The Microsoft response to assistants has come out by the name of Cortana, which is good at voice recognition, and can help out many times during the day at different instances. The pretty decent in performance. The voice recognition is good, and support in different areas is always beneficial. Though not quite close to the Google Now, it does function similar to Siri, recognizing audio commands and questions, providing voice feedback. The Cortana needs to be personalized in the start to work better via settings labeled Notebook – these are segmented into Interests, Reminders, Quiet Hours, Inner Circle, Places and Music Searches. Cortana can help track news, find restaurants, plan trips, among other things. Reminders are included, so you do not forget important meetings, and reminders against locations, contacts and important people.
Basic cell phone functions like texting, calling, appointments management, note taking, alarm setting, music play, navigation and searches can be managed too, and toggling between settings, and answers to simple questions, traffic status, delays in bus or trains, etc. Cortana can also, on your behalf, make third party apps do actions, like calling a contact via Skype – currently, only Skype, Facebook and Twitter support this, but more are sure to follow.
The word recognition is instantaneous in Cortana, and accuracy has been taken up quite a bit towards a very good level. Cortana still has to play catch up with Siri and Google Now since they both have a decent head start, but with the pace, we feel it will soon catch up – the availability in other regions and languages will also give it a big boost.
The People Hub app is the central location for all communication with different contacts across multiple accounts, keeping all communication together – it includes social updates, Rooms and Groups. This includes chats and emails, so that is always helpful. A Me option is present to display your own updates and related information from across the social media too.
The Lumia 830 keeps up the in-call performance at a very good level. The sound is loud and clear, with no signal reception issues whatsoever. The loudspeaker also scored decently, and though not among the louder ones, it sure makes missed calls being no problem.
An interesting option which is an addition in the Windows Phone 8.1 is the Skype button in the in-call screen, which converts the call into a Skype video chat – understandably, this works only when both parties have Skype and internet connectivity.
The Messaging has the additional features to view the contact’s full details as well as Mute option, which temporarily blocks receipt notifications of all communication from that sender, though the communication will still be stored against the sender in the thread. The communication contains, in addition to messages, social media messages, Skype / Windows Live messages, all in one place. The keyboard on the Lumia 830 now have the additional feature of Wordflow - a swype-like option to enter text in a fluid movement, without the need to lift your fingers.
The generic email client coming with the Lumia 830 is also pretty decent, a strong performer and has batch operations, search and threaded displays, along with the ability to link multiple accounts together.
The Photo Hub gets a makeover moving away from the magazine-like UI favoring the traditional Windows Phone like look, with three pages, All, Albums and Favorites – no need to explain these with such names. Automatic backup is available to OneDrive once it is enabled from Settings, and it provides 15GB free, and additional 3GB per device on which this feature is enabled. Other sharing options includes Bluetooth, messaging, email, Facebook, and other social media.
The music play is the same quality performer that was present with the Nokia Lumia 630, with good audio quality, standard organization and options for equalizer. The player still does not support FLAC.
The video player too, is same as that on the Lumia 630, with the same layout, limited subtitles support, unable to support MKV and AC3, though Dolby Virtual Sound and Dolby Dialog Enhancer options are present.
An RDS supporting FM player is present on board the Lumia 830. Speaker play is possible, though headset, is required in this case since it also works as an antenna.
The Lumia 830 also has the great scores when connected with an external amplifier – clean audio with good volume – better than all non-HTC rivals, as far as we can tell. Plugging in headphones takes up the crosstalk, as is normally the patter, and frequency declines too as does the volume, but still the quality remains very good.