2 months into my nokia 810 / win phone 8

[NewfoundLumia]

I have comprised a list of issues/problems/glitches I have come across while using the Nokia 810 from T-Mobile as an everyday phone:


*When browsing pages in IE, if I leave to read a text or an E-mail and go back into IE and hit the back button it will go to my text/email. Not the previous page I was browsing in IE.
*Notification bar blocks screen content and stays visible for too long. There are no settings for the bar, at least none that I see.
*Can't change notification sounds
*Can't tap history results when they pop up in IE. It takes a few moments for some reason. Just annoying really.
*Can't tap multitask windows until all images resolve. Again, annoying.
*If I'm in the texting app and I get a text while my phone is still awake, I'll hear the last few micro seconds or so of the text message tone. Not the whole tone.
*Unless I'm missing something, there doesn't seem to be a way to get to all your albums/songs/artists from the shortcut way. That is, pressing the volume key and tapping the artist name.
*When talking on the phone and I get a text or notification, it very annoyingly plays like the first micro seconds of the tone 3 times and then the full tone.
*And the worse of all - The camera. OMG does it suck. The worst problem is when the flash is fired. When I use it not only does it take me at least 3 times to focus, when it does focus the flash fires like 3-4 times rapidly and the shutter must open up at the last few moments before the last bulb fire cause ALL OF MY FLASH PICS ARE SUPER SUPER dim. The camera's own flash over exposes the photos then the software compensates by dimming it! lol. Then if I'm recording a video, if I go back to view it I get an error message saying it can't play the video type or something like that.

SMH can anyone else back me up on here? Am I the only one that is having these problems?

 

[Xtian.Castro]

Regarding the toast notifications covering content, you can dismiss them by swiping it to the right.

 

[Mystictrust]

First recommendation: Try another browser, such as UC Browser (my personal fav) or SurfCube. See if it helps. I couldn't honestly say if I'm having the "can't go back to IE" issue since I don't use it very often, and haven't noticed it when I do use it.

For the notification bar, when you see it just tap and slide to the right to dismiss it.

As for the notification sounds while in the texting area... I don't think it's the last few microseconds of the sound you're hearing, I think it's an entirely new sound. I could be completely off base here, but I've also noticed different notification sounds sometimes when in an app vs when outside of the app. It could be by design (i.e. I know the text is from a conversation I'm in, and I need to scroll down). I could also be misunderstanding your issue... that or I haven't noticed it :/

Notifications while you're on a phone call suck. Period. It can be annoying as $%#& - and the volume sometimes seems to match the volume of my call (which is always real high) so it loudly throws me off (annoying side rant: after 5 notifications, I politely asked my caller to hold the freak on so I could hunt down who the heck was bothering me... I never found the source of the notifications, whether it was an app I hadn't pinned or an app I have yet to check that doesn't show every notification or toast. After all those annoying tones, some sort of notification center or a place to view missed toasts would be highly appreciated [/rant])

I do share some of your frustrations with the camera... for me though, it only seems to be super dim when trying to get an up close shot of something... as if the camera thinks it is going to wash out the photo so wrongfully dims it all. You could try playing with the exposure settings when up close, as well as the ISO. Haven't had TOO many camera issues, except a photo I had taken of me with Ben Rudolph (!) the other night from my 810 looks like crap and it really ticked me off!. The dim flash thing hasn't happened much - but I guess that could be a lack of super close shots. Still, I recommend some of the third party photo taking apps mentioned on the blog - I'm a little too busy to try them all out, but from what I read they're pretty good.

Do you still like the phone after all of it? I still like it, my first windows phone and a breath of fresh air after android, but there are some small things such as "VIBRATE WHILE RINGING / AT THE SAME TIME" and custom notification sounds that I would really like. And less annoying notifications while on a call. And a way to view missed toasts.

 

[Vanilla_Gorilla]

I've had mine for about 2 weeks. the only thing I can agree on is the Camera so far. Its by far the worst Nokia Carl Zeiss one I've had in over 5 years. The Flash does run the pictures, as does zoom. Using the Blink add-on seems to be the only way to get an indoor photo. I do how ever like the translator addon, just pointing the camera at text and it translates on screen is awesome.

As for the Software its the best I've had since Maemo on my N900. so much better than my past Symbian and Android devices. Its seemless and has not crashed once. This is the first phone, I've actually liked using the on-screen keyboard.


One thing I am disappointed with is the wallet feature, without the NFC payment feature its useless. As is NFC, the only real use I've found is the tap accessories feature with my wireless charging stand. Though I did use the NFC to transfer some things from my 701.

 

[dainla]

Yep, camera sucks.

 

[peacefulberry]

Notifications while you're on a phone call suck. Period. It can be annoying as $%#& - and the volume sometimes seems to match the volume of my call (which is always real high) so it loudly throws me off

Do you still like the phone after all of it? I still like it, my first windows phone and a breath of fresh air after android, but there are some small things such as "VIBRATE WHILE RINGING / AT THE SAME TIME" and custom notification sounds that I would really like. And less annoying notifications while on a call. And a way to view missed toasts.

LOL I thought it was just me. Notification sounds while in a phone call is very easy to fix. I have old non-smartphones that didn't do that so its not hard to fix. The lack of notification lights, non customizable message tones, constant back button to close an app, and notification sounds during a call are all easy to fix. Microsoft is not primarily a mobile hardware company and it seems as though the engineers overlooked these minor, yet annoying issues. How do I know that these are Microsoft's aka Windows Phone issues? Because I have the same issues and I don't have a Nokia. Anyway, I hope they read this and fix this, as these are standards that every phone should have.

 

[jgbstetson]

Camera is garbage, especially at night with flash. It is very strange to me that this is nokias 800 series offering, but only has 8 GB internal and POS camera. I cannot download the high end game titles with that much memory. Definitely trading this in if/when catwalk emerges this summer.

 

[NewfoundLumia]

Do I still like it? eh...I'm coming from a Nexus Galaxy. I think i'll be going back to Android. I won't sell my Windows phone but I will take the sim out and use it in an Android. I just feel like the whole Win Phone 8 is half baked. Too many bugs. I don't want to complain about EVERYTHING so I want to say the best thing about my 810 is the battery life. DAMN is it good! I can easily go more than a day on one charge. That's unheard of in Android. But ok. I'll try some of your suggestions. Thanks.
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@ Vanilla_Gorilla:

When I first got my phone the keyboard was flawless. But then time happened and it got progressively worse. I would accidently type "iy" instead of "it" and it wouldn't correct it automatically like it use to. It's like the keyboard is just getting lazy now. IDK, maybe i'm hard to please. I just want to go back to the early 2000s when everyone had flip phones

 

[peacefulberry]

I just want to go back to the early 2000s when everyone had flip phones

LOL! When flip phones first came out I thought they were the coolest devices ever! Never would I have thought that touch screens were around the corner...

 

[dainla]

@ Vanilla_Gorilla:

When I first got my phone the keyboard was flawless. But then time happened and it got progressively worse. I would accidently type "iy" instead of "it" and it wouldn't correct it automatically like it use to. It's like the keyboard is just getting lazy now. IDK, maybe i'm hard to please. I just want to go back to the early 2000s when everyone had flip phones

Please. Just give me a nice physical keyboard again.

I'm close to giving up on WP8, as well. Very half baked. But I don't like Android and not a big fan of Apple.

Kind of ****ed. Miss my Pre.

 

[Angry_Mushroom]

I've had no issues with the camera at all. Mind you I tend to stick to day shots, but even then. I've managed quite a few nifty pictures at night of the city.

 

[sravanv]

I've had no issues with the camera at all. Mind you I tend to stick to day shots, but even then. I've managed quite a few nifty pictures at night of the city.

Agreed. This phone has the best phone camera I've ever had in my life. Sure it's no Lumia 920 or an S4 (I'm assuming S4 is going to be better) but it was certainly better than the 8x (colors were too washed out), iphone 4, and Galaxy nexus (everything was better than that piece of crap).

 

[waazzupppp]

Wow, the supporters in this forum are surprisingly not behind the 810... Sure, it's no 920, but again, it's not supposed to be. It is however a very nice rendition of the 900 running WP8... That said, let's look at the issues and see how simple they are to 'adjust'...

1 - The back button takes you back to the last thing you were doing - this means if you were playing a game and hit the toast notification to reply to a text, your game pauses and it goes to messaging. Then you press the back button to return to your game. Given the situation you mention, you open a link via email - so back would take you to email - not IE. If you want to see the last pages you viewed in IE, just press the Windows button and head back to IE or long press to multitask to your other IE session.

2 - Toast notifcations stay on my screen for about 10 seconds tops. It takes up about 50px which is less than 1/10 of the real estate of the screen. I'm not sure what you were using on Android, but the popup notifications from Handcent and the like were far more annoying and intrusive. Of course, I like to know when I have a message so I like the Toast system, it seems like the lesser of two evils to me.

3 - Nofication sounds can be changed by pressing Settings > Ringtones+Sounds > and changing the three options at the bottom of the list. The chime that is played while in messaging is not changable, but it's just a simple "ding" anyways, so I don't see that being a major flaw or issue.

4 - In IE, you can visit your history by tapping the menu at the bottom and selecting "recent" from the list.

5 - I'm not even sure what you mean by all images resolving? But my 810 will snap to multitask mode in about 2 seconds from push to load. This is faster than my Toshiba Thrive can bring up its program list to switch between Apps by a long shot.

6 - The tone you hear when in the texting program is a chime designed to be softer and less obtrusive than the normal one. For example, if you are in the messaging App and someone sends a 3 part text, my Evo would chime three times, all in the tone that was set. WP8 is smart enough to know that you only need one notification to look, then a nicer tone/sound can let you know when more arrive if you are already looking. It's one of the features of WP that I actually love. Nothing worse than getting multiple texts and hearing the transformers sound 4 times in a row. That little ding is perfect for letting me know that more is arriving when I'm already looking at the screen.

7 - It depends on what you used to transfer the music. I use WMP to do it and I have access to all my music that way by pressing the "artist name trick" on the sound bar. By sending them with alternate methods, I haven't been so lucky.

8 - When on the phone, I get the same little "ding" noise that I get when I am in messaging, so I can't really answer this one at all? Maybe a glitch in the sound you use?

9 - Camera... The cameras on any smartphone can do an amazing job. If your images are too light, adjust the exposure downward. If they are too dark at night, make sure you use the screen tap to select your subject. The flashes you see before it takes an image is actually the 'focus assist light' that can be turned off. It will also speed up the focal time. The cameras take a bit of tweaking to get the way you want them, so play with it and see what you can get it to do. Now part B... The video recordings... The biggest issue that I have had with my Lumia is the external storage becoming 'corrupted' when it starts up. This is why so many manufacturers are moving away from external mounted storage. Check your SD card and make sure it is formatted correctly and it writes at least at Class 6 speeds. If not, you can't reliably get 720p video saved on it without dropping frames and getting a corrupt file. Mine mismounts about once a week and a quick pop in to a computer for repair usually fixes the error.

Also, as a good tip, make sure to restart your phone about every 5 days maximum. It will be a happy camper for a much longer amount of time....

Now for my gripe list since we are having so much fun here:

1) 8GB of internal storage is fine, but why can't I clear the other memory or select how long I want it to download calendars/email attachments/skydrive buffers or anything like that? 4GB of my 8GB is tied up in emails/calendars/photo thumbs and other system crap that I don't need.

2) Why on earth can't they make the News and Sports widgets for Windows Phone like the Bing widgets in Windows 8? I thought the entire point of this "change" was to make things work together and share a common code... Guess not...

3) Why did I have to find a special App to edit my APN's? Build this into the stinking system already!

4) Play To doesn't work with many of my DLNA devices... I know it's still in beta, but seriously, how different from Play To for WP7 can it be? My 900 worked fine...

5) Why did they not build horizontal scrolling into the menu system? Think about how nice it would be to have swipe to people, music and games from the home screen. Make it like the sub-folders where you can swipe once to get social networks, twice to get to music and three times to get to games... Simple...

Other than that, I really like the 810 and the platform. I'm sure it will continue to evolve and as long as it works better than Android and doesn't make me load iTunes on my computer, I'm happy. I will admit to missing the Zune Sync, but I'm more than happy with the auto pic upload, kid zone (which I use as business zone) and the smaller tiles. Hope some of the ideas were helpful and I'd love to chime in with any additional questions or if I didn't answer a question completely above.

 

[jgbstetson]

I agree that wp8 has a helluva lot going for it, and the 810's faults in no way steer me toward another platform. But the camera in particular is an annoyance. Anyone else get the green hue in low light? I'm sure you can fix this in manual settings. But I feel that auto white balance could use some serious improvement. For the most part, it's a highly functional, sturdy piece of hardware.

 

[Angry_Mushroom]

That list seems to be a list of complaints about WP8... not really an 810 issue. Keep in mind the 810 is no 900 reheat. It's specs are a good deal different. Dual core Snapdragon, more battery, more memory, and expandable storage. It's a variant of the 820, not 900.

 

[waazzupppp]

@Angry_Mushroom I get what you are saying about it being an 820 variant, but I really think the hardware is more matched up with a 900 than the 820... Sure, you have a dual core, but honestly that's just to drive the more spec hungry WP8 more than an "upgrade" to the 900's single core with WP7. You also have the same 8MP camera that the 900 had instead of the sharper 8.7MP that the 820 has. It seems like a nice merger between the older 900 (which was a beautiful phone) and the newer 820. I'm overall very happy with mine and it works great with the APN editor from Nokia on any of the MVNO carriers - I'm on Solavei so that was a nice bonus to get!

@jgbstetson I found that the flash tends to balance a bit green. So there are two ways to compensate for this, one is to change the Scene to Night and the other is to change the White Balance to Incandescent. Both will help with the 'greenish tint'. Another one is to turn on the "flash assist" in focusing. That will light up the image to focus, then take the photo. Not good for quick shots, but if you are staging them you will be fine. The last trick is to always shoot about 6-8 feet away from the subject when using the flash. Closer than 5 feet and you get a hot spot... Outside 8 feet, you get bright whites and horrible darks. The flash is only rated to 3m... So about 10 feet is the maximum output - and inside half that it doesn't dial down so you'd have to adjust the exposure.

 

[pankaj981]

^^
Definitely not a 900 variant. Its better than 820 in specs if you leave LTE. Also 820 has 8MP and not 8.7, thats in 920.

 

[Angry_Mushroom]

Ummm... Once again no. The 810, 820, and 822 are variants of each other. In fact the 820 appears to be the runt of the pack when compared to the 822 and 810. (822/810 has more battery, and better front facing cameras) All the 820s variants share screens, screen tech, and SoC's. Meaning they all technically have 4G LTE built in. Just TMO hasn't gotten around to activating their LTE quite yet.

I won't deny that the 800s and 900 share a screen and a primary camera, but that's about it.

 

[tissotti]

Absolutely. Lumia 810 and Lumia 822 are total variants of thinner the global Lumia 820.
Important point here is the SoC.


I agree with you in general that there's a lot that needs to be improved on Windows Phone. Personally been really happy with my Lumia 920 though.

 

[Dr_8820]

I've only dealt with Microsoft phones since 2006, and the 810 and MS in general has me thinking about my purchase. The "other" storage issue is a deal breaker for me, I've been tweeting between @winphonesupport as well as @nokiacareus, Nokia told me that there is no way to control this from the user end...12 minutes after @joebelfiore tweeted that he was enjoying this feature on the 920...so the flagship gets the fix, but not the low end model.(before anyone says that T-Mobile is to blame, the 2nd tier tech rep looked and said that the 810 doesn't have anything on the radar for updates, after I told him and her that the 920 and 820 is getting this fix from Nokia). I've read all the threads about how to fix it, including downloading Storage Shrink, but the other storage grows bigger everyday. I'm giving it 1 more week, if this isn't fixed and only because I'm under contract until 2014, I'll be using my Leo (HD2).