- Jun 16, 2007
- 3,102
- 24
- 81
I bought a Nokia 521 a while ago, but it was a phone I never intended to use. It was super cheap and an impulse buy to see what WP8 is like. But it's really not the same until you really use it and I needed to get a better phone to do that since I'm used to devices like the Nexus 5 and Note 3. So I ordered a Nokia Icon and received it today.
The Icon came out earlier this year and has very nice specs, 5 inch 1080p AMOLED display, Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage. Very nice and comparable with my Nexus 5 and Note 3.
Windows Phone 8.0:
My phone arrived with Windows Phone 8.0. Just 8.1 should be arriving soon via the Lumia Cyan update. I have 8.1 on my Nokia 521, so I can make some comparisons of things to expect soon for my Icon.
Initial Setup:
When I go through the initial setup of a Windows Phone 8 or even Windows 8 device at work, I always run into a problem with the wifi. For some odd reason Windows doesn't allow me to connect to guest wireless networks or WPA2-Enterprise wireless networks during the setup wizard. iOS and Android allow for that. When I'm at home I can connect to a regular WPA2-Personal network just fine. My work around is either to skip part of the initial setup or use a mifi. Microsoft needs to improve this.
Settings:
The Settings screen bugs me a little. It's just a long list of settings options. And there appears to be no rational organization to the list. The various display settings for example are spread throughout the list instead of next to each other. It's not alphabetical either. It's like they pulled names out of a hat and decided the order that way. Unfortunately it looks the same on WP8.1 as well. In time I'll remember where things are, but for now I seem to be doing a lot of scrolling up and down trying to find brightness settings.
Auto Brightness:
Speaking of brightness. I love auto brightness on this phone. I always turn off auto brightness on anything I use, because I find that it is never bright enough and sometimes it adjusts the brightness too frequently that it bothers me. Not sure if it's this phone or WP8, but auto brightness rocks. It's bright enough and I haven't even noticed the screen dimming or brightening irrationally. For the first time in my life on this Earth I will be able to leave auto brightness on.
Notifications and Quick Settings:
Or the lack there of. Windows Phone 8 doesn't have this yet, but I can see it in it's beautiful glory on my Nokia 521 with WP8.1. Not having this on my Icon will bug me, but I'll try to avoid the temptation of putting WP8.1 and wait for the official Lumia Cyan update instead. Not sure how Windows fans survived without this. Explains the market share to me.
What I Need On My Icon:
Obviously I want to do the same things I currently do on my Android phones. And it is as follows...
Google Voice
Browser
Email
Google Play Music
YouTube
Audiobooks
Skype
Twitter
Google Voice.
I've already heard there are no Google apps on WP8. And Google killed third party app support for GV back in May. I can forward calls to my Icon easy enough from the GV website. But I won't be able to make calls with my GV number from my Icon. I think I can live with this. Main problem might be texting, not sure if I'll be able to reply to text messages I get via GV or not (I'll test that later).
Browser.
WP8 doesn't sync Favorites with Windows 8.1. However I see on my Nokia 521 with WP8.1 that feature does get added, so I will eventually be able to share favorites between IE on my PC, Windows tablets, and phone. For now I'll have to recreate some of my favorites.
The address bar on WP8 (or WP8.1) doesn't ever hide, it's always present and using up screen space. Chrome hides the address bar after the page loads or you start scrolling through it and brings it back up when you scroll up. I'd like to see similar behavior with IE.
Email.
I added my corporate Exchange email easily enough. I wasn't prompted to encrypt the phone like Android, so assume WP8 is already encrypted like iOS is. There is a setting that lets me use a black background for email. And when turned on my list of emails are in the black theme. But when I open an email message it uses a white background. Would be nice if emails were using the black background as well, but I guess they use white because that's standard and might cause viewing issues with HTML formatted emails. Email app looks fine. As long as I get and can read emails, that's all I need.
Google Play Music.
I needed to find a third party replacement that allows me to listen to my Google All Access music. And I found CloudMuzik in the Windows Store. I installed the app, logged into my Google All Access account (that makes me a little nervous sharing that login with a third party) and was able to access all my subscription Google music, playlists, albums, etc. Other than some messed up album artwork, everything else seemed to work pretty well as I tested it out for an hour long walk this afternoon. Shuffle may even work better on this than the Google app. It only cost a dollar, money well spent.
YouTube.
This is going to be a hard one. I haven't found any apps that are any good at this. So I'm just using the browser for YouTube videos. It works okay, but this isn't an easy page to use on a small phone screen. So I'll need to keep looking for a better quality app solution from a third party.
Audiobooks.
I have audiobooks on MP3 I like to listen to on my phone. And on Android I drag and drop the MP3s onto my phone and use an audiobook player app to play those files. Very easy.
On Windows Phone it is apparently a pain in the ass. One app I'm trying is Digital Audio Book, but apparently I can't just copy my audiobook MP3s over via USB and dump them on the phone like Android. I have to UPLOAD them to OneDrive, then from the app DOWNLOAD them to the phone.
It'll probably take several hours to sync up one audiobook to OneDrive as slowly as it uploads. So I'll have to wait to see how this works. So far it's a terrible solution though, I need to find a better way.
Skype.
I have two Skype accounts. Unfortunately the one I primarily use is not linked to my primary Windows Live account (it's on my other Windows account). I've already dealt with this mess on Windows 8 tablets. Unfortunately Modern Skype will not allow to sign sign in with a different Windows Live account than the one I'm currently signed into the device with. There is no support for multiple Skype accounts. I'll most likely need to have my contacts add my other Skype account under my main account. Part of this is my fault for having multiple accounts, but I wish Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 had better support for multiple accounts.
Twitter.
The UI is terrible on WP8. It has giant buttons at the top and another button bar at the bottom and you have a narrow area in the middle of the screen to look at the tweets. The design appears ancient compared to Android and iOS. But it's usable. And I suspect this is probably something I could find better third party options for, I haven't looked yet.
Day 0 Conclusion.
Definitely looking forward to getting WP8.1. I know that'll improve my opinion of this phone and WP tremendously as it looks like very good improvements on my Nokia 521.
I could potentially survive using just a Windows Phone. So far I'm struggling to find some app replacements. But I've just begun looking, so I may find some. Though clearly the choices are more limited and sometimes not as sophisticated.
I'm kinda surprised I can just drag and drop files and use them with an app on WP like I can with Android (or Windows PCs). I can drag files on to the phone at least, so I need to look more into what these limitations are on drag and dropping.
I'm trying out Windows Phone just for the heck of it because it's different. Though so far I haven't really found anything on Windows Phone that I can't already do (and usually do better) on Android. I haven't run into a feature or something that has made me think, 'Oh I wish I had this on Android'. Though I am a Windows 8 fan (one of the few) and do use Windows 8 tablets, so the OneDrive and IE syncing will be nice (though I have Dropbox and Chrome, so not something I don't already have). Not saying Windows Phone doesn't have some unique killer feature, I just haven't noticed it yet.
I think the killer feature Windows Phone is missing is pen support. I have a Note 3 and I like the pen, but am disappointed with Samsung's S Note app. I have a Dell Venue 8 Pro and am disappointed with the pen, but love Microsoft's One Note app. A Windows Phone Phablet with a Pen would be the killer feature that I think Android still doesn't do very well and would be a strong reason to switch to Windows Phone.
The Icon came out earlier this year and has very nice specs, 5 inch 1080p AMOLED display, Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage. Very nice and comparable with my Nexus 5 and Note 3.
Windows Phone 8.0:
My phone arrived with Windows Phone 8.0. Just 8.1 should be arriving soon via the Lumia Cyan update. I have 8.1 on my Nokia 521, so I can make some comparisons of things to expect soon for my Icon.
Initial Setup:
When I go through the initial setup of a Windows Phone 8 or even Windows 8 device at work, I always run into a problem with the wifi. For some odd reason Windows doesn't allow me to connect to guest wireless networks or WPA2-Enterprise wireless networks during the setup wizard. iOS and Android allow for that. When I'm at home I can connect to a regular WPA2-Personal network just fine. My work around is either to skip part of the initial setup or use a mifi. Microsoft needs to improve this.
Settings:
The Settings screen bugs me a little. It's just a long list of settings options. And there appears to be no rational organization to the list. The various display settings for example are spread throughout the list instead of next to each other. It's not alphabetical either. It's like they pulled names out of a hat and decided the order that way. Unfortunately it looks the same on WP8.1 as well. In time I'll remember where things are, but for now I seem to be doing a lot of scrolling up and down trying to find brightness settings.
Auto Brightness:
Speaking of brightness. I love auto brightness on this phone. I always turn off auto brightness on anything I use, because I find that it is never bright enough and sometimes it adjusts the brightness too frequently that it bothers me. Not sure if it's this phone or WP8, but auto brightness rocks. It's bright enough and I haven't even noticed the screen dimming or brightening irrationally. For the first time in my life on this Earth I will be able to leave auto brightness on.
Notifications and Quick Settings:
Or the lack there of. Windows Phone 8 doesn't have this yet, but I can see it in it's beautiful glory on my Nokia 521 with WP8.1. Not having this on my Icon will bug me, but I'll try to avoid the temptation of putting WP8.1 and wait for the official Lumia Cyan update instead. Not sure how Windows fans survived without this. Explains the market share to me.
What I Need On My Icon:
Obviously I want to do the same things I currently do on my Android phones. And it is as follows...
Google Voice
Browser
Google Play Music
YouTube
Audiobooks
Skype
Google Voice.
I've already heard there are no Google apps on WP8. And Google killed third party app support for GV back in May. I can forward calls to my Icon easy enough from the GV website. But I won't be able to make calls with my GV number from my Icon. I think I can live with this. Main problem might be texting, not sure if I'll be able to reply to text messages I get via GV or not (I'll test that later).
Browser.
WP8 doesn't sync Favorites with Windows 8.1. However I see on my Nokia 521 with WP8.1 that feature does get added, so I will eventually be able to share favorites between IE on my PC, Windows tablets, and phone. For now I'll have to recreate some of my favorites.
The address bar on WP8 (or WP8.1) doesn't ever hide, it's always present and using up screen space. Chrome hides the address bar after the page loads or you start scrolling through it and brings it back up when you scroll up. I'd like to see similar behavior with IE.
Email.
I added my corporate Exchange email easily enough. I wasn't prompted to encrypt the phone like Android, so assume WP8 is already encrypted like iOS is. There is a setting that lets me use a black background for email. And when turned on my list of emails are in the black theme. But when I open an email message it uses a white background. Would be nice if emails were using the black background as well, but I guess they use white because that's standard and might cause viewing issues with HTML formatted emails. Email app looks fine. As long as I get and can read emails, that's all I need.
Google Play Music.
I needed to find a third party replacement that allows me to listen to my Google All Access music. And I found CloudMuzik in the Windows Store. I installed the app, logged into my Google All Access account (that makes me a little nervous sharing that login with a third party) and was able to access all my subscription Google music, playlists, albums, etc. Other than some messed up album artwork, everything else seemed to work pretty well as I tested it out for an hour long walk this afternoon. Shuffle may even work better on this than the Google app. It only cost a dollar, money well spent.
YouTube.
This is going to be a hard one. I haven't found any apps that are any good at this. So I'm just using the browser for YouTube videos. It works okay, but this isn't an easy page to use on a small phone screen. So I'll need to keep looking for a better quality app solution from a third party.
Audiobooks.
I have audiobooks on MP3 I like to listen to on my phone. And on Android I drag and drop the MP3s onto my phone and use an audiobook player app to play those files. Very easy.
On Windows Phone it is apparently a pain in the ass. One app I'm trying is Digital Audio Book, but apparently I can't just copy my audiobook MP3s over via USB and dump them on the phone like Android. I have to UPLOAD them to OneDrive, then from the app DOWNLOAD them to the phone.
It'll probably take several hours to sync up one audiobook to OneDrive as slowly as it uploads. So I'll have to wait to see how this works. So far it's a terrible solution though, I need to find a better way.
Skype.
I have two Skype accounts. Unfortunately the one I primarily use is not linked to my primary Windows Live account (it's on my other Windows account). I've already dealt with this mess on Windows 8 tablets. Unfortunately Modern Skype will not allow to sign sign in with a different Windows Live account than the one I'm currently signed into the device with. There is no support for multiple Skype accounts. I'll most likely need to have my contacts add my other Skype account under my main account. Part of this is my fault for having multiple accounts, but I wish Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 had better support for multiple accounts.
Twitter.
The UI is terrible on WP8. It has giant buttons at the top and another button bar at the bottom and you have a narrow area in the middle of the screen to look at the tweets. The design appears ancient compared to Android and iOS. But it's usable. And I suspect this is probably something I could find better third party options for, I haven't looked yet.
Day 0 Conclusion.
Definitely looking forward to getting WP8.1. I know that'll improve my opinion of this phone and WP tremendously as it looks like very good improvements on my Nokia 521.
I could potentially survive using just a Windows Phone. So far I'm struggling to find some app replacements. But I've just begun looking, so I may find some. Though clearly the choices are more limited and sometimes not as sophisticated.
I'm kinda surprised I can just drag and drop files and use them with an app on WP like I can with Android (or Windows PCs). I can drag files on to the phone at least, so I need to look more into what these limitations are on drag and dropping.
I'm trying out Windows Phone just for the heck of it because it's different. Though so far I haven't really found anything on Windows Phone that I can't already do (and usually do better) on Android. I haven't run into a feature or something that has made me think, 'Oh I wish I had this on Android'. Though I am a Windows 8 fan (one of the few) and do use Windows 8 tablets, so the OneDrive and IE syncing will be nice (though I have Dropbox and Chrome, so not something I don't already have). Not saying Windows Phone doesn't have some unique killer feature, I just haven't noticed it yet.
I think the killer feature Windows Phone is missing is pen support. I have a Note 3 and I like the pen, but am disappointed with Samsung's S Note app. I have a Dell Venue 8 Pro and am disappointed with the pen, but love Microsoft's One Note app. A Windows Phone Phablet with a Pen would be the killer feature that I think Android still doesn't do very well and would be a strong reason to switch to Windows Phone.
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