Nokia just announced its flagship Windows Phone 8 handset, the Lumia 925.  Though it’s not that different from the previous Lumia 920 and 928, it should be noted that it was improved, mostly for the camera.  Not enough of a change to win you over?  The Lumia 925 has other great features that Nokia believes is capable of beating the competition.

With that said, it’s time for another one of SiliconANGLE’s mobile comparison pieces.  This time, we’ll be pitting the Lumia 925 against the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Apple iPhone 5.  So it’s a Windows Phone 8 vs. Android vs. iOS piece.  Let the battler begin!

Design

 

Nokia Lumia 925: Slim and lightweight aluminum unibody available in grey, white and black variants, has external keys for volume, camera and power/lock.  The camera has been raised so it has a little hump on the back, but that’s okay, that little hump on the back is what made the phone slimmer.

Samsung Galaxy 4: Special polycarbonate body, slim bezel, wide display, unique textured design

iPhone 5: Anodized 6000 series aluminum body, ceramic glass or pigmented glass inlays that gives it the two-toned look, diamond-Cut beveled edge, first Retina display with integrated touch technology that makes it the thinnest, lightest, fastest iPhone – according to Apple.

Dimensions

 

Lumia 925: Height 129 x Width 70.6 x Depth 8.5 mm, Weight 139g

Galaxy S4: 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9 mm, 130g

iPhone 5: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm, 112 g

Display

 

Lumia 925: 4.5” AMOLED super sensitive touchscreen, 1280 x 768 pixels, PureMotion HD+, ClearBlack, Brightness control, Orientation sensor, High brightness mode, Sunlight readability enhancements, Refresh rate 60 Hz, Corning Gorilla Glass 2, Sculpted glass, Easy to clean, Lumia Color profile, Wide viewing angle

Galaxy S4:  5-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 1080 x 1920 pixels, ~441 ppi pixel density, topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, multitouch

iPhone 5: 4” Retina display with 1136 x 640 resolution and 326 ppi, Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on front, multitouch

Operating System

 

Lumia 925: Window Phone 8

Galaxy S4: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean

iPhone 5: iOS 6

Processor

 

Lumia 925: Dual-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, 1GB RAM

Galaxy S4: Exynos 5 Octa 5410, 1.9GHz quad-core or 1.6GHz octa-core processor, depending on what region you’re from, 2GB RAM

iPhone 5: A6 – Apple engineered chip – dual-core 1.2 GHz, 1GB RAM

Battery/battery life

 

Lumia 925: 2000 mAh,  maximum 2G talk time – 18.3 h, maximum 3G talk time – 12.8 h, maximum 3G standby time – 440 h, music playback time – 55 h, wireless charging with charging sleeve

Galaxy S4: 2600 mAh Li-Ion removable battery, Stand-by time – up to 370 h on 3G, Talk time – up to 17 h on 3G, and up to 62 h of music play

iPhone 5: Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G; Browsing time: Up to 8 hours on LTE, Up to 8 hours on 3G, Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi; Standby time: Up to 225 hours

Capacity and Price

 

Lumia 925: 16GB with 7GB free cloud storage, will be available in June on T-Mobile in the US for about $600.

Galaxy S4: 16/32/64 GB storage, can be upgraded with up to 64GB of storage via microSD, about US$725 or £480 or AUD$695 without a contract. Coming to T-Mobile on the 24th of April, with a $149 downpayment and a $20 monthly installment fee for 24 months.  For Sprint, the device will be available on the 27th of April, and pricing starts at $249.99 with a 2-year contract for current subscribers, while news subscribers will get to enjoy the device at a lower price of $149.99.

iPhone 5: 16GB $199, 32GB $299, 64GB $399with free 5GB iCloud – with a new two-year contract either on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. T-Mobile offers the iPhone 5 with an installment plan of $99 for the first payment, then $20 per month for two years.

Cellular and Wireless

 

Lumia 925: Bluetooth 3.0, WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC, 1800 MHz, 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, LTE network bands – 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, WCDMA network – 900 MHz, 2100 MHz, 1900 MHz, 850 MHz

Galaxy S4: 2G GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100, 4G LTE, GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Infrared port

iPhone 5: GSM model: GSM/EDGE; UMTS/HSPA+; DC-HSDPA; CDMA model: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B; LTE; Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n; 802.11n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz); Bluetooth 4.0; GPS and GLONASS

Camera

 

Lumia 925: main camera – 8.7MP PureView camera with Carl Zeiss lens, 4x digital zoom, f/2.0  aperture, with dual LED flash, 6-lens optics, and features: Touch focus, Landscape orientation, Exposure compensation, Auto and manual exposure, Auto and manual white balance, Still image editor, Face recognition, Full screen viewfinder, Geotagging, Optical image stabilization, True 16:9 sensor, PureView, Backside-illuminated image sensor, Automatic photo upload to web services, Full resolution photo and video upload, Creative Studio.

It also has the new Nokia Smart Camera that lets users combine your favourite expressions from a series of shots into a single perfect group photo, Cinemagraph lens, Panorama lens, and Bing vision.  It also has a 1.2MP front facing camera capable of taking still photos, record HD videos and functions as a video call camera.  Has PhotoBeamer which turns any screen showing www.photobeamer.com into your personal projector.

Galaxy S4: rear camera – 13MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, front camera – 2 MP, 1080p@30fps, dual video call, Dual Shot, Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization, HDR

iPhone 5: 8MP iSight camera that features Autofocus, Tap to focus, LED flash, Backside illumination sensor, Five-element lens, Face detection, Hybrid IR filter, ƒ/2.4 aperture, Panorama and improved video recording feature now with face detection and enhanced image stabilization, 30fps; 1.2MP FaceTime camera with 720p HD video and Backside illumination sensor

Sensors

 

Lumia 925: Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity sensor, Magnetometer

Galaxy S4: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, temperature, humidity, gesture

iPhone 5: Three-axis gyro, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Compass

SIM

 

Lumia 925: Micro SIM

Galaxy S4: Micro SIM

iPhone 5: Nano SIM

Special features

 

Lumia 925: Has enterprise and general security features such as Remote device locking via Internet, Secure NFC, Track and Protect via internet, Firmware update, Remote wipe of user data via Internet, Device lock, Device passcode, PIN code, Firmware and OS integrity check, Secure device start-up, Application sandboxing and integrity check; location and navigation apps like HERE Maps, HERE Transit, HERE City Lens, HERE Drive+; Nokia Music and Mix Radio for non-stop music enjoyment, and will launch with Hipstamatics new Oggl app which will let users share photos to other enthusiasts, like Instagram.

Galaxy S4: Smart Screen – Smart Stay, Smart Pause, Smart Rotation, Smart Scroll; Air Gesture, WatchOn, ChatOn, AirView, Group Play, S Health, wireless charging cover, S Translator, Sound and Shot, Dual Shot, Cinema Photo, Drama Shot

iPhone 5: Retina Display, iSight camera, Ultrafast Wireless, Maps, EarPods, Lightning connector, enhanced Siri, Passbook, Panorama mode, iCloud, AirPlay – provided you have an Apple TV, AirPrint – provided you have an AirPrint enabled printer.

And the winner is…

 

To be honest, I’m loving the Lumia 925’s look.  It’s sleek and looks sophisticated with its aluminum body, unlike the plasticky finish of the S4.  If not for the little hump on the back, the 925 looks really good, but the iPhone 5 is still the lightest and slimmest among the three devices.

As for the other specs, the 925 doesn’t have many outstanding features outside of the revamped camera and the OLED screen.  Compared to the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Lumia 925 looks like a feature phone with a lot of apps — the key benefit is certainly the camera.

So for this round, the S4 and its Jedi-like features makes it the winner.  To be fair, the iPhone 5 is last year’s model so it would be really interesting if Apple launched a new iPhone that has better features than the S4 to truly level the playing field.