14 DAY TRIAL // Last week at the IFA 2014 trade show in Berlin, Microsoft made official a new flagship Windows Phone 8.1-based device, namely the Nokia Lumia 830, which it touts as the most affordable such device at the moment.
The new mobile phone is set to become available for purchase in the near future with a price tag of only €330 ($427) attached to it, which indeed makes it a cheap flagship model, especially when compared to devices such as the Galaxy S5, iPhone 5S, and others.
With the new Lumia Denim software loaded on top, which is based on Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1, and with a series of new applications included in the package, the new handset is capable of offering some appealing capabilities and performance levels, that’s for sure.
We had the chance to put hands on the Lumia 830, and we snapped a few photos for you to go along with our impression of it. Moreover, we also had the chance to compare it with the Lumia 930 for a bit, so read along to learn more on what we found out.
Lumia 830 - thin, elegant design, but mid-range hardware specs
The new Lumia 830 sports a thin, elegant body, which leverages on the design that Nokia introduced earlier this year with the Lumia Icon and Lumia 930.
The phone features a metallic frame wrapped around its edge, along with a polycarbonate back cover, and offers good grip, while also catching eye with the 10-megapixel PureView camera on the back, which reminds everyone of last year’s 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020.
The hardware specs, however, are lower than what you would expect to find in a flagship device, though Microsoft is not the first maker to launch such a smartphone (Motorola did the same with last year’s Moto X).
As a quick reminder, Lumia 830 features a 5-inch HD screen, a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal memory, and a 10MP PureView camera on the back, paired with a 1MP front camera.
Basically, this is a mid-range phone, at least when looking at what can be found inside Android phones included in this market segment. Moreover, its price tag suggests the same.
Lumia 830 vs. Lumia 930 – which is more appealing?
Windows Phone enthusiasts will immediately realize that this phone sits below the Lumia 930 in terms of specs, though this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is less valuable.
The already available phone sports a 5-inch Full HD screen, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 20-megapixel PureView rear camera. However, it does not allow users to expand its 32GB of internal memory.
Lumia 930 can be seen as somehow in line with other high-end flagship phones out there, despite the aforementioned shortcoming.
One way or the other, both the Lumia 830 and the Lumia 930 are highly appealing devices, and some users might have a hard time choosing one over the other.
I would go for the Lumia 830, since it is thinner and lighter than the Lumia 930, but others might chose the brains over looks, even if Windows Phone 8.1 is not such a resource-demanding operating system.
In the end, it is only a matter of taste, I believe, since both of them appear to perform pretty fast and snappy, and since they offer the same software capabilities. Have a look at the photos below and let us know which of the two you would choose.
