Please talk me into a Lumia over Apple

[James8561]

ProShot | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)
check out this awesome photo app. you'll like it since you're a photographer. it has all the adjustments

 

[MagusShadow]

Here is a long, boring and babbling video I made at 12:30 AM showing other features, mainly the day to day usefulness of windows phone for basic tasks that everyone with a smartphone partakes in. The phone is great, the video is terrible. Yay!!!
http://youtu.be/J6JtpcZCY7Q

 

[trinkner]

I'd wait until after the MWC conference. Nokia is rumored to release the 1820, which will be the successor to the 1020 -- a high-end camera-centric phone.

A couple of things not mentioned in the thread so far:

1. The 1020 is one of the only camera phones on the market with a xenon flash. Xenon flashes produce dramatically superior indoor photos. Once you use a xenon flash phone, you'll never be able to use on with a mere LED flash. I currently use the Nokia 808 and am myself considering moving to WP. I might go for the 1820.

2. The 1020 does not have an SD card port. The 1820 is rumored to have one. I use my phone as an MP3 player as much as I use it as a camera and phone, so being able to store 80GB of music is important to me.

3. WP is very "locked down." You can't control many of the detailed settings that you can control on Android, Symbian, or iOS. I personally love being able to program my phone to turn itself to silent and back to normal ringing according to my weekly schedule. I'm a teacher and need to silence my phone automatically when my classes start, but I want to hear my notifications and ringer when I'm not in class. Symbian, Android, and iOS all offer you this feature, using third-party apps that work great. WP does not offer this feature and does not offer developers the low-level APIs needed to write an app to do this. Lumia devices allow for NFC tag use and programming, but because WP doesn't allow NFC codes to make actual system changes (e.g., go to silent or turn off WiFi, etc. without the user then clicking "OK" every time), the NFC abilities in WP aren't very helpful. For me, this is a major drawback to WP. I'm still deciding if I could live with these limitations.

3. WP is evidently very buggy concerning music files and the SD card. Search the web for WP and duplicated song tracks. Since I use my Nokia 808 as a music player constantly, this apparent bug is again very important to me. Evidently, WP duplicates songs from the SD card many times (two to eight times, I've read) in its music database. Also, you can't easily import .m3u playlist files to WP phones, but have to use the limited desktop app that Microsoft makes. The process sounds very frustrating to audiophiles with lots of files. I hope MS fixes this very soon, but many of WP's oddities and bugs have gone unfixed for years.

My wife has a Lumia 521 and likes it a lot. I've experimented a lot with it. There is definitely a learning curve to WP, but I think I might like it. You have to leave behind the mindset of being app-centric and think more of being data-centric. But then there are apps, so clearly at times you need to be app-centric, too.

Some little annoyances I've felt while experimenting with the 521:

1. No speed dial. E.g., you can't just long-press the 7 key to call a frequent number that you've assigned to 7.
2. No automatic contact look-up in the phone dialer. E.g., you can't start typing a person's name and have them pop up in a list like you can in Symbian and Android (and maybe iOS). Instead, MS wants you to go to the People Hub, find the contact, then place the call.
3. Many of the apps give huge amounts of screen real estate to the large Metro titles or to stripes across the screen with just a single icon/button in the stripe. There is a lot of unusable space on many of the app screens. As a 50-year-old with eyes that are starting to fail, I wish WP could use the screen more efficiently so the content text could be larger. The Metro titles are cool when you first look at them, but they get really annoying when you realize how much screen real estate is devoted to them. I find myself sighing in relief whenever I use an app that takes me to a non-Metro full-screen experience. I feel claustrophobic when using some apps (like ESPN) that have large titles up top and dead space down below, with only a small band of actual content in the middle.
4. For all the talk of the "buttery smooth" OS, I find the phone frequently shows three zipping dots as a program "resumes." My Symbian 808 has faster transitions between OS functionality and switching between apps. Maybe this is just a limitation of the low-powered 521. Maybe the 1020 would be much faster in this respect.

During December, I bought a Galaxy S4 because I had read good reviews about its camera and I wanted the vast array of Android apps. The app experience on Android was fantastic. It was phenomenal to have a choice of virtually every app known to man, with heaps of choices for most apps. However, the camera experience was miserable. The S4 took OK photos during the day, but indoors photos or photos in low light were unusable. I am a bit picky in terms of photo quality, but I'm not just being a nit-picker here. Pictures of family on the couch all had extremely grainy faces, whether shot with or without the LED flash. I couldn't take a single decent indoor photo. I returned the phone the next day and returned to using my 808 with its xenon flash. I've read a lot of forums about camera phones. No phones out there come close to the 808 or 1020. If you want a truly nice camera with your phone, you're pretty much stuck with Nokia and WP at the moment. I had hoped that Sony's new Z2 would have a xenon flash, but it seems that it will just have an LED flash. Sigh.

So, I hope that Nokia/Microsoft can fix the music bug with the SD card and that they'll open up more of the low-level settings to developer APIs and NFC controls. I would likely buy the 1820 if they do.

 

[GPendolino]

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!!

 

[manicottiK]

There are some significant hardware features that a high-end Lumia offers over an iPhone 5S.
1. Super-sensitive touch screen -- really nice in the winter. (Not so nice on the 1520, which seems overly sensitive for now.)
2. Better outdoor/bright light visibility. The ClearBlack polarizing filters help. The Assertive Display on the 1520 is remarkable.
3. Wireless charging without a special case is really convenient.
4. Built-in Near Field Communications holds promise for more secure payments and other cool things. (More potential than actual benefit so far.)
5. Amazing microphones to pick up both very high- and very low-volume sound. The 1520 has four of these HAAC mics.
6. Cameras with optical image stabilization, high-quality lenses, and large sensors with oversampling.

 

[cuzincurly]

6tag is better than the native instagram app. You can regram, make collages, do manual blur in it that the native app can't do and only the windows phone store has it.

 

[azcruz]

<snip>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.
<snip>

I asked

34-40MB file to edit on a phone (if it was remotely capable) will require patience, lots of patience. I also use a D800 and Df.

 

[AndyFZ1S]

Quote>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.<Quote

Yes all those basics are covered although not too sure on the stopwatch as never looked for it, As mentioned above 6tag is the best unofficial Instagram app which really does the job nicely.

If you do go for the 1020 and worry about storage then you always have the option of adding more allowance to your skydrive account or soon to be onedrive which comes with your outlook/Hotmail account, You get 7GB to start you off, I use mine a lot to store images rather have them on the phone itself taking up space and you can access them easily.

Skymap is a good alternative to stellarium and works well, There are always alternatives, Enjoy :smile:

 

[trinkner]

If you want the expandable memory SD slot, but don't want the huge form factor of the 1520, wait to see what the 1820 looks like. It's supposed to be announced before the end of February. It likely will also have a better camera experience than the 1020, if the rumors are true. The downside is that it will probably be more expensive than the 1020 and it probably won't be available until a while after the product announcement. It should also ship with the 8.1 version of the OS, so you wouldn't have to wait until some unknown future when your carrier allows the 8.1 update to seed to the 1020. Also, the 1820 is rumored to have a 5.2" screen, so you'd get a screen size between the 1020 and the 1520.

 

[Citizen X]

If you want the expandable memory SD slot, but don't want the huge form factor of the 1520, wait to see what the 1820 looks like. It's supposed to be announced before the end of February.

I'd wait until after the MWC conference. Nokia is rumored to release the 1820, which will be the successor to the 1020 -- a high-end camera-centric phone.

Please stop posting this 1820 at MWC nonsense unless you have a good source. Daniel has already debunked this nonsense. You aren't going to convince an iphone user to switch to Windows Phone by lying to them.

 

[trinkner]

I'm not lying: just reporting what I've read. I'd be disappointed if the rumors were false. Maybe they are. Still, it makes sense to wait just a few weeks to see what Nokia announces for its new products before buying a phone that has already been out for over a year. Especially if the OP wants an SD card and a nice camera with the phone. Currently, Nokia doesn't offer a camera with a 41mp censor, xenon flash and SD card.

 

[berty6294]

Qualcomm has stated that the 805, which is the processor that is in this "rumored" phone, will not even be available till late 2014. I would not consider March to be anywhere near late 2014.

 

[PBlessing]

Sort of worried about Instagram. Seems it's only beta? Do you guys like it?

Btw... mine is = Instagram

As some one else mentioned take a look at 6TAG. Far and away the best Instagram client there is. Better than the official client on any of the three platforms.

On a few of the apps.

MyAT&T is installed on the phone by default not found in the store.

Media Remote – for my Sony BluRay (seriously?) Now that Sony is getting ready to develop a windows phone this might becoming soon

iGunProHD (I can't buy them all in real life!!) Not sure but check out the app Guns.

Lumosity (So I guess my brain will go to mush now) Mind Games is very similar.

Hanging With Friends (eh...)

Dead Trigger (wahhh!!!) Check out Six-Guns
Dead Ahead (It's normal, everyone likes to kill zombies... don't judge me!) Just do a search for Zombies in the game store and you will find plenty.

 

[ltjordan24]

Switching ecosystems is never fun or easy. I?m currently using a 928 on Verizon (waiting for the 929/Icon). I had an HTC Trophy (WP7) and a Lumia 822 previously and I can honestly say that I?ve never had a major problem with any of my devices. Hopefully, I can address your concerns and help you make a more informed decision.

1. As far as storing your media, you do have the option of choosing internal or sd card when choosing your storage medium. If you do lose your phone, you can go to windowsphone.com to locate, ring, lock, and if need be, erase your phone. As far as wiping the sd card, that I don?t know (Someone would have to chime in on that one). If you can?t wipe the sd card via the online tool, then of course, internal storage is going to be more secure so if that is the case, you can always store your pics on the phone and everything else on the sd card. If anything ever happens to your device, not to worry, all of your contacts, text messages, photos and games are backed up automatically over wifi and will be restored to your new phone once you connect to a wifi source.

2. Apple OS being more secure is more fiction than fact. All operating systems are subject to viruses, etc. Macs have gotten viruses in the last few years just like Windows computers. The reason why they don?t get more is because according to Net Applications, only 7.68% of the people in the world have Macs as personal computers. All Windows OSes combined account for 90.6%. If you?re a hacker, are you going to waste your time on 7.68%? Neither would I. But the biggest factor in security, no matter what your OS, is the human factor. If you get an e-mail from some non-sensical address with a link to download Rihanna?s sex tape, are you going to click on it and put in your personal information? Unfortunately, there are people out there stupid enough to do it. Those are the same people who, after the virus, etc. has stolen all of their information and locked up their computer, blame Microsoft because Windows didn?t protect them. Unfair but true. As far as smartphones go, the Windows OS is as walled off as Apple?s. All apps have to pass certification before being released to the general public. Is the system perfect? No. Have things slipped through? Yes. But malware has been found in Apple?s app store as well. I won?t bring up Android because with them being an open platform, anyone can create and publish an app even though they have tried to curtail such actions by making everything go through the Play store recently.

3. Apps have always been the Achilles heel of WP. Two of the three games mentioned, Jetpack Joyride and Words With Friends, are available. Dead Trigger 2 is not available and there is no indication that it is coming any time soon. The app store only has 200,000 apps and it is still missing official apps in some cases. Luckily, we have developers like Rudy Huyn, who makes his own apps for some of the more popular ones and in most cases, his apps are actually better than the official ones (Instagram is one example). In other cases, some of the official apps that we do have are usually the last to get updated. Uno & Friends is a perfect example of this. While our version is free and contains no ads, unlike the Android counterpart, it still doesn?t have the Tournament Mode, the Chat feature is still missing and you can?t continue streaks as you can in other versions. If I didn?t know about the missing features, I wouldn?t miss them, but I do, so you get the point. I would say that Xbox Live games are a differentiating factor but those are few and far between.
4. Picture quality. The Lumia 1020 is unmatched on a smartphone. It?s really that simple. I don?t know if the photos have a 72 dpi but I do know that both the 1020 and the 1520 take low and high res pictures and with the black update and you will also have access to RAW files, a feature that no other phones currently offer.
5. Nokia?s support is top notch. I?ve never had to call them so I can?t talk to that but they are always releasing updates for their apps and to tweak settings on their devices. Amber. Black. Here Maps. Transfer my Data. Refocus. Pro Camera. Video Upload. App Social. Job Lens. The list goes on and on. All of these are free apps and updates, developed and supported by Nokia. I can?t speak for what happens once Microsoft takes over the Devices Division but from what I?ve read, they?re supposed to function independently but only time will tell.
The beauty of Nokia is variety. You want the best camera available on a smartphone, there?s the 1020. You still want great pictures, but want something with a smaller, sexier profile, there?s the 925. You want a big, beautiful screen with expandable storage and a quad-core processor, there?s the 1520. You want wireless charging out of the box in a variety of colors to fit your mood, there?s the slightly older 920. The best thing is that no matter which phone you decide on, you?re going to get the same buttery smooth OS.
The best, easiest suggestion I can give to you is to pick up a 520. I know that?s not what you want but you can get one for under $60.00 with no contract and that will allow you to try out the WP8 OS and eco-system for a few weeks to see if you like it. If you don?t, give the phone to a friend or a relative. If you do like it, then when you decide on which phone you want, you?ll already have a back-up. No matter what direction you decide to take, good luck.

 

[Ryan Strahm]

Since WP8 is integrated with SkyDrive, MS's cloud service, (soon to be OneDrive) you could easily upload tons of photos to that. And just for buying a WP you get 7 GB (correct me if I'm wrong about that) for free, so that would clear up quite a bit of your photo space

 

[James8561]

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.

timer, stopwatch, and flash light functionalities require separate apps.
personally, I recommend Jack of Tools Pro and Avirall Time Suite.

 

[chuckdaly]

"Do you think the hardware on that phone will keep up with the OS for the next two years?"

Nope!!!!! Which is sad, because the 1020's camera is awesome. My wife has the 1020 and I have a 1520, and I find the difference in cameras big. I'm a huge fan of the 1520, but I implore you to wait until April.

BTW, I've owned an iPhone 3G & 4, Motorola Atrix, Lumia 900, and now the Lumia 1520

 

[GPendolino]

Almost a bit leery getting a new phone that was new as of 7/2013, but that's why I can get it for $49 lol.

I would LOVE the 1520 and $200 is a great price (2 year contract).
It's just too big.

If there happens to be an 1820 released in April and it is that sweet spot where the screen is between the 1020 and 1520 and they bring back a 41mph camera along with expandable memory, I'll just use one of the upgrades of two of the lines on my account that are eligible (you guessed it) in April.
1020's going to be my phone for now.
Keeping my iPhone 4s in the sock drawer in case I go through serious app withdrawal but I'm determined to dump Apple completely.

Btw, speckled out the 1020, 4s and 5s here:

Nokia Lumia 1020 vs Apple iPhone 4s vs Apple iPhone 5s - Phone specs comparison

I feel good about the 1020's superior hardware specs and will most likely order this weekend.

 

[GPendolino]

41mp, not mph lol.
Stupid auto correct! (KINDLE)

 

[sd173]

If you want the expandable memory SD slot, but don't want the huge form factor of the 1520, wait to see what the 1820 looks like. It's supposed to be announced before the end of February. It likely will also have a better camera experience than the 1020, if the rumors are true. The downside is that it will probably be more expensive than the 1020 and it probably won't be available until a while after the product announcement. It should also ship with the 8.1 version of the OS, so you wouldn't have to wait until some unknown future when your carrier allows the 8.1 update to seed to the 1020. Also, the 1820 is rumored to have a 5.2" screen, so you'd get a screen size between the 1020 and the 1520.

I really hope this is all true. This would be the perfect upgrade from my Lumia 900, especially with my contract ending April 15th!!!!