IT168 Review If you are an old WP user, then you must be familiar with the Samsung Focus, Samsung Omnia 7, HTC HD7, HTC Mozart and other models launched in 2010. To put it into perspective, this year is already WP’s fourth year. After four years of flat and concise style, it has finally ushered in the immersive style of the mobile phone industry; with the reputation of being the world's three major mobile OS, WP's current market share is actually much lower than Android and iOS. It should be said that Windows Phone has gone "too far on the road of beauty and emotion" in recent years. Of course, the same is true for the Lumia 830, the protagonist of today's review.

Looking back on the first half of this year, the separation and merger between Nokia and Microsoft finally came to an end. Nokia joined Microsoft. Although the difference in hardware seems to be only the logo, there are also considerable adjustments at the system level and strategy. Of course, these are not the focus of today.

Shifting back to the present, Windows Phone 8.1 has been fully promoted this year, and the newly added Cortana smart assistant has also made great breakthroughs in intelligent interaction. Everything seems to be very nice. So as the world's first Lumia 830 equipped with Cortana intelligent assistant, is it really good? How does the 10-megapixel lens perform? Can the "visual beauty" that has persisted for many years be unified with a good experience? As an ordinary user, let alone feelings about "Lumia 830" Is it equally suitable for use? Let’s look at this experience review with questions.

In terms of hardware, Lumia 830 is equipped with a Qualcomm quad-core processor, has 1GB RAM, and a 5-inch 720P screen; it also uses a new 10-megapixel PureView optical anti-shake lens assembly, supports battery replacement, and supports memory expansion. It also supports Qi wireless charging. Thickness is 8.5mm. It should be said that hardware is not the strong point of Windows Phone phones, but in terms of extended performance, Lumia 830 looks OK.

Appearance design performance: five points (out of five points)

As a Windows Phone device, Lumia 830 has a strong "bloodline" of Nokia, which we can tell from the appearance alone. It can be seen. In addition to the visual roundness, the 2.5D screen on the front also always provides a good tactile feel to the touch screen. This started with the Lumia 800 and started with the iPhone 6, but products like the Lumia 800 and the Nexus 2 were the original movers.

The top of the fuselage is a concave mesh earpiece, front lens and sensor. The bottom is the traditional three Windows Phone buttons. Press and hold the return button to switch out of the background. It is worth mentioning that although the three buttons are equipped with a backlight design, the backlight will only be turned on at night (through light sensing), which is also an energy-saving design.

However, here, the author still wants to complain about the key arrangement of Windows Phone. Although we understand how much Microsoft attaches importance to search on the mobile terminal, it is obvious that the return (while taking into account the background recall function) key is used much more frequently than search. That's why you designed the return button so far away. Do all the men with small hands in your unit know?

This family-like design gene also appears on the frame of the mobile phone. Although it is positioned at the mid-range, this phone is currently the only three Lumia products with metal frames. The other two are Lumia 925 and 930. Therefore, whether it is style or feel, you don’t have to worry about Lumia830 being suspected of being a “mid-range product with average styling”.

In addition to the premium feel in terms of styling, the addition of metal is also based on hand feel considerations. After getting started, the fineness and hardness of the metal can give people a more solid and reliable impression. At the same time, combined with the plastic material on the back, it is not particularly "slippery", and it feels good to operate with one hand.

In addition, in order to take into account the signal strength, the L phone also adopts an integrally cut and injection-molded four-antenna design, and the signal strength is still very satisfactory.

As a one-hand control model with a 5-inch screen, the Lumia 830 naturally places the unlock button and integrated volume buttons on the right side of the fuselage (many Lumias did the same before) made). Just from the perspective of experience, the key position is in the middle and lower position, the key travel feedback is good, and there is no color difference between the keys and the frame. It can definitely get full marks.

In addition, as a camera in a mobile phone (Nokia is indeed relatively good at taking pictures), Nokia still retains an independent two-stage camera button this time. In any state, you can wake up the camera function, short press to focus, and long press to take pictures. This type of mobile phone that is extremely close to a card machine is currently only well preserved by Sony and Nokia.

On the back of the fuselage, Lumia 830 also adopts a 2.5D arc design and is made of polycarbonate material with a matte effect, giving the overall touch a good feel. At the same time, just from an experience perspective, the combination of "metal and plastic" is indeed a good combination that takes into account both touch feel and grip firmness.

The Luima gene is also rich in the rear "Oreo" lens. As a company that has repeatedly made breakthroughs in photography technology, Nokia has become famous for its 40 million high pixels and pure scene technology. , and what is also remembered by people is the flat glass lens design called "Oreo". As for the performance of this lens in addition to visual beauty, we will talk about it later.

In addition, it must be said that this time Lumia 830 adopts a detachable rear design. Of course, in addition to removable, we can actually hear another word "replaceable battery". For mobile phones where the all-in-one trend is prevalent and the battery life is still short, it is quite nice to be able to change the battery at any time.

This concludes the appearance evaluation of this mid-range model, which features a fusion of classic Nokia styling, metal frame design, and 2.5D screen. The accumulation of fine designs not only makes this Lumia 830 look beautiful, but also makes a 2,000 yuan product feel like a high-end machine. So apart from these, how is the other performance of this phone. Let's take our time.

Application function performance: four and a half points (out of five points)

As mentioned before, Window phone has actually gone through four years from the past to the present. If the flatness and simplicity of the system and the beauty of the phone are combined into one, it is not an exaggeration to say that Lumia 830 is a beautiful product. But as for whether it is easy to use, the performance and improvement of the system are the key.

In the first half of this year, Microsoft released the developer preview version of Window phone 8.1. Many users actually experienced it in advance. Judging from the updated projects, this time Microsoft has brought a brand new The drop-down notification menu, the addition of battery power percentage, separate volume option settings, and the introduction of the wallpaper concept all make Window phone 8.1 look more complete and richer than before. So what is the actual experience? Let’s talk about it one by one.

Let’s talk about the drop-down notification menu first. Whether it is the notification menu launched earlier by Android or the version launched later by iOS, it all includes a drop-down notification menu. This time, Window phone 8.1 finally allows users to pull down to see application and message notifications, and can customize shortcut buttons. It can be said that it has made great progress compared to the past. However, it is a pity that there are only four shortcut buttons, which is indeed a bit missing for commonly used shortcut operations.

Another major update point should be on the start desktop. The main interface of Window phone has always been displayed in the form of a magnet. Although it is beautiful, the magnet form takes up a lot of screen space, and there is a lack of folders to put more content on one home screen.

In this update, Window phone 8.1 has added the concept of folders. Fully transparent and dynamic magnet folders and good "pop-up effects" can be considered a beautiful and practical choice. In addition, Windows Phone 8.1 allows users to choose a picture they like as the background of the entire screen. You can make adjustments through the "Settings"-"Start Theme" option.

Of course, this update also brings features such as the new IE11 browser, Cortana voice assistant, upgraded sliding input method and more convenient wireless network connections. It should be said that compared to previous versions, Microsoft’s updates this time are very obvious. In terms of functionality alone, although it is not as highly customizable as Android, as a system, it is already very good in terms of convenience. So for users who plan to experience Windows Phone for the first time, Lumia 830 is very easy to get started.

Finally, I would like to add something about the flat interface. Although the immersive style has become the mainstream aesthetic style of ROM, most of them use frosted glass and "flatten" the icons. At this point, Microsoft's "using color blocks as a foil to highlight the main text and content" is undoubtedly more sophisticated. Only the main information is displayed on the screen, clean and without redundancy. This is the core and essence of flatness.

Application reserve performance: three and a half points (out of five points)

For a long time, Windows Phone has been criticized most for its number of applications. Looking at the data alone, the number of applications on the virtual shelf of the Windows Phone App Store (Windows Phone Store) reached 300,000 in August this year. Although there is still a big gap in the number of million-level apps on Android and iOS, 300,000 is no longer a small number. We still need to test whether these applications can cover our daily needs.

▲The lack of applications is our vague impression of Windows Phone

Before testing, we still need to compare the current Windows Phone application coverage with the other two. According to the application report given by iApps & New Frontier Alliance in September, among the top 100 software on the Android platform, 88 have been released on the WP platform, while the comparison result on the ios platform is 92. The main differences are in the input method and system cleaning. , virus protection. In other words, Windows Phone actually has a lot of mainstream commonly used applications.

▲The actual situation is that there are many missing education, financial management, and health applications, and there is not much difference between ordinary applications.

So is the actual situation like this? We browse in the app store, Including the commonly used QQ, WeChat, Weibo, Alipay, Taobao, group purchasing and ordering software, video clients, subway ticket grabbing, travel, there are indeed many of them. At the same time, recently popular clients such as NetEase Cloud Music and Yixin are also available in the app store. Therefore, for ordinary users, Windows Phone does have a lot of daily software. It is not a problem to "eat, drink and play enough with one phone in hand", and you don't have to worry too much when buying it.

So what is the difference between the number of 300,000 apps and the 1.2 million apps on iOS? We have problems in relatively in-depth application screening. Taking the social platform application Douban as an example, although we can find official versions of software such as Douban Group, when it comes to the commonly used Douban reading, WP's application mall is beyond its capabilities. Similarly, the newly launched "One-Way Street Reading" is available on both Android and iOS, but it also does not appear in the Windows Phone app store.

In other words, the clients of big-name applications and big platforms will definitely not miss the Windows Phone platform.

But for new social platforms, or software in the early stages of development, R&D energy is limited, and Microsoft users may sometimes be ignored. Therefore, if you are an application lover and a follower of all kinds of new and fun APPS, then Lumia 830 is still not suitable for you.

In addition to applications, the number of games is also a concern for many users. Microsoft's performance in this regard is relatively good. After all, compared to application development, game manufacturers have higher scale and costs. Some popular games are also managed by large manufacturers. Basically, it is less difficult to develop Windows Phone versions. We can easily find games like My Name is MT and the latest version of Asphalt, and the performance is still good.

So overall, the number of basic applications of Lumia is still satisfactory. If you are a user who usually listens to music, watches videos, browses Taobao, seeks group purchases, and occasionally reads online novels, Windows Phone 8.1 will definitely satisfy you. The so-called few applications are actually aimed at those "application control".

Voice performance: four and a half points (out of five)

Lumia 830 is the first Lumia phone equipped with Cortana voice assistant, so the performance of this application is relatively more popular. People pay attention. Of course, given that the popularity of voice control has not been high in the years since Siri was released, we still have a question mark on the practicality of Cortana voice assistant.

▲Voice software already has many competitors

In fact, when it comes to voice search, various system manufacturers have set their priorities very high. Therefore, long pressing Home on Apple can change the voice. In the early years, the four physical buttons of Android phones also had a place for search. Nowadays, Microsoft has assigned the search key function that is easiest to press to Cortana, which shows that it attaches great importance to it internally.

Similar to most voice devices, most functions of Microsoft Cortana are still based on connecting to the Internet. If you are not connected to the Internet at the time, you can only make calls, switch songs, etc. Basic commands, etc., and more query and search functions cannot be implemented.

When connected to the Internet, we see that the functions of this voice assistant are beginning to come into play. First of all, I think it is a process of "understanding" between the system and people. Xiaona will consult with you about your usual reading habits and subscription hobbies during this period. After completing some simple questions and answers, this voice assistant will automatically push you some relevant information.

As for speech recognition, Microsoft Cortana's interactive line is still very good. For example, if you ask to turn on music or make a call, he will guide you step by step to complete the operation and complete the instructions in the command message. As for the real recognition effect, we have also done a comparison with Siri here, you can jump to pay attention. Click to view details In addition, due to the integration of a large number of applications within the system, Cortana can also perform cooperative application operations for you, such as voice posting on Weibo to search for songs to listen to, etc. But if you are using non-cooperative software such as Tencent Weibo or QQ Music, you cannot implement these functions.

Of course, as a voice assistant, Microsoft has improved a lot compared to its previous simple integrated web search. However, although there is no obvious gap in overall capabilities compared to Siri, there is still a lot to improve in terms of the overall level of voice. After all, we rarely see people using a voice software for an extended period of time.

Function Easter Egg: Dolby Surround Sound

In addition, this time Lumia 830 also adopts a three-earpiece design. The reason for this arrangement is not only the arrangement of call quality, In fact, there are also audio-visual considerations. This time Lumia uses Rich Recording high-fidelity recording technology, which can perfectly restore the recorded sound field.

At the same time, combined with Dolby sound effects to bring real 5.1 surround sound recording, Lumia 830 can make the recorded videos better restore the sound effects at the time. The sound changes from loud to soft, and the direction can be reflected in the distance.

It can be said that although this function is "inconspicuous", the improvement in experience is still relatively large.

As for the actual performance, we found a relevant video. Wearing headphones and watching the video at the same time, you can "hear" the sound of water flowing under your feet and then slowly flowing away with your ears. In addition to being immersed in the scene, it is indeed a novel experience.

Camera function performance: five points (out of five points)

In terms of photography, Lumia 830 has a 10-megapixel lens, an aperture of F2.2, and a sensor size of 1/3.4 ", and also supports optical image stabilization, and the overall configuration is far more than 2,000 yuan. Combined with the final price of 2,399 yuan, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is currently the cheapest PureView mobile phone. Plus its Oreo With its high-profile lens design, we are undoubtedly looking forward to its photography performance.

Familiar interface and familiar operations. I believe many users are also very familiar with Lumia’s traditional “quasi-SLR” setting interface. . By clicking, you can quickly draw out the setting options such as "ISO, shutter, aperture, manual focus", and of course, you can automatically complete the photo without touching it.

Judging from the actual sample. The Lumia 830 has good detail and excellent picture clarity, and the depth of field performance in macro photography is also very good. If compared with the iPhone 5s priced at 3,700 yuan, the performance of the former is of course better in the above aspects. Yes, the 10-megapixel lens is quite powerful.

▲Outdoor proofs

▲Outdoor proofs

▲Outdoor proofs

▲ Macro proofs

As for the night scene proofs, thanks to the larger photosensitive element and optical image stabilization function, it is not difficult to see that the brightness of the Lumia 830's photos is much better than that of the iPhone 5s. At the same time, the optics are much better. Anti-shake has indeed greatly increased the "photography rate" of night photos, and the photos will not be blurred due to hand shaking. However, the white balance stability and anti-glare effect of this machine are still not as good as that of the "industry benchmark Little Apple", and the lights are relatively blurry. Seriously.

▲Night scene sample

▲Night scene sample

Based on the daytime and nighttime imaging performance, Lumia 830 is indeed worthy of its powerful hardware parameters. And appearance design. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is one of the best camera phones in this price range. If you are interested in this aspect, you can actually consider buying it.

Evaluation summary: For smart phones. For a product like a mobile phone that is extremely developed and rich in functions, the wooden barrel theory is actually perfect. Therefore, in this evaluation, we have seen the ratings before each item, and it is not difficult to see that Lumia. The 830 has received very high scores in aspects such as appearance, system experience, and camera performance, but the problem still arises. The machine does have certain shortcomings in its applications. For ordinary users, the machine can be considered a good one. A full five-point model (because the application requirements are met). But what’s embarrassing is that Lumia’s sentimental style also has many fans of pan-tech fans, and such people are undoubtedly relatively obsessed with APPS. It has to be said that A contradiction.

Finally, let me answer the first few questions. At present, Lumia 830 has developed to a relatively sufficient level in terms of applications, and novice users can fully satisfy it; at the same time, after the update. The system is also complete and easy to use, and ordinary users have no pressure to get started; the 10 million pixels indeed perform well, and it is worth considering for users who love taking pictures. As for whether to buy or not, you should consider it based on your personal circumstances.