Last week, Nokia released its two new Windows Phone
8 models, which included its new flagship phone, the Lumia
920. Pricing and release dates weren't part of the
announcement. Many speculated it will go on sale in early 2013, but
fresh reports say it will hit some markets in early to
mid-November. Now that we have this bit of information, I've
compiled a list of reasons why you should buy the Nokia Lumia 920,
and why you shouldn't.

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Design
Just like the previous Lumia phones, the Lumia 920 also has a
polycarbonate body, but with a glossy finish as opposed to the
matte finish on the earlier Lumia phones. The color palette now
includes Spectacular Yellow, Lipstick Red and Slate Grey colors,
but you won't get the cyan color option for this phone. The design
of this phone is very unique and it clearly stands out from the
rest of the crowd.
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Display
The Lumia 920 has a 4.5-inch curved glass display, dubbed the
best smartphone display in the world by Nokia, and has a resolution
of 1280 by 768 pixels, which puts it on the same level as its
competition. But it's not just about high resolution anymore, a
smartphone display should look good in bright sunlight. The Lumia
920's PureMotion HD+ display uses smart polarizing technology to
reduce glare and reproduces the best colors and brightness even on
a sunny day.
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Powertrain
The Lumia 920 is powered by the 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm
Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of RAM. Add Windows Phone 8 to this
whole package and you're looking at one of the fastest smartphones
out there today.
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Nokia-exclusive apps
The advantage of buying a Windows Phone from Nokia is that you
get a suite of applications that are exclusive to Nokia phones. The
navigation experience that Nokia provides with Nokia Maps and Nokia
Drive is as good as a standalone GPS navigation solution. They have
now added true offline maps, which will work even if there is no
data connection available. The new addition to the location suite
is Nokia City Lens, an augmented reality app which displays
information about restaurants, shops, businesses etc. when you
point your camera at a city block or street. It can prove very
helpful for tourists.
Nokia has also taken care of music lovers by launching Nokia
Music Store and Nokia Mix Radio. You can stream unlimited songs for
free with Nokia Mix Radio. Not only can you buy and download tracks
from the Nokia Music Store, but also add tracks from your existing
library.

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PureView camera
The most talked-about feature of the Lumia 920 is its PureView
camera. The 920 has an 8.7 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens.
It comes with what Nokia calls a floating lens OIS
(Optical Image Stabilization) technology which produces sharper
stills and smoother videos. The low-light performance of the camera
is much better than rival smartphones.
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Battery
The Lumia 920 packs a 2000mAh battery, the largest ever for a
Nokia phone. The Snapdragon S4 processor is 30% more
battery-efficient than the competition, giving the 920 great
battery life. If you think it's still not enough, read the next
point.
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Wireless charging
This is not something new and has been around for the last
couple of years but no handset manufacturer ever integrated it into
its phones or ever included it as part of their accessories. The
Lumia 920 is the world's first smartphone to have wireless charging
support built-in. Nokia has partnered with Fatboy for the wireless
chargers for the new Lumia line.
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Pricing and release
The most important thing for a smartphone to be a success is its
pricing. According to a German blog, WinFuture,
the price of an unlocked Lumia 920 will be around $760 USD. This
price range is the home of high-end Android phones/phablets, not to
mention the Apple iPhone. There are reports of a cheaper version of
the 920 which will not have 4G LTE. Also, there are rumors that the
rollout will be slow, just like the previous Lumia phones.
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No expandable memory
The Lumia 920 comes with 32GB of built-in flash memory and has
no expansion slot, which should be good enough for most users. But
if you like to carry your entire music library with you, shoot
1080p videos and play a lot of games, add to that the potential 2-3
GB taken up by the OS, and you could be out of memory pretty
soon.
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No OS updates?
Although it's very difficult to say anything at this moment,
since the Lumia 900 and 800 won't get the Windows Phone 8 upgrade,
one might think there's a remote possibility that this new
generation of Lumia phones won't be getting the next major update
either.
The Nokia Lumia 920 is a solid phone with competitive features
and should definitely be your next smartphone if you can afford it.
If you just want a taste of Windows Phone 8, then there will be
several less expensive alternatives, including the other new Lumia,
the
820.
Image credit: Nokia