If you are in the market for a mid-range Windows Phone 8 device then the Nokia Lumia 820 should definitely make your shortlist. The smartphone is affordable, fast, responsive, looks nice and comes with the Finnish manufacturer's exclusive collection of exiting apps. In a number of ways, the Lumia 820 is closer to high-end rather than mid-range Windows Phone 8 devices. The smartphone comes with the same processor as the Lumia 920 (which explains the speed part), features support for wireless charging through optional back plates and sports an AMOLED display where black is really black and not a shade of grey. But, the Lumia 820 is not a scaled down version of the bigger Lumia 920 or any other high-end Windows Phone 8 handset.

Design And Build:

The design and aesthetics of the phone is all about simple and clean lines. The rectangular shape of this bar phone has soft rounded edges. The slim and compact design of the phone accommodates a 3.5 mm audio jack on the top and a micro USB port on the bottom. All physical buttons are on the right side of the phone and they include a volume rocker, power on/off button and a physical camera shutter button. The screen of the phone gives you the best display when you switch from one application to the next using sensors like the Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor and Gyroscope Sensor.

Camera Performance:

When it comes to the photography, the Nokia Lumia 820 does not disappoint you. The phone is equipped with 8MP rear camera which is loaded with HD video recording with 4x digital zoom and dual LED flash. The phone has a secondary camera which is good for video calling and skype. The camera of Nokia Lumia 820 is loaded with the features like Geo-tagging and touch focus.

Display Clarity:

The Lumia 820 comes with a 4.3-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 x 800 and a 217 ppi density. There are two notable downsides here: the resolution and, therefore, the pixel density. If you are used to looking at a display with a 720p resolution (720 by 1280) or higher, the panel on the Lumia 820 will look underwhelming by comparison. Text is not as sharp as it should be, easy to spot when looking through the app list or the Settings menu. A similar impression is given when viewing web pages in Internet Explorer. But there are good parts to the Lumia 820's display. Colors pop and appear vibrant, something which is highly noticeable when holding the handset next to the Lumia 920. That is in part due to the AMOLED technology and the software calibration performed by Nokia. All in all, except the low resolution, the display on the Lumia 820 is decent.

Processing Speed:

The lumia 820 is backed by 1.5 GHz Dual Core Qualcomm Krait processor with 1 GB RAM which gives you smooth interface and speed for performing multiple tasks togather. It comes with latest Windows 8 which gives amazing smooth and speedy performance.

Power On It:

With brightness set on auto, two email accounts, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter syncing in the background, mobile data and Wi-Fi always enabled, some calls and texts and an overall medium use, the battery on the Lumia 820 can get through a day and even into the next one. With light usage, It gives around 30 hours of battery life.

Overall:

The Lumia 820 is likely the best mid-range Windows Phone device currently available. The only things that really let it down are the average back-facing camera and low-resolution display, the latter of which is easily noticeable more of the time than the former. If you are willing to put up with these two shortcomings, the Lumia 820 can pretty much do everything that the Lumia 920 does only at a lower price-point.