Nokia today took the wraps off the new Lumia 925 phone, which has an aluminium frame that functions as an antenna, and is lighter and thinner than the Lumia 920.
The Nokia Lumia 925 introduces a metal design and showcases the latest PureView camera technology, new features and third party applications coming to the Nokia Lumia range.
The phone also introduces the new Nokia Smart Camera mode, coming as an update to all Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Nokia Smart Camera offers an easy way to capture ten images at once and edit the pictures with options like Best Shot, Action Shot, and Motion Focus.
Nokia Smart Camera takes ten shots in a short burst at a resolution of 5 megapixels and stores all ten for as long as you need them. Best Shot will automatically find the sharpest picture from the set.
Change Faces will allow you to mix and match heads and other details to prevent blinking eyes or flapping hands from spoiling your pictures.
There?s also Remove Object to ensure that nobody gets in the way.
Alternatively, Action Shot highlights motion and brings together each picture in the series to create an effect.
Motion Focus simulates action by keeping your chosen subject still while blurring the background, giving the illusion that they?re moving at super speed.
Nokia Smart Camera will be also made available to all Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 smartphones both pre-loaded and over-the-air update the Nokia Lumia Amber update in the coming months. It will not be made available for Nokia Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 7.5 or 7.8 due to hardware and software requirements.
Nokia also announced Hipstamatic's new app, Oggl, will arrive on Nokia Lumia smartphones, allowing people to take and share high quality pictures with like-minded creatives and photography enthusiasts from around the world. In addition to sharing photos on Oggl, users can share photos on social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr and Instagram.
The Nokia Lumia 925 introduces metal for the first time to the Nokia Lumia range, bringing benefits like increased robustness. The polycarbonate back comes in white, grey or black. A wireless charging cover can be clipped onto the back of the phone to take advantage of Nokia's wireless charging accessories and ecosystem. Covers, sold separately, come in white, black, yellow, and red.
The phone weighs 139 grams, almost 50 grams lighter than its portly predecessor. It is also thinner, at 8.5 millimeters compared to 10.7 millimeters for the 920. Just like the Lumia 920, the 925 is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor from Qualcomm and have a 4.5-inch AMOLED screen with a 1280 x 768 pixel resolution and an 8.7-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization.
Nokia services, such as the HERE suite of integrated location and navigation services and Nokia Music for unlimited streaming of free music playlists, add to the proposition offered by Nokia's latest smartphone.
The Nokia Lumia 925 is being introduced into Europe with Vodafone, along with other operators and Nokia's retail partners. In addition to Europe, the Nokia Lumia 925 will be introduced into the US by T-Mobile and into China by China Mobile and China Unicom. Sales are expected to start in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and China in June, followed by the US and a number of other markets.
The phone will be priced around €469 EUR before taxes and subsidies.
On Friday, Nokia unveiled the Lumia 928 for the U.S. market, priced at $99 after a rebate and a two-year deal with Verizon Wireless.
Nokia lost almost 5 percentage points of market share in the first quarter, research company Gartner said on Tuesday. Samsung took much of the gains, remaining in the number one position with a market share of 23.6 percent, ahead of Nokia on 14.8 percent and Apple on 9 percent. Nokia had held a 19.7 percent share just a year ago.
Those figures followed a 13 percent rise in sales by Samsung, a 16 percent increase by Apple, and a 24 percent fall by Nokia, compared with the same period last year.
"Nokia's mobile phone share dropped 4.9 percentage points in the first quarter of 2013 mainly due to a steep decline in feature phone sales," said Gartner in its quarterly report on the industry.
"Although Nokia's Windows Phone sales have sequentially improved, reaching a volume of 5.1 million units, Nokia is yet to see high growth in the smartphone segment. Nokia's position in the smartphone market dropped to No. 10 in the first quarter of 2013, from No. 8 in the fourth quarter of 2012."
Lumia 925 tech specs
- Networks: GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900, WCDMA, 2100, 1900, 850, 900, LTE 2100, 1800, 2600, 900, 800
- Memory: 1GB RAM, 16 GB user memory
- Display: 4.5-inch AMOLED WXGA (1280?768)
- Processor: 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon
- Camera: PureView 8.7-megapixel with OIS, Autofocus, dual LED flash. 2nd camera: HD 1.2MP wide angle
- Size: 129 x 70.6 x 8.5* mm (*volumetric). Weight: 139g
- Connectivity: USB 2.0, BT 3.0, NFC, WLAN a/b/g/n, A-GPS and Glonass, 3.5mm audio connector
- Battery: 2000 mAh
- Audio: IHF speaker, 2 microphones, HD voice compliant, 3.5mm AV connector