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

[BBerryPowerUser]

Thank you. Glad to be here.
Only question now.....how long before I upgrade?

Sent from my Nokia Lumia 521 using Tapatalk

 

[12Danny123]

get a Nokia Lumia 925 or a 1020, 920 or even a 1520 . They're very cheap right now

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Thanks, Danny.
Yes, the 925 is in my sights. I've only had the 521 for about 6 weeks, so I will probably not upgrade until Spring, but I will go for the 925. It has everything I want/need/desire/love/etc.

 

[kevm14]

During hard core heavy email splurges, I still prefer my BlackBerry. NOTHING compares to pounding out emails on it and responding quickly to athletes and vendors that email me constantly during race weeks and weekends. With a QWERTY Keyboard and BIS pumping in emails real time, I'm the king when it comes to timely responses as I'm hustling around doing 1,000 other things.
Mind you, I CAN do emails in bulk on my WindowsPhone, I'm just saying if you are getting 200 emails a day while you are really busy, and EMAILS are the core of what you are using your smartphone for on certain days, in my mind, you cannot beat a QWERTY BlackBerry. My opinion of course, in REAL WORLD USE. Berry has the edge here, but it's not a HUGE edge.

I have a couple comments. First, I don't know what e-mail service you are using, but I use Hotmail/Outlook/Live and I get push EAS, just like Blackberry.

I also have a theory on why the QWERTY keyboard phones feel "productive." It's because despite being able to pound out e-mails on touch screens (and WP has a leading touch keyboard), there's something about physical buttons that requires a little less mental concentration. I don't think it's a speed thing. It's that it requires a little more effort to bang out an e-mail on a touch screen because there is no feel for key alignment. Knowing the key won't press until you actually move it against the spring action presents a certain psychological effect that a capacitive keyboard can't. Like if you are walking and typing. Or riding in a car and typing. The hardware keyboard will feel more "solid" but I really don't think it's any faster. I had a slide out landscape keyboard phone for about 3 years before my Titan (and I'm on this forum because I just bought a 521 which I may make a post about). So I've lived with a hardware keyboard (HTC Touch Pro). You always feel more empowered, like you're at a real computer, like "I'm getting stuff done here." But I bet I am faster on my Titan, even without the psychological advantage. In fact, I know I'm faster. The WP keyboard does things no hardware keyboard can, like dynamically size the touch points depending on the next letter it predicts you will type (this is well documented if you want to read up on it). So the best way to use a WP soft keyboard is to just pound away and believe. It's like magic.

 

[docfreed]

Funny, I did just the same thing (though I still have my BBQ10. After years of installing leaks I decided that Win Phone 8 fills most of my needs and I like the simplicity of the interface. I wish that the "live tiles" were more live (i.e., updated more frequently) but outside of thatI think that the system and hardware are more to my liking.

As my user name suggests, I am quite simply a BlackBerry Power User. I have had one for about 8 years now and love it for "Business". There is not much I do not know about operating one.
For personal use, it is OK, but would not recommend web surfing or trying to load many apps, since not many are available, especially on legacy Berries.
I don't think that BlackBerry is going to go totally away anytime soon, but eventually, the legacy Berries with their proprietary network will be gone forever.

One should note that I also have an Android 2.3 as a backup to my Berry. This I tend to use for personal use. I recently put an app on it that emulates Windows 8. Liked the live tile feel. I'm also a fan of the app "Flipboard", that has a live tile User Interface. This pushed me toward considering a Windows 8 phone.

Today, after much research, I purchased a Nokia Lumina 521. Steal of a deal on QVC. I'm not really a QVC fan and have never purchased from them before, but I looked around, and for 99 bucks with accessories, you can't beat their price.

I had a Motorola Q Windows based phone years ago, and this was my 2nd smartphone (Palm was the first). I liked it very much. I am betting I will love the elegant UI of the new Windows phone. I am hoping it will truly replace my BlackBerry as a workhorse communication device. Android could never do this, IMO. BlackBerry is elegant with regard to how it handles email and texts. I'd love just having ONE phone that satisfies all of my needs.
I'm certain that over time, I'll like the phone very much. Can't wait to try it. It will be here Friday. By Saturday, I'll have it put through the paces.

Looking forward to it.

 

[worldspy99]

Quick update: Two buyers lined up for my unlocked Lumia 521 - I have had it for 4 weeks now. My Lumia 810 should have its USB port issue fixed tomorrow. If it is not resolved, I am going to get a Lumia 822 and start using it as my daily driver. I also got rid of my Nexus 4. I was updating some apps on my wife's Android and boy I had to fidget around to get things sorted out on it. Funny how in 4 weeks I cannot find my way around Android after being a power user for 2 years. I really, really like WP8. I am only about two apps away from my Nokia being at par with my Nexus 4 and yes that includes the wireless charging option

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Hey man what is LinkedIn??? I heard its a businessy thing. Is there an app for it??

Danny, LinkedIn is a networking service for Business. It's sort of like Facebook, but obviously much more "professional" on what you post, and what you say. You are basically a business profile on LinkedIn touting your talents and your company, and you connect to other business people and companies and organizations worldwide in your line of business. I use it extensively. And yes, there is an App for it. If you are a business professional looking to network and grow your business, it's a must. I run my own business, so it's an absolute must x 2.

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Quick update: Two buyers lined up for my unlocked Lumia 521 - I have had it for 4 weeks now. My Lumia 810 should have its USB port issue fixed tomorrow. If it is not resolved, I am going to get a Lumia 822 and start using it as my daily driver. I also got rid of my Nexus 4. I was updating some apps on my wife's Android and boy I had to fidget around to get things sorted out on it. Funny how in 4 weeks I cannot find my way around Android after being a power user for 2 years. I really, really like WP8. I am only about two apps away from my Nokia being at par with my Nexus 4 and yes that includes the wireless charging option

Yes indeed. I have a Droid on Virgin Mobile that is grandfathered in to the $25 unlimited data plan. I can't say goodbye yet, because it's such a good deal, and, since my 521 is on the T-Mobile Network, Virgin is a good alternate since it runs on Sprint. It's a great spare phone. I used to LOVE it compared to my BlackBerry because it was a Droid. I thought I could use it as my primary phone..... UNTIL I GOT THE 521 WP8. Now, the only thing I do with it is check my ATT Voicemail (No app yet on WP8), and make phone calls on Wifi via Google Voice. I don't like the Apps on WP8 for Google Voice. Many don't work well. Droid and iOS have a good edge here, but I'm sure it will improve soon.

WP8 has me spoiled. I really do not like using my Droid, and the ONLY reason I use the Berry, as I posted earlier, is if I'm in the field in a dirty environment and only using it for rapid email exchange. Otherwise, It's full time WP8. I absolutely LOVE it. I'd not go back to Droid or Berry. I can only imagine how much I'm going to like the 920, which I will upgrade to sometime next year. I'm happy enough with the 521 to use it as my primary business phone, and it's a great personal phone too. Love it!

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Your points below Kevm, are well taken. Interesting as well. Thank you.

For me, it's not just that, it's also the way BlackBerry presents the emails, and the simplistic way it threads, with check marks for sent, and x for failed send, and how it stack each email on top of each regardless of threading hierarchy. When I am ULTRA busy at venues, and I've got 200 emails coming in, I still prefer LEGACY BLACKBERRY. But not by much. If I had to, I could hop on my WP8 and get the job done. But when I'm in the field, I really don't want a touch screen. It's not feasible in many situations for me. But for me, that's only 10 to 20 days out of the year.

The elegance of WP8 is amazing. The OS glides, and does exactly what I want so intuitively. I'm truly sold. I would not buy any other OS.

I have a couple comments. First, I don't know what e-mail service you are using, but I use Hotmail/Outlook/Live and I get push EAS, just like Blackberry.

I also have a theory on why the QWERTY keyboard phones feel "productive." It's because despite being able to pound out e-mails on touch screens (and WP has a leading touch keyboard), there's something about physical buttons that requires a little less mental concentration. I don't think it's a speed thing. It's that it requires a little more effort to bang out an e-mail on a touch screen because there is no feel for key alignment. Knowing the key won't press until you actually move it against the spring action presents a certain psychological effect that a capacitive keyboard can't. Like if you are walking and typing. Or riding in a car and typing. The hardware keyboard will feel more "solid" but I really don't think it's any faster. I had a slide out landscape keyboard phone for about 3 years before my Titan (and I'm on this forum because I just bought a 521 which I may make a post about). So I've lived with a hardware keyboard (HTC Touch Pro). You always feel more empowered, like you're at a real computer, like "I'm getting stuff done here." But I bet I am faster on my Titan, even without the psychological advantage. In fact, I know I'm faster. The WP keyboard does things no hardware keyboard can, like dynamically size the touch points depending on the next letter it predicts you will type (this is well documented if you want to read up on it). So the best way to use a WP soft keyboard is to just pound away and believe. It's like magic.

 

[kevm14]

I'll tell you what, I'm loving my 521 and T-Mobile experiment. I get better signal than AT&T in most places I go (my house, work, my in-laws, and many other places, shockingly). The performance of the network is also impressive to me. I'm just using a prepaid sim (and by the way, prepaid won't get roaming privileges so I may happily find that previous dead spots are now roaming spots). But for the money I will save if I switch my 2 lines over, I can put up with 2G in rural areas. I'd rather have the faster speeds in the places I go than pay for building out broadband speeds in the woods. T-Mobile is going to save us $50+ per month with more data. It would have been more like $35/mo savings but since T-Mobile applies the 15% employer discount to the WHOLE BILL (unlike AT&T who picks and chooses what 15% applies to), it ends up over $50. But I digress...

I did a speedtest in a restaurant near work yesterday and compared to a co-worker's 920 running AT&T LTE. He got 9.xx Mbps on LTE. I got 10 Mbps on T-Mobile HSPA. Bam.

This phone will go to my wife if we switch. She's coming from a feature phone so she should be more than satisfied. We got my mother-in-law a 520 and she likes it. They are subtly different by the way. The 521 is a bit taller (more bezel under the capacitive buttons). And there are a few small settings variations.

For me the 4" screen will never fly as my main phone. My 2 year old Titan also has a better quality screen. But from a relative perspective, the capability of this phone for $100 is just mind blowing. I don't understand why anyone would buy any other prepaid type smartphone in this price range. I think it blows them all away.

I've also found the call quality very good (both Tx and Rx). But my Titan was known to be lousy. I like the Wifi calling thing.

It's not 521 related (I guess most of this post wasn't) but the $30 plan that gets 100 mins, unlimited text and 5GB data is just incredible, when you factor in the network characteristics I outlined above. But it's fair to say that the competance of the 521 adds to my satisfaction of this experiment.

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

Funny, I did just the same thing (though I still have my BBQ10. After years of installing leaks I decided that Win Phone 8 fills most of my needs and I like the simplicity of the interface. I wish that the "live tiles" were more live (i.e., updated more frequently) but outside of thatI think that the system and hardware are more to my liking.

Doc,
Agreed.
My first impression was "Wow. Awesome interface."
Second was, "I wish the Live Tiles were more.. LIVE..."
But that's OK. They are what they are. I'm sure the OS will continue to improve. And I wouldn't want it so live that the tiles were flipping like jumping beans where you were actually distracted by them, rather than informed by them.

 

[Guytronic]

Me likes to keep track of all the user reviews in various places for the low end Lumia devices.
Admitting that a number of positive reviewers are slanted I do get a jolt out of the folks working so very hard to find negatives.

These "speed bump" reviews try and try to encourage frustration by pointing out flaws that many, who have jumped aboard without selling their first born will never see or perhaps even care about.
This user is still finding WP shortcuts and features that other mobile OS platforms use to make life easier.
I will call this my small techoventure if you will.

There's just one small note concerning our 520\521's that few deny as a major plus:
Low price!

That's the reason I'm here.
Everything else was merely a very pleasant surprise.

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

It's been a while for me now with the 521 and I can report that I'm loving it still.

I tried going back to my BlackBerry last month and only made it a day. The keyboard was too small, the screen too small, and I hated not having touch screen control. I used to love the BBerry trackpad, now I do not like it. Also, trying to CALL on the tiny Berry buttons is hard for me now. I missed the big screen as I use Linedin and Twitter a lot in my business. It's so nice to be able to see four or five Twitter posts at once VS only ONE on a legacy Berry.

I also like the voice command option on Windows, and can't wait for full Cortana to be here. I also understand there will finally be a notification HUB and it's rumored to be to the left of the home screen. IF they do that, the phone will be HARD to BEAT by any manufacturer IMHO.

So I'm truly hooked now. All things change. But if you would have told me a year ago that I'd come off my beloved Legacy BIS BlackBerry, I'd have laughed at you. I'm not laughing any more.

 

[Laura Knotek]

It's been a while for me now with the 521 and I can report that I'm loving it still.

I tried going back to my BlackBerry last month and only made it a day. The keyboard was too small, the screen too small, and I hated not having touch screen control. I used to love the BBerry trackpad, now I do not like it. Also, trying to CALL on the tiny Berry buttons is hard for me now. I missed the big screen as I use Linedin and Twitter a lot in my business. It's so nice to be able to see four or five Twitter posts at once VS only ONE on a legacy Berry.

I also like the voice command option on Windows, and can't wait for full Cortana to be here. I also understand there will finally be a notification HUB and it's rumored to be to the left of the home screen. IF they do that, the phone will be HARD to BEAT by any manufacturer IMHO.

So I'm truly hooked now. All things change. But if you would have told me a year ago that I'd come off my beloved Legacy BIS BlackBerry, I'd have laughed at you. I'm not laughing any more.

Thanks for the update! I'm glad you still are happy with your 521. :smile:

 

[pgg101]

As I said earlier, I'm a big fan of the app Flipboard. You can't get it on BlackBerry, only Android, iPhone and next month.... YES.... ON WP8! I was so happy when I saw this.

Flipboard has been in BlackBerry World since the summer of 2013...albeit Android, not native

Posted via the WPC App for Android on BlackBerry Z30

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

It's become my new "Lean On" device. I used to lean on my Berry. That is, when the going got rough, I pulled out the Berry and got business done by really leaning on it. Flights, schedules, Twitter posts, Linkedin, emails, texts and phone calls all flowing through at the speed of light. I really think that Windows Phone 8 has it nailed with regard to smooth operation under pressure.

Here is my bottom line as I have boiled it down to brass tacks in the last six months:

iPhone; Too many icons on too many screens with no way to hide them and no ease of methodology to direct business with the phone. No customization available to effect work flow through the device.

Android: Too cluttered. Too many ways to customize. Not enough set structure in the architecture for the device to allow me to flow my business through the phone with tact and speed.

Blackberry Legacy: Although great in the day, now too restrictive. Screen size, BIS Architecture and keyboard combined with the old BBerry OS make it difficult to do all MODERN business effectively. If only emailing, calling and Texting, it's fine. Add power use of LInkedin, Twitter and Documents and you have an issue of speed and clarity.

Windowsphone: Spot on with regard to how to direct Business through the phone. Email, Telephony, Twitter, Linkedin, and Texts all drive through with seamless and effortless clarity. Home Screen easily customized to your liking and moving documents, and information through the phone is almost too easy. Meaning you sometimes wonder, "Did I really just do all that on a PHONE?" 'Nuff said.

 

[BBerryPowerUser]

And finally today, I realized I no longer prefer a physical QWERTY Keyboard.
I can't believe I actually just typed that. YES, I actually PREFER my Nokia WP8 Virtual Keyboard over my Legacy Berry's Physical Keyboard. Good Lord, alert the media.

The WindowsPhone Virtual Keyboard has me spoiled with auto-correcting that seems to read my mind, and the seemingly lightning fast typing style I have devised over months of replying to emails and Twitter/Linkedin.

I tried using my old Berry yesterday and I felt like I had a chisel and stone in my hand compared to the Nokia.

I NEVER thought I'd have EVER said this. Sure, I thought I would perhaps someday be as accurate as I was on my Berry, but I can say, I'm just as accurate now on the Nokia AND much faster.

This whole experience has reminded me of something my Physics Professor said on day one of his class when I was in College;
"The Greatest Barrier To Learning Is What You Think You Already Know."

True. I thought I had reached the apex of productivity with my Legacy Berry. And if technology had not progressed and services like Twitter and LinkedIn had not proliferated, perhaps I would have. But opening myself up to actually TRYING to use the WP8 Nokia really changed my paradigm.

And I mean BIG TIME.