Walmart is Pushing the 521: Good Sign for Nokia(pun intended)

[Ertonimus]

Instead of limping along with my iPhone before the 925 comes out I called every Walmart in Chicago today to see if they had any 521s. I finally found one that had one left and was able to pick it up. While in the store I was surprised to see that the 521 seemed to be getting pushed pretty heavily. Although they only got a few of the phone in the initial shipment they had a great piece of signage promoting Windows Phone and Nokia. In fact that was the only phone with any featured signage in the store. I think its a great sign for WP8 and Nokia if Walmart is planning to put its muscle behind the phone. Boost the numbers of WP8 on the low end to increase the overall userbase and we'll all benefit from developers pay more attention to the platform.

Here's a pic of the signage:



P.S I can't get over how great this phone is for only 130 bucks... I'm coming from an iPhone 4s and I work for Blackberry so I have a z10 as well.... WP8 for the win!

 

[WanderingTraveler]

That's amazing.
Now, imagine if the sales reps knew about the 521, and it would fly off the shelves!

Though, I'm curious about 3 things:
1. I didn't catch the pun.
2. Why do you want a WP?
3. Are you curious as to how the 52x line will affect the Q5? (Seeing as you work for BlackBerry, I had to ask.)

 

[WanderingTraveler]

It took me a while to notice that good sign (pun intended).
How did it get that downsized?

 

[Ertonimus]

That's amazing.
Now, imagine if the sales reps knew about the 521, and it would fly off the shelves!

Though, I'm curious about 3 things:
1. I didn't catch the pun.
2. Why do you want a WP?
3. Are you curious as to how the 52x line will affect the Q5? (Seeing as you work for BlackBerry, I had to ask.)

1. I used sign as homonym. It's a good sign(omen) that they have a sign.
2. I've been a diehard iPhone fan since the first one. I had lined up for every iphone launch in the wee hours of the morning until the iPhone 5 came out when I decided Apple stopped innovating so I stuck with my 4s. I started looking into Windows phones and was incredibly impressed with the UI. When I started researching the Nokias I was blown away by the nav apps and was curious about Nokia music as it seems like a pretty cool service for a manufacturer to provide. The Pureview tech got me real excited as well. I take alot of concert vids and upload them to youtube and it sounds like a 92X will provide me the best audio and video quality of any handset. (Can't wait to get my hands on 925 and play with a 928 tomorrow). I'm also interested because I love innovative gadgets and I think companies are the most innovative when they're the underdogs so the Nokia/Microsoft combo is perfect for me right now.

3. To be clear I work for a marketing company that has BlackBerry as a client not directly for BlackBerry. As far as I know there are no current plans to release the Q5 stateside so the two devices won't be competing here. I really can't say how things will go in emerging markets.

 

[Corepc]

Nice Sign will have to check out Walmart's here locally and see if they are doing the same thing.

the phone's they have 521 compared to, hard to tell exactly which ones. But I am going to take a guess..
Far Left Concord , One to direct Left of 521 is LG Optimus L9 , the Galaxy S3 on Right look like, the middle one is a feature Phone.
521 is Best Value, Bang for Buck out of this bunch hands down.

 

[MDak280]

That's awesome! My brother needs a new phone (his HTC One S has a faulty power button) and we're with T-Mobile. $130 is a great price, I'll tell parents about it. I'm not sure my brother would be excited about switching to Windows Phone, though. Especially going from something like the One S to the 521.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Nice Sign will have to check out Walmart's here locally and see if they are doing the same thing.

the phone's they have 521 compared to, hard to tell exactly which ones. But I am going to take a guess..
Far Left Concord , One to direct Left of 521 is LG Optimus L9 , the Galaxy S3 on Right look like, the middle one is a feature Phone.
521 is Best Value, Bang for Buck out of this bunch hands down.

I'm going to check too, since I'm going to Walmart tomorrow.

 

[rmichael75]

When i went on sunday, no phones and no sign. I bought the last phone like a week ago.

 

[kyw012]

how large is the Lumia 521 screen size from the screen edge to the other screen edge?

 

[tgp]

That's awesome! My brother needs a new phone (his HTC One S has a faulty power button) and we're with T-Mobile. $130 is a great price, I'll tell parents about it. I'm not sure my brother would be excited about switching to Windows Phone, though. Especially going from something like the One S to the 521.

I'm going to check too, since I'm going to Walmart tomorrow.

Good luck finding a 521 on the shelf at Walmart! I had to scour my area Walmarts to find them.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Good luck finding a 521 on the shelf at Walmart! I had to scour my area Walmarts to find them.

The one I'm going to is a supercenter. Did you find your 521 at a regular Walmart or a supercenter?

 

[Ertonimus]

The one I'm going to is a supercenter. Did you find your 521 at a regular Walmart or a supercenter?

Mine wasn't a supercenter it was actually off the beaten path in a rougher suburb. If you go to Walmart.com you can check availability by stores which is how I found mine. Definitely call the stores beforehand even if it says they have them 'in stock' or 'limited stock'. I went to a few stores that were supposed to have them but they were sold out.

 

[Ertonimus]

That's awesome! My brother needs a new phone (his HTC One S has a faulty power button) and we're with T-Mobile. $130 is a great price, I'll tell parents about it. I'm not sure my brother would be excited about switching to Windows Phone, though. Especially going from something like the One S to the 521.

The OS feels so fresh if he's into gadgets he'll love it. If he wants specs to show off to his friends then its probably not for him.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Mine wasn't a supercenter it was actually off the beaten path in a rougher suburb. If you go to Walmart.com you can check availability by stores which is how I found mine. Definitely call the stores beforehand even if it says they have them 'in stock' or 'limited stock'. I went to a few stores that were supposed to have them but they were sold out.

I mainly just want to check it out, but I wouldn't actually buy it anyway, since I have AT&T.

 

[Ertonimus]

I mainly just want to check it out, but I wouldn't actually buy it anyway, since I have AT&T.

They didnt have any live models to demo at the store. The pictured phone is just a dummy. You'll likely have to wait until TMO starts carrying them next week before you can play with one without a purchase.

 

[tgp]

The one I'm going to is a supercenter. Did you find your 521 at a regular Walmart or a supercenter?

Around here (eastern PA) all Walmarts are supercenters!

Mine wasn't a supercenter it was actually off the beaten path in a rougher suburb. If you go to Walmart.com you can check availability by stores which is how I found mine. Definitely call the stores beforehand even if it says they have them 'in stock' or 'limited stock'. I went to a few stores that were supposed to have them but they were sold out.

Walmart.com indicated that no Walmarts around here had them in stock. I went to my local Walmart, and the guy at the phone counter told me that they had gotten 4 521's, and someone came in and bought all 4 of them. He looked up the SKU, and was able to determine that 2 other Walmarts in another city about 15 miles away had some. Turned out only 1 of them did, but that was enough!

 

[Ertonimus]

how large is the Lumia 521 screen size from the screen edge to the other screen edge?

Just the screen itself(not including bezel) seems to be about 2 1/8" across when its vertically oriented. It's 3.5" from top to bottom.

 

[Shad0wguy]

I got one from the Microsoft store near me, and I can't believe this phone is going for $130. Any Android phone near this price would be absolute trash. I hope this phone selling well will bring more developers to Windows Phone. I had a Galaxy Nexus before this, and this phone feels more responsive despite having lower specs.

 

[jaceot]

I went from the One S to the 521 just to check out Windows Phone. My One S is pristine and it has been at home turned off for 2 weeks. I do not think I'll be going back to it.

I love the 521, it's really smooth. I am enjoying Windows Phone 8. The only time I've seen a stutter is when I loaded it up with 32 gigs of music. Nokia Music stuttered while changing songs in shuffle mode. That's a lot of songs. I am about to try other programs to see if they handle the music better..

 

[Laura Knotek]

No 521 in Walmart here.