Of course, the two look almost identical, thanks to the aluminium frame and design language, but once you start handling the 830 and 930 and looking into what they do and don't offer, there are a surprising number of differences, tabulated below.
[It's also worth noting that the prices aren't that different, either - with only £100 separating the two.]
I reviewed the 930 here, by the way, finding it a little disappointing in the eyes of this Nokia Glance fan, but perspectives change over time, as do prices and the outlook in terms of future proofing, in the light of Lumia Denim and Lumia Camera 5 (both arrived or imminent) and Windows 10 later this year, so I wanted to revisit both handsets and try to characterise them with respect to each other.
I came up with 'Flexibility versus Power' in the title above. The Lumia 830 is cheaper, nimbler, more expandable, more flexible, more customisable, but the 930 has the raw power of a much more capable chipset, much bigger camera, higher resolution screen, and so on.
Have a look at this table of the main differences (expanded from my original) and you'll see what I mean:
| Differences (i.e not complete specs!) | Lumia 930 | Lumia 830 |
| current price, SIM-free in the UK | £340 (ish) | £250 (ish) |
| Screen | 5" AMOLED, 1080p (pentile) | 5" IPS LCD, 720p (RGB) with 'display memory'/Glance screen |
| Processor | Snapdragon 800, Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400, Adreno 330 GPU | Snapdragon 400, Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7, Adreno 305 GPU |
| RAM | 2GB | 1GB |
| Storage | 32GB (sealed) | 16GB plus up to 128GB on microSD |
| Rear imaging | 1/2.5" 20MP oversampling, 4K capture with 8MP 'moments'* | 1/3.4" 10MP, ultra fast focussing, 2K capture with 2MP 'moments'* |
| Front imaging | 1.2MP, 720p capture | 0.9MP, 720p capture |
| Battery | 2420mAh, sealed, Qi charging integral | 2200mAh, removeable, Qi charging in the back covers |
| Size, weight | 137 x 71 x 10mm, 167g | 139 x 71 8mm, 150g |
| Colour, customisation | Orange, Green, Black, White, not easily changeable (though watch this space) | Orange, Green, Black, White back covers all available (about £13 each) |
* with Lumia Camera 5 and Denim, currently in the middle of rolling out
Even though Microsoft has been at pains to indicate that at least the 'majority' of Windows Phone 8.x devices will get Windows 10, and certainly the 830 and 930 are leading the charge towards the new OS, in my experience every operating system upgrade involves some raising of requirements for it to run smoothly. Sometimes this is RAM, sometimes processor, sometimes storage/hard disk space. I'm sure the Lumia 830 will fare just fine with 1GB RAM under Windows 10 and, as usual, Windows UI transitions tend to hide any minor slowdowns, but with a shiny new Windows incoming, you can't help but wonder if the 930's more powerful innards will start to tell.
As I discovered when I benchmarked the Lumia 830 and 930 recently, the latter has roughly four times the graphics 'oomph' and between two and four times the processor power, depending on exactly what you're measuring. With 2GB of RAM too, under Windows 10, whether it's Universal games or Office applications or heavy duty web pages, the Lumia 930 clearly has a significant advantage.
Imaging too is about to show the 930 up in a better light, with Lumia Camera 5 bringing the incredibly useful facility to grab 8MP stills from hastily shot 4K video - I've been doing this quite a bit on other platforms and it transforms how you capture family events. A kid doing something cute or a pet chasing a balloon? Just grab 30 seconds of 4K video and then pick out some classic poses and action shots later on, while relaxing, etc. The Lumia 830 will have a similar facility, but it's limited by the Snapdragon 400 chipset and 2K (i.e. 1080p) video with 2MP stills is the best it can do. And yes, I know it's not all about megapixels, but a 8MP still gives the flexibility to crop in to see the action better, while still keeping the quality and resolution high.
In terms of still image quality, both the 930 and 830 produce great results, of course, I've a direct comparison/challenge in mind for the weekend - watch this space.
Not mentioned before on AAWP, but the front camera on the 930 is slightly higher resolution than the 830's - the difference is small, but every little helps. Also not mentioned before, but I've tested the speakers on both and as far as I can tell they use the same component - certainly both are loud and of good quality compared to most of the phone competition out there, if not quite up to class-leading performance.
Screen resolution and quality is a tricky call - I've already demonstrated how a really good LCD screen (on the 830) can trump an AMOLED screen these days, though admittedly my experiments were tainted by the test 1020's screen being a little 'aged'. In general, I'd say that LCD screens can rival AMOLED for gorgeous colours, at least, all other factors being equal (e.g. ClearBlack Display). Other factors then come into play which are more subjective - the 930 has a nominally higher resolution (of green pixels) but the pentile nature of the display matrix means that the real resolution (red and blue pixels) is only 540p. But you do get the wonderful AMOLED true blacks, useful when using the phone at night with dark themed applications.
Glance screen (or lack thereof) has always been a controversial topic. The way the backlight is always on, on the 830's LCD screen, mean that I've switched Glance on it to 'peek' mode. Or maybe I'm subconsciously weaning myself off Glance in preparation for the 930?
If much of the above sounds like a one-way win for the Lumia 930, then there's the 'F' word to consider. Flexibility. I've always been something of a champion of replaceable batteries and expandable memory (i.e. microSD) - and the 930 has neither, while the 830 has both. Add in the way you can swap backs to change the colour of your smartphone according to your mood and the 830, at up to £100 less to buy, clearly does have plenty to offer, especially if you plan to stick in, for example, a card with all your media, or if you want to have a charged spare battery on hand.
Flexibility versus Power, you see. Two months ago, I'd have gone with the 830, and indeed it's still my main smartphone at the moment, since it's easy to swap my card into my Android devices when needed. But with:
- the refresh of Windows itself across the board coming up
- the ever-more ambitious apps and games that are being written
- the possibilities for perfect 8MP 'moments' in capturing daily life
... it's extremely tempting to forego flexibility and go with power!
Comments welcome, of course. I suspect the 930 will be my 'Insider' device, for trying out Windows 10. I wonder if it'll transition into my main device at some point?