Honest opinions please....

[pegasusl]

Hi all :smile:

This might sound odd as I'm normally connected to iMore as an iPhone user. I'm coming up for an upgrade this month and last year I actually decided to bypass my upgrade as I was pleased with my phone and couldn't see anything in the newer iPhone that I needed, and was expecting to be "wowed" the next time.

It just didn't happen, since Steve Jobs sadly died it just seems like Apple is on self destruct at the hands of Jonny Ive. I have made a conscious choice not to "upgrade" or perhaps "downgrade" my current iPhone to iOS7 as I much prefer iOS6, it's just more grown up and has a calendar I can actually use. But it's got me thinking seriously about changing over to a windows phone.

I know I will lose the investment in apps I have already made, but actually from what I have seen in the windows phone I'm thinking it might be worth it. I like the overall feel of the windows OS as it does feel fresh but not like a 4year old has designed it with crayons (iOS7).

I'm looking at a 1020 as I am a photographer, and want something in my phone that I can actually use in terms of a camera. Dont get me wrong I'm never going to compare a camera phone to my actual camera, but most phones are just awful when it comes to taking a decent shot....I never thought I'd actually say "wow" to a camera phone image...until I played with a 1020. I have to say I was stunned by it a little.

What I'd really like to know though from people who have had their 1020 a while is how do you still feel about it? Are you still happy with the overall experience? Are there any common gripes with it? What is it's best feature for you?

Changing OS can be a big deal but I'm trying to see is it worth it?

Hope to hear from you guys soon

Chris

 

[vlad0]

iOS 7 is a solid OS.. naturally more mature than WP but hopefully Microsoft can shorten the gap quickly. I expect by this time next year it will be a much closer call in terms of functionality, stability, and overall app quality/integration.

I know I will lose the investment in apps I have already made, but actually from what I have seen in the windows phone I'm thinking it might be worth it. I like the overall feel of the windows OS as it does feel fresh but not like a 4year old has designed it with crayons (iOS7).
Chris

Acutally..

 

[tomacotuna]

I had ios for some time and android in the past and i made the change to wp one year ago, now i own a nl 925 and i really enjoy every second with it wp is a very fluid os and never had a problem with it. I think that is worthed to made this change and you will not be disappointed... And about the apps don't worry there are tons of apps on wp and the store grow extremely fast ....ps. Sry for my English i know is bad i work on it now

 

[Zerveone]

Hey,

Starting with apps, You should really check windows phone store for those. Most of important apps are there, often done by 3rd party. After You got that covered i warmly invite You to browse Lumia 1020 pictures thread and some other threads presenting it's capabilities.
I'm using my 1020 for almost 3 months and judging the camera... I've never seen anything come close. Yes, there are known problems like WB issue (it's off sometimes if used Auto) but You can easily correct it by manually adjusting it. Some users report yellow tint, especially on low light shots. To be honest i never had an issue with it so for me it's not there.
Biggest drawback is probably the shot to shot delay. You must be aware that using Nokia Camera (only app that can produce 34 mpix photo, as other apps just get the 5 mpix oversampled ones (except ProShot which uses up to 12 mpix)) You get ~3-4 seconds delay between shots.
If You do a lot of follow up shots for some fast action scenes You might want to think about it. I say - You need to make that one picture count and time it right, but remember there is (probably the best) alternative - Proshot app, which saves photos almost instantly, so no delays there.

I take my Lumia everywhere. She's been twice in the mountains with me, and on some other trips. Things i love about it - compact size and practicality. It's awesome how You can just grab it from Your pocket and take a picture. If it's cold you'll start to appreciate the super sensitive display which allows You to take pictures in your gloves (my hands would fall off in those mountains without that option). Those are small things, but really useful. Of course let's not forget about manual controls.

Battery life is fine for me. By all means I'm not heavy user, sometimes Lumia stays unused half of the day, but it always got through a full day of picture snapping on my trips (without the camera grip), so i can't say a thing about it. This however is my personal opinion and things may vary, so keep that in mind.

I'm a bit sleepy right now, so to sum things up...

The best thing is... I can't just pick one. I love the whole combo. It's perfect for me that i can use it with winter gloves to take pictures and that i can reframe said pictures (i don't use it really often, but when You take a pic and think "damn, i screwed that up..." You just realize "hey, i can reframe it" and get an awesome result, it brings smile to my face.
It's a good phone, for me it's best I ever had, but in terms of camera - most of those positive reviews are true. Nothing comes close. I'd say most of people not common with photography would mistake 1020 shots with a good DSLR, if the shots are right.

Oh and I almost forgot. It might be too much for You, but there are some projects here that added lenses and filters onto camera grip to make shooting with 1020 even better and more versatile.

What i wanted to ask You to do... Please ask more (detailed) questions if You are unsure, it's easy to write all about, but all those little quirks start to shine when asked about
I'll write some more about WP later on!

 

[mv740]

I was a iphone user till last year... Iphone 3g...3gs..4 then waited for something else. When i saw that each version after the iphone 4 weren't worth the money i switch to a nokia 920. I used my phone ti take picture sometime during friend birthdays ... Even one year after i am still impressed by the quality. I have friends using iphone 5 or couple of different android model and they all say whether they love wp8 or not that it takes great picture. I had to leave a couple of app behind by leaving ios but i found wp8 dev designing some very similar ones. People said ios have million more, well i had a iphone when the ios store opened and it had nothing so you need to be patient. 1 year later, i have some app that are even better than their official counterpart! Now wp8 has almost every app that are the most needed on ios so no need to worry about this. While i dont have a 1020, i wanted to tell you about my experience of switching from ios!

 

[antiochian2010]

I love everything about the WP operating system. I came from Android and never looked back. For awhile I defected to Symbian because of the 808 PureView, but Symbian made me miss the WP interface. The only shortcoming I see is in email attachments. From Office you can send a file, but when you're in email, the only attachment you can make from email is a photo or video. Which I think is screwed up. Also, the browser has two negative issues. 1) Try using a site that has dropdown screens! Webkit as used on Symbian, Android & iPhone - no problem. But IE on the Windows PHone is atrocious - since it doesn't feel a mouse, the menus disappear before you can select anything. 2) Being older, I really miss the wordwrap that was on OperaMini that I had on my 808 PureView and Samsung Galaxy. On the 1020 IE browser - or ANY browser available for this phone (I've tried them all), you can certainly enlarge the text, but it falls off screen.

Those issues are not showstoppers - I have learned to work around them and the rest of the phone makes these insignificant. Writing this I felt like I was picking fly sh*t out of pepper, but those are the only two things that would prevent me from saying that you are walking into a perfect system.

The one thing I find confusing is many people complain about the lack of a notification area. To me, the live tiles are simply Windows Phone's way of doing this - which I think is more fun and way more elegant than the iPhone/Android pull down. I don't know if I'm missing something with what they're complaining about?

One lacking feature I think is legitimate is the inability to select different volume levels for different events. However, where this was unavoidable in WP7, in WP8 I think this is resolved in the OS , but not software. I found this out by downloading a program called sleep bug - which has its own volume control independent of the phone volume! So I'm thinking if they can do that, MS could easily add that feature to the Alarms application but they haven't done it yet.

Again, all of this said, I still love WP to the extent that I am not at all interested in going back to Android/Symbian or even trying iOS. The deal clincher was Nokia's finally adding a true PureView camera to the 1020. I will say that had they skipped the 1020 and gone to the 1520 directly, I would still have dumped the 808 PureView. But the 'pureview' that was made for the 920 just didn't do it for me - even though I admire it for being an absolute tank!

Hope this helps your decision process!

 

[Del Rei]

I had iPhone for years. Tried the 1020 and came back for iPhone after 30-40 days.

Lot of things I used daily on iPhone was missing on 1020...

Take a look at this thread, I explained my reasons:

http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...phone-5s-google-page-ranking.html#post2252064

 

[pegasusl]

Thanks Guys

Tomacotuna your comments on the apps in Web OS made me think about my actual usage...
Although I have a hundred or so apps in the iOS system, I sat down last night and examined my usage of them. It came down to around 20 that I use most of the time. 19 of them are available (or a similar app) in the Windows environment just the gps one to find a really good version of now... but Im encouraged

Zerveone your info on the camera is really useful and I take on board the lag between shots and your overall experience with the unit. I will also be playing in the mountains with it so the cold use is also really handy to know!

Antiochian you comments were interesting about the IE experience. Thats not something I'd really considered as Im a firefox user at home and a Dolphin user on my phone.... will check if dolphin browser is available for Web OS.

Del Rei, thanks for your post too. I read through your link and you did give a very balanced report on your experience which was really informative. Luckily Im not a speed demon and startup speeds, browsing speeds etc just dont matter that much to me. For me iOS7 is just too much of a car crash in terms of design and it's overall look that it really has ruined my experience whenever I use an iPhone with it on. I just cant live with looking at that if I stayed with Apple and the look and redesign has made the calendar app completely useless for me. Jonny Ive really messed it up for me (but that is only my own feelings of course). Like you overall I think I need to give Web OS and the 1020 a try before truly deciding.

If I dont like it I can always return it, but really think you all have encouraged me to look at the 1020 so thank you!

 

[blue1k]

I go through phones like socks. I've used many Android phones, iPhones and now WP. I love my 1020 and just can't sell it for something new. My only complaint is that WP is still a bit rough around the edges but is improving rapidly. As for apps, I like looking for and learning new apps so switching platforms isn't much of an issue.

 

[pegasusl]

Thanks Blue... Sounds like WP is becoming a stable mature platform going forwards... Unfortunately iOS seems to be going backwards in terms of looks and reliability.

 

[flyinion]

You must be aware that using Nokia Camera (only app that can produce 34 mpix photo, as other apps just get the 5 mpix oversampled ones (except ProShot which uses up to 12 mpix)) You get ~3-4 seconds delay between shots.

Thanks for the tip, I just picked up a 1020 myself and have been looking for some good paid apps to use a coupon on that came with it. This app might fit right in since photography is a huge reason why I went for the 1020 (including jumping ship from Android as far as my phone goes). Question, does the proshot app have the same delay? Or is it able to create those 12mpix shot (oversampled I assume?) at a normal speed?

 

[blue1k]

Thanks Blue... Sounds like WP is becoming a stable mature platform going forwards... Unfortunately iOS seems to be going backwards in terms of looks and reliability.

You said it. I hate IOS 7 on my iPad. I have to use it for work because of Airplay and my special app for math (I teach). Looks like Hello Kitty threw up.

 

[blue1k]

Actually there is a great app that shoots at full resolution and saves it to camera roll to view. It's called 1st shot Beta. Highly recommend. ProShot used to be awesome but now it's super slow. Photos take forever to save and the app crashes a lot.

 

[flyinion]

Actually there is a great app that shoots at full resolution and saves it to camera roll to view. It's called 1st shot Beta. Highly recommend. ProShot used to be awesome but now it's super slow. Photos take forever to save and the app crashes a lot.

Have a link? I can't seem to find that.

EDIT: Are you talking about 1Shot Beta?

 

[montsa007]

Hi all :smile:

This might sound odd as I'm normally connected to iMore as an iPhone user. I'm coming up for an upgrade this month and last year I actually decided to bypass my upgrade as I was pleased with my phone and couldn't see anything in the newer iPhone that I needed, and was expecting to be "wowed" the next time.

It just didn't happen, since Steve Jobs sadly died it just seems like Apple is on self destruct at the hands of Jonny Ive. I have made a conscious choice not to "upgrade" or perhaps "downgrade" my current iPhone to iOS7 as I much prefer iOS6, it's just more grown up and has a calendar I can actually use. But it's got me thinking seriously about changing over to a windows phone.

I know I will lose the investment in apps I have already made, but actually from what I have seen in the windows phone I'm thinking it might be worth it. I like the overall feel of the windows OS as it does feel fresh but not like a 4year old has designed it with crayons (iOS7).

I'm looking at a 1020 as I am a photographer, and want something in my phone that I can actually use in terms of a camera. Dont get me wrong I'm never going to compare a camera phone to my actual camera, but most phones are just awful when it comes to taking a decent shot....I never thought I'd actually say "wow" to a camera phone image...until I played with a 1020. I have to say I was stunned by it a little.

What I'd really like to know though from people who have had their 1020 a while is how do you still feel about it? Are you still happy with the overall experience? Are there any common gripes with it? What is it's best feature for you?

Changing OS can be a big deal but I'm trying to see is it worth it?

Hope to hear from you guys soon

Chris

That bold part, wins the prize.

 

[blue1k]

Have a link? I can't seem to find that.

EDIT: Are you talking about 1Shot Beta?

Yup. Oops

 

[poots1101]

Peg,

I hope the others here in this thread have provided a ton of information. I'd like to share my thoughts on my 1020, having it for about a month.

Like others have said, the OS is rock solid. There are gaps (apps, features), but with Windows Phone Blue coming out next year (probably announced at BUILD early April, hopefully available soon after that), we'll (hopefully) get voice assistant (Cortana) that acts very similar to Google Now/Siri, and a notification center.....amongst other new features (those are probably the bigger headline grabbers). other than that, windows phone OS in its current state is rock solid and fluid. i used android for over 2 years on multiple devices, and it's really sad to think that even with a quad core processor with 2 gb of RAM, androids UI still lags. only until recently with the snapdragon 800 has it finally been relatively smooth. it's just another testement to the fluidity of WP.

app situation gets better...probably not as fast as many would like, but it's there. we're at the point that most users have 80-100% of the apps they need/want. will it ever be on par as iOS? probably not. but for what i need out of a smartphone, it does it very well.

so, about that camera. i think zerveone noted that there is significant lag opening the camera and time inbetween shots. this is totally accurate. however, i think there is a way to use the pro cam app without the lag inbetween shots, if you change the setting to only save the 5 MP oversampled image. i think i recall reading on another site if you disable the large 38 MP file, the lag between shots goes away. then again, you lose the ability for zoom/reframing, but just a thought. overall, the camera is amazing. it's not a dslr and it has its issues (primarily with White balance and focus in low light). but if you get to know the manual controls, you can compensate for most issues. i think i can handle 1 crappy shot every 10 or 20 shots i take, especially when the 'good' shots have so much detail in them.

again, i hope others have helped you. we're all probably a little biased, being that most of us are WP owners and fans. but the 1020 is such a ground breaking device, it's hard not to praise it.

 

[pegasusl]

That bold part, wins the prize.

Thanks....just cant bear to look at iOS7 its such a shame because I really enjoyed my iPhone on iOS6 but Apple are pushing SO HARD to force me to downgrade to iOS7...all new apps give me a "you need iOS7" message now.

Peg,

I hope the others here in this thread have provided a ton of information. I'd like to share my thoughts on my 1020, having it for about a month.

Like others have said, the OS is rock solid. There are gaps (apps, features), but with Windows Phone Blue coming out next year (probably announced at BUILD early April, hopefully available soon after that), we'll (hopefully) get voice assistant (Cortana) that acts very similar to Google Now/Siri, and a notification center.....amongst other new features (those are probably the bigger headline grabbers). other than that, windows phone OS in its current state is rock solid and fluid. i used android for over 2 years on multiple devices, and it's really sad to think that even with a quad core processor with 2 gb of RAM, androids UI still lags. only until recently with the snapdragon 800 has it finally been relatively smooth. it's just another testement to the fluidity of WP.

app situation gets better...probably not as fast as many would like, but it's there. we're at the point that most users have 80-100% of the apps they need/want. will it ever be on par as iOS? probably not. but for what i need out of a smartphone, it does it very well.

so, about that camera. i think zerveone noted that there is significant lag opening the camera and time inbetween shots. this is totally accurate. however, i think there is a way to use the pro cam app without the lag inbetween shots, if you change the setting to only save the 5 MP oversampled image. i think i recall reading on another site if you disable the large 38 MP file, the lag between shots goes away. then again, you lose the ability for zoom/reframing, but just a thought. overall, the camera is amazing. it's not a dslr and it has its issues (primarily with White balance and focus in low light). but if you get to know the manual controls, you can compensate for most issues. i think i can handle 1 crappy shot every 10 or 20 shots i take, especially when the 'good' shots have so much detail in them.

again, i hope others have helped you. we're all probably a little biased, being that most of us are WP owners and fans. but the 1020 is such a ground breaking device, it's hard not to praise it.

Thanks for your input rly: I think the 1020 will suit my needs perfectly...now lets see what EE (Orange) offer me in the UK

 

[sdc1]

There is lots of useful info here already. If you're into photography it's worth switching for, no question about that at all.

I've jumped away from Apple completely now to a 1020 and a Nexus 7, partly because of iOS 7. Hope you get a good deal on the 1020, let us know how you go.

 

[HaibaneReki]

Actually there is a great app that shoots at full resolution and saves it to camera roll to view. It's called 1st shot Beta. Highly recommend. ProShot used to be awesome but now it's super slow. Photos take forever to save and the app crashes a lot.

which version and what phone are You using? Now it's on 3.1 and the functionalities are unmatched among 3rd party apps. The dev RiseUpGames is active on the forums, I believe he'd love to hear Your feedback, he's super-dedicated and in fact - his app eats Nokia pro cam for breakfast.