After years of BlackBerry, and Android, Just bought a Nokia 521

[BBerryPowerUser]

Thanks Danny.
Glad to be here, and glad to see another "Flipboard" Fan. With Flipboard, I don't need a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn nor any news or weather apps. I love it. And yep, it's made for Windows Phone! I got an email from a Flipboard agent and he said probably November release for WP8. Awesome!

I can't report on my 521 yet as it has not arrived. But there is hope for tomorrow (Monday).
I love the Android Launcher that makes my Android sort of "mimic" a WP8 UI, so I imagine I'll really like an actual WP8!
Can't wait for WP8.

PS - New Zealand is one of the FEW countries I have not visited. And it's on my list. I know it is beautiful. I have a pad in Hawaii, so that's half way to you from the US Mainland. I need to get there. Cheers mate!
Thanks again.

 

[12Danny123]

Thanks Danny.
Glad to be here, and glad to see another "Flipboard" Fan. With Flipboard, I don't need a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn nor any news or weather apps. I love it. And yep, it's made for Windows Phone! I got an email from a Flipboard agent and he said probably November release for WP8. Awesome!

I can't report on my 521 yet as it has not arrived. But there is hope for tomorrow (Monday).
I love the Android Launcher that makes my Android sort of "mimic" a WP8 UI, so I imagine I'll really like an actual WP8!
Can't wait for WP8.

PS - New Zealand is one of the FEW countries I have not visited. And it's on my list. I know it is beautiful. I have a pad in Hawaii, so that's half way to you from the US Mainland. I need to get there. Cheers mate!
Thanks again.

Thanks for the info on Flipboard man .

Also if you come to NZ. go to queenstown for a visit. Bungee jumping BEST THING EVER. Even though I jumped of the Auckland Skytower at 15 yrs of age. and screamed like a little girl at first.

 

[bayotte]

I know the feeling BberryPowerUser. I too was a BB faithful for 3 years and preached the BB gospel. But ever since I made the #SWITCH to Windows Phone, I've never looked back. I've played around with iPhone and Androids on numerous occasions, but WP8 is my phone of choice. Because at the end of the day, it is a choice that we as consumers have to study and make before the purchase. I also have taken the opportunity of speaking to a lot of salespeople and they all say that they never get returns on Windows Phones for warranty purposes. Whether it be for software or hardware related issues, they get ZERO returns. That says a lot about WP8 and how robust the OS and build quality really is. Another great feature we rarely speak of is the touch screen keyboard. My 920's keyboard is stellar. After being on Qwerty for so many years, I had reserved opinions on touch screen keyboards, but believe me WP8 has not let me down thus far. I use my 920 as my daily driver and its a workhorse. From Onenote to Office. To being able to "pin to start" any contact, any app and to make it any size you want it to be.
To also have the possibility of personalizing the color and layout of the User Interface (Live Tiles) makes it unique. I could easily go on and on, but I'll let you be the judge.

Second of all, Windows Phone community and the mediators are great group of folks. Plus Dan Rubino and his crew are seriously on ball when it comes to Windows Phone and the world of Microsoft/Nokia.

Enjoy your Windows Phone experience!

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Thanks Bayotte!
Great post. Good info. I will miss BlackBerry, but life goes on!
If I can easily pound out emails, quickly access Flipboard (in November) and get some social stuff done efficiently, while managing my contacts and placing calls quickly and efficiently, I will love it.
I'm really REALLY looking forward to it.
I'm looking at the 521 as a test phone. If it works out, I'll jump up to a more robust model within six months.

Danny,
I Bungee jumped before and almost did at Victoria Falls in Africa. I'll have to record it next time on my WP8

 

[Graven Pshya]

I have a 920 and a 520 and I believe the 520 and 521 are virtually similar. I use both and the 520 is good for the price, really can't find anything better off-contract for about $100.

Heads up about emails: Of course Exchange works well and Outlook, but if you have linked other email accounts to one account then, replying back is iffy.

If you have email account 'a' that is linked to email account 'b' and can view it in your inbox from email account 'b' on WP replying to that email you read from email account 'a' within email account 'b' would use your email account 'b' address. I haven't found a convenient work around for this yet, but a heads up.

 

[bbtrek]

(warning: long winded jumble about my switch to WP8)

I too was a BlackBerry fan and preached the word of BB and I have also had various Android phones over the years. Too cut costs I used a Android for awhile on Virgin Mobile (locked into unlimited for $25 a month was a great deal) but It came time to update my phone and I switched to T-Mobile and got a Galaxy S3 because I didn't need any of the extra fluff in the S4 and I am cheap. I had considered going back to BlackBerry but thought I'd give the S3 a try. I hated the S3. Not big enough at times and often to big at other times. It just didn't click with me like previous phones. Typing on it was annoying and being a older BB user I was spoiled and I find that a good keyboard (touch or physical) can make or break a phone for me. Finally I just sold the damn thing. I looked at going back to BlackBerry but cost was a factor for me and to be completely honest BB has a few issues going on now and I tend to play things safe and not sure I wanted to buy into the drama going on right now. At the same time I wanted something I could knock business stuff out on.

I had never had interest in WP8 but the Lumia 521 was such a good price. I watched a few videos and decided to take the plunge. I love this little 521. There are a few things I miss such as a flash because I use that a lot for work as a flashlight. I think button placement could be a bit better and of course I miss the blinking little red light. Other then those few things.... I love this thing. Its fluid and speedy and the keyboard is wonderful to type on.

I feel that WP8 like BB10 is forward thinking in how we interact with our data and how we communicate. WP8 still needs a lot of work but its going in the right direction. I know it would never happen but I sort of wish Microsoft would just buy BlackBerry and use the best of both to make WP8 even better.

Anyways I am a BB ****** and I have had a 521 for about a week and love it and I hope you do too. Enjoy!

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

EDIT: UPS just delivered the phone the moment I pressed send on the following email.
SO, I am off and running today. I'll update you guys tonight as to what I think. Very exciting.

You sound exactly like me BBTREK. Interesting.

I'll always be a BB fan. I've had it for too long and loved it. I remember the first time I picked up a curve about 8 years ago (?). You would have thought I wrote the OS. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. I did not even have to read the QuickStart guide. I upgraded to a 9780 two weeks before the official release as I happened to be in a corporate store in Seattle and the manager told me he had one and only one, and I could have it if I wanted. I thought the upgrade to OS6 was outstanding.
However, over the next three or four years, I kept hearing how awesome iPhone was. So, finally early last year, I bailed and transferred the BlackBerry number to an iPhone 4s. For me, a big mistake. Great OS, great UI, but I had a lot of issues. Missed the fluid business UI of my Berry of course, but all the apps dumping on screens was a big distraction for me. And I just did not like the switching between apps nor the way it handled hard core communications. If I was a younger gamer or a phone "fiddler" I'd probably love it. I ended up re-activating my Berry only 2 months or so after the switch.

Meanwhile, back about 4 years ago, I also picked up a Virgin Mobile prepay and locked in to their $25 unlimited plan just to see what Android was about. I was with T-Mo on my Berry and wanted a backup on Sprint in case T-Mo had no coverage. I liked Android very much, actually better than iOS, but it could never replace my Berry, as far as I was concerned. I still have the LG Optimus Elite on the $25 plan as a backup, and so I can deposit checks to my bank, which my old Berry will never do.
I'll probably keep the Elite only because for 25 bucks, it's a great backup phone on CDMA to offset my GSM phone's use footprint.

I went off T-Mo to save money and went with Simple Mobile's $50 Blackberry plan, now only $40 unlimited. With a 3g Berry, I don't care about when they are cutting back my 4g speed
I like it a lot for the cost savings and it's true BIS, however, Simple never roams to ATT, so you have to be on T-Mo's towers ONLY. That's a drawback if you travel, but I have the Virgin Mobile as a backup so it's not bad.

With the 521 *that I hope arrives today*, I will pull the SIM out of my Berry and pop it into the 521 to start. My Berry takes a standard SIM, but I also have a Micro Sim I can activate if I need to. Perhaps I'll go back with regular T-Mo Prepay, but perhaps not. I know there is a Sim included with the phone for T-Mo. I don't travel as much as I used to, and I get great coverage where I travel most on regular T-Mo towers, so it's all good.

Thanks again for the post.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

OP: interested in hearing your thoughts after a week or two. Looking to add a cheap WP8 device, and looking for the best deal.

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

You got it.

It took me a few hours to get the phone set-up, mostly because I had to set the MMS and APN to Simple Mobile. I had to dig a bit to find these settings, but that's done.

Initially, I can say the phone is very smooth. It's different than Android and certainly BlackBerry, but I think in a good way. When BlackBerry first hit the scene, or if you went to BlackBerry from iPhone, you sure had to get used to it. I think I will love it.
Let me use it a while. I'll report back.

 

[Corepc]

My advice is read this for somebody new to Windows Phone Operating System is this. Try and forget anything that you learned how to do with a android and blackberry OS. This is WP much different in all ways.

Windows Phone 8 | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

Welcome to WP, WPCentral and 521 forum by the way ..

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Thanks.

OK, well the first day was stellar with the phone. It took me about 2 hours to set-up since I run Simple Mobile. If you Google or go to Simple Mobile they say that you can't run the phone on Simple mobile. Absolutely untrue. All you have to do is go into Settings, Set Up a New Cellular Network (Simple) and then change the APN and MMS settings to reflect the Simple Mobile servers. Took me about a 1/2 hour of digging to find the proper settings. I can post them under a separate thread in case anyone else wants to change to Simple Mobile. I may switch to T-Mo, pay the extra 10 bucks, and use WiFi Calling. This is obviously unavailable under Simple Mobile. I used it extensively when my BBerry 9780 was on T-Mo because my office has horrible T-Mo reception. I switched to Google Voice when I went with Simple, but I can't YET get any of the Windows Phone Google Voice apps to work. I'll keep working on that.

First email I set up was Google G-Mail, and voila! All of my contacts downloaded instantly. Nice. LinkedIn was next (I use Linkedin more than Facebook) and the rest of my L.I. contacts downloaded. Seamless. I linked all my email accounts, including G-Mail. Being used to BBerry, I want all my inbox in one place. To each their own.
Also, my appointments all downloaded via the G-Mail user name. So nice.

Luckily for me, I used WP8 Launcher on Android which emulates Windows 8 pretty well. I was really familiar with pinning, sizing, and other novelties of the WP8 architecture.

I really like the UI. I mean I really like it, but as I said, I love "FlipBoard" so why not love WP8.

Loaded the apps I need, banking, Bloomberg, Google Voice (not working yet), and about 8 others. All I need for now.

I'll run it through a full week and report back. But I can say, I'm impressed. Great phone for the money, smooth OS, plenty of apps (for me) and good solid communication feel.

 

[Corepc]

Great, glad that you got the apps you needed and contacts working and all linked into one account (love wp for that). Maybe look at MetroTalk for Google Voice app (not a google fan, only youtube I use)

I thought we had some others using Simple Mobile has well on their 521 but I searched this forum and did not find any threads really related to it. The apn settings or things like that where needed so please feel free to post them sure they will come in handy for others.

I have had my 521 since it first appeared back at end of April on HSN. Almost 6 months ago, It has been a great phone and does everything that I need for it do, plus more. I am T-Mobile user and WifiCalling I do not use much since I do not have wifi at home. But Internet Sharing is something I do everyday to my pc. I think Simple Mobile supports Internet sharing has well.

 

[raycpl]

+wp !!!

my advice is read this for somebody new to windows phone operating system is this. Try and forget anything that you learned how to do with a android and blackberry os. This is wp much different in all ways.

windows phone 8 | windows phone how-to (united states)

welcome to wp, wpcentral and 521 forum by the way ..

 

[SlantNGo]

FYI MetroTalk is probably the best Google Voice client for Windows Phone. I've been using it for a few months now.

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Thank you. I loaded it yesterday but could not get it to sing. I'll try it again today. Might have been my error. I've seen review that MetroTalk is by far the best. Worth a 2nd chance.

Day 2 of WP8 Nokia 521 completed. Nice. I really like this phone. Do I miss my BlackBerry? Yes. I'd be lying to say that the elegance of BB with regard to emails and raw communication is not to be missed by me. However, WP8 is pretty slick. For about the fifth time, I had a leg up running WP8 Launcher on Android, and the fact that I'm used to live tiles on "FlipBoard". But the REAL DEAL of WP8 VS a mock launcher on Android is not comparing apples to apples. WP8 is obviously the gold standard here.

OK, well bottom line, WP8 has a long way to go to catch up to Android in Customization, IF that is what they want or consumers want them to do. Perhaps they stay the line like iOS and keep everything their way or the highway. Android, as most of you know, can be customized 10 ways to Sunday. Tens of apps for email, texting, keyboards, you name it. My Android probably looks NOTHING like my neighbors. But there is something nice about Windows 8 being more steady and plain Vanilla than Android. iOS and, yes, BlackBerry have a pretty standard look and feel no matter whom you see using one. That's pretty cool.

I had a funny glitch today. I was goofing around with settings. I accidentally hit the high contrast setting engage, and did not know it. Voila! My Theme (Emerald
Green to match my case and company colors) was GONE! All that remained of the live tiles was Black and White with a minor splash of color here and there. Took me a long while to figure out what I had done, because, if you engage the high Contrast setting, your Theme colors disappear, replaced by black and white. I did not know this. Good learning experience.

I need to read some reviews, manuals, and "Quick Tip" guides. I have a sneaking suspicion the phone has some hidden shortcuts and options that I have yet to discover. Otherwise, the phone handles seamlessly and is an excellent business phone. MS Office integration are outstanding. I like EVERYTHING so far. I do not miss my QWERTY keyboard of my BlackBerry, contrary to popular opinion. I was never a huge fan. I was more of a fan of the elegant OS communication prowess than I was of the keyboard. One thing I loved about Android? SwiftKey! What a GREAT keyboard option. I wish I could get it on WP8, however, the onboard keyboard is pretty darn good IMO.

As I stated earlier, the phone performs fabulously on Simple Mobile, INCLUDING MMS send and receive, once you program the MMS and APN correctly. This takes only a few minutes if all goes smooth, and if not, no more than a few hours if you run into an unforseen glitch.

Here are the programming instructions for using the 521 on Simple Mobile.

Go to SETTINGS
Open CELLULAR
Make sure SIMPLE MOBILE is the network selection, if not it needs to be added. You don't want T-Mobile

Go to SETTINGS
Open ACCESS POINT
Make sure SIMPLE MOBLE is active (initially, it should NOT be there - you have to add it - so ADD IT! )
Press ADD
Name it whatever you want, I named mine SIMPLE MOBILE
Once added make sure it is the ACTIVE NETWORK

Program over the air Internet and MMS for internet and picture message send and receive

Go to SETTINGS - ACCESS POINT
HOLD YOUR FINGER ON THE SIMPLE MOBILE YOU JUST ADDED
A drop down menu will appear - Choose EDIT APN

INTERNET SETTINGS
Access point name - simple (all lower case!)
username - leave blank
password - leave blank
proxy port - leave blank (try 80 if you have to put in a number but best to leave it blank)
Proxy address - leave blank (put in one dot (.) if you have to but remove it later after saving
Network type - should be IPv4 and should be in there already
authentication type - none

MMS APN
mms apn - simple (all lower case)
username - blank
password - blank
proxy address - blank
proxy port - blank
mmsc address - http://smpl.mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
network type - ipv4
authentication type - none

 

[Tre Lawrence]

The customization aspect of Android would be hard to give up for me...

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

I understand, Tre. If I was not a huge fan of BlackBerry (not much customization there - at least on Legacy Models), I'd probably feel the same way. I like my Android, I just happen to like WP8 better. There is actually a lot of "customization" you can do with regard to the homescreen. You can PIN anything you want, in any order, in a plethora of colors, and the live tiles are pretty cool. They are basically like WIDGETS in Android. Some are simply Icons (not live) but many are live Widgets.

OK, well I've had a few really hard days of banging out business on the WP8 521.

Very impressed. I think it does business very well. The People HUB, and the Business HUB are neat. I really like the ACTIVE live app view where you can scroll between the ACTIVE apps (or Screens) easily and efficiently by just holding the BACK arrow.

The live tiles I have set up are perfect for me. I don't need to see my texts on the home screen, but want a peek at my emails. Done.
I have live Bloomberg Tile full size giving me business updates real time, and I really like the way you can PIN contacts to the home screen. I have two or three every week I need to contact five or six times a day, and it's nice to see their updates quickly and efficiently.
I also have a weather tile, and WORLDMATE front and center for travel.
The Calendar live tile is very nice as well.

And I like the LinkedIn Live tile very much. I use LinkedIn more than I do FaceBook or Twitter.
Although I don't see much difference between Android's Twitter/Facebook to WP8, I personally see a HUGE difference with LinkedIn for WP8.
I truly like the way the app functions and presents options and updates.

Very impressed so far.

 

[RumoredNow]

The customization aspect of Android would be hard to give up for me...

I'm not an OS loyalist... I'm more the try it all type.

In my experience, Android's power seems to be games and media consumption. I'm still rocking 4.3 on my Nexus 7 and am eagerly awaiting the 4.4 that's due very soon.

As a communicator and productivity unit, I don't think Android really has anything over Windows Phone except maybe a couple of social media apps.


@ BBerryPowerUser:

How about that Nokia Nav?

Have you tried My Commute?

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Thanks, Rumored. Yes have used Nav and Commute. These are awesome Nokia features of the Nokia W8 phones IMO. The 521 can not, unfortunately, use Nokia's "City Lens" as it does not have a compass built it. I would have loved this App, but I will probably upgrade to a better phone next year and will have it then.

OK, Week 1 complete with my new WP8 Nokia 521. The conclusion so far-

What I miss from my BlackBerry

- Initially, the tactile QWERTY keyboard. More on this below under what I love about the Nokia 521
- BlackBerry Travel. This is a stellar app that ALWAYS captures my travel plans automatically and presents them to me when I need them. Tripit and Worldmate can't hold a candle to it as far as reliability of auto capture. It simply works 100 percent and is sorely missed.
- ALL communication going to ONE inbox. You can merge email accounts on the Nokia but you cant port in Text or IM, at least I don't know how.
- The flashing LED. That is an awesome feature
- a Flash! I don't give a hoot about photos with the flash, but I use it as a flashlight a LOT! I miss it.
- The bulky rugged feel of the 9780. This may just be because I have used it for a while, I have a Trident durable case on it, and it fits my hand perfectly.
- At times, the track pad. I like touch screens, but tracpads are also nice.
- NOBEX Contact Capture. This was superb! Any email with contact information was stripped and presented to me for import automatically into my contact list. I miss is terribly. I hope Microsoft pushes it to the WP8 phones soon, and not just their Outlook for Desktop/Laptop. If BlackBerry can have it, so should WP8.
- Auto ON and OFF settings to turn the phone on and off at specific times. Convenient and saves battery life if you forget to shut the phone down at night.
- Customization on how to handle calls and configuration of calls, like blocking my outgoing caller ID. This may be available on Nokia but I have not figured it out yet.

What I love about the Nokia 521

- Making phone calls manually. Have you ever tried to dial a number with big fingers on a legacy BlackBerry? The keys double as a phone pad. And they are tiny. I did not realize HOW TINY until I started to really use the Nokia. Dialing on a BlackBerry is hard to do for me. I'm a big guy. Those little keys are tough.
-The touch screen. I thought I was going to miss the QWERTY Keyboard, and at first I did (see above), But after a week, I love the touch screen keyboards on the Nokia! My fingers are not exactly dainty. The keyboards presented to me via Nokia are big enough to make typing easy! Especially in LANDSCAPE format presentation.
-HUBS! The PEOPLE, and OFFICE hubs are AWESOME!
-Live Tiles. I only wish there were more animation on some. Animation is sometimes limited on what they present to the tile. And many need a LARGE tile to present live information. Anything less and you have an ICON rather than a LIVE TILE.
- Pushing contacts to the home screen as a Live Tile! This is NEAT! Talk about ultimate shortcuts. In only a week, I am not sure if my contacts will register updates via the live tiles or not... we'll see! I pushed myself to the Live Tile, and it presented as my LinkedIn profile. Interesting.
- The Lock Screen! I have mine set to present Accuweather, and of course my schedule for the day. Awesome!
- Live tile "Schedule" on main screen! WOW! Fantastic. Actually the most glanced at tile.
- Holding Back Arrow to present all OPEN APPS or Last Screens Visited. This is spectacular
- Auto DIM feature. Depending on the light in the room, or outdoors, the screen adjusts automatically. Nice for bed time, or outdoors in bright sunlight...oh and speaking of that...
- High Contrast Feature that puts the live tiles in vibrant black and white contrast for use outdoors or in very bright light situations. A lifesaver! Thanks Microsoft
- Windows Office! This is front and center and integrated to the max. I love it. The Business hub is AWESOME.
- All the great Nokia Apps like "HERE TRANSIT" "HERE MAPS" "HERE DRIVE" (here drive has the feature "My Commute" that the previous poster mentioned. Nice app!
- Camera features like "Nokia Panorama" and "Nokia Smart Cam" where you can select the best pic from a group that were captured automatically for you... no more closed eyes on family portraits!
- LinkedIn App is superb on WP8. I love the way it is presented and how it functions. So much easier than my BlackBerry
- The touch screen in general. I think Nokia is on par with Apple with regard to accuracy and UI elegance. My Android always seemed to be a little off in this regard.
- The Keyboard smartness. It reminds me of the paid app "SwiftKey" I paid for on my Android. It's really good and learns (at least it seems to) based on what you have done in the past. I truly like it better than QWERTY. Go figure. Well, everything changes.
- SPEECH TO TEXT CONVERSION and COMMANDS. I loved this on Android and iOS. Dictate your texts, Emails, and it's pretty darn accurate on Nokia, just like it is on Android and iOS. BlackBerry Legacy has nothing but rudimentary voice commands. I love dictating emails and texts when it works, and it WORKS GREAT on WP8 Nokia. Also, the Voice Commands are on par with iOS in my opinion. A pleasant surprise!

There are probably some I missed. This will do for the first week.

So the bottom line, If you are a guy that just wants a phone for communication like email, IM, phone calls, and texts with some basic LinkedIn and Facebook and Twitter features, then a legacy BlackBerry is for you. You will probably never mistype because of the QWERTY keyboard, but you will have a solid and dependable BUSINESS MACHINE!
If you want more, like a digital assistant that can help you plan your day from top to bottom and help you enjoy your off time? AND, allow you to do MS Office like it is meant to be on a computer, then the Nokia WP8 is for you!

Now, I still have my BlackBerry working! Yes, my Simple Mobile Plan INCLUDES BLACKBERRY BIS at NO ADDITIONAL COST, and when I transferred the activation from the SIM in the BlackBerry to the new Micro SIM in the Nokia, the BlackBerry Plan stayed active, so the Berry STILL WORKS on WIFI. No phone calls or texts, but ALL OTHER FEATURES WORK. This is nice because I could compare the two phones side by side all week. I also have my Android Active. And I spent a lot of time with iOS late last year when I bought an Apple 4s. So I really should have an aptitude for comparison.

There is a Microsoft store near my office, and I will probably stop in and take some classes to tweak my user experience. This is a nice perk! For $99, you can take a class a week for a year! Good bargain.

I hope this thread is helping others understand the differences, and to my surprise, the ADVANTAGES of Windows 8 and the great value that is Nokia Lumia 521

 

[Tre Lawrence]

I'm not an OS loyalist... I'm more the try it all type.

In my experience, Android's power seems to be games and media consumption. I'm still rocking 4.3 on my Nexus 7 and am eagerly awaiting the 4.4 that's due very soon.

As a communicator and productivity unit, I don't think Android really has anything over Windows Phone except maybe a couple of social media apps.


@ BBerryPowerUser:

How about that Nokia Nav?

Have you tried My Commute?

A big one for me is Google Now, but yes, WP8 is looking good indeed ecosystem-wise.

And I consider myself mostly platform-agnostic as well. Love them all!