Lumia 820 replacement

[Simmo_2000]

I am looking for some sensible advice. I am currently running a lumia 820, which I have had since the 1st week available in the UK. The lumia 830 never interested me, and I specifically went for the 820 over the 920 as at the time it was slightly smaller, cheaper and did everything I wanted.

When the 950 was released I thought great a return to the high end market, but was put off by the size of it, and that I didn't need anything that fancy, but I was looking forward to the 850 (until it was cancelled).

My 820 still works, still takes better photos than the wife's iphone 6s(although it takes a lot longer to take the picture). Battery life is starting to fail, and it doesn't look like it will be getting w10m, hence the reason I am here.

Should I keep it running as long as I can (maybe get a new battery for it), or should I replace it? Was thinking with a 650, for the short term till hopefully things pickup.

Can anybody give me any idea what the camera on the 650 is like compared with the 820.

Thanks.

 

[Maurizio Troso]

I am looking for some sensible advice. I am currently running a lumia 820, which I have had since the 1st week available in the UK. The lumia 830 never interested me, and I specifically went for the 820 over the 920 as at the time it was slightly smaller, cheaper and did everything I wanted.

When the 950 was released I thought great a return to the high end market, but was put off by the size of it, and that I didn't need anything that fancy, but I was looking forward to the 850 (until it was cancelled).

My 820 still works, still takes better photos than the wife's iphone 6s(although it takes a lot longer to take the picture). Battery life is starting to fail, and it doesn't look like it will be getting w10m, hence the reason I am here.

Should I keep it running as long as I can (maybe get a new battery for it), or should I replace it? Was thinking with a 650, for the short term till hopefully things pickup.

Can anybody give me any idea what the camera on the 650 is like compared with the 820.

Thanks.

I own a 650, and with latest firmware, o.s. build and photo app updates it's one of best 8 MPX camera in the market.

 

[Bobvfr]

There isn't much difference in the size of the 950 and the 650, one is 5.2 and the other 5.0

 

[slimchap]

Any device from the *30 series is an upgrade... Believe me you will love having a device with a bigger screen...

Makay Chapulets | MTN Nigeria CCR
Posted from my Lumia 640XL running Windows 10.

 

[xandros9]

You won't necessarily love a larger display but you don't have much of a choice.

I would think a Lumia 640 or 650 are the best you can do for now.

Excellent/decent battery life in a size that, while is kinda big (the 830 is a smidgen smaller than the 640 despite the same screen size)

I don't have an 820 anymore to compare but I wasn't really impressed with the shooter.
The 640 though is quite good for the price point and I think the 650 is slightly better than that. I don't think you'll go wrong with them considering their only major downside is low-light performance but that is something the 820 has as well.

 

[Simmo_2000]

Thank you all for you comments / advice.

I think I will wait a couple of months for the Redstone update to be released (and patched), then will see what I can afford (probably a 650), didn't really want a bigger phone, but the 820 is definitely starting to show its age, and everyone seems to be making bigger phones.

 

[Bobvfr]

What country are you in, here in the UK the 950 and XL have had a really decent price reduction, I am sure other countries will get deals and it is often worth waiting, for example if I hade bought a 950 XL last week it was ?469 for the phone only, this weekend it became ?399 with the ?79 display dock thrown in. I am sure the 650 will get deals as well at some time so if you can afford to wait for the right time you can get good deals.

 

[Simmo_2000]

Just thought you might like to know what I ended up doing.

After looking round trying to figure things out, I eventually phoned my service provider (O2 - only network I can get at home and work), instead of using their online upgrade process. When speaking to the gentleman at O2 I calmly explained I was looking for an upgrade from my fantastic Lumia 820 and was thinking about the Lumia 950, but the price had to be right. I gave him the details of a Vodafone contract through carphone warehouse which was unlimted calls & texts and 3GB data (i did only have 1GB - not a big user as I'm usually connected to wifi), which was cheaper than what they were offering, then before he vanished to 'speak to his manager' I quickly added that I had had my old phone for nearly 4 years on an old style contract which didn't drop the cost after paying for the phone, so I suggested that I had already been paying for my next phone for nearly 2 years. When he came back from 'speaking to his manager' they gave me what I think is a good offer - unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 3GB data on the plan that has an upfront cost of ?70, but didn't charge me the ?70, then they have given me a loyalty discount of ?4 per month.

So after all this my monthly fee is ?27.50 and no upfront costs, and a shiny new Lumia 950. I think this is quite reasonable!!


The device itself is great, but is a little on the large side, to the point where it doesn't fit in the space in my car where I kept the 820. There are a few little niggles with it, but I haven't got the anniversary update on it yet - figured I was so close to the release date I would wait for the official release. I have found on the game hill climb racing (about all I play on it) it is actually slower and more jerky than the 820 was - but was pleasantly surprised when my progress transferred over, as when I asked fingersoft about this 6 months ago, they said they didn't do cloud save for windows phones and I would have to start again. Other issues that annoy me are tiles not updating for my email accounts to show how many new messages and when I use the back button to exit a program it stays in the list (when doing a long press on the back button), where as my old 820 closed it down and only showed in this list if I used the windows button to exit the program - this seems to use a lot more battery due to background applications running (is this 'fixed' or made an option in the anniversary update?)
I also replaced the horrible back cover with a Mozo black leather cover, looks so much better and is a lot less slippy.

So in summary, got a good deal by speaking to my provider instead of just dealing with it online, I like the phone but it is a little big (i'll get used to it), and a couple of niggles (which will hopefully be resolved, if not I will get used to them as well).


As for my old 820, I got so fed up of my company Samsung Galaxy A3 phone, easily the worst implementation of Android I have ever used. It factory reset on me for the 3rd time this year, so it is now sat in my desk drawer. I put this SIM card in the 820, took about 3 minutes to reconfigure it for work use, and even set it up to access my works email from Lotus Notes. It takes 10 seconds to sync with Notes where as the Samsung would take about 5 minutes and fail if the screen locked.
So really happy about this as well now

 

[libra89]

Thank you for the update! Your comments about it being big have me a bit concerned now since I'll have a 950 in my hands soon. As for programs staying in the background, I believe that it is a Windows Phone quirk.

 

[Simmo_2000]

Thank you for the update! Your comments about it being big have me a bit concerned now since I'll have a 950 in my hands soon. As for programs staying in the background, I believe that it is a Windows Phone quirk.

Well I found it big as the Lumia 820 'only' has a 4.3 inch screen, so the 950 has a screen nearly an inch bigger, but seems to be wasted by having the buttons on screen and then are large area at the bottom of the phone seemingly unused where the 820 had separate capacitive buttons which I prefer.

Let me know how you get on with the 950 when you get it, and your thoughts on it's size.