The Nokia Lumia 920 Blows Every Phone Out of the Water in Low Light Camera Test

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This picture was tweeted by The Verge’s Senior Editor Vlad Savov and it blew our minds! The low light performance of the Nokia Lumia 920 is simply unmatched. It’s not just against the HTC One X where the Lumia 920 dominates, we have low light sample shots comparing the Nokia with the iPhone 5, the Galaxy S III and the HTC One X, and still the Lumia wins hands down. Even against Nokia’s own epic PureView 808, the Lumia 920 shines. The tests are of course by no means scientific but they do offer an indication of how good the camera on the Lumia 920 is with its low light mode and optical image stabilisation.

There’s no doubt that Nokia’s flagship contender is a potential imaging champion but is camera prowess enough to bring the brand back to the top of the smartphone food chain? We’re not so sure.

In Nokia’s defense, it’s not their fault. It’s Microsoft. Windows Phone, especially in its latest iteration is excellent and wonderfully refreshing with so much to like and enjoy but in Malaysia, Microsoft has yet to overcome the local app availability issue. There are some great Windows Phone apps out there but many are not available to Malaysians. Compounding the issue is the lack of local apps built for Windows Phone.

Apps like MayBank2U, GSC, Malaysian Airlines and Air Asia are not yet available on Windows Phone and judging by the way things are going, it’s safe to assume that many of these useful apps won’t be available anytime soon.

Update: Apps for Maybank2U and Malaysian Airlines are available for Windows Phone. Thanks for info, ninecars in the comments section.

You might say: “lack of apps, so what? It’s only one problem.” The thing is, lack of apps is not just one problem, it is the problem. Apps put the smart in smartphones and when you discover that a limited number is available to you when other platforms have over 700,000 to offer, you’ll find that something as attractive as Windows Phone can quickly lose its appeal.

So can an awesome camera sell Nokia phones? It might win the battle but it’s going to take a whole lot more than that to win the smartphone war.

Click images for full resolution.

Nokia Lumia 920

iPhone 5

Samsung Galaxy S III

HTC One X

Nokia PureView 808

More sample shots of the Lumia 920 vs iPhone 5 vs One X vs Galaxy S III vs PureView 808 here.