Nokia Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8X by HTC now available for preorder from Best Buy

[Master Devwi]

With a new slate of Windows 8 PCs and tablets coming out on Friday (like the Surface) and new Windows Phone handsets arriving on store shelves in a few weeks, the pricing announcements are starting to become quite regular. Best Buy has gone ahead and put the Nokia Lumia 920 and Windows Phone 8X by HTC up for preorder, revealing the price tags for the smartphones in the process.

Interestingly, while both devices will run you $599.99 for an unlocked device, the subsidized versions of the two top-of-the-line Windows Phone 8 handsets aren’t the same price. Starting today, you can preorder a Lumia 920 for $149.99 with a two-year contract or a Windows Phone 8X by HTC in “California Blue” for just $99.99. Unfortunately, not all colors are available for preorder at this point, and the Lumia 920 listing appears to be going up and down.

Do you think Best Buy jumped the gun on putting the devices up for preorder before AT&T’s official announcement? Will you be picking up one of these phones?

[Best Buy via All About Microsoft]

[CrowdAds]

[The DarkSide]

I'm waiting a bit,...I want a comparison between the camera of the Lumia 920 vs SG Note II.

[The DarkSide]

Ok, I have this on the way,...

[The DarkSide]

I received my Lumia 920, and I luv it. It's really quite an improvement over the 7.5 OS, and the hardware is excellent. As for the music, it powered my hfi-780's!!! I'm liking the new experience,...even loaded my iTunes playlists (buggy tho,...comp app keeps crashing before finish - my only complaint).

[El C]

How is WP8 compared to Android, iOS, etc.? Nobody at my school seems to have WP8 so it's hard to make comparisons.

[The DarkSide]

I personally love the simplicity and ease of use. It's not buggy, the OS runs smooth, and everything works like I want it to. The games & apps are limited compared to Android ATM, but that's changing over time - the same as when Android was young.

I'll put it this way: if you've tried a Zune HD you have an idea of what a WP7 device is like. But WP8 is like a Zune on STEROIDS!!! It's excellent, and I can gladly say I'm very satisfied with my decision to get my Lumia 920.

Look at this, then try BEFORE you buy: http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/1/35...mia-920-review

[Jeven]

Interestingly Windows phones fell from 3% to 1.9% of total market share recently - so much for the 3rd ecosystem, currently 6th and failing badly, behind Bada, Symbian and Blackberry. Nokia has dropped to 10th in handset manufacturers and will probably expire soon.


BIGGEST SMARTPHONE OPERATING SYSTEMS BY UNIT SALES IN Q3 2012

Rank . OS Platform . . . . . . Units . . . . . Market share . . Was in Q2 of 2012
1 . . . . Android . . . . . . . . . 121.2 M . . . . 70.7 % . . . . . . . ( 66.9 %)
2 . . . . iOS . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.9 M . . . . 15.7 % . . . . . . . ( 17.0 %)
3 . . . . Blackberry . . . . . . . . 7.4 M . . . . . 4.3 % . . . . . . . ( 5.1 %)
4 . . . . bada . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 M . . . . . 3.0 % . . . . . . . ( 2.7 %)
5 . . . . Symbian . . . . . . . . . 3.4 M . . . . . 2.0 % . . . . . . . ( 3.3 %)
6 . . . . Windows Phone . . . . 3.3 M . . . . . 1.9 % . . . . . . . ( 3.0 %)
others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.0 M . . . . . 2.3 % . . . . . . . ( 1.1 %)
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171.4 M

[Marvin the Martian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpBTr4mxfhA&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=SPtV1WcjFsGp2wkSvpWiX0LkPtNqYfeHSg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpBTr4mxfhA&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=SPtV1WcjFsGp2wkSvpWiX0LkPtNqYfeHSg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CVBJ0FaCuU&feature=channel&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CVBJ0FaCuU&feature=channel&list=UL

[skip252]

Originally Posted by skip252

I've done a cleanup here. I may do some more, I'm still reading. The long timers know this but let me say it for the new members.

You need to find a way disagree without making it personal. Period.

Flamebait and personal insults aren't part of how you express yourself here. There's a way to disagree without being personally insulting. If the way to do that doesn't come to you immediately, you need to back away from the keyboard until it does.

Please don't make me need to deal with this again.

Please notice that's a quote. I'm dealing with the same thing again. Not cool.

This is the second and last warning about expressing yourself politely. After this I take stronger action to help those involved to remember to play nice. That's meant for everyone that contributed to the nastiness.

[The DarkSide]

Well, I'm still enjoying my Lumia 920. I'm very happy with it's performance & great battery life. This is a great deal,...especially @$99. #winner!!!

[skip252]

Use it much for music? How easy is it to load up? Playlists?

I'm not getting a new phone atm. I just want to try to have a little something to work with when I do start looking.

[The DarkSide]

The 920 is either drag & drop OR you can use the downloaded "Windows Phone" app to sync over iTunes playlists. I have most of my playlists on now, and the SQ is actually very good. Having a custom EQ onboard doesn't hurt either (where the hell was this on the Zune HD???). I'm not too fond of the Dolby sound processing tho, as it sounds artificial & mechanical - I keep that off.

Now, some have reported having issues with battery life, and I've had a drain issue when I had the Nokia Drive app set to run in the background. After I blocked it from running (a simple click or 2 away) I have excellent battery life. I was getting around 12hrs with it on. And I disabled Tap+Send (NFC) when I initially set the phone up,... People report around 6hrs of life with that enabled,...

Overall it's fantastic. It's definitely better than the Lumia 900,...and I prefer it over iOS any day. And I like Android, but the constant lagginess is annoying to me. Stock Android tho is excellent. I'd have waited to get the new Nexus, but the lack of 4G and only having 16GB of storage turned me off. TBH I think the new HTC One X+ is another excellent phone,...but I wanted this.

Oh, yeah,...I almost forgot. The camera is excellent as well. I mostly take shots in low light, so this was a no-brainer choice for me. All the other phones miss the mark, except the iPhone 5. It actually comes close,...I just don't really want iOS on my PHONE!!!

Honestly, I chose a phone that would be easy to use, reliable, take great pictures, have great SQ AAANNNDDD a custom EQ, and not lag or crash. I got what I wanted,...and as much as I was a MS and Zune critic, this is what I think an excellent phone should be like.

[aimran]

Hey, TDS, did you received the free wireless charging pad? All Lumia 920 users who purchased it from AT&T are supposed to get one.

Also, the biggest complaint of the 920 is its weight. Do you really find it noticeably heavier than other smartphones? I don't know what item is a comparable to the weight of the Lumia 920.

Also you may already heard that Nokia is coming out with a camera fix which is supposed to improve the camera performance even more especially in daylight.

[The DarkSide]

I'm waiting on the case, but I did speak to a customer service rep and they said I will receive one.

Weight wise I find the phone to be somewhat heavy, but you need to consider the tech inside. The charging coil, camera, decent sized battery, and solid polycarbonate case all add up to SOLID!!! It's not really heavy I guess, it PREMIUM!!!

As for the camera itself, I've read that the update for it is being prepped. I'm unsure of the release date, but Nokia doesn't tend to let their customers down. The pics I take all seem leagues ahead of what I'm used to on any cellphone I've owned so far, so I doubt I'll be disappointed.