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Reg slips claws across Nokia's sexy sixties handsets, fondles flagship too

Budget contenders, premium wannabe break cover - briefly

The people’s flagship?

There are Nokia phones that sell bucketloads, and there are Nokia phones that get lots of press attention - but are hardly ever seen out in the wild. Even where The Reg is located, in hipster-heavy, design and marketing agency land which is economically booming, a high-end Lumia is a very rare sighting. I suspect this because the value of the "ecosystem" is priced into the purchase. For £37 a month, most people don’t want to compromise.

The proliferation of models means Nokia doesn’t put all the wood behind one arrow. Unlike a Navy, Nokia has three “flagships": the 6-inch phondleslab Lumia 1520, the 41MP camera 1020, and one for the mass market, the 925. (You can also pick up the 920, which isn’t that much older, and has more storage, for a song now).

Nokia doesn't expect to sell a lot of 1020s and 1520s – they are really niche devices – but it must be disappointed that the 925 hasn’t caught on. The 930 slots in as a natural upgrade to the 925, and it’s really Nokia’s contender for the bulk of the £30-£40 contract market.

Not since the HTC One has a phone made such a positive impression on me with its design and construction as the Lumia 930. It’s considerably bigger than its predecessor, following the market trend to larger devices with a 5-inch display, although this allows for a bigger battery (2420 mAh vs 2000 mAh) and really impressive full HD resolution (441ppi) and quality. It's blockier – more angular, less curved – and heavier too (and some 28g heavier at 168g). It’s quite beautifully put together with an aluminium chassis and polycarb back – to save a bit of weight.

The 930 has a boxier design than its predecessors, but retains the polycarb back, and curved display

The weight includes QI wireless charging built-in, and Nokia has realised this is an asset. It’s going to bundle a charging plate in every UK sales pack (and for pre-orders, a new wireless speaker, too).

Once you have a couple of charging plates, you don’t really look back. However, even Nokia seemed ambivalent about it. The omission of built-in wireless charging mandated the use of a clip-on sled or plate (in the 1020, 925 and 720), which meant users had to dispense with a protective case. None would fit over the phone+sled. And it added considerably to the bulk and weight of the device. Clip a sled onto a 925 or 1020 and it’s every bit as heavy and unwieldy as a Lumia 1020, nearer the 200g spot than the 130g that the rest of the high-end smartphone market has settled on.

How big is this, in practice? About this big:

Eye-catching display

Mmmm... Springfield Greeen

I’m less enthusiastic about the two colours - again, a radioactive “Springfield Power” green ... and an orange.

All that's missing is an engraved Shamrock.

In addition to the excellent display, two hardware features are worth noting: one good, one bad. The good: Nokia has enhanced the remarkable, best-of-breed HAAC audio recording with 5:1 Dolby output. The HAAC system (found on the 808 PureView and the Lumia1020) is a Nokia invention (white paper PDF) that captures an incredible dynamic range. 5:1 Dolby lets it play this back on a home cinema system. The imaging unit here appears to be the cut-down 21MP oversampling sensor found in the 1520 – it still excels in low light while its best asset in everyday use is wobble-free video recording. Over a year after Nokia introduced this minor miracle, the market still hasn’t caught up.

Amazingly the text is quite legible on the full HD display

The negative is that there’s no room for an SD card. Even HTC found room for one in this year’s One (M8) update, so even in such a bulky device it’s disappointing not to find one here. Especially now that WP can run apps from the SD card, and even the budget Lumia (see above) can support up to cards 128GB in size.

Wrap

Nokia’s high-end WP devices are superb, and the 930 continues the excellence. Yet the traction isn’t there, perhaps because the "app gap" really matters when the manufacturer demands a premium price. Yet slowly, WP is making up some ground here. Many developer refuseniks 15 months ago (Vine, Instagram, MyFitness App, Bloomberg) have produced native WP versions. What’s missing is the “long tail” – the app for the museum, or music festival that you might use once. They’re pretty much guaranteed for iOS, and a fair few have Android counterparts too. Here, the introduction of a common API (Universal Apps) should begin to pay dividends eventually.

One puzzle is why the 930 will take so long to arrive on these shores: late May or early June - when an almost identical device has been on sale through Verizon in the US since January.

Specs

Lumia 630, 630 dual SIM and 635; Lumia 930

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