14 DAY TRIAL // As a Windows Phone fan, it's hard not to have a look at flagships and the first option for many people out there is the Lumia 930.
Needless to say, Lumia 930 is pretty much the best option if you want to switch to Windows Phone and not go for a phablet such as the Lumia 1520 because it still has what it takes to be used with one hand most of the time. Even though that might seem really hard for those with small hands.
But there's no doubt that Lumia 930 impresses in terms of hardware capabilities and this is one of the reasons it's considered Microsoft's flagship.
First and foremost, it comes with an absolutely gorgeous 5-inch AMOLED display with 16 million colors, a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels, and Gorilla Glass coating. The moment you look at the screen and you see the quality of basically every single thing, it's hard not to want one.
What's more, the Lumia 930 features 32 GB of internal storage (no microSD card support is being offered), 2 GB of RAM, and a Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 processor that makes it possible to run any app and game out there quite smoothly.
As for cameras, Lumia 930 excels again. A 20-megapixel rear camera shooting photos with a resolution of 4992 x 3744 pixels is also offered and comes with 1/2.5'' sensor size, 1.12 µm pixel size, PureView technology, dual capture, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, and stereo sound recording. Again, outstanding to say the least.
And still, Microsoft and Nokia somehow managed to make Lumia 930 a headache for those who bought it and a device to avoid for those considering buying one. How exactly? Because of three major aspects (there are actually several others, but we'll only discuss those that are really widespread), all of which you'll find detailed below.
No Glance Screen support
Despite being a flagship, Lumia 930 lacks one of the most important features available on Windows Phone devices, and that is Glance Screen support.
Basically, this particular feature allows users to easily notice any missed call, received message, or email without even unlocking the phone. Basically, Glance Screen is the only feature that could beat the classic LED that made BlackBerry famous, and Lumia 930 doesn't have it.
Without Glance Screen, there's no way to see if you've got any missed calls without actually going over to the lock screen. And yes, when you do expect emails or messages and you're not always near the phone, that becomes an issue.
Not to mention that everyone would expect a flagship to come with the best of the Windows Phone lineup, so this is a major setback from the start.
In case you're wondering how come that Glance Screen is not available on the Lumia 930, it's all because of the display, which doesn't have enough memory for such a feature. And no, there is basically no workaround and you need to learn to live without Glance Screen. Or any other notification system.
Really poor battery life
Another thing that might put you up to test is the poor battery life. Unfortunately, Lumia 930, which comes with a 2420 mAh battery, barely makes it through the day if you're a heavy user. You always need to keep an eye on background apps and pretty much every single app running on your device drains your battery like hell.
It's a well-known fact that WhatsApp is one of the biggest battery killers on Windows Phone right now and despite updates, little has changed.
The worst thing is that most apps have a more or less strong impact on battery life, so it's really hard to enjoy the awesome device that Lumia 930 really is when trying to make sure that you have enough battery until you get home.
For the sake of stats, this morning I've used a fully charged Lumia 930 to shoot a 30-minute video. In 30 minutes, the battery dropped from 100 percent to 22 percent, so yes, sometimes battery life is really that awful.
Display issues
Last but not least, the display of the Lumia 930, which, by the way, looks stunning for both videos and photos, has caused quite a lot of issues to owners, so Microsoft had to release patches every once in a while to make sure that everything is working alright.
After a long-time issue causing a purple tint on some devices, Lumia 930 is now suffering from screen discoloration and Microsoft has already confirmed that another fix is on its way.
We've experienced the very same issue on one of our testing units, and needless to say, we're among those hoping to get the patch as soon as possible. So, we do know how painful it actually is to have a device that suffers from so many problems.
In the end, Lumia 930 remains a pretty awesome device, but you really need to struggle to keep liking it. At some point, however, you might simply get tired of all the issues you have with a flagship and simply move on. And choosing your next destination is not at all that hard.
