A few questions from a possible future Lumia Icon owner.

[chadthebuilder]

Hi,
My family had to recently move due to my dads work. I currently am using a Nexus 5 on the Straight Talk AT&T network; however, our new residence has no cell reception through them. My parents Verizon phones have excellent service though, so I will need to be making the switch to Verizon. Since my current phone is GSM, I cannot simply transfer it over to Verizon, and as a result I will need a new phone. I have had my eye on Windows Phone for a while, and have been wanting to give it a go. I am thinking about getting a Lumia Icon, but I have a few questions that I am needing answers to.

The first is, how is the battery in the Lumia Icon? I have heard mixed reviews of it, some say it is amazing, and others say it is just awful. I am coming from a Nexus 5, and the battery life was pretty bad, and I would usually end up needing to charge halfway through the afternoon, and usually could get about 3 and 1/2 hours of screen on time. I want a phone with a much better battery, because I am sick of my phone going dead so often. Would I be able to expect significantly improved battery life with the Icon?

The next is, how are the updates? I am used to the quick updates on my Nexus 5 from Google, and am worried about how the updates on the Verizon Icon will be. Verizon is notorious for holding up updates for Android phones, and my moms Galaxy S4 didn't receive 4.4 KitKat until about 6 months after the update was first released for Nexus devices. I was wondering how soon the 8.1 update would officially come through to the Icon, and was also wondering who controls the update process. Is it like Apple where Microsoft would control the updates, or is it like Android where it is a mess of carrier and OEM update processes?

The last is, how is the speaker? I don't do a lot of external media playing through the speakers, but I really would hate for the speaker to be crappy for the times that I do need it.

That's all the questions I had for now. I really do hope that I end up with an Icon, and I am really looking forward to using it. The camera and OIS really are making me want it even more, and I can't wait to give Windows Phone a go.

Thanks
Chad

 

[anon(7900571)]

Hey Icon has a great battery life(due to the newer more battery efficient processor + windows phone optimizations ) you can easily get one full day out of your battery. There are 2 types of updates for all windows phone devices.
1.OS updates -which are controlled by Microsoft and later by your carrier. you can get them before your carrier approves them via Microsoft own developer preview program for free. (for instance you can get windows phone 8.1 update as soon as you purchase your icon ).
2.Firmware updates which are still controlled by carriers and are seeded by nokia for further optimizations and refinements. Currently your phone will ship with windows phone 8.0(GDR3 update)+ nokia Black firmware on top of it. You may have to wait for Lumia cyan update(cyan update is a firmware update made for windows phone 8.1) which should be available to your icon very soon. You phone will work great on windows phone 8.1+Black firmware update.
Speaker is decent not sue as I haven't tested (this phone is not available in my country ).You can watch this full review by WPC editors over here Nokia Lumia Icon Review | Windows Phone Central

 

[cbreze]

The speaker is not bad at all for the itty, bitty size of the thing. The cyan firmware is suppose to make it better with sound adjustments . I'm looking forward to those and am hopeful they will improve.my Pandora listening even.more. I dislike headphones.

 

[AG VK]

The standard warning I give to all Android users - make very very sure that all the apps you depend on are available. Also be advised that a lot of the customisation tweaks and settings that one takes for granted with Android are not in WP. Apart from that, hope you find the Icon to fit your needs. It's a great phone.

 

[chadthebuilder]

Hey Icon has a great battery life(due to the newer more battery efficient processor + windows phone optimizations ) you can easily get one full day out of your battery. There are 2 types of updates for all windows phone devices.
1.OS updates -which are controlled by Microsoft and later by your carrier. you can get them before your carrier approves them via Microsoft own developer preview program for free. (for instance you can get windows phone 8.1 update as soon as you purchase your icon ).
2.Firmware updates which are still controlled by carriers and are seeded by nokia for further optimizations and refinements. Currently your phone will ship with windows phone 8.0(GDR3 update)+ nokia Black firmware on top of it. You may have to wait for Lumia cyan update(cyan update is a firmware update made for windows phone 8.1) which should be available to your icon very soon. You phone will work great on windows phone 8.1+Black firmware update.
Speaker is decent not sue as I haven't tested (this phone is not available in my country ).You can watch this full review by WPC editors over here Nokia Lumia Icon Review | Windows Phone Central

Thanks for that information on the updates. Sounds a lot better than over on the Android side.

 

[chadthebuilder]

The speaker is not bad at all for the itty, bitty size of the thing. The cyan firmware is suppose to make it better with sound adjustments . I'm looking forward to those and am hopeful they will improve.my Pandora listening even.more. I dislike headphones.

That's good to know. Thanks.

 

[chadthebuilder]

The standard warning I give to all Android users - make very very sure that all the apps you depend on are available. Also be advised that a lot of the customisation tweaks and settings that one takes for granted with Android are not in WP. Apart from that, hope you find the Icon to fit your needs. It's a great phone.

Thanks for the heads up. I have been searching for the various apps I use, and I shouldn't have a problem. I mainly use the web browser, SMS, camera, Twitter, Skype, and a few other casual games that are available on Windows Phone, so I shouldn't have a problem. As for customizations, I really don't so that much. I have been using the stock Google Now Launcher on my Nexus 5 since day 1, and I can't think of anything that I really do different than it was out of the box.

 

[AG VK]

Thanks for the heads up. I have been searching for the various apps I use, and I shouldn't have a problem. I mainly use the web browser, SMS, camera, Twitter, Skype, and a few other casual games that are available on Windows Phone, so I shouldn't have a problem. As for customizations, I really don't so that much. I have been using the stock Google Now Launcher on my Nexus 5 since day 1, and I can't think of anything that I really do different than it was out of the box.

I don't use Twitter so I can't comment there. However, Skype is known to be actually better on iOS and Android than on WP ( I don't use it either, but a lot of users here say so).

 

[anon(7901790)]

As a former Android user (I switched from a Galaxy Note II almost a year ago), I know how you feel. I thought long and hard before I took the plunge and switched OS. I used to be a Blackberry user and before that a Palm user so switching OS needs to be thought out and not done on a lark.

First (and foremost): Don’t let the “lack” of apps be your sole reason to not switch. Most, if not all, of the big name apps and games are in the Windows Phone store. Of the ones that ARE missing, there are viable third party apps that are just as good, and in some cases, better. So take a look at what apps you have and you use. Of the ones you use, determine the ones you can do without, be honest. Of the ones that you determined that you actually need (or use a lot), I’d bet that most if not all are in Windows Phone store. If not, then there is most likely a third party replacement. Of all of the apps that I used on Android, there was only ONE that there is no WP version; that being an Eye-Fi app. Otherwise, I can do everything on my Icon that I could do on my GN2.

Second: Battery life can be subjective, meaning it varies per user. There are times when I get almost a full day of usage without charging, and there have been times where I got really bad battery life. The times that I got bad battery life were when I was playing games, or taking a lot of photos and video. The greatest advantage that the Icon has over a Nexus 5 is the wireless (Qi standard) charging. Also, be careful of heating, the Icon doesn't like getting warm; actually most phones don't like getting warm.

Third: You will need to get a Microsoft account, which is easy. With that account you get 15GB of free cloud storage on OneDrive. Also, all Windows Phones come preinstalled with Office (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote). For a small fee, $1.99/month you get 100GB of OneDrive storage. Or you can do what I did and do enough Bing searches to get 40 credits and get 100GB of storage free for one year. Check into Bing rewards. This is more than what Google offers, and especially useful if you are a student. I used OneNote a lot when working on my Master’s degree.

Fourth: Updates are not too bad. Windows Phone is a lot like iOS in that there is not a lot of versions being used on Verizon’s network. Just WP8.0 and WP8.1 DP for those of us who upgraded directly from Microsoft. Verizon just pushed out a minor firmware update for WP8.0 not too long ago and didn’t sit on the Black update for WP8.0 for more than a couple months. If you want WP8.1 now you can download that directly from Microsoft using their developer preview program. Microsoft has updated it three times since its April release. If you are going to wait for the Verizon release of WP8.1 with Cyan, then expect it sometime by the end of August. Verizon is not always the first to push out updates, but they are thorough when it comes to making sure it works.

Fifth: The speakers are pretty good. I usually have no problems when on speaker phone. I don’t normally listen to music or watch videos on speaker, I usually use headphones for that. But, I’ve had no problems hearing it ring from upstairs.

I hope this helps somewhat.

 

[onlysublime]

I love my Icon. Battery life has been outstanding once I learned the tip of launching and setting up each app. I never realized they could drain the phone because I had not set up the app (I'm looking at you, Verizon!!!).

The only negatives for me, having come from a Lumia 521, is the speaker is pretty awful compared to the 521 which has probably one of the loudest speakers on any platform. The other thing is the WiFi is weak compared to all my other machines (iPad 2, Android tablets, Surface RT/Pro 2 tablets, and PCs).

 

[Kasey Pierce]

I love my Icon. Battery life has been outstanding once I learned the tip of launching and setting up each app. I never realized they could drain the phone because I had not set up the app (I'm looking at you, Verizon!!!).

The only negatives for me, having come from a Lumia 521, is the speaker is pretty awful compared to the 521 which has probably one of the loudest speakers on any platform. The other thing is the WiFi is weak compared to all my other machines (iPad 2, Android tablets, Surface RT/Pro 2 tablets, and PCs).

I've hard a lot about the wifi, that's the only thing that worries me. When i get my Icon ill still have unlimited data, i just don't get signal at work (Hospital)
What i have not heard about was the "setting up each app" thing? could you please elaborate on that for a future Icon owner? please and thank you!

 

[onlysublime]

try this tip... It did wonders for my battery life! I can go a full day of full phone usage and still have good battery life now... the key is to go through every app and setting it up (or uninstalling the app; blocking it should help but sometimes I found it didn't fully block it).

grabbed from another thread:

Wow! I think this helped me out as well!!! Never thought about this. I had a bunch of apps I downloaded but didn't have a chance to load and set them up. Some of the Verizon apps I had never used as well. Went through, loaded every single friggin app, entered whatever account information the app needed, closed the app. Now my battery life is pretty darn great.

To be clear, I have the 8.1DP installed.

Hi all,

I'm on day 2 with my new Nokia Icon (jumped from Android S3) and noticed the 4 hour battery issue. I think it's related to an app(s) that may not have been fully setup after activation. I went through EVERY app on the phone and found that the NFL and the Verizon Tones and Navigator apps needed their setups completed with basic info. After doing this my battery shows 12 hours. Sweet!

I had to deal with similar incomplete app setup issues over on Android with new phones that would drain battery/performance.

So.... try opening every app installed on your phone, complete the setup. Maybe a restart after that for good measure?

Cheers!

 

[Kasey Pierce]

try this tip... It did wonders for my battery life! I can go a full day of full phone usage and still have good battery life now... the key is to go through every app and setting it up (or uninstalling the app; blocking it should help but sometimes I found it didn't fully block it).

grabbed from another thread:

Wow! I think this helped me out as well!!! Never thought about this. I had a bunch of apps I downloaded but didn't have a chance to load and set them up. Some of the Verizon apps I had never used as well. Went through, loaded every single friggin app, entered whatever account information the app needed, closed the app. Now my battery life is pretty darn great.

To be clear, I have the 8.1DP installed.

Could you not just uninstall those apps? that's what i LOVE about Windows phone over android is you can get rid of the bloatware.

 

[onlysublime]

The issue is you start downloading apps but sometimes it takes awhile for you to get around to actually using the apps! I had a backlog of apps I downloaded but never used. So it took me awhile to launch all of them and set them up. If you're fastidious about setting up the app right after you download it, it's not an issue. But if you get on those downloading whims where "oh, this is interesting, download. This is interesting, download.". and then you get busy and forget to set them up.