AT&T Nokia Lumia 925 - Unboxing and first impressions

Yesterday, AT&T and Nokia released the slim and mostly-metal Lumia 925, bringing along with it one of the nation’s largest LTE networks at a $99 price point ($429 off contract). Today, we go hands on with the latest Nokia offering and come away impressed.

Featuring 16GB of internal storage (12GB available), a 4.5-inch AMOLED display with ClearBlack and an 8.7MP PureView camera with that extra lens-element for improved sharpness, there’s a lot to like about the Lumia 925. The phone is cool-to-the-touch due to the aluminum frame and it comes in elegant black (as opposed to T-Mobile’s brighter white offering). The OS is build 1328 (GDR2) and like other AT&T GDR2 devices, unfortunately lacks Data Sense.

Though the device omits the extra 16GB of storage found on the Lumia 920 and 1020 and neglects wireless charging, the Lumia 925 offers a more conservative and sophisticated style than those other two devices. Simply put, this device looks fantastic just lying there with the Glance screen on and the cool, reflective metal and display.

Replacement for the Lumia 920? Nope, just a much thinner and lighter sister-device for a different audience.

We’ve reviewed the Nokia Lumia 925 in the past and did a follow up hands on with the T-Mobile version, but look for a mini-review of the AT&T variant in the coming days. For now, you can watch our unboxing video and check out our high quality photos.

The AT&T Nokia Lumia 925 is now available at your local store or online (opens in new tab).

Have questions? Want to discuss the Nokia Lumia 925? Head into our 925 forums and get your answers: forums.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-925

Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.

154 Comments

Nice
If this had 32 GB of storage, or a SIM tray, I'd run out right now
A SIM tray?
He probably meant an SD card slot.
Yes, meant SD tray...sorry, two 3 year olds crawling on me while watching AL/A&M
A SIM tray? All phones have a SIM tray, no?
No
I present to you non 4G cdma phones. For an example, the BlackBerry Style 9670.
The 32GB version is Vodafone exclusive, but you can order it online at Amazon. It's unlocked, it only has a Vodafone logo when booting.
Yes
I dunno... I kinda like the white on mine more than that blackWhy is it cheaper than the T-Mobile one off contract?
That was my question as well, I wonder why?
I have a 920, but that $429 sounds tempting
Here in my country, black WP phones tend to be cheaper than colored ones - and I don't know why either. Maybe for the same unknown reason, that's why the black AT&T is cheaper?
I have no idea either. All I know is that for the 920, black uses a matte finish whereas red, yellow and white uses a glossy finish. Could that be the reason?

In my country, Malaysia, all Nokia phones, regardless of colour, are given the same price. Same can be said of the other manufacturers like HTC, Samsung and Sony as examples.
It usually has to do with demand or what they think people prefer. Strange that this didn't apply to the 920 or 1020 and all colors were the same price.
It is called economy of scale. They know they will sell more black so they produce more black thus drive the costs associated down to produce that style. The case is only a visible cost that we as purchasers see directly.
Even if we remove the scale argument there is some greater elasticity with pricing to color. In the market people currently feel it personalizes it and personalization is a willing extra cost for people. This willingness to pay more for color (in some markets) is probably more of a sellers choice then directly associated with Nokia's pricing structure. Although, one must also consider that Nokia offers the seller for 100,000 units you get price A for 250,000 you get lower price per unit of B. The seller also knows tht Black is the color most people purchase so they order 250k blace and 100k yellow and that ads to the cost too. But, hey what do I know it has been 20 years since I took an economics class.
I find it better than my 920. Lighter, slimmer a better camera( from what's been said) and what's the difference with 32 GB on my 920 ? I still have about 10.5 GB if other storage so that's about as much memory as the 925 at the end.i have a case on my 920 so a charging case for it would be no big deal .gonna think about it but hope when gdr3 comes out we won't be last again my mind will be made up then
What's the difference? For you, maybe nothing. For me, I have 14.41 GB of music on my 920. I love listening to music on my device, so the added storage is a MUST, when no microSD slot is available.
Do they make charging cases for the 925?
Yes and the Microsoft store gives you one with your 925 for free.
Thanks, I just looked at it. Similar to the one for the 1020.
How many WP are available on AT&T now? With the amount of variety in store, market saturation has to be on the rise!
520/620/820/920/925/1020/ Only 6 Windows Phones... all they need is a 720
Lumia 520 (GoPhone), Lumia 620 (Aio Wireless, owned by AT&T), Lumia 920, Lumia 925, Lumia 1020 and the HTC 8X. Lumia 820 was discontinued.
As much as I might not like at&t, I gotta appreciate their support for the WP platform, especially when the other carriers were slow to adopt.
Just wish their salesman/women knew about the WM platform
@ @ mjfadaway I totaly agree...
Since when was it discontinued?
I don't know, but it doesn't show up on their site. Must have sold poorly.
The 8 series seems to be the bad seeds of the family. Only the 800 was covered, be it by a limited audience due to availability.
16GB is the big weak spot for this one, IMO, especially without being able to add a microSD card. I'm quite happy with my L920 Yellow, and if I were to upgrade would go the L1020 Yellow route. Still, this L925 is a nice addition to the lineup, and will certainly grab the demand of some.
I have 9gb of apps and media and 10.5 GB of " other storage" so really about same as 16 GB of because gdr2 I assume fixes that's issue
My "Other" storage is at 753MB on the my T-Mo NL925 with 7.4GB free, for reference. I'm very happy with the Other storage situation on GDR2--problem is gone as far as I can tell.
My other storage is at 253MB on my 925. Though I got mine from Germany
My other storage on my 925 is 2.67GB so its far from gone
You have a fundamental misunderstanding of Other storage, how it works and what the original issue was.
So tell us, what is using up 2.67 GB? How come no other OS suffers from this annoyance that MS has made us believe is "normal"?
Lol @ you dude! The iPhone suffers from the same "Other" storage problem.
Here are some links for you :)
http://www.ipodrepublic.com/iphone/fixing-issue-other-files-iphone-memory/2010/03/31/
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1847881?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2367194?start=0&tstart=0

:) Edit: to answer your question: "what is using up 2.67 GB?"
E-Mails(and E-Mail Attachments!), SMS/MMS, Settings, Temp Files (IE,etc.), Maps, etc. ...deleting most of those files will shrink the other storage.
No, it does not; on my 920, with GDR2, "other" is 8.7 GB and does not includes maps, email etc. These are listed separately and simply adding "other" plus emails, docs, maps, music, pictures etc. match exactly the amount of free space I have.
It manages it a lot better that other will be dynamic it will shrink and grow as needed
My other storage is at 3.5 GB, but that's the highest I've seen it since getting GDR2. Before it was anywhere between 4 and 8 GB.
...
I get & keep a lot of emails, I have over 7 GB of games and I have a ton of music on my SD (I don't really know if the music affects it or not, but I'm assuming something about it does). So I think 3.5 GB isn't that unreasonable.
This is why many of us would like this gdr2 update. Not for the glance or the camera update but for this "other storage" issue but please correct me if I'm wrong if I decided to download to my hearts content will this 10.5 GB of other storage affect me? If not then I really don't need this update but it does suck how the new Lumias have the other fixed
The gdr2 update reduces/cleans unused metadata/files from the other storage when needed
Ya, I agree. Just checked mine and I'm at 12gb...with 17 left. I take alot of pics with my 920
Agree! My wife's HTC 8x ran out of space quickly and she had few pictures, some apps and no music. 16 GB is just not enough, especially with the OS and other storage taking up large chunks of memory. I'm not sure why WP companies didn't offer 3 storage variants like apple does; it's one thing I do like about the iPhone. My 32gb 920 ran out of storage, a few days ago and I had to delete 1.5gb of temp files. My 6 GB of "other storage" is still there :(
Nokia always knew how to make a great design with high quality. A beautiful quality! I fell in love with my Nokia 2300, then 2600, then 1661, then N8, then Lumia 800, then 720, and now I need to put my hands on this 925!!!
I got my first phone, Nokia Xpress music 5230, when the time for change came, I couldn't ditch it, I still have it :p I love Nokia <3
That black is sexy!
Stopped by an AT&T store today and checked out the 925. It really is a very nice looking device and feels great in hand.
Ugh I wish tmo had the black its soo much nicer
I may have found a way around this problem..Buy a used TM 925 ans swap bodies :)
Big chance to AT&T release GDR2 without data sense..
COME ON! I am really unhappy to AT&T. I just bought my L920 on AT&T thinking the update were fast and better to WP! I don't even live in US. I've unlocked my phone but it still have AT&T limitation!
I am like you getting PRETTY tired of the treatment from AT&T. My Samsung Focus never got multiple updates and now I am sitting here with my mellow yellow 920 not feeling so mellow. What is it with them and their total "disrespect" for their paying and enthusiastic Windows Phone customers. You know they are absolutely aware of this B.S.
Should have bought the Rogers version, pentaband and has got the update too.
You can flash to the Rogers GDR2 ROM, it comes w/ Data Sense and LTE is enabled, plus no carrier splash screen :P
Which numer of the ROM?
I've try with two other ROM and couldn't do it..
16GB is a deal breaker for me.
So Daniel, wouldn't this L925 be close enough in design to the L920 that the testing excuse we keep getting from AT&T regarding GDR2/Amber is now officially ridiculous? I know, beating a dead horse here it seems...
This would've been mine on T-Mobile until my wife decided to use her upgrade. Now that I have my unlocked yellow 920, I realize I can go back to a 16gb device. I have 11gb of movies(FlashVideo), games and only thing I'm missing is my music collection and I still have more available memory than what you get out of the box with this.
I'm loving my NL 925 and still have 7.5 GB of storage with games, musics and vidoes. :-P
My music alone is over triple your remaining storage.
My entire music collection is just over 5gb. And only about half of that will probably end up on my phone. I guess I'm not much of a purchaser of music even though I like lots of it.
You must not have ANYTHING on your phone.lol And if you have 7.5gb left you must be very picky about what you put on it.:P
Yup! I just picked what I needed to used on my phone. No need to dump every xbox musics, videos, and games on my phone and complain the storage space is not enough. :-P What happened to you I haven't seen you for a while?
I've been around. Just more so observing than commenting. Plus now that I have a WP8 phone I've been enjoying all the new features and playing around with this L920 camera. I have a few posts in the Pictures and Video taken with your Lumia 920 thread and hope to add more.:)
This phone is a real breakthrough for ATT customers since it already comes with GDR2 in it
1020 has it too.
Another great review Daniel.
Based on pics alone I can tell the 1520 is thinner. Went to at&t today to hold the 925 and galaxy mega (to get a rough estimate of how to wield the 1520). 925 is still that sexy prom queen I lust after. The galaxy mega was so ridiculous though lol. I love the 1520 but I'm going to have to rewire my brain on how to hold a device on order to use it day to day
Just my thoughts
Besides the specifics AT&T apps what are the differences between the AT&T and the TMobile versions that make worth a new unboxing and first impressions??
People who are on AT&T and missed the original. People doing searches. Not everyone reads every article or visits this site daily.
Thank you for responding me.
On looks alone I would trade my Lumia 1020 for the 925.
Said nobody ever.
Biggest and the most important difference is the T-Mobile version supports AWS (Pentaband) while the ATT version does not
When will the next generation of Lumia 9xx be arriving?
I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
There is no more 9XX. It's all 10XX from now on.
Yes but...Lumia? Or maybe Surfia? Lurface?
How do you know that? I wouldn't be surprised if the 10XX was kept for the mega camera models and they'd still keep the 9XX series going.
After the 1520 and the unnamed Nokia tablet. I'm waiting for the true successor to the 920 as well.
Walked in to an At&t store today and had forgotten that they now have the 925, I loved it. I had always been a fan of the black version and it looked sleek and sexy. This really is a beautiful device as Daniel Rubino had stated since its unveil!
For those who are saying that the phone on T-Mobile is expensive here is the math for the phone on AT&T:

Contact length on AT&T: 24 Months
Subsidary embedded in contract per month: $24
24 month payout via contact: $480
Cost of phone in store: $99
Total paid for phone for AT&T $579
Total paid for phone at T-Mobile: $509
For $70 over 24 months or <$3 per month, the additional coverage that AT&T brings is much more than worth it. Also, you need to look at the employee discounts if you are employed with some big employers. AT&T have much more customers than T Mo, that means your M2M minutes are worth more on AT&T. Rollover minutes etc. etc.. and you can see that $70 over 2 years is not a big deal ..
Total savings for equivalent service on T-Mobile for average customer: $1200
Getting OS updates: Priceless
Can you provide a link to the amount that AT&T Subsidizes?
I haven't never heard of a carrier actually put a dollar or percentage on their subsidies.
Maybe he just means the difference between the T-Mobile equivalent plan and AT&Ts plan. I have never heard of a number for that either otherwise.
I pay around $22/month less on T-Mobile than on AT&T ($79.xx vs $101.xx), which is why I made that assumption, figured with different taxes and fees in different states maybe it comes out to that where the poster lives.
Of course, $24 x 24 is actually $576, and the result in the post is $480, so maybe he meant $20...
For me, the total cost difference would be $118 over the life of the contract. Of course, there are plans like Walmart's plan that would save hundreds of dollars more.

However, this misses a MAJOR point - with T-Mobile in this case you would have unlimited data AND not be tied to a contract. If you want to switch phones, or just switch provider you can do so. No such luck with AT&T.

Yes, AT&T has better coverages in many cases, but T-Mobile serves me very well and I have zero desire to go back to supporting the draconian business model that AT&T has. I really hope T-Mobile's model where you pay for the phone separately from the service works out, because it's just so much more honest and consumer friendly.
+ 1. :)
I can't provide you a link but I worked for a Major carrier and know the revenu