A 700MHz compatible Lumia 830 is landing in Australian phone stores for $579 later this month, offering 150Mbps (Cat 4 but not 300Mbps Cat 6) 4G LTE speeds, a 10 megapixel PureView camera with OIS, 16GB storage with microSD card slot and more to upend the Android and Apple carts as much as it possibly can.
Promising a premium design, ‘superior’ Pureview imaging and all the integration with Microsoft services that Microsoft service users could possibly want, the Lumia 830 also comes with the latest ‘Denim’ update to Windows Phone 8.1.
Although there are Lumia phones with 20 megapixel Pureview cameras, as a more affordable device, a 10 megapixel Pureview camera is still nothing to be sneezed at (well, unless you have hayfever and just can’t help yourself).
As is usual with what was once Nokia’s devices, but is now Microsoft’s the Pureview camera has a Zeiss lens attaches, the ‘rich recording’ feature that captures better sound that competitors and the company’s “thinnest optical image stabilisation system to date”.
Living Images is a feature that lets you ‘capture expressions and emotions’, when taking photos, and the Storyteller app lets you share your imagery on social networks.
Certain, the Siri-like personal assistant is baked in but is still an ‘alpha’, with iTWire’s resident Microsoft fan, Ray Shaw, has his own excellent must-read article on upcoming developments in the Microsoft Devices world, including the news that Cortana will soon move from alpha to beta, and is already ‘crowd-sourcing’ info on Australian words and more.
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Examples given by Microsoft include ‘Instagram, Adidas miCoach, Vimeo, and Flipboard – plus apps that sync across devices so you can pick up where you left off at work, home or play.’
The Lumia 830 doesn’t have the very fastest Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, but as an OS that is finely tuned by Microsoft to work well on various standard configurations, much like Apple does with iOS and iDevices, we’re likely to see snappy performance nevertheless.
Indeed, Microsoft promises the 1.2GHz processor ‘delivers a fast and smooth web browsing, gaming, and overall user experience’, and given the past performance of Lumia devices and Windows Phone, there is absolutely no reason to doubt this.
A 5-inch screen 720P screen (1280x720 res) is included, with a ‘2.25D Curved screen’, Gorilla Glass and all-important sunlight readability, as well as the ability to use the screen with gloves on or with a fingernail when ‘Super Sensitivity Touch’ is turned on in the settings.
Microsoft’s answer to the M8 motion co-processor on iDevices is its ‘SensorCore’ low-power motion sensing, with the same kind of benefits.
The battery is 2200mAh, and a second-gen ’Smart Wireless Charging Plate’ which you’ll have to buy separately works thanks to the inbuilt NFC chip.
Available this month via Telstra, Optus and major resellers, you can find full specs here and the Lumia 830 home page here.
