting all the above mentioned elements together.
21) LCD or OLED? Will it be using Gorilla Glass? If so, mark II or mark III?
The Lumia 925 has an AMOLED display and Gorilla Glass 2.
22) The step up in price from a Lumia 720 to the Lumia 925 is quite large, but the processor speed is only 1.5ghz on a dual chip. Fine for most things but the big drawback is that I have heard the smart camera app takes a long time to process images… is this true? Why not add a faster processor into the flagship?
Each Nokia phone, including the Nokia Lumia 925 has its unique combination of hardware, software and design. The Qualcomm SnapDragon S4 processor and 1GB RAM are optimized for the Windows Phone Operating System, enabling a smooth UI and fast launching and running speeds for applications..The Nokia Smart camera takes 10 images with 4fps, i.e. the images are taken in 2.5 sec. A faster speed would not get the best results out of the Nokia Smart camera features like Action Shot.
23) What will be the usable memory for the 16gb variant?
There is up to 12GB free space for the user, once all the system components are installed and loaded. You can also check the space available in your Lumia 925 in the Settings, storage check.
24) Is stereo video recording supported? If no, when will this happen? I appreciate the HAAC microphones, but to compete with the excellent sound of Nokia 808, stereo needs to be implemented.
The Lumia 925 does not currently have stereo video recording, but we’re always developing our Lumia smartphones further.
25) Will the 925 have a better battery performance compared to the Lumia 920? Will the 925 get the Windows Phone Blue update when released?
The battery performance on the Lumia 925 is about at the same level as on the Lumia 920. As we’ve done in the past, we keep improving our products and delivering updates to existing phones. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on any specific software updates but once available, we’ll share more details.
26) Does the Lumia 925 address the many problems the Lumia 920 was plagued with, for example, dust under glass, poor heat dissipation, and mediocre battery life? Will Nokia have adequate supplies this time round of their new flagship phone?
We are continuously learning from our previous products, consumer experiences and feedback, and improving our products.
27) Does the chipset of the Lumia 925 support screen share functionality like WIDI or Miracast and is it activated?
For sharing content on a TV, the free Play to DLNA application is available. For sharing your photos to a laptop, there is the preloaded PhotoBeamer application.
28) Will the carrier unlocked Lumia 925 be LTE-disabled like the Lumia 920 is in certain markets/countries.
With 4G/LTE capability, the Nokia Lumia 925 is able to leverage the latest high speed networks for great performance. Where a country or an operator hasn’t deployed the 4G/LTE network, we’re offering the phone preconfigured to 3G network connectivity to ensure best performance.
29) Where is the 32GB version of the phone?
A 32GB variant is available from Vodafone.
30) RGB or pentile?
Pentile.
31) Can we please have custom notification tones? Voicemail, SMS, MMS, Email, Text, Alarm, etc.
We are working closely with Microsoft to enhance the features for Windows Phone. Thank you for the feedback!
32) Would a third party protective case that encloses the aluminium rim of the phone block reception? Does the FM radio use headphones as an antenna? Or does it rely on the aluminium antenna that circles the phone?
A protective case does not block the reception. The FM radio on the Lumia 925 uses your headset as an antenna.
33) Can you turn off the haptic feedback on the capacitive buttons?? (You have NO idea how much people want this!
You can turn off vibration when calls and texts come in, but not the haptics. With the Lumia 925 the haptics are designed to be very subtle so it hopefully doesn’t disturb that much.
34) Can I have I cloud contacts and calendars syncing? I.e.: Does it support Caldav and Carddav in Accounts?
Yes.
35) According to Lumia 925’s official specification page over at Nokia developer website, Lumia 925 has only two high dynamic range microphones compare to Lumia 920’s three high dynamic range microphones. So, does this mean that Lumia 925 record average audio during video recording like other non-Nokia smartphones?
The Lumia 925 has two high quality microphones for very good audio recording. It does not have stereo recording though.
And a few extra questions
36) In Lumia 925: is it possible to use navigation application and speed camera application at the same time (so that both application voices can be heard simultaneously)? Can the clock display be visible as a screen saver or something like this? If the phone is switched off over night (to save battery) can alarm clock be used (like in old Nokia Symbian phones)?
Nokia Drive does not have a speed camera application integrated and therefore it is usually not possible to have both apps running parallel. However, this may vary depending on how a third party Speed camera application is built. The Lumia 925 comes with a beta version of Nokia Glance screen. This feature shows the clock on the screen when the device is not used. Unfortunately alarm clock does not work if the phone is switched off
37) How do you pronounce Nokia? Is it “knock ya” or is it “no KEE ah” or is it “KNOW key ah”?
I’d say “knock ya” is closest to the Finnish way to pronounce Nokia!!