MWC 2014: Nokia X, X+ and XL hands-on

Nokia Lumia Icon hands-on

The Lumia Icon (aka 929) is the first of Nokia's new generation flagship phones. It's based on the Lumia 1520 phablet, but scaled down to a 5" device.

Nothing but screen size and battery capacity was lost during the shrinking process, so the Lumia Icon has a 5" 1080p screen (AMOLED this time rather than LCD), a Snapdragon 800 chipset and a huge 1/2.5" camera sensor with 20MP resolution and optical stabilization.

A beautiful 5" 1080p AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass 3 and Nokia ClearBlack

The screen is as good as any big AMOLED we've seen – the Nokia ClearBlack tech (special polarizing filters) help keep reflections to a minimum, which really makes a difference. It helps that at full blast the screen puts out 500nits of brightness. The Nokia has custom software to adjust the screen settings (white balance and saturation).

The battery capacity went down from 3,400mAh to 2,420mAh, which is on the small side for a 5" phone, but wireless Qi charging allows to quickly and easily top up the battery.

The Icon is based on the Lumia 925 design – an aluminum frame with a polycarbonate back. The sides of the frame are left exposed. The naked aluminum does boost the premium feel of the device – it's similar to Sony's flagship Xperia phones or iPhone 4/4S, except the plastic on the back hides fingerprints better. It should resist scratches better too.

The exposed parts of the aluminum frame • no more camera hump

The Lumia Icon is 40g lighter than the 1520 phablet, which improves handling, but the device has gotten just over a millimeter thicker. The thicker body does mean that the camera hump has gone away.

One interesting feature of the phone is that it has four microphones – two on the front and two on the back. No wonder this was the focus of the first Lumia Icon ad.

Note that the Nokia Lumia Icon is a CDMA phone for Verizon. There's no official GSM phone with similar specs, but we've heard rumors (there was even a small hope Nokia will unveil the Lumia 930 at the MWC, but alas that didn't happen).