My foray into Windows Phone

Well, I decided to get a new toy... a Nokia Lumia 521. I will update as I go along.

This phone is serving as a backup update for my prepaid phone. My previous prepaid device started to fail me. In my area, T-Mobile is building up coverage in the "4G"/LTE arena. The ole flip kept falling back to 2G (and dying). If you are on a legacy 3G or on a 2G only device, I'd suggest that you at least get a newer device. Sometimes, a device update is all what is needed.

Reception is the same as the Nokia of the 90's. Signal everywhere thus far. Sound quality is passable.

Windows Phone platform is solid enough. I just wish there were more apps... and Google and Microsoft played better together.

Windows and Nokia meshes well on here. The Lumia 521 has 1Ghz single core processor and it mostly hums along fine. I had the phone reboot on me once (it is a smartphone and I don't think it is a negative... it isn't buggy)

The screen is 4" diagonal with bezels (i.e. no edge to edge screen, but it isn't bad from my use). Screen is sharp enough for me with the blackened background.

Multimedia is adequate. I have Windows 8 on the home laptop and it is similar to that. I will upload some video and pics taken before the Nokia Amber update...and some after on separate posts.

The Lumia Amber update introduced a host of features, I've yet to explore. But I am pleased with what's been unleashed so far (call & text blocking, FM radio)

I paid $100+ tax for the phone on HSN.com (thanks Comcast for the $20 coupon)... I received a case and a charger for the phone also. For the price, I would get this over an underpowered Android.
That's it for now. It seemed like I was rambling, but it is what it is.

 

Here are some photos attached and the YouTube links.

[video=youtube;GAMkD8QK5s4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAMkD8QK5s4&feature=share&list=UUBbYSgwh1IEB9qf3Cu2gmRw[/video]

[video=youtube_share;fQHNRu0yed0]http://youtu.be/fQHNRu0yed0[/video]

The YouTube videos were enhanced with the stabilizing technology; the photos and videos were taken before the Amber update. Images arent too shabby IMO.

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 521 using Tapatalk

 

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-I605

 

Here are some initial speed tests. For some weird reason, Tapatalk wouldn't allow me to post the screenshots via the Windows Phone app

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-I605

 

FauxG is solid on the download and iffy on the upload... With higher pings.

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-I605

 

Streamed some of the Braves game on the MLB at Bat app. The screen on the 521 is WVGA. Not a bad viewing experience. Kinda grainy. If I wasnt on WiFi or 4G, I definitely wouldn't bother watching.

Also, the phone is a 1Ghz dual core phone, not a single core.

Battery is 1430 mAh. I get around 3 days stand by on the phone. Mediocre, IMO. I can't discuss talk time since this is a a backup phone with little calling activity.

I am pleasantly surprised at the inclusion of Wifi calling on here (I'd love to use it more, but airtime applies.)

Updates will continue.

 

Just noticed a quirk. I decided to turn off the phone to charge the phone. The Nokia decides to turn back on whilst charging. My other devices stay powered down while charging if I turn them off. I assume because my Nokia had enough of a charge to power on while charging, it immediately turned on when I plugged the charger in.



Sent from my Nokia Lumia 521 using Tapatalk

 

In my case, yes. The screen doesn't stay lit, but the phone is on.

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-I605

 

This Is after standby and almost 4 hours of MLB audio streaming on Labor Day. All on Wi-Fi.

EDIT. Shortly after the I posted the screenshot, the phone dies. I guess the phone cuts off below a certain point (5%?)

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-I605

 

Couple of things:

I have to realize that hitting the search button launches the Bing app and the search isn't universal...just web only. On Android, the search button can be set to search different items.

The retention of previous activities kinda reminds me of iOS, but fewer items are retained.

 

One thing that is missing is the voice to text. On Android, there was a speaker icon that allows you to convert voice to text... Kinda nifty. But not having it is not a killer.

I also wish the keyboard would rotate no matter what app I am using. The keyboard does rotate if I'm composing a text; in other apps, the keyboard only stays in portrait mode.


Sent from my Nokia Lumia 521 using Tapatalk

 

I am curious about this as well... I haven't seen anything... But I haven't been curious enough to find a solution.

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-I605

 

I figured out the lack of voice to text issue on the 521... Per T-Mobile, it isn't supported on this phone.

https://t-mobile.jive-mobile.com/#jive-document?content=/api/core/v2/documents/6801


Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-I605

 

And to prove my point, I decided to play with the voice to text capabilities. I can do voice to text while in the text message option and email (tsk, tsk T-Mobile). But the voice to text option in other apps is still lacking.

The voice activation is less forgiving than on Android. My Android devices had a way to adapt to your voice... I didnt see that here. It works best when you keep the commands short. (ie "Text phone number" instead of "send text to phone number")

 

Just a couple of observations:

The phone shuts off at 5%. Every smartphone I've used shuts down at zero. Not sure whether that's a Windows phone experience or a Nokia one.
If the Wi-Fi calling is enabled and loses the network signal, it stays on Wi-Fi and it doesn't check for a network. I would have to reboot the phone to get a network signal back.
Sometimes I'd like to turn the phone off to recharge, however if I power down the phone and plug in the charger, it powers back on.

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-i605

 

I haven't thought about that. I will have to check that out.

Sent from the Blanco Beast, SCH-i605