New 520 Owner

[iamtim]

So... when the WP8 devices were first released, I wanted one like dammit. I filtered from the 920 to the 8X to the 820 where I sat for a while. Then, like a numbskull, I sold my 820 and reverted back to my iPhone 4S. That was a decision I've regretted since I made it.

I decided to get back to WP8, but I'm nowhere near upgrade time and I don't have the dough to plop down for a similar phone off-contract. So I decided to get a 520 and see if it would work with my regular AT&T SIM. So far, it seems to be working perfectly (and I haven't yet contacted AT&T to switch out my iPhone data plan, heh.)

As far as the phone is concerned, I can tell by its heft and materials that it's a lower-end phone but the quality is still very nice. The screen looks good, it's snappy and responsive, and gets me back on the WP8 platform until I can upgrade to a higher-end model. All in all, not a bad little device... I'm quite impressed for $100.

 

[Corepc]

Welcome back 52x is a great budget device.

Not sure I would call at$t they may make you change the data plan.

 

[iamtim]

I have no intention of calling AT&T until something happens which gives me a reason to call them.

 

[LMZR]

The 520 is incredible!

I love using it, it does everything i need it to do, plus it is a Nokia.

 

[Shawn Magm]

So... when the WP8 devices were first released, I wanted one like dammit. I filtered from the 920 to the 8X to the 820 where I sat for a while. Then, like a numbskull, I sold my 820 and reverted back to my iPhone 4S. That was a decision I've regretted since I made it.

I decided to get back to WP8, but I'm nowhere near upgrade time and I don't have the dough to plop down for a similar phone off-contract. So I decided to get a 520 and see if it would work with my regular AT&T SIM. So far, it seems to be working perfectly (and I haven't yet contacted AT&T to switch out my iPhone data plan, heh.)

As far as the phone is concerned, I can tell by its heft and materials that it's a lower-end phone but the quality is still very nice. The screen looks good, it's snappy and responsive, and gets me back on the WP8 platform until I can upgrade to a higher-end model. All in all, not a bad little device... I'm quite impressed for $100.

When I bought my phone at AT&T store, the sales associate made it sound like I had to change something on my account to reflect that I would be using data on the 520 as my primary phone, and that somehow, data would no longer work on my S3. I'm glad I told her not to change anything, that I'd use the 520 like a media device. I learned later that swapping SIM's from my S3 to the 520 worked perfectly. Eventually, I plan to get a different Android, and will be putting my S3 up for sale. I'll be using the 520 as my daily driver for a while. I'm grandfathered in the unlimited data plan, plus I get 25% off my service for being a Premier member.

 

[iamtim]

I'm grandfathered in the unlimited data plan

Me too! This is why I don't want to call them, but they've swapped my unlimited from iPhone to Android to WP and back several times. So if I have to, I won't be too concerned.

 

[Beacio_mo]

@iamtim did you have any issues purchasing the phone from AT&T? I've gone to 5 stores in the SoCal area and they all want to sell me a $25 prepaid card to buy the 520. I have a postpaid account, why would I want to pay $25 for nothing?

 

[Laura Knotek]

Keep in mind that you'll need to disable iMessage or else all your SMS will go to your iPhone.

 

[iamtim]

@iamtim did you have any issues purchasing the phone from AT&T?

I told them it was a gift for my son and that I wanted him to set up his own account. They wouldn't sell it to me without a $10 card, still.

At least it wasn't $25... ��

 

[iamtim]

Keep in mind that you'll need to disable iMessage or else all your SMS will go to your iPhone.

I haven't had a problem yet, but that's probably good advice. Thanks.

 

[Shawn Magm]

@iamtim did you have any issues purchasing the phone from AT&T? I've gone to 5 stores in the SoCal area and they all want to sell me a $25 prepaid card to buy the 520. I have a postpaid account, why would I want to pay $25 for nothing?

The sales associate sold it to me without a plan. I told her I didn't want one, and there was no problem. You can also order online from AT&T. You'll have to select a plan before you check out, but you'll have an opportunity to remove it from the cart and simply buy the phone alone.

 

[iamtim]

I'm sure that if I pressed the issue, having a regular AT&T plan, I could have gotten out without getting the plan. But $10 wasn't worth my time to press it. Besides, now I have a SIM for my iPhone until I sell it. ��

 

[ThaKrazyOne]

I just got the Lumia 520 from the Microsoft store. So far so good. It'll be my daily phone for a while as I had to let go of my iPhone 4. So far no problems. I do plan on going back to iOS in the future, but I am good with WP8 for the moment..

 

[iamtim]

I do plan on going back to iOS in the future, but I am good with WP8 for the moment.

That's funny, I was good with iOS for the moment planning to go back to WP8. That's why I got the 520, to get back to WP8... eventually, maybe come November when I can pull an early upgrade out of AT&T, I'll snag an 820 or something.

 

[iamtim]

UPDATE:

So, it didn't work as flawlessly as I thought. While most data worked, some did not (I couldn't post a pic from Instance, for instance [pun intended] unless I was on WiFi, and there were some other weird data issues.) So I called up AT&T, gave them the IMEI of the new phone, and switched off the iPhone data plan. They couldn't put me on an LTE plan, because the IMEI wasn't reading as an LTE compatible device, so I was put on a 4G plan. Which was fine, except AT&T doesn't support visual voicemail on a non-LTE non-iPhone plan. So I was setup with basic voicemail. Only... the phone thinks it should have visual voicemail, so every time I opened the phone app I was prompted for my visual voicemail password. For a visual voicemail box which didn't exist.

The rep worked super hard to figure this out for me, we were on the phone for near 2 hours. She was rad. I had to go to a meeting and she was off for the day, so she's supposed to look into it further and get back to me tomorrow. Only... I couldn't wait that long. I went an upgraded to a 920.

So, while the 520 will work on a standard AT&T (read: not GoPhone) plan, it is not without issue. I still think that for $100 this phone can't be beat.

 

[reardoma]

I'm going to post this "reply" in hopes that someone has an answer to your question regarding visual voicemail and ATT's plans....

So to rehash, I did the same thing as the OP - switched from an iPhone and the corresponding 4g LTE data plan to the 520 with a 4g data plan. As is confirmed in what seems like 100 other forums, ATT customer support, and nokia support, and this forum, the visual voicemail is enabled for Windows 8 phones on the Nokia side, and is unsupported on the service (ATT) side unless the phone is capable of LTE. Why you can easily google "enable visual voicemail on lumia 520" and get an ATT support page showing you how to do this on a device it knows isn't supported i honestly couldn't tell you...

but what i can say is that having to hit "cancel" every single time BEFORE you are able to use the phone is annoying. Very annoying. Like i've spent hours researching this to simply disable it annoying...

Yet i have not found anyone that's been able to disable it for users like me with ATT that has chosen not to support this function.

This includes disabling the voicemail password, factory reseting the phone, etc. For those that don't know, yes....voicemail and visual voicemail are two separate things entirely.


So does anyone know how to solve this problem?????

I'll wait before starting a new thread asking for a solution as i know it is in good taste to do a forum search and post under an existing thread before branching out on one's own......


any suggestions? I made 22 calls today, which means i hit the "cancel" at the "enter your visual voicemail password" prompt 22 times today before i was able to dial the number for each call. Frustrating first-world problem i tell you!