How is the L521 handling the 8.1 update??

Qiyamata

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Just put it on my 521 a few hours ago. It lags a bit more now switching and opening apps. And Asphalt 8 has a little lag since I moved it to my 16gb class 10 SD card. And the brightness settings are a little wonky for example I switch it from high to medium and nothing happens unless I switch to low then back to high and sometimes the low setting really makes it high and the high really the low and etc. But other then that I can honestly say it doesn't bother me, very pleased with it so far. Love the 3 row tiles and my Internet Sharing and everything else seems to be working fine. I played with Cortana a little bit its cool. But the best part is being able to move and download apps straight to the SD card, now I can have Asphalt 7 and 8 with Halo SA all at once on my device!
 

ojo otter

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My lumia 520 works better then before! I love the app installation onto SD card and extra tiles, notification and cortana is amazing! For some it has been slow, for me, WP8 was slow, and WP8.1 is soo much faster, and I have way less 'resuming' or 'loading' time.
 

ghken

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For me it's been a mixed bag. The new features are working pretty well. Cortana is great fun to play with and actually pretty useful in terms of setting reminders, calendar updates, etc.

On the negative side, there is a definite performance hit, with lag that didn't exist before. It's not consistent, so no way to tell what the cause is. Sometimes Cortana will launch instantly, sometimes it takes several seconds. General navigation is spotty as well, with smooth buttery WP goodness at times and Android-like delays at other times. I've done a soft reset and don't want to go through the bother of a hard reset and reinstalling everything with the likely end result that nothing will change. It's not horrible and I'll live with it and hope that an MS or Nokia firmware update will improve it.

The biggest downside - which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else in regards to the 521 - is that SMS is no longer working when using T-Mobile wifi calling. I can still place and receive calls using wifi calling, but attempting to send an SMS message immediately comes back with the phone telling me it couldn't send the message. And incoming messages never make it.

I knew it was risky installing 8.1 and although there are a few issues, overall I'm glad I did it.
 

Guytronic

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My Lumia 520 works better then before! I love the app installation onto SD card and extra tiles, notification and Cortana is amazing! For some it has been slow, for me, WP8 was slow, and WP8.1 is sooooo much faster, and I have way less 'resuming' or 'loading' time.

Same here with a 521.
The Lumia 521 with 8.1 is like a device reborn IMO.
Far as bugs there's is the normal complaining about growing pains.

However things like:
Storage Sense
start+theme
notification+actions
Wi-Fi Sense
Word Flow
Separate volume for ringer and media
The new WP appstore
Back-up and phone reset
...and of course Cortana (US)
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All the above in my opinion have definitely pushed the 521 further up the ladder.

I just did a phone reset last evening to see what would happen.
Everything on the phone came back except the 3rd row of tiles and apps I left on the SD card.
Being able to move\install apps to SD has freed a lot of internal phone space.
The 521 user with a large fast SD card no longer has to worry about collecting store apps.

Out of 7.2 gig available I'm showing 2.5 gig used 1.9 is system plus whatever else.
4.7 gig free!
The notifications pull down is pretty cool also.
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Had nothing but the best experience with the 8.1 preview on the 521.
For me and the 521 it has been what I would call a galactic improvement.
 

eddieDOTexe

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Lags a bit more but I'm assuming its because 8.1 isn't quite finished. It performs pretty well though considering all the extra features. I haven't bothered to hard reset my phone though but I wouldn't doubt it would help. If this ever gets on my nerves and I have the time then ill do it but as it stands its pretty good. Unless it reaches Android level or something ill be good until final release.
 

skalover89

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So far I'm loving the update. I think there is a little lag but nothing that is intolerable. Has anyone had any issues making calls? I don't make a lot of phone calls and didn't realize it at first. I can't remember if it happens every time, but I've tried to make phone calls and it just ends. Then there is a message that says "Can't Connect: Can't complete the call. Check your cellular signal, and the number, and try again." So far I've had no issues receiving calls or texts/mms. I reset the phone and then I can make a call, but it will happen all over again later. According to the phone, I have 4 bars out of 5 using 4G....unless it's lying to me.
 

Qiyamata

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Update, just did a hard reset last night on my 521, it fixed all the lag. It really does work! Even the games run smoother.
 

CrossedFaith

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As far as calling issues go, I have not had any...the only thing that I have is a slight lag sometimes...but it is very tolerable as its a seldom occurrence...

Sent from my magical toaster
 

Imperiums

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skype so far seems to have changed since the update, push notifications with lock screen no longer work,
anyone else having this issue? other than that, as reported by others, there does seem to be some lag
switching between apps.
 

WINDOW LOVIN

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So far I am impressed by the replies and glad to know our low end devices are receiving the update without to many problems..i have a lag as it is with my 8.0 I figure it will correct itself after the update. I am going to dwell on it more and by the end of the night I am sure I'm going to want too update hehe. Btw does anyone know how to sign up for the dev account on the website. It is kinda confusing.
 

Guytronic

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Skype so far seems to have changed since the update, push notifications with lock screen no longer work,
anyone else having this issue? Other than that, as reported by others, there does seem to be some lag switching between apps.
Happening here also with the phone and after 8.1 on my Surface.
I reported it to MSFT via feedback.
 

BrandonCormier

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I had it for a couple days but ultimately restored back to 8 for a couple reasons. The main was the battery. Generally at the end of the day (7:30am to 9pm) I have about 50% battery left but with 8.1 I was left with around 25%. Its not horribly bad, and is probably caused by a lack of the new firmware and Cortana. The second main reason is that 8 is just so buttery smooth. Again though I think this is the firmware. When I had GDR3 preview is was laggy here and there but the Nokia Black firmware totally smoothed everything out for me. The new features are super cool. The notification center is a life saver. But I will probably wait until they update the preview or until T-Mobile pushes out the update.
 

Guytronic

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Curious here.
Where is the lagging again.
The only real stutter I see is returning to the home screen (set up as third row) from say a heavy duty app like ProShot, OneShot, Fotor or one of my games.
Everything else looks smooth all round.

Just to check I went back to two rows "ugh" and the start screen pops up faster.
Evidently the third row feature is a bit intense...but I don't mind that it ever so slightly stalls.
I'm sure there are many variables between users i.e; live tiles, tile sizes, extent of home screen set-up etc.

I would say for a rock bottom phone which soars above quite few others it does quite well.
 

eddieDOTexe

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Well, I went ahead and reset my phone. And while it did take a while for all my apps to download and all, once it was all done. 8.1 is running just as smooth as 8.0. So definitely give it a shot if your 521 is lagging a bit.
 

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