User Review: Nokia Lumia 520

  • Thread starter Thread starter moindear
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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.
 
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chromaniac said:
Yup. I can reset my phone right now and lose nothing (Except for SMS :tongue🙂. Everything is synced online.
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You can take offline/online backup of that too! I guess windows phone 8 has inbuilt cloud backup mechanism for SMS as well.
 
I moved to Windows 7 from Windows 8 a month back 🙁
I guess I need to sync all these contacts to hotmail, it would make it easier for backups.
Donno what will happen when I buy a android phone, another headache to get contacts 😀
 
chromaniac said:
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. 🙂
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Everything Zune is ditched by MS. It isn't compatible with windows phone anymore. But when it was, it did not let user to take backup of contacts/SMS etc. New windows phone 8 companion app for windows PC and Mac does not allow that either.
I guess there is inbuilt app in windows phone called 'Transfer My Data'. It syncs contacts from older devices via bluetooth. I can not think of better solution. Most of the devices have bluetooth connectivity and should be compatible with that app. I may be wrong though.
 
Nope. Just export and then import contacts from Outlook/Hotmail to Gmail. I cannot think of a simpler method.
It is mighty simpler than transferring contacts using SIM cards. I recently changed CDMA handset used by dad and the fucking sim has a capacity of just 150 contacts. Had to transfer contacts manually three times to get his 500 contacts to the new phone and of course, most of the contacts were truncated in the process of moving from phone to SIM memory.
It is also mighty simpler than using a shitty app like Nokia PC Suite (Symbian devices). You install it, then you install shit load of updates. Then you hope that it detects your phone. And then you hope that it backsup your contacts. And so on.
--
Had no idea about the shittyness of the new Companion app 😛
 
moindear said:
I moved to Windows 7 from Windows 8 a month back 🙁
I guess I need to sync all these contacts to hotmail, it would make it easier for backups.
Donno what will happen when I buy a android phone, another headache to get contacts 😀
Click to expand...
May be you can use Google contacts as default contact sync solution on windows phone? I am not sure about that as my experience with windows phone is limited.
moindear said:
"Transfer My Data" is a Nokia app which lets you copy the contacts from old phone via bluetooth!
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So did it work for you?
 

chromaniac said:
Nope. Just export and then import contacts from Outlook/Hotmail to Gmail. I cannot think of a simpler method.
It is mighty simpler than transferring contacts using SIM cards. I recently changed CDMA handset used by dad and the f**king sim has a capacity of just 150 contacts. Had to transfer contacts manually three times to get his 500 contacts to the new phone and of course, most of the contacts were truncated in the process of moving from phone to SIM memory.
It is also mighty simpler than using a shitty app like Nokia PC Suite (Symbian devices). You install it, then you install shit load of updates. Then you hope that it detects your phone. And then you hope that it backsup your contacts. And so on.
--
Had no idea about the shittyness of the new Companion app :tongue:
Click to expand...
Companion app is just to sync media offline if one prefer it that way instead of MTP or mass storage (not allowed in WP).
For me, Nokia PC suite worked like a charm in good old days. Never had problem regarding phone detection etc. I remember updating my phone firmware more via PC suite than updating that app itself.
 
Can you post about the performance of WhatsApp on this phone? A friend is considering buying the 620 for his dad but he needs WhatsApp to work properly on it.
How good/bad is the battery life with general usage?
 

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