The Cherry Mobile Cosmos X is the most affordable among CM’s Cosmos line, which is their next-generation series of Android phones having high-end specs (HD display, high-megapixel BSI camera), and here’s our honest-to-goodness review on it.
As a backgrounder, I’ve been using this as my primary phone for over three weeks now. I wasn’t able to maximize it though as I only have one SIM to use for it and I don’t connect to 3G, just WiFi. Anyway, lets get on to the review shall we?
Design
The Cosmos X is something you won’t be ashamed of when you whip it out of your pocket. Not only does it have a really good display but it also looks good due to its ultra-slim frame. When I saw it during the launch, I wasn’t too impressed with it because it looks plain but slapping the red shell (included in the box) on it changed my perception.
The front is fully covered by Gorilla Glass with no physical buttons present. There’s a screen protector included in the box but it’s really not needed. On top of the display is the 8-megapixel front camera with BSI sensor. There are no notification LEDs on this phone.
On the top side of the Cosmos X you’ll see 3.5mm jack and the really tiny Power button which is quite tricky to press. On the right side is the slim volume rocker and another tiny button for the camera shutter. On the left is the exposed microUSB port and that’s about it for ports and buttons.
The back panel is made of plastic with a shiny, glossy finish that’s a real smudge-magnet especially on the black one. On the upper left corner is the protruding 18-megapixel rear camera with the flash below it. This camera placement makes it easy for your finger to get into every shot. There’s also the star-shaped hole on the bottom right corner for the speakers which is appreciatively loud.
Pry the back panel from the corner and you will find the 1800mAh battery, along with a regular SIM slot (3G) which is your primary number, a microSIM slot (2G), and the microSD slot inside. The microSIM slot is hot-swappable so you don’t have to to power your phone off to change it.
I like how you can definitely feel the slimness of this phone. It’s comfortably light as well (without feeling fragile) which is good if you’re the person who puts their phone on their pants pocket. Overall, the design looks really sleek and beautiful. Just don’t like the tiny Power button and the placement of the camera and how it protrudes but we’ll give it a pass.
Display and UI
One of the highlighted feature of the Cosmos X is its 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display. If you’re not familiar how AMOLED displays look, you will be blown away with the vibrant and sharp display you can get from this phone. I’m more used to IPS LCDs so going with AMOLED was a nice experience.
This phone runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean with a little bit of Cherry Mobile customization and its icons that looked like something borrowed from Samsung’s TouchWiz. The lockscreen circle only unlocks the phone but you can add some apps like Messaging or Calendar so you can easily access them by swiping from the left edge. Swiping from the right edge of the screen will launch the camera app. Swiping from the top edge will bring down the notification and settings bar without unlocking the phone.
Cherry Mobile has added some useful widgets and apps like TouchPal keyboard, Movie Studio, and a capable Video Player app. However, you may also find extra apps that you probably won’t use and won’t be able to uninstall.
Performance
Running the show for the Cherry Mobile Cosmos X (actually the whole Cosmos line) is a MediaTek MT6589 quad-core processor clocking at 1.2GHz. This is currently MediaTek’s top-of-the-line quad-core chip although there’s a configuration that has a 1.5GHz clockspeed (used by Cosmos Z).
The phone also has 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage which really translates to a measly 1GB worth of storage available for users. A microSD card is a must.
Now if you want to take a look at benchmarks, here’s the Quadrant score.
That 3862 is not exactly promising for a quad-core phone. Phones running on a budget Qualcomm quad-core chip can easily pass the 4k mark. I would like to think that the HD resolution contributes to the not-so-high score but this is still just a synthetic benchmark. And it has the same result as that of the Cherry Mobile Omega HD 2.0 which also uses the same chip.
Now for Antutu, the 1976 score is actually good. Better than other quad-core phones powered by a budget Qualcomm Snapdragon chip.
But how does it perform in actual usage? Well it went well actually. Navigating through screens were snappy, swipe actions are responsive, launching of basic apps like Messaging, Contacts, and displaying their contents were quick, and web pages loaded rather fast on its default browser. Only time I encountered a crash was while browsing Google Play so that’s forgivable.
As for games, I only played two games. Minion Rush which the phone handled quite poorly (too choppy for an enjoyable experience) although I heard that the Android version is really resource-intensive. The other game was Defense Technica which is a tower defense with 3D graphics and the Cosmos X did a great job running it.
Watching an almost 2GB MKV HD video was handled quite well by the Cosmos X (no sound though but that can be resolved with an app download). Skipping and scanning through the video didn’t stutter and still played smoothly. Oh and picture quality was really good with excellent contrast and deep blacks thanks to the AMOLED display.
Call quality is really good on both ends of the call. The speaker is loud enough to converse properly even inside a noisy mall environment with a clear enough reception on the other end. WiFi is also strong and quick to connect so I think MediaTek did a good job with the radio chip on their SoC.
Camera
The Cosmos X has an 18-megapixel autofocus camera at the back with a BSI sensor and a LED flash to go with it. But before we get to the camera quality, I would like to point out that the camera button on the side doesn’t launch the camera from sleep or lock mode even when pressing it for a long time. You can only launch the camera app with that button when the phone is unlocked.
This phone has touch-to-focus and capturing image is fairly quick (despite the click sound being delayed). It also has the usual camera features including HDR, panorama, multi-angle shot, beauty shot, and different color filters.
Here are some shots taken with the Cherry Mobile Cosmos X.
For the most part, colors are accurate although a bit over-processed hence the smooth look. It should serve well for Facebook or Instagram photos. BSI works on this phone as low-light indoor shots still appear bright even without the use of flash.
The rear camera is also capable of recording Full HD videos at 30 fps.
Battery
I used the Cosmos X with just one SIM inside. I used it mainly for calls and SMS with a bit of surfing when WiFi is available. No 3G, some short games, videos, and camera use. The 1800mAh battery lasted me for a day and a half before the battery indicator turned red. That’s already considered long for a smartphone and I think the AMOLED screen and the 28nm MediaTek chip contributed to that stamina.
Verdict
Overall, the Cherry Mobile Cosmos X is worth the P9,999 retail price. What I love is the slim design (except for the tiny buttons) especially the red back panel, and the HD Super AMOLED display. It’s really a good device for watching HD videos provided you slap a high-capacity microSD into it. The camera is quite decent for social media use even in low-light situations without the need of a flash. After over three weeks, I still enjoy using the Cosmos X.
Cherry Mobile Cosmos X Specs:
4.7-inch Super AMOLED HD display, 1280 x 720, 312 ppi
5-pt multi-touch screen, Corning Gorilla Glass 2
1.2GHz quad-core processor MediaTek MT6589
PowerVR SGX544 @ 286Mhz GPU
1GB RAM, 4GB internal storage (1GB available to user)
microSD slot up to 32GB
Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
18-megapixel rear camera with BSI sensor and LED flash
Nokia is starting to roll out the Lumia Amber update which gives WP8 Lumia users the Nokia Glance Screen and a range of camera improvements and features.
Nokia Glance Screen puts the clock, battery indicator, and audio status to the screen even when the phone is inactive. This should save on battery and is available in all WP8 Lumia device except for the Lumia 520 and Lumia 625 because of a smaller display memory.
The Amber update delivers improved algorithms that offer better noise reduction, color reproduction, exposure control and autofocus to every WP8 Lumia phones in the market. For the Lumia 920 this update will improve low light performance by allowing ISO control from 800 to 3200. This update comes pre-installed in the Lumia 925.
Aside from improved camera performance, the Amber update also brings the camera app found on the Lumia 925 to other Lumia phones. The app has Action Shot which combines several shots of movement into one; Motion Shot that gives the appearance of speed by blurring the background; and the usual Best Shot and Change Faces shot to combine the best faces in a group shot. All of these are done by shooting in burst mode.
The Lumia Amber update also brings Nokia Pro Camera to the Lumia 92x devices. This app allows you to edit your videos within the phone and upload it to YouTube with the Nokia Video Upload.
Another cool feature this update has is Flip to silence and Double-Tap to unlock. Flip the phone over to mute an incoming call. You can also double-tap the screen to unlock the phone without having to press and button.
The Amber rollout will happen in waves and may vary across regions. Your Lumia device will automatically check for updates periodically but you can also do a manual check by going to Settings > Phone Update.
If you’re wondering what exactly is taking up all your hard drive space and not sure where to begin rectifying the issue, a disk analyzer can come really handy in such situation. These tools enable you to quickly discover large files on your computer and allow you to organize them to optimize your disk usage. Disk analyzers also help you understand the file structure on your hard drive. One such app that I recently came across is Spyglass: a powerful disk analyzer for Windows that shows you a graphical representation of your disk space usage, along with some amazing visualization effects. It allows you to quickly switch between different directories and get rid of clone or junk files. In other words, Spyglass is a simple disk analyzer that doubles as an effective duplicate files remover.
Besides its powerful scanning engine and elegant interface, the obvious mainstay of Spyglass is it’s simple usage. To begin analyzing your files, simply drag and drop your desired folder on to the application interface. You can also alternatively click the Plus button at the center to point to your target directory.
Spyglass then begins scanning through the files and subfolders within the selected directory and analyzes total size of the data. Unsurprisingly, the larger the folder you choose, the more time Spyglass will take scanning through all the items.
After finishing the scan, the app presents a list of scanned items on the Navigation bar to the left, along with graphical diagram of the disk that the developers tout as Sunburst view. This diagram comprises of a few different color-coded arcs that help you understand the type of items they represent. Blue arcs represent folders, orange arcs represent files, while the gray ones are combination of small files and folders. You can click the blue arcs to drill in, while clicking at the center lets you drill out. The app also shows a Breadcrumbs bar at the top that displays the full path of the selected folder and lets you navigate between the path’s directories.
As mentioned earlier, Spyglass also comes packed with an effective duplicate finder to clean off unwanted junk or duplicate items. The duplicate finder enables you to flag the items for moving or deleting in order to organize or reclaim your disk space. You can also click the minuscule arrow next to any item to browse the file in Windows File Explorer. Lastly, the application lets you sort the navigation list by file size, name, modification date or duplicate count.
Spyglass is a free application and works on both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
If you’re on a tight budget but want a smartphone that can perform as good as other quad-core phones from other local brands, you might want to take a look at the CloudFone Excite 450q which is currently the most affordable quad-core phone in the market at just P4,999.
The CloudFone Excite 450q sports a 4.5” IPS FWVGA display, a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core chip, last year’s 512MB RAM and 4GB ROM configuration, 5-megapixel rear camera, and is dual-SIM and runs on Android Jelly Bean.
What’s interesting to point out here is the quad-core chip. The Snapdragon MSM8225Q is Qualcomm’s latest budget quad-core chip and is being used in phones like the Starmobile Icon (P7,990) and theCloudFone Thrill 450q (P8,999). The chip is also very similar to the MSM8625Q (only difference is the radio technologies supported) which is being used by the Samsung Galaxy Win Duos and Cherry Mobile Skyfire 2.0.
The 4.5-inch display on the Excite 450q has a resolution of 854 x 480 which gives it a decent 218ppi pixel density.
Perhaps the downside of this phone and the big difference from other current quad-core phones in the market would be the 512MB RAM. But if you won’t be gaming much or install a lot of resource-heavy apps, this phone should suit you just fine.
What you’ll get with the CloudFone Excite 450q is a quad-core dual-SIM phone which you can use for your basic Android smartphone needs without having to spend too much. It won’t dazzle you with its looks and features but it can get the job done. This phone is expected to hit stores this coming weekend.
CloudFone Excite 450q Specs:
4.5-inch FWVGA IPS touchscreen, 854 x 480 pixels, 218 ppi
Share border with:Japan is an island country and its closest neighbors in sea are China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia.
Other major cities:Nagoya, Toyohashi and Okazaki
Population:126,659,683 (Estimated in 2012)
Currency:Yen
Official Language:Japanese
Other major language:Ryukyuan, Korean, Chinese and English
Religions:49% non-religious, 34% Buddhism, 3% Shintoism and 14% other religions
5 Amazing and interesting facts about Japan:
Japan is an island chain of 6,852 islands located in the Pacific ocean. 97% of the country’s land area is covered by 4 large islands while rest of 6,849 islands cover only 3% of the land.
Japan suffered one of the deadliest earthquakes of history in 2011. It was the strongest recorded earthquake in it’s history. More then 1,500 earthquakes are recorded in Japan every year which means there are about 4 earthquakes daily.
Tashirojima which is commonly known as Cat Island, is popular for the population of cats. The population of this island is only 100 while there are about 4 times more cats than people. Dogs are not allowed on Cat Island.
Fugu is one of the most popular foods in Japan. It’s a poisonous fish which is full of taste. Only certified chefs are legally allowed to cook this fish and the chef must have to taste it before serving it to the customers to make sure that the dish is not poisonous.
While in Japan, you’ll find vending machines everywhere. In fact, you’ll find at least one in every block. These vending machines offers, beverages, tea, coffee, milk and many other unusual items like noodles, eggs, bananas, cigarettes, flowers, umbrellas and much more.
Take a Lumia 920 and slap on an AMOLED screen, and you have a Lumia 925 or 928. Take a Lumia 920 and slap on an AMOLED screen and a hulking great camera—now you have the Lumia 1020.
The Lumia 1020 is Nokia's new flagship Windows Phone. It's a mix of the familiar and the novel. Familiar are the phone's internals, sensors, and screen. There's the same dual core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 as found in the 920, 925, and 928. The same 4.5-inch 1280×768 AMOLED screen as the 925 and 928 with the same Gorilla Glass coating and "PureMotion HD+" that's supposed to reduce reflections, improve sunlight visibility, and ensure crisp 60Hz screen updates.
Out of the box, the Lumia 1020 has this rather handy sticker on the back that shows what everything is.
Even the design is very familiar. From most angles, it looks just like the Lumia 920. The body is seamless polycarbonate (black, white, or yellow) with a slightly curved black screen on the front. The right-hand side has a set of buttons: power, volume, and a camera button with half-press focus.
There are a few minor internal differences. The Lumia 1020 has 2GB of RAM instead of the 1GB found on the 920-series phones. It apparently contains a barometer, new to Windows Phone, in addition to the typical GPS/GLONASS, compass, accelerometer, and gyroscope. Slightly peculiarly, it eschews the built-in wireless charging support found on the 920 and 928, instead using a clip-on cover to provide wireless charging, similar to the 925.
But the point of the Lumia 1020 is the camera. If you don't care about smartphone cameras, the Lumia 1020 has nothing significant to offer above the 920 series. I don't think you'll ever notice the extra RAM or barometer.
That camera
If, however, you like taking photos with your smartphone, the Lumia 1020 is altogether more interesting.
Though the Lumia 1020 looks like a 920 in most regards, it has one striking difference: a great big bulge on the back where the camera is.
Small cameras—the kinds found in phones and point-and-shoots—have their imaging sensors measured in an honestly idiotic "inch" system that doesn't actually correspond to the size of the sensor itself. In the 1950s, the analog sensors used in TV cameras used glass tubes. These came in a wide range of diameters, and it's these diameters that are used to denote the size of the imaging sensors. However, the actual usable sensor size in these tubes was about two-thirds of the diameter.
Even though nobody uses video camera tubes any more, these smaller sensors retain the tube-based sizing policy. A sensor described as being 1/3.2", such as that found in the iPhone 5, has a diagonal not of 1 ÷ 3.2 = 0.3125 inches/7.9 mm but rather about two-thirds of that, 0.208 inches/5.28 mm. This isn't exact. The ratios vary, with the iPhone 5's sensor being about 0.233 inches/5.9 mm.
Under this historic, inaccurate, and downright anachronistic measurement system, the Lumia 1020 has a 2/3" sensor. This translates to a diagonal of about 0.444 inches/11.2 mm.
The sensor has a resolution of 7712×5360 for a total of 41.3 megapixels. The optical parts of the camera don't illuminate the corners of the sensor, however. Instead, it supports 16:9 images at 7712×4345 (33.6MP) and 4:3 images at 7136×5360 (38.2MP). Each pixel is 1.1 microns.
As is increasingly common, the sensor is back-side illuminated. Most imaging sensors use front-side illumination: like the human eye, photons have to pass through the sensor's wiring before reaching the photo diode itself. This arrangement is easier to manufacture and more physically robust, but the wires reflect some of the light falling on the sensor, reducing the low-light performance.
Back-side illumination constructs the sensor similar to that of a cephalopod eye, with the wiring behind the photo diode. This is more complex, but it allows more light capture. Apple has used back-side illuminated sensors since the iPhone 4; Nokia uses them in the 920 series' cameras, among others.
Megapixel myth... busted?
What's the point of this ridiculous resolution? We took a look at this question last year when we examined the Lumia 1020's spiritual predecessor: the Symbian-powered PureView 808. The PureView 808 also had a 41 megapixel sensor. Its sensor was slightly larger than the Lumia 1020's—a 1/1.2" sensor with a diagonal of about 0.56 inches/14 mm. But the PureView 808 used front-side illumination, as at the time there was no back-side illuminated sensor large enough.
The resolution allows two things. First, it allows for oversampling. Whenever you take a picture on the Lumia 1020, it produces a 5MP image. Each pixel in this image is created from data taken from several of the pixels on the sensor. This improves the image in a number of ways. It allows certain kinds of image noise to be averaged out (and hence removed), and it also results in better capture of fine detail.
You can crop from this...
The second thing is that it allows better digital zoom. Almost all smartphones, and many point-and-shoot cameras, have fixed focal length lenses. Usually, in the case of smartphones, it's also a fairly wide-angle lens. To "zoom," the phones simply crop the image captured by the image sensor to the area being zoomed into, then resize that image to match the sensor's native resolution. The result is that much of the image data has to be interpolated, synthesizing image data.
... to this, without having to interpolate.
On the Lumia 1020, however, digital zoom can crop the 41MP sensor output to 5MP—no need to upscale. At the highest level of zoom, this means that there can't be any oversampling. So it loses that advantage, but at intermediate zoom levels, some amount of oversampling is still possible.
Oversampling and digital zoom are both also available for video, allowing 4× zoom at 1080p and 6× zoom at 720p, all without upscaling.
In front of the sensor are a mechanical shutter and a stabilized lens assembly. A stabilized lens assembly was the big feature of the 920 series' cameras. The 1020's stabilization system is different to accommodate the greater weight of its larger lens assembly. The whole thing is mounted on ball-bearings, with tiny motors shifting the lenses around to counter the movement of the phone.
The main purpose of this is to let the 1020's shutter be held open for longer, letting more light onto the sensor without introducing blur. Nokia claims that exposures can be three to five times longer than would be possible without the stabilization system.
The lens system is somewhat prone to flare, as this series of comparison shots demonstrates. I think it seems a little worse than the Lumia 920, though it's not as bad as the iPhone 5. For smartphone cameras, there's honestly not a whole lot you can do about this kind of thing other than "don't let bright light hit the lens obliquely." The hoods that SLR users attach to reduce flare don't really exist for smartphone cameras.
To help more light get in, the camera also has a reasonably wide f/2.2 aperture.
Even with an f/2.4 aperture, the short focal length of the Lumia 1020's lens limits the amount of background blur, but in extreme situations, the bokeh isn't too bad.
Or, of course, you can blur the foreground a little and have the background in focus.
Finally, the Lumia 1020 follows the Lumia 928 in equipping its camera with a Xenon flash instead of the more common LED. Xenon flashes are brighter, and they emit their light more quickly than LEDs. The result is better illumination and a greater ability to "freeze" motion. Adjacent to the Xenon flash there's an LED flash that's used to assist with focusing and while recording video.
The Xenon flash is the long one, the LED flash is the round one.
Smarter software
Having a fancy camera is all well and good, but you have to be able to control it. The standard Windows Phone camera app is fine for quick snaps, but it doesn't give instant access to controls such as shutter speed, exposure compensation, or white balance. It doesn't have some features, such as bracketing, at all.
The 1020 comes with a Nokia app, Nokia Pro Cam, that it uses by default instead of the Windows Phone camera app. This lists the settings along the edge of the viewfinder image. Tap a setting and a semi-circular menu appears at the bottom of the screen to let you change the setting's value. This gives quick access to the main settings in a convenient manner reminiscent of the dials on a dedicated camera.
Within menus, there are also more advanced settings, such as bracketing, the display of optional grids to help frame images, and an option to store both the 5MP and full-resolution images or just the 5MP image.
When you have the full-resolution images, the app also allows ex post facto generation of new 5MP pictures to allow reframing and re-zooming on different parts of the image, creating new oversampled pictures.
This app is also used for recording video. It supports any combination of 1080p and 720p at any of 24, 25, and 30 Hz. Nokia claims it has two particular audio features that are important for video recording: extremely wide dynamic range and the ability to filter out any frequencies below 100Hz or 200Hz. The company claims that both of these make the Lumia 1020 much better at recording, for example, loud concerts. (Since I find live music generally objectionable, I haven't been able to put these claims to the test.)
Overall, it's a nice app, and I think the control mechanism works well. However, there's one issue: it's slow. The shot-to-shot time is slow, at perhaps two to three seconds. When trying to capture fast-moving action, this is a long time to wait. The standard camera app has the same issue.
I assume it's some consequence of the processing the Lumia 1020 has to perform. The old PureView 808 had an extra chip, a dedicated image processor, to handle its camera's high-resolution images.
The 1020 doesn't, instead using the main processor to do image processing duty. Qualcomm, which makes the processors in all the Windows Phones, says that the image processors on its chips support a maximum of 20 megapixels. The two companies have apparently come up with some software solution to make the extra megapixels work, but there appears to be a performance cost.
Nokia does have a solution of sorts. Its Smart Cam app will take rapid-fire pictures over the course of a few seconds, and it allows various trick options, such as compositing several pictures together or removing moving objects.
This isn't a general-purpose solution to the slow shot-to-shot time. Most of the time, one would want to use Pro Cam, as it's a better app for conventional photography. If you know that you'll want rapid-fire pics, Smart Cam does work. But I imagine that having to switch between apps—and having the wrong one open at the wrong time—will result in missed pictures.
Dumber software
As much as I like the on-phone software, there is one gap. In many regards, the phone's software only knows about the 5MP pictures. Automatic uploading to SkyDrive, for example, only works on the 5MP pictures. The same goes for Microsoft's own phone syncing tools for Windows.
Pro Cam knows about the full-size images to the extent that it allows you to construct new 5MP images from them, but it doesn't appear to actually expose them to let you put them on SkyDrive.
The only way I found to get direct access to the full-resolution pictures was to connect the phone to a PC and then browse it in Explorer. This works, and it's not a major impediment for working with the files in Lightroom or similar software. It's just not particularly obvious. It also means that the automatic photo backing up that the Windows syncing apps perform won't back up the high-res pictures.
Update: This might improve in the future, at least to some extent. Nokia has an imaging SDK for the Lumia 1020, and one of the things it provides is access to the full resolution pictures. One application that has been updated to use this SDK is AT&T's own cloud storage app, AT&T Locker. Locker can upload the high-resolution images.
Optional ergonomics
In common with other Windows Phones, the 1020 has a dedicated camera button that focuses on half press and takes the picture on full press, just like standalone cameras. But if you want something even more camera-like, Nokia has an optional camera grip accessory. Three, in fact—one in each color.
The camera grip.
This clips onto the phone and provides a bulge at the right-hand side, with a larger, more comfortable button. It makes the phone quite chunky—and the phone isn't small to start off—but when using the phone as a camera, it's more comfortable and far easier to hold steady. Instead of having to grip the phone delicately around its edges (an issue on pretty much every touchscreen phone), you can grab it firmly by the right hand side.
With the grip in place, it almost looks like a point-and-shoot.
It also further bolsters the Lumia camera credentials by adding a tripod mount. This isn't ideally positioned—it's below the bulky battery rather than below the lens—but it further extends the ways the camera can be used.
In addition to adding bulk, the grip adds weight: it includes an additional 1020 mAh battery that extends the life of the phone. There's a button on the end that lights up a set of LEDs to indicate how much charge is left in the grip.
From what I can tell, the grip sacrificially uses its battery to keep the phone's internal 2000 mAh battery topped off. Connect it, and the phone shows that it's charging with the battery at 100 percent capacity.
This is a little inelegant. I would like to see it engineered so that the software can tell me both the capacity of the internal battery and the camera grip battery.
I think the camera grip is an interesting idea. If I carried around my phone in a bag, it would be a no-brainer. Never mind the better photography ergonomics; it would be worth it for better battery life alone. Not because I had any particular problems with the 1020's battery life—it managed a fairly busy day of photography, casual Web browsing, light e-mailing, and so on—but because none of the phones I habitually use (Lumia 920, iPhone 5, Galaxy Nexus) can withstand a day of heavy usage with the screen on while I'm hammering the phone's network connection. More battery life is, therefore, always welcome.
But since I carry my phone around in my pocket, I'm not so sure. It's not the weight that bothers me (the grip adds another 72.8 g to the phone's 158 g) but the thickness. The thick part of the grip is 27.2 mm/1.07 inches. That's pretty damn chunky.
For some people, it's obviously too chunky. Me, my mind isn't made up. I don't wear skinny jeans and I have big pockets, so there's no problem with the size as such. I'm just not sure if I'd want to live with it.
Camera conclusions
There's no doubt that the camera in the Lumia 1020 is excellent. Nokia's engineering works, producing remarkable detail in good light and pulling out usable shots even in bad light. Oversampling is a sound technique, and the high-resolution makes digital zoom much more palatable.
The Pro Cam software is easy to use and effective as well. The camera grip makes handling the 1020 feel much more like handling a point-and-shoot. This is also to its credit, as long as you can tolerate the thickness it adds.
The only black mark is the shot-to-shot time. The delay between pictures is noticeable and will result in missing shots. It marred an otherwise impeccable camera experience. Other smartphones won't beat the picture quality of the Lumia 1020, but from time to time they might capture a picture that the 1020 misses entirely.
Amber update
The Lumia 1020 is equipped with Nokia's standard range of Windows Phone apps: the various "Here"-branded mapping/transport apps, including Drive+ with its turn-by-turn navigation. We looked at them when we reviewed the Lumia 928, and they're much the same now as they were then.
It also includes Nokia's various imaging apps. In addition to Pro Cam and Smart Cam, there's Creative Studio for performing various trick edits (fake tilt/shift effect, highlighting certain colors), Cinemagraph for making those animated "still" photos, a Panoramic picture maker, and a basic video editing app.
Like the 925—and coming to other Lumia models later this year—the phone also shows a clock when the screen is "off."
The core operating system hasn't changed substantially since we reviewed it last year. However, it's not quite identical. The Lumia 1020 ships with what Nokia calls the Amber update. For other Windows Phone 8 devices, it's called simply "GDR 2." (Amber includes a few Nokia-specific features not in GDR 2, such as the lock screen clock, but these differences should be fairly minor).
GDR 2 doesn't add anything too major. It reinstates FM radio support (except on the Lumia 620), a feature included in Windows Phone 7 but dropped in 8. It allows third-party camera applications to be used as the default camera app that gets invoked when you press the camera button—which is how the 1020 defaults to Pro Cam. And perhaps most significantly of all, it includes CalDAV and CardDAV support for syncing calendar items and contacts.
Here in Houston, the radio support lets me listen to both kinds of music.
This is important because of Google's decision to drop Exchange ActiveSync support on free mail accounts. Google retained support for an extra six months to give Microsoft time to develop CalDAV and CardDAV functionality for Windows Phone; GDR 2 is how that new functionality will be delivered to end users.
In GDR 2, Google accounts will no longer use Exchange ActiveSync. Instead, they rely on the trio of IMAP for mail, CalDAV, and CardDAV. Microsoft hasn't implemented support for IMAP IDLE, however. As a result, Gmail accounts won't support push mail. This will be a setback for any heavy Gmail users.
However, the new CalDAV and CardDAV support does appear to work correctly, so far as I can discern. There shouldn't be any worries about Gmail support breaking altogether.
As for third-party software, Windows Phone still has some big-name gaps. There's still no official Instagram app, for example. Nokia has promised that at least some of these gaps will be filled. Hipstamatic Oggl, the only third-party Instagram app that'sofficially allowed to upload pictures to the Facebook-owned photo sharing site, was released on Friday. Applications for the Vine short video service, Path social networking app, and Flipboard news reader are all promised, but they're not out yet.
If you insist on ruining your pictures with filters, Hipstamatic Oggl should do the job, I guess.
Then there’s the small matter of the price
If you want to use your smartphone as a camera, the Lumia 1020 is a fantastic choice. The camera works very well. The technology works well, and I liked it a lot. Nokia set out to make the best smartphone camera on the market, and the company has absolutely succeeded.
But there are three prices you pay for it.
The camera adds bulk. A little bit by default; quite a lot if you add the camera grip. It's still an awful lot less bulky than a smartphone and a separate camera, of course, but it's very much at the bulkier end of the smartphone spectrum. Personally, I can live with the bare phone. I'm still not sure about the camera grip, but the standalone phone is fine for my pockets. It might not be for yours. Different people have different tolerances for this kind of thing.
Second, the phone is exclusive to AT&T. If you want a different carrier, you're out of luck. I don't think we know what the roll-out will be like beyond the US's borders yet, but I would put money on there being more exclusive arrangements of one kind or another. I prefer T-Mobile's call plans (breaking out the phone payment from the call plan is more transparent and, for my purposes, quite a bit cheaper) and I wouldn't switch to a different network just for a phone, even if I really liked the phone.
Third, the phone is just plain expensive. On a two-year contract with AT&T, it cost $299.99 up front with a minimum of $59.99 per month. And that's just for 300MB of data. 3GB per month will add another $10. Buy the phone off contract and it's $659.99. Other phones from AT&T attract a bigger subsidy. The 16GB Galaxy S4, for example, costs slightly less off contract—$639.99—but it can be had on a two-year contract for just $199.99. The 16GB iPhone 5 is similar: $649.99 off contract or $199.99 on a two-year contract.
In other words, the Lumia 1020 will cost an extra $100. It's not clear to me why the on-contract price should be so different given that no such discrepancy in the off-contract price exists. But thanks to the AT&T exclusivity, the options are to accept the pricing or buy a different phone entirely.
Unlocked and available on any network, I think the Lumia 1020 would be easy to recommend. But the price and exclusivity makes it a much trickier proposition. If I used AT&T anyway, I would go for it. But I wouldn't switch networks for this phone—or any other.
The Good
That camera
With the grip, it even feels like a camera
I continue to enjoy Windows Phone
The Bad
That bulge
With the grip, it's pretty huge
Windows Phone today is barely changed from Windows Phone as it was 9 months ago
