Nokia’s Lumia Icon is finally official. The big Windows Phone endured an awfully leaky unveiling that frankly offered no surprises, especially after being unceremoniously leaked on Verizon’s site, but it still has our undivided attention. We’ve seen the Lumia family grow quite a bit with Windows Phone over the past year or so, and those efforts seem to have culminated into a single mobile icon (Icon, get it?)—or at least that’s what Nokia is hoping. Merging what made Nokia’s previous Lumias so great, the Icon is the most complete Windows Phone ever created. But is that saying much when compared to today’s more popular flagships?
As mentioned in today’s announcement, the Icon sports a terrific design that combines two different approaches in one. The familiar polycarbonate rear shell is there, but instead of recycling Nokia’s favored unibody suite, the company added an aluminum ring around the Icon’s edges, and it feels wonderfully premium in the hand. Like Nokia’s many other Lumia devices, the Icon just feels well made—not too hefty, and the corners aren’t quite as angular as previous Lumia models, a subtle evolution that makes a huge different in quality.
Time wasn’t just spent focusing on the device’s looks, either. Equipped with a 5-inch Full HD OLED display, the Icon comes with a set of internals that will have Windows Phone fans fawning: Snapdragon 800 processor, 20-megapixel camera with OiS, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of Internal storage (with 7GB of free SkyDrive storage), Bluetooth 4, NFC, wireless charging and a 2420mAh battery. It also comes with a dedicated camera button, which has become a staple of most Lumia handsets.
During our brief time with the handset, we’ve come away impressed. The Icon’s 5-inch, 1080p screen looks quite nice, if a little bland at harsher angles, and the delicate curve on the screen makes swiping and tapping a breeze. We haven’t been able to put the Icon’s camera to the test just yet, though it does have access to Nokia’s excellent portfolio of camera apps, which help push the limits of what Nokia’s devices are capable of.
Without going too in-depth, the Icon already seems like Nokia’s best Windows Phone device, or close to it. Not only does it come with nice specs, an improved (if thick) design, it sports the most recent version of Windows Phone, along with Nokia’s famous “Black” update. The Icon is a nice way for Nokia and Microsoft to start the year off, but with plenty of big devices on the horizon at Mobile World Congress, the third place Windows Phone is still up against some truly insurmountable odds. We’ll have more thoughts on the Icon as we spend more time with it in the coming days.
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