Nokia Lumia 830 Review
by Brett Howse on November 25, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Lumia
The Lumia 830 was launched by Microsoft at the IFA trade show in September. As seems to be the norm for most Nokia phones, it has taken a short while for announced phones to be generally available, but the Lumia 830 can now be found in many markets. When it was announced in September, it was marketed as an “affordable flagship” and we will take a look and see how it lives up to that kind of marketing. But marketing phrases aside, what we are left with is one of the best Nokia phones launched this year.
Unfortunately for fans of Nokia phones, there has not been a real flagship phone announced since the Lumia Icon/930 which came back in February. We did review that phone, and while it was quick and had a nice 20 MP camera, the battery life was subpar and it felt very thick and dense to carry around. It lacked Nokia’s Glance display, which is a big downside when coming from previous Nokia phones that support it.
The Lumia 830 is not going to fill a gap here as far as performance, which is a shame. The Lumia 830 shares the same SoC – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 – as the Lumia 630, 635, 730, and 735. There is no substitute for performance, and the quad-core Cortex A7 at 1.2 Ghz is not the quickest chip around. In the Lumia 630 review, I found the quad-core A7 design slightly slower than the dual-core Krait of last year’s Snapdragon S4 Pro in pretty much all benchmarks. It is a shame due to the marketing and price of the Lumia 830 that it did not jump up to at least the Snapdragon 600. With that SoC, perhaps the moniker of “affordable flagship” could have held up.
Let us take a look at what makes up the Lumia 830.
| Nokia Lumia 830 | |
| SoC | MSM8926 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 |
| RAM/NAND | 1 GB LPDDR2, 16 GB NAND + microSD 128 GB |
| Display | 5.0” 1280x720 IPS ClearBlack LCD Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Network | GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSPA/LTE up to 150 Mbps |
| Dimensions | 139.4 x 70.7 x 8.5 (mm) |
| Weight | 150 grams |
| Rear Camera | 10MP, 1.1 µm pixels, 1/3.4" 16x9 CMOS, f/2.2, 26 mm focal length, LED Flash |
| Front Camera | 0.9MP wide angle, f/2.4, 1280x720 video resolution |
| Battery | BV-L4A 2200 mAh, 3.8 V, 7.04 Wh |
| OS | Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim Firmware |
| Connectivity | 802.11 a/b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, DLNA, FM Radio |
| Location Technologies | Cellular and Wi-Fi network positioning, A-GPS, A-GLONASS, BeiDou |
| SIM Size | Nano SIM |
As you can see, we have pretty standard fare for a Lumia phone launched this year. The previously mentioned Snapdragon 400 is paired with 1 GB of memory, and 16 GB of internal NAND. The Lumia 830 supports microSD card expansion up to an additional 128 GB. With the Windows Phone Storage Sense app, storage should not be an issue - Windows Phone has moved from having practically zero support for microSD to now having the best support of all of the mobile operating systems.
A big part of any smartphone experience is the design of the phone, and Nokia (now Microsoft of course) has crafted one of their best experiences yet.
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sandman74 - Monday, December 1, 2014 - link
I've been tempted to try a lumia for a while now but Nokia (now MS) just keep on releasing disappointing phones.I'm not interested in the low end and the majority of their high end phones are very old now with recognised flaws mentioned in every review.
I find it amazing how many long term lumia owners are willing to side grade (down) to a phone like this from almost equivalent hardware and then be locked in for another year or two.
Talk about being taken for a ride.
The off contact price us just too much as well.
The only lumia that makes sense is the 735 which can be found for as little as £150 in the UK and is very similar spec wise to this. It may also be a middlle end phone but atleast it's priced right.
The biggest turns off for me about this phone are the slow processor, and the metal band styling with square edges... It may not dig into the hands as much as the 930 but it's not that comfortable to hold either (tried it this weekend).
Good review though. I'm looking forward to the 735 one.
tralalalalalala40 - Monday, December 1, 2014 - link
These devices will have very limited importance until we start seeing blockbuster releases of gadgets and useful services that aren't just iOS/Android compatible.Harry_Wild - Saturday, December 6, 2014 - link
I hope Anandtech does a review of the 735 too! I like it much more then the 830 here. It strange that the reviewer used last year's models on the iPhone 5S and 5C along with Moto X 2014 this year's model and HTC M8 for comparison sake. Only one graph on iPhone 6 if I recall!cheshirster - Sunday, December 7, 2014 - link
http://www.windowscentral.com/lumia-camera-update-...New camera app on video
Seems faster.
nickolas - Thursday, December 11, 2014 - link
I have a Nokia 520 having had iphones and a Nexus device in the past. My only gripe with the 520 is the loading times and crashes of apps like Skype and Viber I use often. I would be REALLY interested to know the performance on loading apps (open for the first time or resuming) of the 830. This metric alone if it could match an Iphone 5 would make me buy it.I am sure many Windows phone users are interested in this, because it is the only problem with the user experience in this great platform.
lalcha - Saturday, December 27, 2014 - link
Well said everyone but I love windows phone as they don't hang say not like androids . Androids as u know wen it gets old after a long run they become slow unlike windows they don't atall . So the only thing they lack ryt now is that say 830 even I'm not happy with its price and all for a flirty ship the core is way too low snapdragon 400 n that for 27k.. he'll no!! N the front camera , pppfftt wanna hang myself.. well as for 1 GB m ok.. but front camera and the core that they should come up with something .. n ofcourse the ppi way too low it sudve atleast reach 314 or something.. windows r good phones with smooth UI except they lack some apps which the android has .lalcha - Saturday, December 27, 2014 - link
Still better phone than iPhone 4. Ppfftt !!Darsh - Sunday, February 28, 2016 - link
How does the front camera perform?