Gauntlet: iPhone 6 vs. Nokia Lumia 930

With the recent release of the Apple iPhone 6, we’ve decided to stack it up against some of its strongest competitors in the market. In this round we pit it against Microsoft’s latest flagship smartphone, the Lumia 930.

Body

First off, we take a look at the body of both phones. Both are made from aluminum but feature vastly different designs. The iPhone 6 is definitely more compact than the Lumia 930; measuring at least 3mm thinner and narrower than its Microsoft counterpart. It’s also a whole 38 grams lighter. The Lumia 930 makes up for these disadvantages though with a more durable and easier to hold build with its blockier design, solid frame, and soft touch back plate while the iPhone 6’s smooth aluminum body and curved corners make it susceptible to slipping out of your grip. There’s also the danger of the iPhone 6 bending in your pocket but that’s an extremely rare occurrence. In careful hands, the iPhone 6 takes the cake when it comes to body design while the Lumia 930 is for those who want a bit more ruggedness for their smartphone.

Screen

At first glance it may look like the Lumia 930’s larger 5-inch and higher resolution (1080 x 1920 pixels) screen beats the iPhone 6’s smaller 4.7-inch Retina HD (750 x 1334 pixels) display but Apple has a few aces up its sleeve including IPS technology compared to the AMOLED on the Lumia 930 which leads to better viewing angles, better color reproduction, and faster response times. The iPhone 6’s display also features three full subpixels under every pixel (compared to one subpixel per pixel on AMOLED screens) which makes the images on the iPhone 6 sharper in spite of having a lower screen pixel density of 326 ppi compared to 441ppi on the Lumia 930.

CPU, GPU, RAM, and Storage

On the processing side of things, the iPhone 6 wins hands down with its second-generation home-grown 64-bit Apple A8 SoC that features a dual-core 1.4GHz Cyclone ARM v8-based processor and a PowerVR GX6450 quad-core GPU while the Lumia 930 is equipped with older hardware namely the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 2.2GHz quad-core processor coupled with an Adreno 330 GPU. The Lumia 930 does compensate for its older CPU with more RAM – the Lumia 930 has 2GB while the iPhone 6 only has 1GB – so it can hypothetically run more apps at the same time. Apple takes the top spot again when it comes to internal storage though with a variety of options including 16GB, 64GB, and a whopping 128GB of storage compared to the single option of 32GB for the Lumia 930.

Camera

This is the department where the Lumia 930 is king with its whopping 20-megapixel PureView camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 22mm focal length, 1.12 µm pixel size, and a 1/2.5-inch sensor compared to the iPhone 6’s 8-megapixel f/2.2, 1.5µm pixel size iSight camera of the iPhone 6. It also has the added bonus of a dedicated hardware shutter button. It is worth noting that the iPhone 6’s phase detection autofocus is faster than the Lumia 930’s contrast detection one. The iPhone 6 is also capable of better video at 1080p@60fps while the Lumia 930 is limited to only 30fps at the same resolution.

Battery Life

Battery life has never been the iPhone’s strong suite with users either complaining or wishing (or both) for better batteries on their iPhones and while the iPhone 6’s battery is a clear improvement over its predecessors it still has a hard time keeping up with the longevity of its competitors like the Lumia 930. Specifically, the iPhone 6 has a rather small 1,810mAh battery giving it around 13 hours of life with light-medium use compared to the 2,420mAh battery on the Lumia 930 which gives it almost a day’s worth of battery life.

Software & Apps

Many say that iOS is still the best mobile operating system in the market and we have to agree in this instance. Even when Microsoft has taken great strides to improve their mobile operating system which is also quite impressive, Apple still has the overall better user experience. Windows 8.1 still has a ways to go before it can really compete with iOS both in features and usability. Apple also wins when it comes to the sheer amount of quality apps available in their App Store. It is worth noting that Microsoft’s app store is steadily growing and could eventually catch up with Apple.

Extra Features

Lastly, the iPhone 6 features a fingerprint sensor, compatibility with the company’s new Apple Pay service, and a new M8 motion coprocessor while the Lumia 930 is capable of wireless charging.

Cost

The Lumia 930 is available at a slightly lower price tag than the iPhone 6 at around Php30,000 while the iPhone 6 can be had for around Php37,000 so the Lumia 930 sort of wins out a bit in the price game.

Verdict

Both devices have their own pros and cons but it all comes down to ecosystem and/or platform. If you’re an iOS aficionado then the iPhone 6 is definitely the better choice but if you’re invested in Microsoft’s slew of services includes OneDrive and Skype then you can’t go wrong with the Lumia 930.