May is going to be a big month for Nokia and the Lumia line-up. On Tuesday, the company officially took the wrapping paper off the Lumia 925 the week after unveiling the Lumia 928. Since these phones aren't quite meant to replace the original Lumia 920, it's likely that many people are asking what the difference is.
And, honestly, Nokia isn't making it easy for people. In the Nokia Lumia 925 press release, the Finnish company said it was releasing "a new interpretation of its award-winning flagship, the Nokia Lumia 920."
A new interpretation? What does that even mean? If the Lumia 928 was just announced, why does the Lumia 925 exist?
Of course, there are differences between the three devices, most notably when it comes to where you can actually buy them. If you had to walk into a phone store and suddenly choose between a Lumia 925, 928, and a 920, I can imagine many people simply throwing their hands in the air and just getting an iPhone. In the United States, though, Nokia has decided to try and play up each phone by offering them as carrier exclusives.
The new Nokia Lumia 925, then, is a T-Mobile exclusive that'll likely be available sometime in June. The Lumia 928, meanwhile, was revealed as a Verizon exclusive, while the Lumia 920 was announced on AT&T.
For many people already tied to a carrier, that explanation will be plenty. But there are other differences. The most notable difference, though, is in the phone's body. Since the new Nokia Lumia 925 features an aluminum casing instead of full polycarbonate, it's both lighter and thinner than its Lumia 920 predecessor. Clocking in at 8.5mm and 139 grams, it's actually slimmer than both the 920 (10.7mm and 185 grams) and the 928 (10.1mm and 162 grams).
Another notable aspect on the Lumia 925 is its camera. Since Nokia went ahead and added an extra lens, the 925's photo-taking capabilities should be better than its predecessors, though the Xenon flash in the 928 is missing here.
Spec-wise, all three phones are very similar outside of the displays (the 920 sports an LCD screen while the Lumia 925 and 928 have OLED). Even then, though, they all feature 4.5-inch screens with resolutions of 1280 x 768. They all have a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage.
Outside of adding a 1080p display, Nokia's just about done what it can with Windows Phones on the hardware side. If these things are going to take off, it not only needs to find a way to get them into the hands of potential customers, but Microsoft also needs to figure out a way to make the Windows OS more appealing to customers. If these phones don't do the trick, it may be time to wonder if anything will.
