Sony and Box extend BFF status, offer 50GB free storage to Xperia owners through 2013

When Sony and Box came together last year to offer Xperia owners a tantalizing deal of 50GB of free storage for life, the promotion was only set to run for a year. Now that shopping season is upon us once more, however, the holiday spirit must've moved them to extend the partnership for yet another year -- that, or Sony needs any edge it can to move those Xperia devices to consumer hands. Just as with the prior promo, Xperia and Sony tablet users can snag 50 gigs of cloud storage completely gratis just by signing up or tapping into existing Box accounts on their devices before December 31st 2013. However, do note that the offer doesn't extend to the Xperia X10 mini, the X10 mini pro and anything that has firmware older than Android 2.1. Now that Sony has this going for two years straight, maybe they should extend this to a lifetime scenario, or as long as Box sticks around to offer up that sweet storage in the sky.

Facebook for BlackBerry v3.3 now integrates BBM

It's a red letter day for BlackBerry-owning Facebookers, as version 3.3 of the platform's native app has arrived. BBM has been woven deep into the update, enabling you to initiate chats and find friends using your pin contacts. Of course, if you do that, you might find yourself friending too many people who share the minutiae of their lives -- so the Zuck has also added easy un-friending to the mix as well. You can snag the update from the BlackBerry App World, which we've thoughtfully added for you down at the source link.

Windows RT vs. Windows 8 Pro

There is a diverse array of tablet options to daze and amaze shoppers this holiday season. Microsoft has a solid contender with its current Surface tablet, but it runs the more limited Windows RT operating system that was designed for use with ARM-based processors. I’ve already examined how the Surface RT beats the iPad, and how the iPad beats the Surface RT, but how what about tablets that run the more powerful Windows 8 Pro OS?

The Samsung Series 7 Slate boasts an Intel Core i5 processor.

Well, Microsoft itself will offer a Surface Pro in the near future that runs the full Windows 8
Pro instead of Windows RT. The Microsoft tablet is slated for a January 2013 release—
although there is speculation it could hit the street in December. Microsoft has just 
announced official pricing for the Surface Pro: a 64GB unit will be $900, and the 128GB
tablet will be $1000.

You don’t have to wait, though. There are already tablets running Windows 8 Pro. Sitting on my desk, I have the Microsoft Surface RT tablet and a Samsung Series 7 Slate PC running Windows 8 Pro.To be fair, the Samsung Series 7 Slate PCs currently available on retail shelves come with Windows 7 Home Premium by default—I installed Windows 8 Pro on mine myself. The Samsung site, however, sports a "Get to know Windows 8" marketing logo, and states, "Samsung recommends Windows 8", so perhaps the tablet will soon come with the new OS pre-installed.

Based on my own use, each platform has some pros and cons, so be aware of the benefits and disadvantages of each before you set out to spend your hard-earned money.

Price

The Surface RT starts at $500 for a 32GB model—$600 if you throw in the default black Touch Cover. The Surface RT pricing keeps it competitive with the plethora of tablet options, including the Apple iPad.

Most Windows 8 Pro tablets pack an Intel Core series processor. So while such devices are still tablets in the technical sense, in both performance and price they compete more with Ultrabooks and other laptop PCs than with pure tablets, and the pricing reflects that reality. The Samsung Series 7 Slate PC with 128GB of storage is just under $1200 from Best Buy. Dell offers the Latitude 10 tablet with Windows 8 Pro starting around $1000; it has half the RAM and half the storage of the Samsung, but also uses just an Intel Atom processor. Meanwhile, Surface Pro will start at $900, a fairly competitive price considering it, like the Series 7, ships with an Intel Core i5 processor.

The Dell Latitude 10 weighs slightly less than the Surface RT.

If price is a deciding factor in your purchasing decision, the Surface RT (or other ARM-based tablet running Windows RT) is the way to go. However, if you act fast you can get a great deal on the Dell Latitude 10—Dell is offering deals of more than $350 off the list price, so the tablet starts at $650.

Battery Life

Battery life is another area where the Windows 8 Pro tablet competes more with ultrabooks than other tablets. Our testing of the Samsung Series 7 Slate yielded more than five and a half hours of battery life—and that’s with an Intel Core i5 processor rather than the more energy frugal Atom chips used in many other Windows 8 tablets.

Size and Weight

This is one area where the two platforms are roughly on par—depending on what you buy. The Samsung Series 7 Slate weighs almost half a pound more than the Surface RT at 1.9 pounds, and the Surface Pro will weigh less than two pounds as well according to a blog post from Panos Panay, General Manager of Microsoft Surface. The Dell Latitude 10 tablet, on the other hand, delivers a Windows 8 Pro tablet listed at 1.47 pounds, which is actually slightly less than the 1.5 pounds of the Surface RT.

The difference is that the Samsung Series 7 Slate and the Surface Pro both use Intel Core i5 processors, and a more traditional PC architecture, while the Atom processor used in the Dell Latitude 10 is a SoC (system on a chip) that merges more functionality into less space. It's possible to get a Windows Pro tablet that weighs roughly the same as a Windows RT equivalent, but if you want the processing horsepower of a true Intel Core processor, your tablet will likely weigh a bit more.

Legacy Software

This is where things shift in favor of Windows 8 Pro tablets. The meat and potatoes of why you'd elect to invest more money in a heavier, louder tablet with inferior battery life: it runs all software. Windows 8 Pro behaves the same whether it’s on a desktop, laptop, or tablet, and all of the software you rely on when using Windows will work on the Windows 8 Pro tablet.

Windows RT can only run apps specifically developed for the Windows RT Modern (formerly known as “Metro” interface). The volume and quality of apps available is underwhelming, but growing rapidly. However, that won’t do you any good if you have a customer tracking tool, inventory management software, or some other industry-specific application that only runs in the full Windows operating system. The difference, again, is that Windows RT is strictly for ARM-based processors, while Windows 8 Pro can be used with x86 processors.

Advanced Features

Another area where Windows RT is no match for Windows 8 Pro is when it comes to the more advanced features and capabilities of the Windows 8 operating system. A Windows 8 Pro tablet can join a Windows network domain, and be managed and monitored just like any other Windows PC. Windows RT cannot join a domain, and is limited to rudimentary management through Exchange ActiveSync or Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.

Aside from joining a domain and/or being managed through Active Directory and Group Policy, though, an x86 architecture tablet running Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8 Enterprise can encrypt data using BitLocker. A Windows 8 Enterprise tablet also opens up a whole other realm of possibilities, including Windows To Go, DirectAccess, AppLocker, BranchCache, and other Microsoft technologies that are not available for Windows 8 Pro—never mind Windows RT.

The Samsung Series 7 Slate doesn't have the cool Touch Cover like the Surface RT, but it does have a docking station. When at my desk, I just snap the tablet into the docking station and use it like a traditional PC. I have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and the dock connects the tablet to my monitor via HDMI, and provides a wired ethernet connection and an additional USB 2.0 port. Dell offers a similar docking station for the Latitude 10 tablet. In fact, most Windows tablets have some keyboard docking option.

The bottom line? If money is a factor, or if you are planning to use the tablet to augment rather than replace your Windows PC, a Windows RT tablet makes sense. If you are looking at a Windows tablet as a replacement for a desktop or laptop PC to become your primary computing device, you need to look at the broader picture.

The vast majority of the tasks people perform on a traditional PC can be accomplished from a pure tablet. If all you need to do is email, surf the Web, post on social networks, or perform basic content creation and management, then a Windows RT (or an iPad or Android tablet) will work just fine.

But, if you need to run traditional Windows software, or need your tablet to be able to connect to a Windows network domain, you’ll need to invest in the more robust Windows 8 Pro tablets.

Secrets of Nokia Lumia 820

10 things you might not know about the Nokia Lumia 820

Since it was launched at the start of September the Nokia Lumia 820 has received a ton of coverage. Pocket Lint said, “Visually, and technically, thi sphone is arguably more interesting than the 920.” While the guys at Phone Arena think it’s “100% Nokia,” talking about “extremely well-made phones that can withstand all kinds of harsh treatment.” After garnering so much attention, you’d think there’s nothing else to learn. Well, we spoke to Pablo Tapia, Global Marketing Manager, and he shared ten things you might still not know about the Nokia Lumia 820.

1. The Nokia Lumia 820 has 2 HAAC microphones, which means you can record loud sounds outdoors, and events like the concert below, without distortion.

2. The Lumia 820 has tons of memory. The SD card expansion supports up to 64 GB, then there’s 8 GB Internal+ 7 GB in SkyDrive. All together, that’s a whopping 79 GB of memory.

3. Tethering on the Nokia Lumia 820 supports up to 8 devices. So, you can share your superfast LTE connection with your friends or your laptop and use Wi-Fi to share your devices.

4. Despite its gorgeous looks the Nokia Lumia 820 is not a unibody device, which means that if you want, you can remove the battery.

5. With Smart shoot, you can use the Nokia Lumia 820 to create the perfect picture of friends and family. Simply take a series of pictures one after the other, then merge the best together to capture everyone at their best.

5. Rather than having a speaker on the back, The Nokia Lumia 820 has a speaker at the bottom. Consequently, when you place the device on a soft surface, you can still hear your conference call and music.

6. The Nokia 820′s Nokia exclusive lens means that you can animate your photos with Cinemagraph.

8. With Nokia Music, you can use the Nokia Lumia 820 to stream all the music you want for free. What’s more, if you connect it to a JBL speaker set, Mix radio will be your DJ all night long. 

9. The Nokia Lumia 820 has NFC, which means you can connect to multiple devices, receive or send information, and in some countries pay for things like movie tickets. 

10. You can use the Nokia Lumia 820’s camera to translate text.  You just use Bing search, press the eye-icon and point the camera at a foreign text and you get the translation. No more blindly pointing at an incomprehensible menu.

It’s clear that the Nokia Lumia 820 is jam packed with innovative tech, but which of these ten fascinating features most surprised you? Let us know in the comments below.

World’s Best Smartphone Fight: iPhone 5 vs Nexus 4 vs Lumia 920 vs Galaxy S3 vs Note 2

In today’s times, buying a smartphone is just like going out for shopping with your wife. She’ll go through loads of varieties, colors, brands of clothes and end up buying something which either she’ll like or regret buying as her friend got a better dress than she did. It’s more of like fashion, keeps changing everyday. Are you getting my point? What I’m trying to tell you is that buying the perfect smartphone has gotten a lot more complex with so many varieties, competitors and ecosystems. In this post we will be comparing 5 best smartphones currently available in the market – LG Nexus 4, Apple iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Samsung Galaxy S3 and also let you know why you should for the same. The best of all ecosystems are present on the list. Let’s put them up together for a specifications fight first.

Side by side specifications comparison:

Since we’ve already checked out the specifications of the above phones, lets go ahead and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

LG NEXUS 4:

The all-new LG-made Nexus 4 is like the child born from marriage of old Galaxy Nexus and LG’s flagship device –  Optimus G. When Nexus 4 is kept aside the old Galaxy Nexus, they both look like twin brothers but just from different mothers. That said, there are still important notable hardware and design changes here. First, the device is majorly build out of Gorilla glass, both the front and back. Yes, the back is flat glass with a holographic stipple pattern making the handset look elegant, modern and even futuristic for that matter. Although it’s a gorgeous piece of design but save yourself from dropping it. This design is complimented by a new 4.7″ 1280 x 768 LCD display which does a better job than the AMOLED on the older Galaxy Nexus. The display may not be the best but its at par with all the four devices on the above list.

Furthermore, Google and LG have bumped up everything to make this a worthy successor and a strong competitor. The processor inside is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro clocked to 1.5GHz with 4 cores, which Google says makes the Nexus 4 fastest phone. RAM has been boosted to 2 GB. This pretty much makes it a very snappy phone to use. Nexus 4 is running on a newer version of Jelly Bean with version number 4.2. The new version brings in changes to Gmail which can now automatically scale messages to fit within the width of your window. A new keyboard that does gesture swiping just like Swype. A Quick Settings menu that drops down from the notification bar lets you tweak most-used settings like brightness, Bluetooth, airplane mode, etc. A two-finger swipe from the top of the screen can also bring down this new quick setting menu. Google’s predictive search app – ‘Google Now’ gets more smarter now as it has the ability to scan your email for flight and hotel reservations, and then present that information when the right time comes.

The camera on Nexus 4 gets the biggest improvement. The rear camera is now a 8-megapixel shooter with improved color reproduction as well as low-light performance. Here comes the best part about the new camera - software. A newly designed interface for the camera app is so simple that you may get surprised by how quick and easy it is. A circular menu in the camera app gets activated by touching anywhere on the screen and that circle lets you swipe in to different directions to change individual settings. Simple. Another creative enhancement in the camera is a new shooting mode called “Photo Sphere”. Let me tell you this is like the daddy of Panorama mode. It allows you to capture everything around you like a 360-degree shot (Street View).

Why you should buy it?

If you are among those many pure Android enthusiasts who do not like manufacturer interference in the software and love stock Android, then Nexus 4 is the right choice for you. Look no further, it does everything a pricier Galaxy S III or iPhone 5 does. Plus, you get the advantage of having the only smartphone that runs on latest version of Android – Jelly Bean 4.2. It has everything you expect in a modern smartphone. The 27k price for 16 GB model makes it a value for money product. It’s a steal.

Apple iPhone 5

The iPhone 5 is everything everyone had expected the iPhone 4S to be. It’s faster, slimmer, lighter, bigger and better than ever. Apple took the complaints and competition’s offering seriously while building the iPhone 5. All those slim models look even fatter in front of iPhone 5, thanks to a very slim 7.6mm body. The slim body also contributed in trimming down the weight. In comparison to the 4S, it weighs feather light at just 112 grams. If you thought these factors affected the build quality then you’re partly right and partly wrong too. The front now finally withholds a much-needed larger 4″ (1136 x 640 pixels) retina display. Rest of the hardware resembles exactly to the 4S with those same rounded corners and metal band running around edges. The back is where the real change is. Now it has a brushed aluminum material with glass on the top and bottom. Although this delivers a premium overall look, the back material tends to be prone to scratches. Rest assured, the taller, slimmer, lighter iPhone 5 will attract your eyes.

Apple also made some improvements to the already superb iSight camera. The glass on the outside of the lens has been replaced with a 6mm disc of crystal sapphire for durability. Rear camera image quality remains superior as always and 1080p video quality is bright and smooth. The improvement here is speed of snapping. Its faster than ever. The front VGA FaceTime camera has gotten replaced by a  1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera capable of capturing 720p video. It’s a good upgrade for FaceTime video chatting users. Apple finally adds a Panorama mode with iOS 6. The competition offered this since a long time and now finally iPhone has got it too.

I had mentioned about the iPhone 5 to be even faster now, that is, thanks to the 1 Ghz Dual Core Apple A6 chip coupled with 1 GB RAM beneath the display. On the software front, as always, Apple claims there have been more than 200 enhancements. iOS 6 brings in two major changes – Maps and Passbook. Maps on one hand are well-designed with clean and beautiful aesthetics but as complained by users worldwide it lags behind Google Maps at large. It’s not a finished product yet. Passbook too remains a big question to users as they expected to have NFC paired with it for mobile payments. Perhaps the biggest iOS 6 feature is Facebook integration. One can tell Siri to post a message to Facebook or do it manually by pressing “Tap to Post” button in the Notification Center. If you’re interested in knowing everything new in iOS 6 then check out this awesome engadget review.

 Why you should buy it?

iOS 6 doesn’t really offer something substantial for iPhone 4S users to upgrade but on the other hand, loyal Apple fans can go ahead with the iPhone 5. They’ll appreciate the solid hardware and build quality. It has a excellent camera and display. All things work fine with the iPhone 5. One issue of buying it in India is ‘price’. Lets accept it, it’s over-priced. The highest model costs a hefty 60k. If your bank vault is well filled, go ahead and buy this premium product. Be assured, you’ll have no regrets.

Nokia Lumia 920:

It’s not just you who would have mistaken the Nokia Lumia 920 with the old Lumia 900. At first glance, they look quite similar. They have the same gorgeous polycarbonate single shell design with flat top and bottom surfaces. Nokia did right by not changing this, as it was already a beautiful piece of hardware in my opinion. But the similarities stop as soon as you hold it in your hands. It feels like a new phone and one with enough punch to beat the rest. The first thing you’ll notice – it’s heavy at a hefty 185 grams weight. Allow me to explain why so much weight.

Nokia brings in a 4.5″ (1280 x 768) IPS LCD Display for Lumia 920 instead of the AMOLED on Lumia 900. This new crisp display now runs on PureMotion HD+ tech which in simple terms means, one can expect smooth 60FPS animations, transitions and also the screen can respond to any touch inputs even if they are done by your nails or gloves. The display has got a higher PPI (332) than the iPhone 5′s Retina display has (326), making it even more stunning to look at. The symbian running Nokia PureView 808 might not have been a hit but the on board camera was phenomenal. Nokia makes the right decision of using their PureView imaging technology from 808 by adding it to Lumia 920 and unfortunately it won’t come with the 41-megapixel madness, instead a 8.7-megapixel sensor. This new camera is capable of excellent low-light pictures and it excels more in image stabilization. It does both 1080p rear camera video shooting and 720p front shooting at 30fps.

Perhaps the biggest change in the Lumia 920 is the software. Windows Phone 8 is here and its coming from a different origin now.  Microsoft has finally managed to blend in the cores of both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. This radical change has brought in much faster performance, responsiveness and improvements. It runs on a faster Qualcomm dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz. Microsoft is bringing in deeper Skype, Office, SkyDrive, Xbox and IE 10 integration to Windows Phone 8. Check out this verge review of Windows Phone 8 to read more about the new OS.

Why you should buy it?

Are you one of those buyers for whom ecosystems don’t really matter? If yes, then go buy this phone. I say this because the Windows Phone ecosystem is still developing and although it’s emerging out to be a winner with all the Live Tiles and minimalistic design approach, it still needs lot of work to be done. Even if you don’t care about the OS, it’s a great phone in it’s own right with a elegant design, stunning display, latest wireless charging feature and the best camera on board. Also, Nokia packs in their utilitarian software services as a bonus. Nokia Lumia 920 pricehas not been announced for Indian masses yet, but we are expecting it to hover around Rs. 35k price tag.

Samsung Galaxy S3:

How do you build a smartphone that triumphs the already best smartphone? Samsung knows how. The Galaxy S 3 in every sense is a worthy successor to the Galaxy S 2. As always, Samsung loads in the most highest specifications including a beastly 1.4 Ghz quad-core Exynos chip coupled with 2GB RAM ensuring super fast performance. The display on the front is now a  huge 4.8″ 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED HD which delivers 306 ppi. The display isn’t the best, but it’s among the best. I’ve personally used the phone and I can assure you that the huge screen or the plastic hardware isn’t really a problem. The phone feels fine in hand with 8.6 mm thickness and a normal 131 grams weight.

The camera on S3 can now deliver even better pictures than the S2, and is easily on par with the likes of iPhone 5. Samsung has added HDR mode while the rest of the camera software remains the same. That said, it’s a an excellent snapper with detailed pictures and lag-free 1080p @ 30 fps video shooting. Below the 8-megapixel rear camera, lies a 2100 mAh battery that promises to deliver 16 hrs of battery life on a regular usage basis.

Perhaps the better enhancements on the S3 is it’s software. Skinned on Android 4.0 (upgradable to 4.1 Jellybean), Samsung’s TouchWiz UI gets lot of additions and utilitarian features. It’s a list with all the “S’s” like S Beam, S Memo, S Planner, S Voice, Smart Stay, etc. Samsung brings in gesture based controls like the lock screen can now be used to pause music playback by simply placing the palm of your hand over the display. It works the same way for videos as well. A very smart motion control here is that one can swipe their palm over the screen to take a screenshot.  While composing a text message, one can make a Direct Call by just lifting the phone to your ear. One of it’s kind addition here is Pop up play which allows you to keep watching any video in a small, re-sizable window atop any other phone activity your carrying out. It shows the future of multi-tasking. Samsung has also started rolling out Jelly Bean update to present S3 owners, thus you don’t have to worry about being left-out with the latest update.

Why you should buy it?

Looking for the best Android phone that does it all? Look no further. This is the phone you should be buying right now. Samsung has covered it all – a great camera, a stunning display, a blazing fast processor and top of all useful gesture based controls that makes the S3 stand out from the rest of Android devices. There’s also a storage bonus for S3 buyers as Samsung is offering free 50 GB dropbox storage for 2 years. All things considered, the approx 34,000 INR price is justified and is a worthy buy in very sense.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2:

The first note was a revelation, a hybrid, a innovation by Samsung that diminished the line between a smartphone and a tablet. The humongous 5.3″ display was loved by many and criticized by few. The same applies to inclusion of a stylus in a phone, but Samsung had done much more than just adding the stylus for touch input replacements. It’s a year gone now and Samsung is ready with the next successor, and undoubtedly Note 2 excels at greater heights than the Note 1, thus landing in my best smartphones list.

It’s a good sign that Samsung is maintaining design uniformity for its top of the line devices. I say that because the Note 2 is exactly what the S3 looks like. In fact, I would call it a bigger S3 with an added stylus. Why I say bigger S3 is because the Note 2 now has a larger 5.5″ ( 1280 x 720) Super AMOLED HD display with 267 ppi. Hang on before you think this is too huge! Yes it is but yes it also has its set of advantages that make this large size one of the benefits as well. I myself wasn’t a fan of the huge Note 1, but having used the Note 2 for few hours, I found it marvelous, and the extra screen size is a bonus for viewing movies, browsing, games and of course using stylus with Samsung’s bundled S Pen apps. The curved back and other ergonomics of the phone contribute in better one-hand comfortable handling. Let’s appraise the fact that a large 5.5″ display, super speedy 1.6 Ghz quad-core chip with 2 GB RAM, same 8-megapixel senor of S3, S Pen stylus and a big 3100 mAh battery, altogether have been put inside a slim 9.4 mm body. It’s a engineering feat if you ask me.

The talking point of this phone is of course the stylus aka S Pen. Rest of the software is same as its on S3 with TouchWiz skinned on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The S Pen is now a lot more smarter, leaner and utilitarian than ever. You can use it to navigate your phone entirely. A new functionality called Air View for the S Pen has been added, which shows a dot on the screen exactly below where your stylus is hovering. This feels a lot like using a wireless mouse on PC with the pointer being your guide to increase accuracy. This functionality can do more like it can show thumbnails along a video’s timeline without the need to click. Another amazing addition is Multi Window which enables real time multi-tasking. One can use two apps side by side from the selected set of usable multi windows apps. There’s a lot more the stylus or even the Note 2 can do. Check out this amazing video that demonstrates the nitty-gritty of the phone:

Why you should buy it?

We all love big things that come in small packages and Galaxy Note 2 is one such piece of phone. It’s special, powerful, huge, very useful and does much more than any other smartphone on this planet can do.  The screen and stylus are the two small packages that make the Note 2 together a big bonus package. It feels more like using a PC than using a phone and that’s what makes it a real ‘smart’ device. If you ask me, it’s the best phone one can buy today. Available for a price tag of less than Rs. 35,000

Final Verdict

Again it all comes down to your choice of ecosystem. If iOS is your choice, iPhone 5 is the best you can get. If you’re an Android enthusiast, then Nexus 4 is your best bet. If you’re looking for best individual qualities like best display, best camera, best hardware, then Lumia 920 with the developing Windows Phone 8 software is your best choice. If you’re looking for the perfect Android phone with everything at it’s best, then Galaxy S3 is the phone you should be buying.

Lastly, in my opinion, regardless of any ecosystem or individual best characteristic Nokia Lumia 920 is the best 

More rumours of a Microsoft-branded Windows Phone 8 handset to be produced by Foxconn

Digitimes reports that Microsoft has now settled on an ODM to produce their own-branded Windows Phone 8 handset, the so-called ‘Surface phone.’

According to Digitimes’s sources Microsoft has retained Foxconn International Holding (FIH), famous for producing the iPhone for Apple.

Apparently Microsoft is still only testing the water, with only limited shipment volume procured initially, with the handsets set to launch in mid-2013.

Both  Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and FIH declined to comment.

With repeated reporting a Surface phone seems to become more and more likely.  Do our readers think Microsoft can out-do Nokia, or is their handset likely to be slightly shy of state of the art? Let us know below.

Is Nokia's 920 the most innovative smartphone?

Nokia's 920 Windows 8 Phone may be the best handset currently on the  market, at least in terms of features. 

The latest Nexus focused on a lower cost model, effectively taking it out of the running. And while the new iPhone 5 is very popular, it’s relatively small screen almost seems tiny in comparison to some of the latest Android devices like Samsung's Galaxy S III.

Essentially, to be a market leader, you have to demonstrate innovation so that others may follow you, which neither the latest Nexus or iPhone 5 is managing at the moment. From my perspective, the two phones that are vying for leadership right now are the Samsung Galaxy III S and the Nokia920.  

The Galaxy SIII clearly leads in size and the power of its flash (which could likely kill vampires at a distance), but the Nokia leads with inductive charging, as well as the best camera on the market. I personally know of several car manufacturers that are planning on integrating inductive charging. In addition, I use my phone camera quite frequently, so both of these features, at least for my purposes, trump the Samsung’s size. Plus, the 920 sales performance has been strong enough to prompt Nokia’s shares to jump 30%. So the device definitely seems to be a hit.

I’ve had the Nokia 920 for about a week now, here are my impressions.

Beautiful Phone

This is a pretty phone, while it didn’t come in the color I initially wanted (blue). However, you do get a choice and the white, black and red versions are stunning. I ended up with white but I do receive favorable comments from people when they see me use the phone. It looks and feels like hand art and the curved back and sides fit my hand extremely well. Meanwhile, the display is very bright and seems to work outdoors better than most.   However, I do find the text often too small to read without glasses and, unfortunately, Windows 8 Phone doesn’t support expanding all text (like the subject line in an email where folks often put addresses or notes).

   

Sound Quality

I’ve finally gotten rid of all my MP3 players and use the phone for most of my music.  The Nokiahandset boasts advanced listening features which only work if you are wearing a wired headset and not over Bluetooth. Unfortunately, I use a Bluetooth headset when driving. Yes, I think the sound is great but it seems a shame to have advanced Dolby features and not be able to actually use them. Then again, the sound quality out of the phone speaker itself is still impressive and reminds me of the AM/FM radios I had as a kid. Frankly, the only time I really use this speaker is for ring tones, but it does give me one heck of an impressive ring tone.

Bluetooth sound in the car is actually pretty impressive, but while pause and play work from the radio, skipping a track doesn’t and I’m hoping a coming patch will fix that. Nevertheless, it is kind of cool to be listening to some music on the phone and get in the car and have the music just continue, without plugging anything in.

Windows Phone 8

I’m a long time Windows Phone user and was a huge fan of Windows Phone 7.  This is a solid improvement over 7 though I’d still like a VPN (not supported) to be able to use Skype and Netflix when I’m out of the country (some countries block Skype but you can get around the block with a VPN and Netflix won’t work out of country without a VPN).  You’d also think Skype would come preloaded by now, but at least it is a free app. Finally, you have to use another free program called reinstalled to move your apps from one phone to the next.  This should be built in as well, and most of this is just annoying during the initial setup.    

Apps

The only app I’m missing is Aha Radio which ties in with my stereo system in the car, otherwise every app I use is on the phone. This platform offers an impressive variety right now and while it isn’t as big on paper as either iPhone or Android, those libraries are so big, you likely won't even know about most of the apps that are actually available. There is that one advantage to being smaller, namely, the ability to explore and find by browsing.   

Inductive Charging

I’m becoming a huge fan. Getting the micro-USB plug into most phones is a pain particularly when I’m tired and just want to go to bed. The number of times I’ve awakened to a dead phone because I didn’t push the plug in all the way is embarrassingly large as a result. With inductive charging, unique to the 920, you just set the phone down on the charger and walk away finding the phone fully charged when you wake up. It may seem like a little thing but it was a nightly annoyance to get that damned plug in the right way in a dark room and not having to do that is almost worth this phone alone.  

Pictures

This phone takes amazing pictures and if you’ve never used a Windows 7 or 8 phone you are missing the one button picture experience. Basically you pick up the phone, you don’t need to unlock it, hit the camera button, it brings up the camera, and then hit the button again to take a shot. It pushes the picture up to your SkyDrive and you can email or share it from the phone. When you get home, assuming you have the SkyDrive app on your PC, your pictures are waiting for you. To my knowledge this is the only camera phone you can get in this country with both mechanical image stabilization and high end (in this case Carl Zeiss) lenses. The result? Just incredible pictures and far fewer missed shots.  

Wrapping Up:   Just the Beginning of Better Together

It often seemed like the "better together" message that Microsoft has made for decades only really worked in some marketing guy’s head. But I’m now using a Surface Tablet on the road, a Windows 8 Workstation in the Office, the 920 Windows phone and damned if they don’t work together very nicely.  

Granted, there is some room for improvement, like automatically providing a similar personality across all three devices (right now you get commonality between tablet and PC but not the phone), or better syncing my passwords and ID for things like Skype and SkyDrive. But overall I’m impressed with the progress, as this is so much better than living in a Windows world used to be. So yes, I’m becoming a fan again.  

If Microsoft continues to make advancements like this, by the end of the decade, I doubt anyone will be able to touch them, even Apple.