Nokia Lumia 830

Out now
4th September 2014

Dubbed the "affordable flagship", the Nokia Lumia 830 packs in many of the features of the more expensive actual flagship Lumia, the 930, while coming in at a somewhat cheaper price point.

Like the 930, the 830 features a PureView camera with a few tricks up its sleeve. Although it is only a 10 megapixel sensor, it does feature Zeiss optics and optical image stabilisation, plus updated software including a neat trick for low-light photography which takes one photo with a flash and one without, and allows you to blend the two pictures to find the amount of flash you want.

There are more camera enhancements on the way when the built-in Nokia Camera application gets upgraded over-the-air to Lumia Camera, which seems to be imminent. If you own a current model Windows phone, you will already have noticed how applications are changing their branding from "Nokia" to "Lumia" as the product line is fully transitioned to Microsoft.

Like the 930, the Lumia 830 has a 5" display, in this case a 720p ClearBlack one rather than a 1080p one in the more expensive model. The processor is slower too, packing a 1.2GHz quad-core unit compared to 2.2GHz in the 930, and the 830 has half the RAM and flash storage, but it still has a useful 1GB and 16GB respectively (and you can add a microSD card too).

The Lumia 830 is an LTE capable device, with NFC support, built-in Qi wireless charging, an FM radio plus all the features you would expect in a smartphone these days. There's a 2200 mAh battery and the Lumia 830 weighs 150 grams. As with the Lumia 930, the 830 has brightly coloured backs with a metal edge around the handset that makes it look a bit like a certain well-known rival device.

The software is Windows Phone 8.1 plus the Lumia Denim update which is also being pushed out to a lot of other Lumia devices during Q4.

Due to start shipping this month for a recommended price of €330 before tax and subsidy (a retail price of around €400 SIM-free) the Lumia 830 certainly offers decent value for money, but the street price for the Lumia 930 is no more than €470 which is also good value and a much better handset, so perhaps retailers will end up discounting the 830 a little when it comes to market.