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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Reflex - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
Actually it has to do with panel availability. I believe only LG makes panels with display memory, it is a proprietary technology. Unfortunately LG does not have a 5" 1080p panel available at this time.Brett Howse - Friday, September 12, 2014 - link
In the interview with wpcentral.com that I linked to in the article, they specifically called out cost as the issue - which likely has to do with supply as well. If they have to get a custom panel made, it's going to cost more. Still, it's a big sore spot with this device and on something that is supposed to be a flagship, it needs to have it.jjj - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
It might be still early but you guys need to add some CPU benchmarks at some point. The focus on browsing and GPU doesn't seem enough.I also think it would be good to test... lets call it "touch latency" (or hand to eye or input lag or w/e seems right).
Took a long time to add storage tests and battery life in gaming (missing here) , hope it won't take that long for more (needed) benchmarks to be added.
The focus mostly on pics and very little on video doesn't seem ideal either, wish there was a bit more about video.
Almost forgot , at least in some cases looking at temps would be useful too, the race for more and more perf is pushing things too far sometimes..
wolrah - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
Am I missing something, or does this:"With the 930, Nokia has launched a phone which was on the most current SoC at the time of launch"
not fit with this:
"MSM8974VV"
Wouldn't the Snapdragon 801 at least be required to call it a current SoC, even a few months ago when this apparently launched? The One M8 had the 801 on Android three months before the 930's release and beat this review to bring it to the Windows Phone platform. This thing runs the same processor as the nearly year old Note 3, far from what I'd call current in the fast moving phone market.
There are already a few Snapdragon 805 devices available in Korea and the Note 4 is soon bringing it to the masses, which'll make the 800 two generations old.
Windows Phone really needs a proper flagship, but so far they've only had what feel like warmed over revisions of Androids from 6-12 months ago.
Brett Howse - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
Hi Wolrah.Thanks for the feedback. I've updated the wording of that to include the identical Lumia Icon, which I referenced in the first page. When the Icon shipped in February, Snapdragon 800 was the top. Yes it was not the top for long, but it was at least at the top.
Yofa - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
the only thing worse than a windows phone is a riders fan.boo!!!
Brett Howse - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
boo back :)Drumsticks - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
Wow, excellent review! It's nice to finally see a full featured review of a flagship Windows Phone device on Anandtech. Hopefully if Microsoft comes through with rumors of planning more Lumia 1020-esque cameras, we can get one of those on Anandtech as well!MonkeyPaw - Monday, September 8, 2014 - link
It was even a semi-review of the 1020! If we see a true successor to the 1020 that decreases the camera load times, I'll buy it. The 1020 is pure camera joy otherwise.gg555 - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Yeah, it's amazing how far ahead of it's time the 1020 (and 808) remain. It's such an under appreciated phone.