Skip to footer

Nokia Lumia Icon: Can Verizon's new Windows Phone compete?

The Nokia Lumia Icon is a high-powered device clearly designed to hold its own among market leaders such as the iPhone 5S. 

|
Verizon
The Nokia Lumia Icon is exclusive to Verizon Wireless.
  • By Matthew Shaer Correspondent

Next week will mark the official launch of the Nokia Lumia Icon, a powerful Windows-powered smart phone exclusive to Verizon Wireless. 

The Icon is intended to directly compete with popular devices such as the iPhone 5S and the Galaxy S4, and the spec sheet is certainly impressive, from the 20-megapixel PureView camera to the 5-inch HD display and 2.2GHz quad-core processor. The operating system is Windows Phone 8; the price is $199, assuming you sign up for a Verizon data and voice contract. 

But how does the phone actually handle? Well, a spate of reviews hit the Web today, and for the most part, critics have been kind. "The Nokia Icon is the best Windows Phone for Verizon, no doubt," writes Harry McCracken of Time. "Assuming you’re willing to consider a Microsoft-powered handset, it deserves your attention." (As Mr. McCracken points out the "Windows Store’s offerings fall so short of what’s available for iOS and Android.") 

And here's Jessica Dolcourt of CNET on the device's speed: 

Any way you look at it, the Nokia Lumia Icon is a fast phone. Verizon's 4G LTE can be variable, just like any network, depending on coverage strength where you are and network congestion at any given time. As a whole, though, Web sites loaded quickly... navigation was smooth and seamless across the phone OS, the phone booted up in a reasonable length of time, and games were immersive.

The question, of course, as with any smart phone that's not an iPhone or a Galaxy, is how much market penetration the Icon can actually achieve. The good news for Verizon has to do with timing: We're months away from the launch of the iPhone 6 (a device that may or may not actually exist), and a Galaxy S5 probably won't be unveiled until well into March. 

In the meantime, the Icon can soak up the spotlight. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Nokia Lumia Icon: Can Verizon's new Windows Phone compete?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2014/0213/Nokia-Lumia-Icon-Can-Verizon-s-new-Windows-Phone-compete
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe