Your ultimate guid
The Good Nokia’s Lumia 822 delivers 4G LTE and a nice 8-megapixel camera, and adds 16GB of onboard storage with room for 64GB more.
The Bad The heavy construction and the rough, fragile quality of the calls make the Lumia 822 more attractive.
The Bottom Line The Nokia Lumia 822 offers a very good ratio for Verizon, but if you are stylish in design and perfect call quality, this is not the phone for you.
The Nokia Lumia 822 scores where it counts, performing well with LTE and Windows Phone 8. Its $ 99 contract price is a good-looking smartphone, but like its other Lumia cousins, the 822’s thick design carries with it phone. It will be a great smartphone for a certain demographic, but it is certainly not going to appeal to the masses.
Although it shares many features with AT&T’s Nokia Lumia 920, there are some hardware differences in the camera department, and the Lumia 822’s smaller complement of onboard memory can get a boost with a microSD card slot where the 920 cannot. In the grand scheme, the lower price and software features like voice navigation give the 822 leverage against Verizon’s HTC Windows Phone 8X , though its design is much less convincing.
Editors’ note: Portions of this review come from the Nokia Lumia 810 review . The two models are related.
Nokia Lumia 822 is Verizon’s Nokia gamble (pictures)
Design and build
Attractive ergonomic design is very important for user experience, and Nokia knows it. That’s one of the reasons why the thick, heavy and uninspired 820 variants are so weird. At least there is some improvement here. Where is T-Mobile Lumia 810 this is a thick block, the 822 Verizon has more curved shoulders. It is also available in black, white and gray.
At 5 ounces, 5 inches high, 2.7 inches wide and 0.4 inches thick, the Lumia 822 takes up a lot of space in your pocket, purse and hand. It is quite heavy and not very streamlined or exciting. If you remember what’s inside the most, then don’t lower this phone at all – just don’t expect a lot of visual flair when it comes to accents and outlines.
On the other hand, it has a gorgeous 4.3-inch AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass 2 to protect it, and an excellent Nokia ClearBlack filter to help reduce glare. Supports 16 million colors to help maintain rich and diverse colors. The 800×480 pixel WVGA resolution, although softer than the higher resolution HD screens, still delivers images that look clear enough to the naked eye.
Below the screen you will find three typical volume buttons, and above it a 1.2 megapixel front camera. The left ridge is bare and the right is a volume rocker, power button and a physical camera trigger. The Micro-USB charging port is at the bottom of the phone, and the 8MP camera lens and dual LED flash are on the back. You will need to remove the back cover to gain access to the microSD card slot, which can take up to 64GB on external storage.
OS and apps
Windows Phone 8 comes with NFC features such as Tap + Send and Wallet, Kid’s Corner, Live Tile and New Colors, Camera Lenses, Office 2013, and cloud content sync with another Windows 8 device. provide your own Windows Phone 8 Overview .
In addition to NFC support, the Lumia 822 has Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth 3.0. Among them, Verizon and Nokia have added a fair amount of applications. From Verizon you will see NFL Mobile and Univision – a way to track your usage and bill payments, as well as showcase for more select applications.
Nokia adds Nokia Drive with Voice Navigation, Nokia Maps and Nokia Music. This latest app has the nice function of downloading up to 250 songs for offline listening. I’m much less fond of CityLens Augmented Reality. This is a cool concept, but it was not relevant in my tests, offering me establishments that have closed for a long time.
However, other applications, such as Nokia Transit and Zynga Draw Something and Words With Friends games, help compensate for the lifts. Verizon 822 also has ESPN mobile, another Nokia specialty.
Like the Lumia 920, the 822 automatically boosts screen sensitivity, which means you can use a fingernail or glove in your glove to navigate. Although I did not have a wireless charging charger in my viewing apparatus, you will be able to replace it with an equipped cover. My review of the Lumia 920 is ready for my assessment of wireless charging.
Camera and video
Like the Lumia 810, the 822 has an 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss corporate optics, but all you need to know is that it takes some nice shots. This is a different camera module than the Lumia 920, which takes 8.7 megapixel stills and boasts image-stabilizing springs. Nokia also does not promote PureView display software for this or for the 810.
I really liked the many photos I took with my phone, though I noticed that, like all Windows phones, I needed to focus and take a few seconds longer; there is no continuous autofocus to speed up work, and shutter speed becomes a way of life. Interestingly, the final image of the 822 is not always as sharp as its real-world counterpart, which I noticed on the Lumia 920. For example, a photo I took of some crazy geometric broccoli looks great on the phone, but in real life it’s looked even sharper. I took some pictures and watched the image soften on the screen.
Another minor complaint is that the photos looked oversaturated at 822. This is a common fad among AMOLED-screen devices, but the extremely bright green and red also transfer images viewed on a computer. Although punch shades may look nicer, they go beyond reality.
The biggest problem (which I also had with the 920) is that there are fewer camera options than on other smartphones. You cannot change the resolution, sharpness or saturation, but you can set the ISO and white balance. There are also no additional effects. The lens function certainly offers more features with external applications such as the Panorama Nokia app, but if you don’t have the right lenses, you’re stuck.
The 822 shoots nice high-definition video, but the colors on the street will look more natural and better-tuned than indoor scenes. Keep in mind that the phone is capable of receiving 1080p HD video, but by default up to 720p HD. You will have to change the quality in the settings. The front camera shoots 720p HD video.
As for storage, you’ll find 16GB on board, which is twice the capacity of 810. Microsoft SkyDrive also has 7GB of free space, and this microSD expansion slot holds up to 64GB. The phone also has 1GB of RAM.
By the way, you can compare the studio footage in our photo comparison gallery.
Call quality
I tested the Lumia 822 in San Francisco using the Verizon Voice Network (CDMA 850/900/1800/1900). I was expecting good things, since the Verizon network is usually strong here in San Francisco, and since the Lumia phones gave me nothing but clear calls. Not like the Lumia 822. I felt constant interference, like small shutters, during my test calls. The voices also sounded digitized from beginning to end. The volume, though good, did not look as loud as the Lumia 920 or Lumia 810. Glad that the background noise did not cause injury.
At the end of the line, my test partner said I sounded a little muffled. I came across softer and less crisp than other Lumi (Lumii?). Although the background noise is as absent from my tester as mine, it still had less than perfect call quality. We tested the phone twice to make sure we heard the quality of the phone, not just the weak point on the network.
Nokia Lumia 822 call quality sampleListen now:
The calls in the loudspeaker came across as thin and fuzzy when I tested at waist level. There was no hum in the hands, which was very good, though the volume didn’t seem very loud when I set it to its maximum. The whole test call was in the middle of the road; not terrible, but nothing to crow about.
To my ears, my test partner immediately noticed a drop in volume. He also added that my voice came across a little muffled and prickly. It was hard for me to hear, too, he said.
Performance
The Lumia 822 runs on the same dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz chipset that is also available on the Lumia 920 and Samsung Galaxy S3. For the most part, navigation was smooth and fast, though Windows Phone can’t boot quickly and the camera takes time before shooting.
| Nokia Lumia 822: Performance testing | |
|---|---|
| Download Endomondo app (3MB) | 30 seconds |
| CNET mobile site load | 4.1 seconds |
| CNET desktop site load | 14.3 seconds |
| Boot time to lock screen | 26 seconds |
| Camera boot time | 3 seconds |
| Camera, shot-to-shot time | 3 seconds with flash; 2 seconds no flash, no focus |
| Load up app (mySpeedTest) | 1.5 seconds |
The speed of data transmission in the typically high-speed Verizon network was strong throughout the Bay, although much more uneven than I had seen before. Typically, speeds remain in double digits, often peaking in the 20’s and sometimes 30’s. This time I only saw a download speed of 20 Mbps, which is nice and fast for this area. What surprised me was the low numbers. I usually see a lot more results in the range of 15 Mbps to 22 Mbps, with only a few drops in a single digit.
The 1800 mAh battery has a talk time of 15.1 hours and 20.3 days of standby time. We will continue to test the battery life in our CNET labs and update more information. The Lumia 822 has a digital SAR of 1.23 watts per kilogram.
Who should buy it
If you sell for Windows Phone, the $ 99 price tag makes the Nokia Lumia 822 a good value for an operator whose high end devices typically cost $ 200 or even $ 300. Buy it if you are exploring deals, want a simple design, and appreciate a smartphone that will sync with Microsoft Office and music content. Skip it if you are looking for a slim, light or stylish tube above all else.
Compared to the HTC Windows Phone 8X, the Lumia 822 is thicker, heavier and less attractive. It’s also $ 100 cheaper up front and contains more software applications.
Compared to the Nokia Lumia 920, the Verizon 822 costs the same, is slightly lighter, has a more rugged design, and has an expanded storage slot. His camera is not known for taking low-light shots, and it doesn’t charge directly from the battery.
