by
Brad Molen
Microsoft Devices, formerly known as Nokia's phone division, is no
slouch when it comes to its device lineup. Lately, it's been focused on
refining the top and bottom of its Lumia Windows Phone lineup, but the
phone maker came to IFA in Berlin with a couple of devices to freshen up
the middle of the pack. The company's strategy: Bring the PureView
brand, which has typically been associated with Nokia's premium phones,
to a more affordable price point on the Lumia 830. In fact, Microsoft
bills the 830 as "the affordable flagship." The device looks very
similar to the Lumia 930
in that it comes with the aluminum frame and polycarbonate back. While
it uses the PureView name, the rear camera's 10MP resolution isn't quite
as good as the 930 or 1020, but it's understandable given the lower
price point. Still, the device will come with plenty of extra software
enhancements to improve the experience.
The device will ship with the Lumia Denim update, which is
Microsoft Device's specially packaged version of Windows Phone 8.1.1
(Update 1). That refresh comes with a new version of Lumia Camera, which
comes with faster shot-to-shot and pocket-to-picture times and several
other enhancements to the imaging experience.
One interesting feature in the new Lumia Camera is the ability to
take two pictures: One with flash and one without. When editing the
final image, it offers a slider that lets you change the flash effect up
in the picture. In other words, if the flash was too bright, but the
image is too dark without the flash, you can now tweak the end result to
somewhere in between.
As for the hard specs, the 830 comes with a 5-inch 720p display,
Gorilla Glass 3, slightly curved (2.25D) glass, a 2,200mAh battery and a
1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400. At first glance, it's hard to discern
the 830 from the 930, largely due to the aluminum sides. However, it's
actually quite a bit thinner than its bigger brother, at 8.5mm, and the
PureView camera module mimics the circular black one on the Lumia 1020.
It also comes with a removable polycarbonate back. Even though it's a
thinner device, it's still just as easy to hold and looks sleeker than
the 930.
Fortunately, the 830 retains the hardware shutter key prevalent on
the other PureView devices. It's on the lower-right side of the phone,
which on this particular device sits right where my pinky finger rests.
This makes the holding experience slightly awkward, but I imagine it'll
be easy to get used to altering my grip a bit after enough time using
the device.
The 830 will come in green, orange, gray and white and start shipping globally this month at 330 euro.
