What brought you to Windows Phone?

mud314

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While I do have the Lumia 710, not with service (long story), basically it's a glorified Zune. The OS: it is fast, uses little resources, efficient way of navigating. The social aspect: no need for additional apps, love the way it all just integrates. Gaming: to some extent I like the gaming features on this phone. Skydrive: in my opinion, it just works a whole lot better than iCloud. I can save whatever file type I want to save to it.

Comparing this phone to my current service activated iPhone 4, the 710 smokes the iPhone. Getting on my iPhone now is like getting on an old antiquated machine. The apps on the iPhone rock, no doubt about it. Used to own the Original Moto Droid, it was great for the first months, after a while the phone became sluggish, reset the phone it worked great, sluggish again, rooted the droid, loaded OS after OS only to be frustrated with the phone. Moved to the BB 9930, while a "nice" phone for business, a boy has to play and this is where that phone lacked, the build quality on this phone is awesome. So in came the iPhone from my roommate, my BB has the ability to have the text enlarged across the board for him, while his iPhone 4 does not, so we traded and now patiently waiting for Big Effing RED to bring us a WP7, yes the Trophy is available, but this late in the game, why? (dude one long run-on sentence)!

I envy those of you guys on AT&T for being able to get the best phones on the market, unfortunately where I live there is no GSM service at all, only VZW. Peace
 

snowmutt

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I really enjoyed some of those stories. Fun thread!!!

Basically, I was a cheap first- basic flip/feature phone kinda guy. I would buy them second hand when I got bored or destroyed one, and just move on. My wife had a Blackberry curve, and she liked it a lot. I gave a Samsung Blackjack with Win Mo a try. One of the worst few weeks of my life. I went right back to a feature phone.

My wife got a Curve 3G, and offered me her old BB to see if I liked it. To be truthful, I really, really did. A solid but S-L-O-W loading device. But within a few months, the trackball was near useless, and I got a second hand Palm Pre+. Loved it. But again- S-L-O-W.

Nearing end of contract, and we were both ready to upgrade, and I started spending time learning. I found the iPhone to be just overpriced- period, end of story. Great phone, but not worth the money for a fragile, basic UI app launcher. I was really leaning to Androids from HTC, but decided to give WP a shot. My local AT&T store brought out a LG Quantum, and the rest is history. Smooth, bright, fun, and I love being able to set up my tiles as I see fit. Totally seamless, and something new.

We went to a Champaign IL AT&T store- played with the Titan and Focus S, she loved the screen size and camera on the Titan, I went gaga over the screen and quick operation of the "S". Found out that AT&T was putting WP's on sale for a penny after Thanksgiving, and Microsoft was offering 25$ marketplace cards for the same time frame. I still have the online reciept: 12:22 A.M. we were WP owners.

Apollo..... come to Papa......
 

ngc891

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First mobile in 1999... Ericsson T10 - solid little flip phone

then a Sony Z5 - plastic body, rubber keys and a crazy jog wheel thing to navigate the menus with.

then a Sharp GX10 - my first colour screen phone, clamshell phone with 2 screens

Panasonic GD67 - Hated this phone, but was stuck on contract with it. Had a clear removable back cover into which you could insert your own pictures, I seem to remember having random bits of newspaper clippings on the back of mine!

Nokia 6600 - liked that you could play ngage games on it, but after a few months use the phone slowed down and kept crashing.

Sony Ericsson K630 - the first phone i broke (a drunken multi story car park stairwell incident,) after a good 8 months usage, replaced with a SE W760. Don't really remember enjoying these phones too much.

Samsung U600 - really liked this phone, it even supported flash in the browser!

Then began my time as an Android user starting with an HTC Tattoo, again had two of those as i left my first one on the roof of my car and drove off, stopped and watch it bounce off my car bonnet and into the road...
Then ended up with a Samsung Galaxy Europa, the constant slowdowns/freezes/crashes and resets drove me insane so ended up buying an...

HTC Titan upon release in the UK, and it is the best phone I've ever had. Never bought a single app on Android, but now have loads of XBL games and apps I've purchased on WP7. Ive played with other peoples iPhones but it just does not catch my eye. So yeah, a happy WP7 user, but let down by the lack of commitment from HTC. I reckon my next phone will be a Nokia WP8 phone waaaaay down the line next year!
 

cj-m

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I had maemo/N900 and after Nokia killed maemo, i went looking for a new phone...

2 things, i really don't like the samsung/iphone/lg designs and i also dont like the look of iOS and Android. tried a few droid phones and iPhone and i just didn't like them. I was all set to get a N8/belle when i saw a lonely samsung focus with WP7, tried the WP7 and realised that this is the best option out of the iOS/Adroid/other OSes pack and got myself a HTC HD7.

Sold my HTC the moment i could get my hands on a Lumia 900.

I really believe that the smartphone OS market needs more competition/greater variety and that is another reason i support WP7/webOS
 

Luminatic

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What brought me to Windows Phone?

Short version: too annoyed by Android, reluctant to bite the Apple plus a friend that went from WP to Android and didn't like it. Plus the fact that I could go back to Nokia after a timeout with an HTC. (Nothing against HTC, but Wildfire was just dreadful).

Long version: Was surprised when Nokia announced the Lumia line. Wasn't keen at first, just surprised. Was getting more and more annoyed by my then-phone, wondered why I seem to be the only unhappy user of similar phones (all my colleagues had either HTC or Samsung Android phones). Then found out they sometimes experienced similar issues like me (Dropped calls, random reboots, slowness) and just lived with it. Then decided for myself that to me, a smartphone was supposed to be first and foremost a PHONE before anything else. Couldn't bring myself to go back to dumbphones though, even though they were much more reliable. Checked my contract status in winter, found out that I was eligible for an upgrade in April and decided that this time, I would choose more wisely. So I started reading about smartphones more and more (Reviews, user opinions). This, plus the negatives about my last phone, helped me to create a mental list of must-haves and nice-to-haves. Meanwhile, the Lumia 800 was getting close to being launched in Switzerland - somehow this fact was always at the back ok my mind, so maybe I was keener than I thought :blush:. (What can I say. The Wildfire was the only non-Nokia I've ever owned).

Then I found out: No Audible on WP (It wasn't announced back then). I was so disappointed! I feard that I had to resort to iPhone since I didn't want another Android. I didn't know what to do - Audible is important to me! Then the Lumia 800 was launched, and I went to a shop to try it out anyway (I was curious about WP), also I wanted to try out some other devices. I liked the Lumia in my hand - hard to explain, it was sitting in my hand as if it belonged there. I also tried a Samsung Galaxy S2 (hugely popular around here), but didn't like the feel in my hand. I must admit I did like the iPhone as well - good feel in my hand, good size, also buttery smooth to use.

BUT: Not having any know-how either about iOS or WP, I found, to my surprise, WP much more intuitive. Also, WP looks so clean and tidy. That impressed me and left, so to say, a small, but noticeable WP dent in my brain. I left the shop, silently hoping that until my next phone is up, the Audible guys would take the fingers out so I wouldn't have a reason for not getting a WP. As an listen-to-audible alternative, I purchased a Kindle Keyboard cause I didn't want a single app to decide over my two-year-OS-experience.

I contiunued checking smartphone news. The Nokia 808 was announced, I was hugely impressed (just a few weeks before this announcement, I wondered why nobody ever came up with the idea of combining a pocket camera with a smartphone - after all, pocket cameras became really dainty!) I thought that this might be an alternative and I would just wait it out.

April came, my contract was renewed, I still couldn't decide. I found out I would have to wait quite a while for a Nokia 808. Then, two things happened:
  • My Wildfire deteriorated. I had more and more random reboots, buckloads of error messages, my beloved audible app crashed more and more (probably due to the fact I had to install it on my SD card since the bloody internal memory was so small). Last Thursday, I had to keep myself from throwing out the thing out of the train window!
  • Audible for WP beta was shown during the same time when my Wildfire was acting up.

I was still a little undecided, though. I had a hard day at work last Friday and wanted to do some frustration shopping. I didn't find any clothes or shoes I liked. All of a sudden, my feet carried me to the little shop my provider has in the mall. The shop was empty and the nice lady had lots of time, letting me play around with a white lumia and also a HTC One X (Was curiuos about this one and wanted to check the progress in the Android world) . I must admit HTC one X is a HUGE improvement compared to the Wildfire. But ... too big in my hands, after handling it one-handed for a few minutes, my hand hurt (I'm sensitive due to reocurring tennis ellbows). And - again, the Lumia just felt as it belonged in my hand, especially the smooth white version.

"Mine", an inner voice said.

And that's how I came into the WP World.

For all that were patient enough to read it all - thanks for your patience and sorry for any mistake! But after over a year of trying to make myself liking my android phone (and failing to do so), I'm just so relived and happy because this time, I seem to have chosen the right phone.

As a conclusion, the Lumia 800 won against the Lumia 900 (which I had wanted to try as well) and against the Nokia 808 because it was there when I needed it. (Still thinking about going totally crazy and getting the Nokia 808 out of contract).
 

Cocolino

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Uninspired gift

Hello,
I received it as a Christmas gift from someone who knew I was a Nokia fan (not any more after Nokia Lumia 800 user experience!!:mad:).
Disappointed on soooo many levels.
Where do I start? Very briefly:
1. The interface is absolute crap, extremely basic (not to say rudimentary) and does hardly allow any customisation. The flexibility around organising and editing your tiles (yes, I don't like their standard size and shape!!), content, the poor and unimaginative way they built the user interface are most annoying.
2. The awful battery life has already gained a bad fame for most (if not all!) users, so need to comment on that.
3. Adobe Flash Player not working on this phone is a huge drawback! What is the point of advertising it as an ultimate multimedia phone, if (one of) the most common audio-video software is not supported?!?
4. Lack of options around messaging (such as... a Draft folder, which is sooo basic!) or sound volume!! So, if I want to listen to music or radio at a higher volume, I MUST suffer the 'punishment' of being deafened by the volume intensity when receiving a mail/ message notification or phone call! Crap.
5. Annoying back button for Net surfing. Always have to go to Settings to close tabs etc. etc. No shortcuts or keys combinations available for such menial tasks!
And I could go on with listing MANY OTHER FLAWS AND UNNECESSARY COMPLICATIONS concerning the poor interface design and built of Nokia Lumia..., doubled by the inherent limitations of Windows!
6. The constant upgrades they HAD TO come with to 'sweeten the pill' for the unhappy users just go to prove that this phone launch was rushed, whilst the phone concept was not thought through. In three words, whatta botch job!!!:mad:
Doh... sorry, Nokia, no longer a fan!
 

Ethere

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I know each platform has their ups and downs but, here's why I switched:

My story? I switched from iPhone > Android > WP7. I really wanted to get away from the sea of icons on screen after screen after screen. I switched from iPhone to Android because you can do more with it. But, then I felt like I had to do more with it ---- constantly. I was always flashing roms, and changing the OS to make it work better.

With WP7, I don't feel the need to change things around nearly as much as I did with either of the prior OS's. WP7 has a fluidity that drew me in. The transitions between apps, the scrolling, everything is just, well, fluid. A very smooth experience. I no longer feel the need to flash different roms to get the experience I want. Most of the apps I have installed have that WP7 look to them, across the board. I almost feel as if most of the apps I have are actually part of the OS. However, I would like to see a few more of the main apps that are on iOS and Android brought over to WP7.

Overall, very happy I made the jump. Even though some of the issues I've had with my Lumia 900 are annoying, I am hopeful that Nokia will release an update to correct them. :cool:
 

sting7k

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Prior to 2007 I had all manner of WinMo's, BB's, Treo's, Nokia's, flip phones, feature phones...you name it at one point I probably tried it. I even bought an unlocked HTC S710, the first WinMo 6.0 device, 3 days before I got the iPhone on it's launch day.

I had always loved my iPod. I stood in line at my local AT&T store on launch day and paid $600 for the original iPhone and got a $100 credit to the Apple Store 2 months later after they dropped the price suddenly. When the iPhone came out I thought I had finally found "The One". I didn't even think of other phones until early last fall. I still very much like the iPhone but I was starting to get that itch again and feeling a little bored looking at essentially the same grid of app icons for 4 years.

Although I really didn't consider any other phones up until last fall I was well aware of WP7 and Android. Watched Palm wither away as well. I followed the Nokia and Microsoft partnership closely. My favorite phones in terms of quality prior to 2007 were Nokia and Motorola. Nokia's phones have always been very advanced IMO; people used to be amazed at the international Nokia phones I would get off ebay.

When Nokia unveiled the Lumia 800 and said it was not for the US market I was pretty upset having already been disappointed by the iPhone 4S. I sulked for awhile on that one, looking at my iPhone with even more bored eyes.

Enter the Lumia 900. I was upgrade eligible in February. With rumors swirling of $99 price with upgrade I was pretty much sold. It has since turned out to be free.

With all that I'm still feeling that itch. But there isn't anything I would buy right now. I like the Lumia 900 but I feel WP7 is like stepping back to iOS 3.0 in some regards. I also feel the 900 is a tad to large for my taste, I think a 4" screen is the perfect size. Plus the battery life and camera are vastly inferior to my iPhone 4.

This fall I hope Nokia releases a 4" WP8 device in the US. I'm waiting to see iOS 6 and 4" iPhone rumors are flying all over the place.

So I'm a two device guy now. If the Lumia had better battery life and a Sirius XM app I would carry my iPhone less. But I had kind of wanting to have 2 devices for awhile to have a back up while traveling when the battery dies on one. I'm satisfied for now.
 

psiu_glen

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Well, I started my smartphone travels with the Motorola Devour on VZW. Honestly, the keyboard and overall hardware style was fantastic, but the crappy camera (2mp, fixed focus, no flash) and obsolete software with no hope of upgrade (Android 1.6) led me to return it to Costco and get the OG Droid. I was pretty happy with it, but it just got buggier and buggier, even running custom roms (I still get email updates regarding a bug in their stock Email app, it gets stuck in a wakelock with Activesync accounts and kills battery in hours, been going on for years). Last year I had been keeping up with the reviews of WP7 and finally bought a used Trophy last summer. Got a new one off eBay this January when the used one really started to crap out.

Happy with my choice...Android seems to be moving backward IMO and just uglier and uglier (I really don't find ICS attractive at all) and I have had a chance to play with my wife's iPod Touch and iOS 5. Personally, I find it downright primitive to use after enjoying WP7 for so long. And the ecosystem (bite me, Verge, and fix your slooooow loading site) is great IMO: real Office, Skydrive, Hotmail has surpassed Gmail, Bing with Vision/Music/Local Scout, Xbox integration, excellent account and contact management, email handling, and Zune Pass.

So anyway, there you go.

FWIW, I bought an iPhone 4S last month to use my last New Every 2 on Verizon and avoid their upgrade fee. Despite the far superior camera, I can't bring myself to use it...will probably end up on my wife's account someday or get sold.
 

dannejanne

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The lag in Android brought me to WP. That alone.

The turning point was when I tried Launcher7 for Android. I really liked the metro thing and that launcher was one of the smoothest available even on Android. In the end I had WP launcher, caller, sms app, notifications etc...

Ended up just trying a WP phone instead. And here I am. Using the butter smooth OS.
 

rockstarzzz

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Two things I lost my attraction from led me to WP.

1) My Android phone
2) My girlfriend

My android phone crashed and acted like a monster who can't walk most of the time. I kept having issues with using it as a normal phone, that led to issues with my gf and we ended up having a terrible terrible terrible break up! :(

Splashing cash makes a broken heart feel good. Girls do it on shoes and clothes, Men do it on sports and tech they said. I went to the phone shop, decided to buy a new phone. Wasn't going to be an iPhone because that sort of cash splashing needed me to have been divorced. So went for WP because while playing on the shop floor with "People hub" I realised how I could have everyone I care about surrounding me. I needed that at that point and I value that now. So WP it is. WP has been loyal and pleasant to me, and so will I be.
 

klynn

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Actually, it was the news and previews of Windows 8 that made me look into Windows Phone. I like the idea of having similar and linked experiences between by laptop and phone (maybe even a tablet, Windows 8 looks promising on that platform as well). I had initially dismissed the idea of WP7 since it lacked alot of features and hadn't followed up to know about Mango. But the phone has definitely matured and Microsoft appears to be committed to an entire eco-system for its products so I took the plunge. Really enjoying it so far and am anxious to see what this fall brings, especially to WP8.
 

CHIP72

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With me, getting a Windows Phone was tied to my interest in smartphones in general. I don't call or text very often, so regular cell phones were of limited use to me, but when I bought my Motorola Droid 2 in December 2010, I quickly realized it was a device that would allow me to do stuff I actually like to do (browse the internet, receive/send e-mails, play games occasionally) and would use quite a bit, which I did. The Droid 2 got me interested in smartphones and mobile OS in general, and I found I really wanted to play around with all of them out to see their relative strengths and weaknesses and determine which one(s) I liked best. When I'd go to the Verizon Wireless stores and check out the smartphones, I increasingly was interested in the tile-based Windows Phone OS and the HTC Trophy. (I was also intrigued to a lesser degree by the iPhone 4, the Blackberry Bold series, and various Android OS devices, especially those with 4G LTE.) Then the HP TouchPad fire sale (which I wasn't aware of until about 1 1/2 months after the fact) perked my interest further, and when I found out I could get a TouchPad fairly cheap ($150) as part of a laptop bundle package, I jumped at it. (I was already leaning towards buying a cheap laptop as a backup computer anyway and that pushed me over the edge to buy one.) I found that I liked webOS, and this reinforced my desire to get other mobile OS devices, especially a Windows Phone OS. After a few weeks of consideration and weighing the pros and cons, I decided to add a second line in early December 2011 and buy the Trophy. (Shortly before this, I also decided to get an iPod Touch for Christmas to test out an iOS device; after using it a couple months I realized I wanted to get an iPhone.) The floodgates then fully opened, and I picked up (all off-contract) a Palm Pre 2 (webOS), a Blackberry Playbook (QNX OS), an iPhone 4 (iOS), and a Blackberry Bold 9930 (Blackberry 7 OS) between mid-December and early March, allowing me to test all the mobile OS, satisfy my smartphone "fetish", and feel like I had a good idea of what each mobile OS has to offer, rather than rely on biased tech bloggers.

Based on my own personal user experience, I've found I like Windows Phone OS the best. (I also like Blackberry QNX and despite its "blahness", I think iOS is very solid too, especially considering it is considerably older than either Windows Phone OS or Blackberry QNX. In my alternate universe, Windows Phone OS would be the dominant mobile OS, Blackberry QNX/10, and iOS would have significant minority market share, webOS would still be a player, and people would realize Android OS and Blackberry 7 OS are pieces of crap!)
 

Alex_Hong

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A little background of myself, I'm a huge fan of mobile tech. Having the ability to do more while on the go fascinates me, more so than desktop computing. I'm 23 this year, and have owned no less than 20 different phones. A couple of them was the same admittedly due to accidents. If did not like the phone, I would get rid of it and switch to another almost immediately. In my recollection, the phone that I have owned for the longest period of time was the Motorola RAZR series. Three V3, and two V8. Followed by iPhone, and then BlackBerry.

The ones that I truly enjoyed, was oddly my BlackBerry devices. Bold 9000, followed by Bold 9900, Torch 9810, and Curve 9360. They were brilliant communication devices. I am very much looking forward to BB10. I was a CrackBerry addict, and in fact, I still am.

---

How i stumbled on Windows Phone, namely the Lumia 800, has to go back to when it was first launched. I love how the design of the phone complimented the Metro UI perfectly. In fact when my contract was due last year, I was seriously contemplating on replacing my Bold 9000 with either the Lumia 800 or Bold 9900. I went with the Bold 9900 because the physical keyboard was just frankly fantastic. It is a decision that I do not regret at all. It is a great device and probably the epitome of the outgoing java based BBOS. The design was stunning as well. But meanwhile, I have always been fascinated by the Lumia 800. Most every time I walk past a Nokia outlet, I had to go in to have a peek at the Lumia 800.

A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a good deal for a used Lumia 800 in black. The cosmetic of the phone was not brilliant, due to the precious owner's use of the silicon case, it left marking on the back of the device. Though the screen was still in immaculate condition (obviously). I decided to give it a go. So far, I'm loving it. The only reason I would now go back to a BBOS 7 device from BlackBerry would be because of BIS, battery life, and the keyboard.

First thing i did was to visit xda-developers forum to debrand the phone, flashed in a generic country variant OS into it. hahaha.

I honestly have no idea what my next phone would be. I only know it wouldn't be Android due to personal preference. BB10 and Apollo are coming later part of the year. So is iPhone, but i have no wish to go back unless there is major change in the UI of iOS. Whichever pique my interest most would get my money. I do not understand the bashing of different platforms. Each platform has their own pros and cons. I want all the platforms to do well. Android, iOS, Android, BB10, and even webOS Enyo. Its good to have choice and competition. Competition drives innovation. Just like how iPhone came about and brought changes to the entire industry.

i do have high hopes for BB10 though, which i think will be kinda like Windows Phone. PlayBook already has a social contacts app, similar to the one on windows phone which is linked to fb, twitter or linked in. Something i love from windows phone and synergy from palm. RIM is doing a good job luring in developers as well, the OS seems solid, multi-tasking is good, UI seems interesting. However if it does not live up to my expectations, I would probably go for the next Lumia device (provided it looks as good as the 800). hahaha.

Peace out. :)
 

Xerxes10

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My first smartphone was a Palm Treo, then seemed like a huge upgrade to a BlackBerry 8820 (with WiFi & GPS!), then the Bold 9000, then the Torch 9800. While the Torch was decent it was obviously behind the times and while I wanted RIM to succeed as wasn't willing to wait any longer for BB10 and I didn't want a dead end BB7 device. I had nothing against iPhone or Android, but I wanted something different and started looking into Windows Phone. I loved the clean, uncluttered look, the live tiles, the ability to delete (not just hide) bloatware, and Office compatibility all made me want to go with Windows. Now I just needed to find a phone I really wanted. As son as I saw the Lumia 900 I knew that's the one I wanted. After sitting on an upgrade for over 6 the I got the 900 on launch day and never looked back!
 

rdubmu

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My very first smartphone was a Treo 600, I think the year was 2004 or 2005.

Blackberry:
7105t with T-Mobile: November 2005 - August 2007
8100 Pearl with TMO: August 2007- April 2008
8120 Pearl with TMO: April 2008- August 2009

iPhone:
Black 3gs with At&t: August 2009- December 2010

Windows Phone:
HTC HD7 (t-mobile)- November 2010- April 2012
Nokia Lumia 900 (at&t)- less than 30 days, too many issues returned
HTC Titan II: May 2012-

So far I have been happy with my HTC Windows Phones. The Lumia was overall I thought a very bad executed phone. If they executed it would have been a so called "iphone killer".

The reason why I wanted to go with a Windows PHone is because I thought the live tiles were pretty neat. I wanted something different. I really liked the Calendar. After I bought it I thought the phone was so incomplete, after nodo and then Mango the phone was really started to come through. Honestly the phone should have been released with Mango. It was just released maybe 1 year too early.
 

LowRentTechGuy

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I first came to WP7 because I was tired of the inconsistent/poor Android experience and I wasn't getting a fruit branded product to save my life.

I stayed with WP7 because of the wonderful experience.

Sent from my T7575 using Board Express
 

d-laybook

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Came from a long line of BlackBerry products when I was looking at how to streamline all my technology. Having Office on my phone, SkyDrive on everything and outlook keeping all my emails organized, I am loving life with my Lumia 800

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express
 

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