The Nokia Lumia 925 is a very good phone. It more than makes up for the disappointment that was the Lumia 920.

The phone is light, well put together and has a brilliant camera and screen. But it has one fatal flaw and it's something that is beyond Nokia's control: Windows Phone 8.

Nokia

Hardware and design

The Lumia 925 features an aluminium and matte soft touch plastic construction which does differ slightly from Nokia's conventional approach to design.

We like it. It has a retro feel to it, which brings a real sense of style to the Lumia 925. It also helps differentiate the phone from the competition, without making it look hugely similar to the rest of Nokia's offerings.

The matte back is nice and grippy and remained fairly fingerprint free throughout our testing. The aluminium sides can be a little slippy, so make sure you get a good hold on the phone while using it.

The right side of the Lumia 925 features a lock button, volume rocker and dedicated camera shutter. On the back is an 8-megapixel Zeiss PureView camera unit, which we will talk about later.

The front of the phone features a 4.5-inch 768 x 1280 resolution AMOLED screen. Above that sits a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera.

You get three backlit touch-sensitive buttons, which are the standard back, Windows key and search found on every WP8 powered handset.

Internal specifications include a dual-core 1.5GHz Krait processor from Qualcomm, 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. In reality, this is more than enough power to keep Windows Phone ticking along sharpish.

Battery life is fairly good, helped in part by a 2,000 mAh battery, although extended use of the camera can impact things quite a bit.

We can't really fault the Lumia 925 for hardware. It doesn't need all the quad-core grunt Android requires to run smoothly, and as such matches most of the competition for speed.

The phone is also really well put together, sitting right up with the iPhone 5 and HTC One for build quality and looks. If design is your thing, then this phone will definitely put a smile on your face.

Nokia has also worked hard to shrink things down after its Lumia 920, the 925's predecessor, was deemed far too bulky by most reviewers. As such, this phone is a very pocketable 129 x 70.6 x 8.5 mm and weighs just 139 grams. This is definitely the handset the Lumia 920 should've been.

Nokia

Camera

The Lumia 925 has an outstanding camera. It sits right up there with the absolute best, and is only really bettered by the Nokia Lumia 1020's 41-megapixel unit.

Why is it so good? Well, apart from its impressive dynamic range and the fact that it takes decent photos in low light, it's the software you get along with it.

Nokia knows that smartphone photography is all about keeping it simple, and they have done a great job with the Lumia 925's camera app.

If you want to, then you can tweak everything from ISO to exposure and white balance, but we preferred leaving the phone to do its thing and just hitting the shutter button.

Switching to video is as easy as tapping the little camera icon in the photo app. Again with video, it's a case of simply tapping to record or using the shutter button, the 925 does the rest for you.

The included Nokia Smart cam app simplifies things even further, shooting a series of images and then helping you pick the best from each. You can remove motion from a frame or even pick the photo from a sequence in which everyone is smiling. It will make smartphone beginners very happy.

Our favourite photo app has to be the creative studio, however, which is like Instagram on steroids. Not only can you apply multiple different retro-style filters, it's also possible to tweak focus and even use a tilt-shift effect. The end results can be very impressive.

As for the PureView unit itself, the images are nice and sharp, but crucially have plenty of pop and dynamism compared to a normal smartphone photo. The display on the Lumia 925 also helps with taking photos and viewing them, as it works very well in direct sunlight.

One issue with the photography experience on the 925 is in the amount of storage space you get. With no expandable microSD storage and just 16GB of space to play with, photography fans will find themselves rapidly filling up the space on their phone.

Nokia

User interface and software

After being spoiled with the Lumia 925's camera, it's a shame to see the rest of the user experience fall short slightly.

Windows Phone remains as simple and easy to use as ever, but still lacks a lot of the fundamental 'must haves' of any modern day smartphone.

Notifications, for example, are still painfully irritating to manage. Then there are other issues such as the lack of quick settings or - and this is the biggie - major apps not being available.

Nokia has worked wonders bringing excellent app offerings to Windows Phone 8. Here Maps and Here Drive for example are just as good as what you'll find on Android or iOS. We also mentioned the great job Nokia had done on photo apps.

Really though, the top-quality apps end there. All the major bases like Facebook and Twitter are covered - but there is no official Instagram app, nor is there access to Vine. Smartphone classics like Plants vs Zombies 2 are missing and the rest of the gaming offering on Windows Phone doesn't even compare to what Android and iOS have.

If you own an Android or iOS tablet, then the 925's app experience is a lot less painful. We found ourselves relying on the handset for core smartphone activities like email, texting and of course photography, and then reverting to an iPad mini for all things app-based.

For us, the quality of the camera on the 925, coupled with the ease of use found with Windows Phone 8, made the need to carry an extra tablet around worth it. We would love to see more apps on WP8, but it isn't going to happen overnight.

For some, the Windows Phone user interface is going to feel very restrictive. It's so pared back and simple that it can at times feel like you are getting a bit short-changed. It is, however, a fantastic door-opener for those who haven't used smartphones before, simply because it's so intuitive.

Paired with the PureView camera unit and the excellent suite of Nokia camera apps found in the Lumia 925, we think its app-related shortcomings are forgivable, provided of course they aren't your top priority.

Nokia

Music and movies

Music options on the Lumia 925 come in three distinct forms. First up you have the Nokia Music app, which brings plenty of on demand music to download and stream.

Then there is the Xbox Music store and its optional Xbox Music Pass, which brings unlimited Spotify-style music streaming for a price of £8.99.

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Finally you have the Spotify app itself, which was noticeably buggy on Windows Phone 8.

As for movies, there is plenty to choose from in terms of rentals via the Xbox Video store, and of course there is a Netflix app for more all-you-can-eat video.

Playback is great on the 925's screen, which features something called PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack technology. Buzzwords aside, it translates to deep blacks and vivid colours as well as great brightness levels. The 925 is particularly good for watching video outside, as it handles direct sunlight very well.

Nokia

The competition

Competition comes in the form of the HTC 8X, which is nicely designed but can't really be compared to the Lumia 925 simply because of the Nokia's camera.

Of course, there are other devices running different operating systems. In terms of simplicity, the iPhone 5 is definitely close, but the Nokia bests the Apple in camera terms.

Verdict

The Nokia Lumia 925 is the best Windows Phone you can currently buy in the UK. It's also one of our favourite handsets of 2013.

The lack of apps is definitely an issue, but the screen and camera on the Nokia more than make up for it. We also think that tablet iOS or Android tablet users won't have issues with apps, simply because they can get those they desperately need on a tablet.

Build quality is great, and the phone has a real underdog feel to it that makes it quite an attractive proposition. This is the sort of handset people will ask about. An iPhone 5 or Samsung Galaxy S4 isn't.

In the US, we think the Lumia 1020 is the phone to go for, simply because the PureView camera on it is just so much better. Once it releases in the UK, then Nokia's photo flagship will replace the 925 as our phone of choice.

Don't think though that the Lumia 925 will be a disappointment. This is a great phone, and well worth investing in. Buy for the usability and the camera, not for the apps.4

Nokia Lumia 925

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