Nokia announced its latest flagship Lumia smartphone, Lumia 925, which offers a new-look design compared to its predecessor Lumia 920 – but which is otherwise remarkably similar.
With high-end smartphones being unveiled thick and fast – and with HTC’s One, Samsung’s Galaxy S4, Sony Mobile’s Xperia Z and BlackBerry’s Z10 and Q10 debuting already this year – Lumia 925 is an incremental upgrade on its predecessor, rather lacking the “wow” factor needed in this competitive market.
This is due in part to the capabilities of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 platform, which has been unable to support the diversity of hardware available in the Android ecosystem.
At an event in London this morning, the recovering Finnish vendor made much of the fact that unlike the “premium plastic” used in the other devices, the new smartphone has a “metal design” – although the company also said that the back cover is “polycarbonate”.
Jo Harlow, Nokia’s smartphone head, also played up the functionality of this, saying that the metal rim “delivers a gorgeous design, but not only that, it’s a fabulous antenna”.
Harlow also said that Nokia has “advanced the camera lens technology and software algorithms to deliver even better pictures and video”, although it shares the 8.7 megapixel resolution of the Lumia 920.
Also showcased was an imaging app called Smart Camera, although rather than being a Lumia 925 exclusive, it will be made available later this year to the vendor’s other Windows Phone 8-powered range.
The feature enables users to capture ten images at once, and then edit them using features such as “best shot, action shot and motion focus”.
When it comes to the internals of the device, the spec sheet is very similar to that of Lumia 920 and its Lumia 928 sibling, announced last week. It has a 4.5-inch screen, is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor, and includes 16GB of storage.
It also supports wireless charging, but via a clip-on cover which will be sold separately.
Nokia also announced a number of operator partners for the launch. In Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain, it will be offered by Vodafone Group, while in the US it will be a hero device for T-Mobile USA.
Patrick Chomet, director of terminals for Vodafone, said: “I love the 920, but it always seemed a bit heavy for European tastes.”
With the recent launch of the Lumia 928 for Verizon Wireless, Harlow said that the company has high-end terminals in the range of three of the “big four” operators – AT&T already offers the Lumia 920, while Sprint is not on-board.
The device will also see launches in China, through China Mobile and China Unicom.
Sales are expected to start in Europe and China in June, followed by the US “and a number of other markets”. Pricing will be around €469 before taxes and subsidies.
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