"Best Windows Phone Ever"; but Nokia Lumia Icon receives lukewarm reviews
Nokia's latest offering for Windows Phone 8, the Lumia Icon is out for review, and a few common themes seem to be evident. While most reviewers approve of the hardware's build quality, battery life and high-resoution screen and camera, concerns around the OS and its app ecosystem prevent the Icon from looking truly compelling.
Here's quick overview of the specs before we dig into review summaries:
Wired think the Icon is the 'best Windows Phone ever' but go on to say that it 'disappoints'. They like the size and solid feel, and that the app store is improving (but still not up to par with iOS or Android stores). While the camera has great picture quality, it can take 3-5 seconds to open making it feel sluggish at times.
Digital Trends echo the 'best Windows Phone ever made' description, citing the performance and display specs, but they call out the lack of an SD card, and the sparse app environment. They're also concerned tht the phone's audio is slightly muffled when making calls [but who uses a phone for that these days?] .
Gizmodo think the Icon is 'pretty but flawed' -- they like its looks and feel the size is ideal, although they're concerned that its 'heft [is] disappointing' [that's what she said...] . They also don't think much of some of the out-of-the apps, such as an NFL app.
The Verge praise the Icon's display and the system performance (apart from the camera). They also seem happy that its photos are 'fantastically malleable', but consider the phone's design to be 'bland' and raise doubts about the app ecosystem.
IGN's overall summary is that the phone is 'fantastic', with a 'beautiful' display, but criticize the OS as 'unrefined' and 'uncomforable'. They also point out that users relying on Dropbox or Google Drive over Microsoft's own OneDrive may be disappointed with the Icon's cloud storage support.
While rumours are circulating that Microsoft is considering Android compatibility , they might want to keep in mind how Windows compatibility was one of the factors which contributed to the poor sales of IBM's OS/2 .
Here's quick overview of the specs before we dig into review summaries:
- 2.22Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor.
- 2GB of RAM.
- 32GB internal storage (but no SD slot).
- 20 megapixel rear-facing camera.
- 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera.
- 5" screen, 440ppi, HD-capable 1920x1080 resolution.
- 5.86oz/450g mass.
- 5.39x2.8x0.39"/13.7x7.1x1cm dimensions.
Wired think the Icon is the 'best Windows Phone ever' but go on to say that it 'disappoints'. They like the size and solid feel, and that the app store is improving (but still not up to par with iOS or Android stores). While the camera has great picture quality, it can take 3-5 seconds to open making it feel sluggish at times.
Digital Trends echo the 'best Windows Phone ever made' description, citing the performance and display specs, but they call out the lack of an SD card, and the sparse app environment. They're also concerned tht the phone's audio is slightly muffled when making calls [but who uses a phone for that these days?] .
Gizmodo think the Icon is 'pretty but flawed' -- they like its looks and feel the size is ideal, although they're concerned that its 'heft [is] disappointing' [that's what she said...] . They also don't think much of some of the out-of-the apps, such as an NFL app.
The Verge praise the Icon's display and the system performance (apart from the camera). They also seem happy that its photos are 'fantastically malleable', but consider the phone's design to be 'bland' and raise doubts about the app ecosystem.
IGN's overall summary is that the phone is 'fantastic', with a 'beautiful' display, but criticize the OS as 'unrefined' and 'uncomforable'. They also point out that users relying on Dropbox or Google Drive over Microsoft's own OneDrive may be disappointed with the Icon's cloud storage support.
While rumours are circulating that Microsoft is considering Android compatibility , they might want to keep in mind how Windows compatibility was one of the factors which contributed to the poor sales of IBM's OS/2 .