I wish I had time to do quotes from each review because just about all of you gave me highly relevant information regarding my future purchase.
I think that despite the loss of apps, I'm going to go all in on the W8 thing.
Some highlights of what I saw here that I want to address:
I did submit a request for the 2 week free trial of a Lumia 1020 or 1520 so we'll see if they get back to me or not.
Since I have the iPhone 4s in a 64gb model, I really don't see myself doing the “trade-in” thing especially if they're going as low as iPhone 4. To me that would be akin to taking a gold plated desert eagle to a gun buy back program where they give out $50 food vouchers.
I was VERY happy to see that these devices will produce DNG files. As I only shoot RAW with my Nikon D800 (someone did ask which one I use) I'm used to doing all my edits in CS6 and taking full advantage of Camera Raw editing. I really don't see myself editing on the phone itself so I won't be buying any apps for that.
I kind of forgot that once this is over I can finally uninstall iTunes. I'm so sick of having to sync through that. I miss the world of drag and drop. Yeah someone said you can do that with an iPhone but ONLY via iTunes. I think (as the owner of the hardware) I should be able to plug it into any computer I want upload from or download to. This is why before smartphones, I would always go with Archos or Sandisk Sansa instead of an iPod. You have to realize that when I first got a smartphone it was in September 2009. Although there were Androids around, they really couldn't hold a candle to the iPhone 3gs at the time so I made a compromise and went with Apple. I will not shed any tears when I do the reboot to make the uninstall of iTunes complete
So it all comes down to the compromise of the apps. Ok I think I'll survive it.
I assume that maps, navigation, calendars, notepad, ability to copy/paste from one app to another, multiple email accounts from different domains, timer/stopwatch/multiple daily alarms with lables on them and flashlight are all native to the device.
I'm all over the WindowsPhone app store and I'm happy to see some of my must-haves (total deal breakers otherwise) are in there.
Going through all my screens, it dawned on me that I'm a serious data hoarder. I have apps on there that probably haven't been used since I upgrade from my old 3gs.
Very glad to see all the social media will be there.
Sort of worried about Instagram. Seems it's only beta? Do you guys like it?
Btw... mine is =
Instagram
At any rate, the ones I don't see in the store that will be missed are:
Media Remote – for my Sony BluRay (seriously?)
iGunProHD (I can't buy them all in real life!!)
Chrome (I see something in the store called “Chrome” but the name of the publisher isn't even in English so I'm guessing it's not Google... won't be logging into anything with that app).
Lumosity (So I guess my brain will go to mush now)
Hanging With Friends (eh...)
Dead Trigger (wahhh!!!)
Deatd Trigger 2 (WAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) - to be fair, this may be what started my look for an alternate phone because Apple has messed up the stability of my 4s with iOS7 that this game crashes ALL THE TIME!!!
Zombie GS (So I like killing zombies)
Zombie HWY (Obviously)
Dead Ahead (It's normal, everyone likes to kill zombies... don't judge me!)
myAT&T (makes no sense)
UPS or FedEX apps (Seems there are shipping trackers but I prefer to use the ones by the company shipping it)
Stellarium (actually any photographer can benefit from this greatly, you can see where the moon will be from a certain vantage point on a certain day among other things in the sky)
But yes, the impact isn't nearly as painful as I thought it would be. I guess the zombies will take over the earth since I'll soon be absent from all of my favorite zombie killing games.
Now to decide between the 1020 and 1520.
A couple of you have mentioned to wait until April and I know the price of the 1520 would be $100 or less by then and the 1020 would most likely be free. As of 2/6/14, the 1020 can be bought on Amazon with a 24mo contract for only $49. The 1520 (32gb – only at Amazon, not in the AT&T stores, they only have 16gb) for $199 on Amazon with a 24mo contract.
I want that 6” screen, but then again it looks ridiculous when you hold it to your face to talk on it. I want that 32gb of onboard storage and the option to expand another 64gb. I want a massive batter that will last forever. But that's a REALLY big phone.
What really puzzles me is why set he bar so high on the 1020 with a 41mp camera and then go with 20mp on your next “flagship” product?
If the 1520 had the 41mp camera, this would be a slam dunk.
For this reason, I'm probably going with the 1020. Do you think the hardware on that phone will keep up with the OS for the next two years?
(sorry this is a loooooong post but all of you gave me so much information I had to address as much as possible).
Thanks again!!