User Review: Nokia Lumia 520

So I finally ended up buying. Although I love Android, not just because of it being free and open, because of endless possibilities with an android device, I still was curious about Windows Phone 8 OS. If it is Nokia then we can have faith in the device.
It is my first WP8 phone and here are my initial impressions of both OS as well as the phone.
What I like:
phone:
Value for money
Decent camera
Nice Apps for Lumia
Great Navigation software
Color (Yellow)
OS:
Smooth OS
Simple settings
Fast
Office apps are good

What I didnt like:
phone:
battery considering its a Nokia phone

OS:
Cant copy contacts easily
No User Profiles like Silent,Loud et al. It is just one and needs changing everytime.
No pull down taskbar, you need to navigate to individual setting to change it. Else add a shortcut as Live Tile.
Could not find other good Music app other than default one which does not detect folders.
Less number of Apps
Cant call the person from message section, there is no such option. Need to go to people app, search for the person and call!


Calling:
Really good. Its loud and clear and found good signal coverage in my office where many phones across brands do not work
Messaging
Threaded conversation and notification on top, good.
Battery:
I kept phone with 2G always on, found that Whatsapp was draining the battery, still was able to make it for 30 hours for a charge
Camera:
Decent, smart shoot is good, we pick best of 5 shots. Yet to check other features.
Maps:
Yet to use
Driving Directions:
Awesome!
Used it while travelling in the cab, liked it better than Google Navigation.
Music:
Not many alternatives in store, this app satisfies the needs.Had some issues since it has no option to sort by folder, does not detect some albums and shows every song as separate album.
Many times it goes into shuffle mode when listening to an album, album artwork is not displayed in full screen!
Videos:
Checked only whatsapp videos, heard it can handle 1080p
keyboard:
Liked it very much, looked better than swiftkey in android, donno why!
Apps
Not many apps available in Store, most seem junk but basic ones are available. And yes, no Google apps!
Didnt try any game, not interested!
Useless Default App:
People.Messed up everything, could have been cleaner
Lock Screen:
Wow! Although not many options to unlock, the lock screen looks good.

Windows Phone 8 OS will appeal to the new smart phone users since it does exactly what they expect, calls, messages whatsapp and facebook, which most of the people use smart phone for!
Phone is fast and simple, Lumia colors are flashy (compared to predictable black or white colors from all vendors)
https://twitter.com/moindear/status/328481492516868096

If someone says I get a 4 inch screen with all basic apps and a fast OS with decent camera in 10k, who wont take it! Very happy with the phone.

 

[Sushubh]

I am not sure what's wrong with importing your contacts from Google Contacts to Hotmail. It should then sync the contacts properly from Hotmail to the phone?

 

[moindear]

Why would i want to keep my contacts in hotmail?
Previously I had Asha 311, I backed up all the contacts in PC Suite and as Nokia backup.
Surprisingly I found out that there is no way to import contacts directly, its either SIM, cloud(donno what/how) or outlook (do people store contacts and phone numbers in outlook?)
There is no PC Suite, no apps in phone and else where (windows 7) to do this. Later did find a Nokia app called transfer data but had transferred data from google by then.
When you are a new entrant, you need to provide various methods to import contacts, found it baffling!

 

[Sushubh]

so how does one import contact on an android device if that person is switching from a feature phone?
hotmail is to windows phone what gmail is to android. it offers syncing and online backup of your contacts. i am not sure what is wrong with hotmail storing your contacts now that you are using a windows phone device.
would you rather lose your contacts if your phone gets stolen?

 

[moindear]

We can import CSV, that is how I transferred my contacts from N85 to Galaxy S.
I guess BT transfer might also work.
BTW how to upload contacts to hotmail? Ended up using Gmail to transfer the contacts.
I think we cant store the contacts in device as in Android, new contacts too are being stored in Gmail

 

[Sushubh]

So how does one generate a CSV on a featurephone?
When I moved from a feature phone to my first Android phone, you know what I did? I manually saved the contacts in Gmail and they were synced with the phone.
If I were to switch to Windows Phone, I would export the CSV from Google Contacts and then import that CSV in Hotmail and then sync with the device.
But then, Hotmail already syncs my Gmail contacts I believe because I am on Windows 8 now and my Hotmail account is connected to my Gmail account. : lol.
But yeah. Windows Phone support syncing with Google using ActiveSync or whatever so I guess that is what you are using right now.

 

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[godric_gt]

@moindear, thanks for the review, I intend to buy a new phone and have been considering this for quite a while.

 

[SVK]

Nice review.
But I think you are not getting point about contacts. From some app on my Nokia N95, I had backup of all my contacts in gmail account. Then I imported these contacts from gmail to Outlook (formerly Hotmail). And all my contacts were available on phone after I signed in on phone using my Outlook account. Once we have contacts in People app, we can merge all contacts details from Outlook, Facebook, Google. So any contact present on multiple platforms would appear once. This will also get other details like email, birthday, address, website for that contact.
And if you happen to reset your phone, all contacts would resume again after you sign in with Outlook contacts again
People app also provides good option to link Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and see updates directly from all these without need for any extra app. It will not provide full experience of that app, but comes handy in getting updates from social network

 

[moindear]

Why I was unhappy with contacts is because WP8 is upcoming OS, it needs to attract more and more customers and copying contacts should be made easy, it will help them in the long run.
I was just trying to understand how would a person with limited idea about computers deal with this issue, I guess it will be very tough. I have many friends whose contacts never fit in Sim cards, for them there is no option!
People app is cluttered since there is no option to configure. If anyone does not need those updates, there is no way to turn it off!
I will give one more example, I synced the contacts from Google, which shows my G+ contacts as well. Now there is no option in People app to display contacts having phone numbers!

 

[Sushubh]

copying contacts should be made easy, it will help them in the long run.

I am not sure how dealing with CSV files is easier than the officially supported methods on Windows Phone. How does a novice user create a CSV file from a feature phone which is what he is likely to be using in the first place.

 

[SVK]

Without signing in to Outlook account, you can still add manually contacts, which would be store in Phone. But it would still called as "Outlook" contacts. So in future if you sign in to any of your Outlook account, your contacts from phone would get added in Outlook.
If you don't want to view your Google contacts, go to Settings > filter my contact list. Un-tick Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN. So you can only see phone numbers which are present in Phone (Outlook).
If you don't want to see updates, in Settings, tick option "Only show posts from people visible in my contact list". So by doing this, you won't get updates from people on FB, Twitter who are not in your Outlook.

 

[Technoholic]

Days of managing everything offline are long gone. I do not see why one would not like to have contact, calendar entries synched by default with cloud. It not only comes handy when you reset device but also when you lose it, change the device or migrate to other platform.
From my experience, WP allows seamless integration with Google contacts and calendars, Outlook, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and one can disable every individual service if not required. I remember turning off Facebook integration from people hub because I didn't want facebook walls of people and their update in people hub but still keeping it synced with pictures and message hub. It was that flexible.

 

[Sushubh]

Yup. I can reset my phone right now and lose nothing (Except for SMS ). Everything is synced online.

 

[moindear]

I am not sure how dealing with CSV files is easier than the officially supported methods on Windows Phone. How does a novice user create a CSV file from a feature phone which is what he is likely to be using in the first place.

I meant providing more ways to import contacts, didnt mean csv. I know that csv can be used by advanced users only!
What I meant that creating an app, preferably in PC which would take any kind of contacts backup, or may be vcf file and import it!
Advanced users will anyway get their task done, the target should always be normal users

 

[Sushubh]

mmm. i thought windows zune was capable of doing that? and it is still used by WP8 devices?
also. windows 8 users do not need an app. windows 8 has similar apps for people which are going to be synced with the same hotmail/outlook account whether on the web or on the phone.