Most apps open with little delay, save for the camera app, which takes a solid 3 seconds to load up on Windows Phone OS.
You won't notice any lag, I'm happy to report, when you're connected to a strong Wi-Fi network.įor its part, Qualcomm's 1.5Ghz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus (MSM8960) processor gives me no reason to complain. Real-world speeds on the second review unit sped up, but right now I'm wondering if there's an issue with the 928's antenna placement that's slowing things down. Real-world tests were largely acceptable. Speeds on the Lumia 928 were slower in diagnostic tests than I'm used to with Verizon. However, since the time I initially posted this review, many CNET readers have written in with their positive speed experiences, so I wouldn't avoid this phone based on my experiences in this department.ĭiagnostic speed tests on consistently read more like fast 3G or not-LTE 4G, and I tested both phones over the course of several days in both indoor and outdoor locations throughout San Francisco. I called in two separate handsets for diagnostic and real-world testing, and both were slower than I expected. Otherwise, audio quality sounded about the same, but I sounded dramatically improved when I switched back to the standard earpiece.ĭata performance on the Lumia 928 perplexed me, only because diagnostic and real-world speeds were much slower than they typically are on Verizon's usually zippy network. My speakerphone seemed to enhance the echo, which he said wasn't pleasant. Speakerphone volume also dropped on my tester's end of the line, and he said I became hard to hear. While there wasn't any noise, I did hear a little bit of vocal distortion. At top volume, voices sounded - and felt - buzzy in my hands. In a loud environment, that just isn't going to cut it. Unfortunately, the volume dropped to the floor, causing me to bump it up to level 10 of 10 inside my relatively quiet office. The speakerphone strangely improved the call experience for me, when I tested by holding the phone at hip level. Nokia Lumia 928 call quality sample Listen now:
On his side of the call, my main testing partner agreed that I sounded muffled, and noticed that audio distorted at high volume. For some good news, volume came across strong and perfectly clear, even at setting 5 of 10. That might have contributed to the mangy audio that followed, where voices sounded uneven, muted, blunted, and harsh. The first oddity I noticed in my standard test (which I conduct in the exact same location dialing the same landline and using the same audio tester) was that the 928 had only two bars of service, unlike the usual three or four bars. Jessica Dolcourt/CNETĬall quality was off the mark when I tested Verizon's Lumia 928 in San Francisco. Without using other settings, Samsung's Galaxy S4 low-light image quality lags far behind the rest.