I have bought the Nokia Lumia 920 about 4 months ago and wanted to blog a review. Please note that this is written in the end of November 2013 and that things might have changed since this has been written. Perhaps there are OS updates released, or Nokia updates or app releases/updates. I got the Lumia with the Portico update but I received the upgrade to gdr2 (Microsoft update) and amber (Nokia update) rather quick after buying the device. I have blogged before aobut my experience about the upgrade from gdr1 to gdr2. Which was painless. I have enrolled in the developer program of Microsoft (for about 18 euro’s) and have enrolled in the GDR3 preview program. Microsoft bought Nokia during the past 4 months and they have unlinked the Nokia update (Bittersweet shimmer, now called Black update) and the GDR3 update from Microsoft. So I have the GDR3 preview at the moment and I have to wait for the GDR3 final. Nokia will release the black update after Microsoft finalizes gdr3. There are also resources online which claim that there will be an enterprise update in Q1 of 2014 for Windows Phone 8. An other post is 4 months old and there is a timespan of q1 or q2 for the enterprise update. On the previous link (official Microsoft site) is also an announcement about the increased lifecycle support for Windows Phone. They have increased it from a year and a half to three years! Eat your heart out Android! You can have a telephone running windows phone 8 for as little as 140 euro’s. (Nokia Lumia 520) That is an awesome budget phone with a great OS!
pros
- no lag! fluent user interface
- all mandatory apps are available
- unified UI
- good lifecycle support (Operating System updates)
- Nokia adds nice things to the OS
- growing market share (especially in Europe)
- awesome camera (Lumia 1020 even has 41 megapixel!)
- decent hardware (Nokia’s are stronger than Thors hammer)
- auto Skydrive upload (had Dropbox on my Android HTC Desire C which was also nice)
- tiles! you just have to experience them
- good Bluetooth sync with (Ford) car
- Nokia Drive+ included (for non Nokia phones it’s about 35 dollar/euro)
- a lot of Nokia apps (for camera’s)
- Facebook app is more responsive on windows phone than on my HTC Desire running Android 4.x
- same for Whatsapp
- no app required for barcode scanning (build in OS)
- no app required to check who is singing this song (build in OS)
- you can open Microsoft Office documents
- build in PDF support
- screenshots are easy
cons (Microsoft and/or Nokia can improve this)
- Gmail – mail archive, http://www.wpcentral.com/metromail-first-full-gmail-app-windows-phone
- Whatsapp – you cannot share pre-recorded video’s (because of file system security?)
- Video app cannot use local filesystem folders
- Calendar does not have a week view option
- Calendar tile should show more info
- missing Dutch voice recognition in OS for voice search
- no Ford sync apps (no Windows Phone support in Fords developer program)
- no native Dropbox app (Boxfiles is an alternative)
- no native Ziggo TV app (Dutch company)
- no Appie app (Dutch supermarket)
- no native official YouTube app
- took me a while to find the perfect photo app. Nokia makes a lot of them, like refocus, panorama, pro cam etc. Nokia camera
- Notification center (to look up a missed notification) is missing (I expect it in wp-blue or 8.1)
Conclusion
My next phone will definitely be a (Nokia) Windows Phone! Looking forward to the new 9xx phones. Because the 1020, 1520 are both too big. I even pushed my first windows phone app to the appstore. It is a small and simple flashlight (zaklamp) It is free, so check it out!
As you can see, the most caveats are about missing Dutch (minor) applications. This is just a matter of time. The rest are just missing features in apps. There are no or almost no downsides to the mobile operating system that windows phone 8 (gdr3) is. Please let me know if you agree or disagree. Looking forward to your point of view!