Nokia Lumia 930 Review
by Brett Howse on September 8, 2014 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Nokia
- Mobile
- windows phone
- Lumia
Wi-Fi
The Snapdragon 800 SoC supports 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless, and the Lumia 930 implements all of them, which means it supports 5 GHz as well as 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. There is only single band Wi-Fi though, so on the typical N network you would be limited to a maximum connection speed of 150 Mbps. If you own an 802.11ac router, connection speeds will get bumped to the maximum of 433 Mbps.
I was able to achieve peak transfer rates of around 55 Mpbs with the Lumia 930 on a Wireless N router with just the 930 attached. Due to only having 802.11n available, the maximum transfer speed is going to be reduced compared to 802.11ac.
Cellular
Cellular connectivity on the Lumia 930 supports category 4 LTE for maximum download speeds of 150 Mbps, with 50 Mbps upload. LTE bands on the 930 that I was sampled were 1, 3, 7, 8, and 20, which prevented me from testing LTE at my location. DC-HSPA is also supported for up to 42.2 Mpbs downloads if available in your area.
Speedtest.net did not give me great numbers on the days I tested it, but that can be typical of HSPA depending on cell tower usage.
GNSS
Again, with the Qualcomm silicon at the heart of this device, we’re working with well known, and well tested parts such as the GNSS. The Lumia 930 supports Cellular and Wi-Fi assist and supports GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou for location, and it locks quickly. Hopefully the days of poor location tracking are over.
Speaker
The 930 has just a single rear-facing speaker. Both volume and sound quality are surprisingly good with this speaker, but there is certainly no sense of stereo sound. For notifications, this speaker is adequate for the task but if you are going to watch a movie, you would be happier with a set of headphones.
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BMNify - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
@Brett Howse: 4k video recording is coming to all Snapdragon 800 equipped phones that is Lumia icon, 1520 and 930 with Lumia Denim update, Here is the wpcentral article on this: http://www.wpcentral.com/lumia-denim-firmware-anno...BMNify - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
Ohh, i was reading the camera section where it was not mentioned but you have mentioned about 4k, HDR, Denim update in the last section :)melgross - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
I'm not sure how so ethi g that, by the charts of performance, can have "superlative" performance. For a flagship phone that's just come out, the performance is no better than mediocre.Reflex - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
The 930 was actually released in February as the Nokia Lumia Icon. At that time the 800 was top end. This review is simply six months late. There is a new top end WP8 phone now, the HTC One M8, which has the Snapdragon 801.batongxue - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
"At 1.1 microns, the pixels in the 930 are much smaller than the HTC One’s 2.0 micron pixels, and even much smaller than something like the iPhone 5s with its 1.5 micron pixels."The "even much smaller" statement is illogical here.
edwardjames2014 - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
Nokia Lumia 1520,Big size and big screen with good quality,It worth my money.It is the best windows phone ,i prefer its colors looks.I even bought a nice case from casecoco it would be awesome when you play games with big screen.leomax999 - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
IMO, wp is slow to adopt new hardware and very slow catching up with rest of the market in terms of software.althaz - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
I agree on the hardware front, but I no longer agree on the software front. WP8.1 Update 1 is IMO now ahead of the game in terms of software or at the very worst even. Before it was only behind in features, but 8.1 and 8.11 (for workgroups :p) move the bar to AT WORST even with Android and iOS (but ahead of both in plenty of areas).There are some parts where it is behind: the music app is worse than Apple's and the notification centre could be more customisable for example, but overall it's in excellent shape.
Then there's also the games situation. You can no longer really complain about the app selection, but in terms of games, Windows Phone is undoubtedly well behing its rivals.
peterfares - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
ugh pentile grosstheNiZer - Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - link
Finally the Lumia 930 got reviewed at Anandtech - thank you, and the wait was worth it. Great review and handset!