Nokia Lumia 830 Review
by Brett Howse on November 25, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Lumia
Design
The five inch display size seems to be what device makers have identified as being what people want in a normal smartphone. A good chunk of the smartphone market now has a display at or around five inches. Any larger, and the device can become unwieldy and require two hands for use (which is fine if that is what you are after) and once you use a five inch phone, those around four to four and a half inches seem kind of small. So the Lumia 830 comes in with the same display size as the Lumia 930 right at five inches.
Where the Lumia 930 started to go wrong, at least for me, was that it was too thick and too heavy. It could have likely gotten away with the thickness if the sides were rounded off, but the Lumia 930 took cues from the Lumia 928 and had squared off sides, with a slightly contoured polycarbonate back. The premium feel came from the metal edge wrapped around the phone.
The Lumia 830 shares the same basic design as the Lumia 930, with a squared off side made of aluminum, and a contoured polycarbonate back. The 830 is a bit thinner and a bit lighter than the Lumia 930, and it sounds small on paper but it really changes the in-hand feel of the phone. The 930 would slightly dig into my hands with the sharp contours, but the Lumia 830 does not do this at all. In hand feel is very good. To make this device as thin as they did, the manufacturer has designed its thinnest Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) system to date. The thinner OIS is likely in part due to the smaller main camera sensor.
The Lumia 830’s polycarbonate back comes in several colors, as is the norm for Nokia phones. The 830 is available in white, black, green and orange. Devices sold with a black back will have a dark grey aluminum strip around the outside, whereas the other colors come with a bright silver band. One great feature of the Lumia 830 over the 930 is that on the 830, the back is removable. Simply pry up at the bottom where there is a small slot, and the back pops off to expose the 2200 mAh battery, SIM tray, and microSD card slot. The 930 did not have microSD, so this is a bonus for the 830 for sure. People who swear by removable batteries will also be happy with this change. It gives the 830 a similar, but somewhat better in-hand feel over the 930, but keeps the perks of a removable back. Hopefully this is something we will see continue on future Microsoft branded handsets.
At the top of the phone we have our normal 3.5mm headset jack, and for the first time in a while on a Nokia Windows Phone, the USB port is also at the top. I prefer the port at the bottom myself, but it certainly is not a big enough deal to worry about. The Lumia 830 supports Qi wireless charging in the case, perhaps indicating a potential usage shift for the Lumia market. In order to make this shift more palatable, it would make sense if some vendors may bundle a Qi charger.
On the right side is the three Windows Phone hardware buttons which are the volume, power, and a two-stage camera button. Nokia's Windows Phones below the 830 have gotten rid of the camera button, which is a poor choice right now since the operating system is not set up to handle this very well, so it is great to see it on the 830. As far as the range of Nokia phones goes, it appears those branded with “PureView” cameras will have OIS and a camera button, so the Lumia 830 fits the bill here.
On the left side, there are no buttons to take away from the aluminum feel. On the bottom, there are also no buttons and no features at all except the two plastic strips which separate the aluminum bands to allow them to be used as antennae.
The design is one of the highlights of the Lumia 830, and perhaps this is where they get the “affordable flagship” name from. It has a premium feel about it with the aluminum strip, but loses none of the benefits of phones such as the Lumia 930 and keeps the removable back.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
98 Comments
View All Comments
kspirit - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
In addition: I am aware that the design of the 830 probably hadn't started at the time of the acquisition. But I can't believe the same Nokia who put glance and camera buttons on even the 620 two years ago wouldn't do it in the x30 refreshes. Especially considering that those were unique, signature capabilities that competing manufacturers don't offer. MS must have had some input in this phone. I'm sure they would have cared about cost cutting on the company they were just on the brink of acquiring. No?cheshirster - Friday, November 28, 2014 - link
Glance and camera button obviously presented on L830 :)You should be really high on something to blame it for having features that 730 and 630 are missing.
retrospooty - Monday, December 1, 2014 - link
Yeah, I dont think he is grasping the Tiered model#'s and the concept of price points. He seems to be assuming newer is always higher end, even on a lower end model.Now if the 925 replacement came out and was lesser than the 925 he would have a great point. But the 830 is NOT the 925 replacement model.
Sabresiberian - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link
Keep in mind that Microsoft/Nokia hasn't released anything intended to be more than a midrange or low-end phone since the Icon/930. It may look like they are cutting back to those of us interested in flagship devices - but it isn't really the case. :)close - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link
Well... they are using the same low-end SoC on 4 of their product lines which is disappointing (5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 8xx). And for a smart phone some CPU performance is a must otherwise the experience is really frustrating. More so than not having some niche features like glance. I'm not talking about intensive 3D games, but it should allow the user to comfortably run applications without feeling the performance hit. I was expecting the 830, maybe even the 730, to have the 600 series SoC. MS/Nokia have skipped the mid-range and went from low-end to high-end. Although the premium build and other features don't really compensate for the distinct lack of snappiness in applications.It's like building a premium sedan with a 1l engine.
melgross - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link
I imagine they're trying to save money. Considering g how small sales are, they need to buy fewer parts in larger quantity to have any hope of a profit, which, from looking at Microsoft's financials shows isn't likely happening.They are also concentrating on lower priced models in order to attempt to get sales in China, where they've fallen to 0.6%, and India, where sales are down as well. Samsung seems to be working on the same strategy, from their last announcement.
PubFiction - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link
They need to stop thinking about making money and start thinking about releasing an attractive product and actually getting people to buy their stuff. Nickel and diming right now is not going to work.cheshirster - Friday, November 28, 2014 - link
Their sales are two-three times larger then HTC and larger then Moto for many quarters (if you think moto g's and e's are selling in BIG quantities you a wrong)Alexvrb - Tuesday, November 25, 2014 - link
Doesn't sound like you've really used one. :/ Don't get me wrong, I do game and I wouldn't buy one as a result. But you specifically said "I'm not talking about intensive 3D games". So, taking those out of the equation... even with the "slow" CPU, it does everything you're talking about just fine. They really run great, and the OS has superb SD card support - which negates the only major drawback I could hurl at this phone, the lack of storage.But again, since I do game occasionally on my phone, I would want a flagship. The Icon and M8 are both very nice models. However even those are going to need replacement in the not-so-distant future, and I hope Verizon stops being a Big Red Baby and works hand in hand with MS on future phone releases and updates alike.
close - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
Actually I did get the chance to test drive one of these (I do some hardware compliance so I get to test drive most relevant devices on the market, at least to get a rough idea about them). The OS itself is more than snappy on this CPU. But try to use it as any normal person would use a smartphone and it starts to choke. Loading applications or switching between application takes a long time. It's just not the experience I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, the device doesn't become unusable. It's just that at this price point at given the 8xx series position in MS's product lineup I have some higher expectations when using the phone.MS was careful to create an OS that runs great on low-end hardware but this isn't the case for software makers. And your smartphone is defined by the applications it runs and how it runs them.
Bottom line, it's a nice phone but given the competition it's too expensive for its worth.