Hey guys,
I've been using the 820 for a couple of days now and I'd like to share my impressions. I've been a long time android user, I've had a Samsung and a Sony device but WP just appeals to me, the more I considered it, the more I wanted to make a switch, and since I'm not one for custom ROMs and the like, you could say I'm a casual user, it was a natural jump. Now the transition hasn't been smooth overall, there have been bumps and some roadblocks as well if I'm honest, but I'm determined to make it work, I want to love the phone and I'm still working on it. As it is a new phone obviously I'm constantly playing with it, adjusting things and exploring, so I can't say I have everything figured out, I'd love to hear your take on the things I've come across.
So a little background info: I got the phone unlocked, not through my carrier but from an independent store, brand new and with my native language pre-installed (I'm Hungarian). The OS had never been updated so after a few hours - having realized that a lot of necessary settings are not even there - I went on to update through the phone, so now it's running GDR2.
And as I said, I think I can be considered a casual user, during a normal week I'm planning on using the phone for listening to podcasts, audiobooks and music while going to work, a maximum of couple of hours browsing the net and occasional youtube stuff. I don't have wifi enabled while at work, nor mobile data, I use maps quite rarely, so I set up my phone so that most of the settings (like cloud storage) are off by default, I'll turn them on when I need them.
Now I'm doing this on one hand because that's how I like it, but on the other because of the battery. I've read the reviews and I knew what to expect, but hopefully the battery will not be a problem. With this kind of usage I'm confident that I can bring a day of comfortable use out of it. My previous device had a smaller screen (albeit with a smaller battery), but it used to last for 1,5-2 days comfortably. As it's been only a couple of days, I'm still at the adjustment period with the battery, I charged it for about 15 hours when I got it (although I was playing around with it in the process) and been charging it every day, sometimes it drains quite quickly. I don't yet know where we'll end up, but I guess it will level out but I expect I'll have to charge it every afternoon / evening to take care of it. I've read that it's better to charge these kinds of batteries every day as they don't like to get fully drained. Question No.1: how advisable is it to leave the phone on the charger during the night (for about 7 hrs)?
Btw, I understand the restrictions of a closed system but I the battery apps I've tried do not update the live tiles, they are not really "live". It's not a big problem but in theory, that's what these apps should be doing. (Overall, the live tiles work very sporadically, some apps update, some don't. I don't really get it. In the end it's fine, I don't want my whole screen to flip around all the time anyway.)
And in any case, I LOVE the design of Windows Phone. It's a matter of personal preference, but in my view it's a no-nonsense, great-looking, simple but elegant style, I love how it handles and how obvious everything is. Not that I've ever had problems with Android, but this design is just great. I've heard rumors that in the future Microsoft is planning to do away with the tiles, well I just hope it's not true. The phone runs smooth as butter, no lags, and I like the screen quality. Colors are sharp and lively, no blurred areas, everything's as it's supposed to be. All is dandy here, no complaints.
The back cover was a pain in the neck to remove, but it's actually a positive, the unibody design looks awesome. Now about the shell itself... it feels a bit slippery, but that can be solved. And I don't know, but the way it originally is, it feels fragile, though that may only be a feeling, nothing has happened yet and I can always purchase a protective case. BUT, and I have some questions here, when I first removed the back cover I noticed a rattling noise in the camera, like something was loose or broken. The camera functions nicely so I've read up on it and the way I understand it's a known issue. So question No.2: should I be worried about the rattling noise? Every fibre of my being screams it's a problem and it doesn't attest to great build quality, but when I re-attach the cover the rattle goes away and as I said, everything functions as they should.
Also, and I'm not a big fan of this, the way the camera is built into the phone, it stands out from the cover a little bit. That means when I put the phone down, it actually rests on the camera. I'm being extra careful but it doesn't look comforting, I have to look for a shell that covers up the edges of the camera. Question No.3: is the alignment of the camera the same with your 820 as well, or did I get a faulty one? Also, is there a shell you could recommend that protects the camera better?
A positive is that it was extremely easy to move from my Android to the 820. I keep my contacts in my Google account and I was concerned about the Windows Phone's reluctant handling of their rival's mailing system, but everything - including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Outlook worked like a charm. i made the move in literally a few seconds and no glitches. The built-in e-mail app is awesome, though I do most of my work (that involves a lot of e-mailing) on a PC, this app is great for checking and making quick replies. It's quick and nimble too, and the notifications work flawlessly. A pleasant surprise.
The overall availability of the apps is not that severe that people make out to be, I've found everything I needed and the way I see it, Microsoft is making great strides, every other day you hear about new apps, I'm not concerned on this front. The offline maps are awesome. Seriously, it's a great relief to know that I have the maps available even if I don't have any kind of net connection. And when I zoomed in it went into the layout of the nearby mall and actually showed the stores themselves. (A bit of out-of-date, but it's still impressive as hell.)
The Skydrive app is a must and it works the way it should. The only beef I have with it... I'm still waiting for my e-mail about the extra 20GBs of storage space. I would be nice, I could use that for backup purposes, 7 GBs are not much. Come on Microsoft, pretty please...
Here's my BIGGEST problem though, and it's something I can't get over... the way the phone handles the storage space and the SD card.
1, The internal storage is supposed to be 8GB's, that's more like 4 when it arrives as the system files take up the rest of the space. Not cool. It's also a bit painful to free up space by deleting temp files, you have two sub-menus within settings to check regularly and the Explorer files as well. And you have the "Other" category of files which you can't manually delete (I haven't tried the app that fills in the memory so you can delete them yourself), and balloon like crazy after only a day of moderate use. Question No. 4.: is this storage issue fixed in GDR3? Luckily, this is why we have SD cards, right? Wrong.
2, Seriously, it looks like I'm getting every kind of bug imaginable, but I've also encountered the "song duplication" issue. The internal storage is fine if I have the option to store everything on my SD card, but when I tried to copy my songs to my 8Gb card, I got tons of songs multiple times. They don't show up any different on the PC, but my phone says I have -220GB of "free" space on the card, if I delete the duplicates it also deletes the original songs and 3 out of those four songs can't be played. I've formatted the card in the phone a couple of times, I have the newest version of the Windows 8 app to synchronize, but I don't use it because it's horrible. I can't transfer folders which makes it awkward to use. Now I hadn't known about this issue, but when I looked for it, I found a few hundred forum topics so it's something that has been out there for some time, and apparently a lot of people are affected by it, still it hasn't been fixed. It's a big thing for me because the ONLY thing that is an absolute must in a smartphone is the ability to play songs/podcasts and audiobooks well as I commute a lot and I need my phone to kill time. Question No.5: Have you heard anything about a fix for this problem? Is it fixed in GDR3? Should I buy a specific memory card or should I just give up on it?
I know that it looks like I have way more negatives that positives, and it's true I'm bitter about some of the bugs, but as I said, I love the idea of the Windows Phone, it looks great and most of the time it works great. I want it to succeed, i invested in it, it will be with me for better or worse for the upcoming years.
I don't need fancy stuff, millions of apps and all sorts of useless functions, what I need is a stable, trustworthy system that does what it's supposed to, and based on the reviews out there it was supposed to be this system. Now I'm sure they will fix these bugs but it's not the greatest experience when you get a new phone, you'r giddy with excitement and you run into such problems of basic functionality.
Anyway, what do you think guys?
I've been using the 820 for a couple of days now and I'd like to share my impressions. I've been a long time android user, I've had a Samsung and a Sony device but WP just appeals to me, the more I considered it, the more I wanted to make a switch, and since I'm not one for custom ROMs and the like, you could say I'm a casual user, it was a natural jump. Now the transition hasn't been smooth overall, there have been bumps and some roadblocks as well if I'm honest, but I'm determined to make it work, I want to love the phone and I'm still working on it. As it is a new phone obviously I'm constantly playing with it, adjusting things and exploring, so I can't say I have everything figured out, I'd love to hear your take on the things I've come across.
So a little background info: I got the phone unlocked, not through my carrier but from an independent store, brand new and with my native language pre-installed (I'm Hungarian). The OS had never been updated so after a few hours - having realized that a lot of necessary settings are not even there - I went on to update through the phone, so now it's running GDR2.
And as I said, I think I can be considered a casual user, during a normal week I'm planning on using the phone for listening to podcasts, audiobooks and music while going to work, a maximum of couple of hours browsing the net and occasional youtube stuff. I don't have wifi enabled while at work, nor mobile data, I use maps quite rarely, so I set up my phone so that most of the settings (like cloud storage) are off by default, I'll turn them on when I need them.
Now I'm doing this on one hand because that's how I like it, but on the other because of the battery. I've read the reviews and I knew what to expect, but hopefully the battery will not be a problem. With this kind of usage I'm confident that I can bring a day of comfortable use out of it. My previous device had a smaller screen (albeit with a smaller battery), but it used to last for 1,5-2 days comfortably. As it's been only a couple of days, I'm still at the adjustment period with the battery, I charged it for about 15 hours when I got it (although I was playing around with it in the process) and been charging it every day, sometimes it drains quite quickly. I don't yet know where we'll end up, but I guess it will level out but I expect I'll have to charge it every afternoon / evening to take care of it. I've read that it's better to charge these kinds of batteries every day as they don't like to get fully drained. Question No.1: how advisable is it to leave the phone on the charger during the night (for about 7 hrs)?
Btw, I understand the restrictions of a closed system but I the battery apps I've tried do not update the live tiles, they are not really "live". It's not a big problem but in theory, that's what these apps should be doing. (Overall, the live tiles work very sporadically, some apps update, some don't. I don't really get it. In the end it's fine, I don't want my whole screen to flip around all the time anyway.)
And in any case, I LOVE the design of Windows Phone. It's a matter of personal preference, but in my view it's a no-nonsense, great-looking, simple but elegant style, I love how it handles and how obvious everything is. Not that I've ever had problems with Android, but this design is just great. I've heard rumors that in the future Microsoft is planning to do away with the tiles, well I just hope it's not true. The phone runs smooth as butter, no lags, and I like the screen quality. Colors are sharp and lively, no blurred areas, everything's as it's supposed to be. All is dandy here, no complaints.
The back cover was a pain in the neck to remove, but it's actually a positive, the unibody design looks awesome. Now about the shell itself... it feels a bit slippery, but that can be solved. And I don't know, but the way it originally is, it feels fragile, though that may only be a feeling, nothing has happened yet and I can always purchase a protective case. BUT, and I have some questions here, when I first removed the back cover I noticed a rattling noise in the camera, like something was loose or broken. The camera functions nicely so I've read up on it and the way I understand it's a known issue. So question No.2: should I be worried about the rattling noise? Every fibre of my being screams it's a problem and it doesn't attest to great build quality, but when I re-attach the cover the rattle goes away and as I said, everything functions as they should.
Also, and I'm not a big fan of this, the way the camera is built into the phone, it stands out from the cover a little bit. That means when I put the phone down, it actually rests on the camera. I'm being extra careful but it doesn't look comforting, I have to look for a shell that covers up the edges of the camera. Question No.3: is the alignment of the camera the same with your 820 as well, or did I get a faulty one? Also, is there a shell you could recommend that protects the camera better?
A positive is that it was extremely easy to move from my Android to the 820. I keep my contacts in my Google account and I was concerned about the Windows Phone's reluctant handling of their rival's mailing system, but everything - including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Outlook worked like a charm. i made the move in literally a few seconds and no glitches. The built-in e-mail app is awesome, though I do most of my work (that involves a lot of e-mailing) on a PC, this app is great for checking and making quick replies. It's quick and nimble too, and the notifications work flawlessly. A pleasant surprise.
The overall availability of the apps is not that severe that people make out to be, I've found everything I needed and the way I see it, Microsoft is making great strides, every other day you hear about new apps, I'm not concerned on this front. The offline maps are awesome. Seriously, it's a great relief to know that I have the maps available even if I don't have any kind of net connection. And when I zoomed in it went into the layout of the nearby mall and actually showed the stores themselves. (A bit of out-of-date, but it's still impressive as hell.)
The Skydrive app is a must and it works the way it should. The only beef I have with it... I'm still waiting for my e-mail about the extra 20GBs of storage space. I would be nice, I could use that for backup purposes, 7 GBs are not much. Come on Microsoft, pretty please...
Here's my BIGGEST problem though, and it's something I can't get over... the way the phone handles the storage space and the SD card.
1, The internal storage is supposed to be 8GB's, that's more like 4 when it arrives as the system files take up the rest of the space. Not cool. It's also a bit painful to free up space by deleting temp files, you have two sub-menus within settings to check regularly and the Explorer files as well. And you have the "Other" category of files which you can't manually delete (I haven't tried the app that fills in the memory so you can delete them yourself), and balloon like crazy after only a day of moderate use. Question No. 4.: is this storage issue fixed in GDR3? Luckily, this is why we have SD cards, right? Wrong.
2, Seriously, it looks like I'm getting every kind of bug imaginable, but I've also encountered the "song duplication" issue. The internal storage is fine if I have the option to store everything on my SD card, but when I tried to copy my songs to my 8Gb card, I got tons of songs multiple times. They don't show up any different on the PC, but my phone says I have -220GB of "free" space on the card, if I delete the duplicates it also deletes the original songs and 3 out of those four songs can't be played. I've formatted the card in the phone a couple of times, I have the newest version of the Windows 8 app to synchronize, but I don't use it because it's horrible. I can't transfer folders which makes it awkward to use. Now I hadn't known about this issue, but when I looked for it, I found a few hundred forum topics so it's something that has been out there for some time, and apparently a lot of people are affected by it, still it hasn't been fixed. It's a big thing for me because the ONLY thing that is an absolute must in a smartphone is the ability to play songs/podcasts and audiobooks well as I commute a lot and I need my phone to kill time. Question No.5: Have you heard anything about a fix for this problem? Is it fixed in GDR3? Should I buy a specific memory card or should I just give up on it?
I know that it looks like I have way more negatives that positives, and it's true I'm bitter about some of the bugs, but as I said, I love the idea of the Windows Phone, it looks great and most of the time it works great. I want it to succeed, i invested in it, it will be with me for better or worse for the upcoming years.
I don't need fancy stuff, millions of apps and all sorts of useless functions, what I need is a stable, trustworthy system that does what it's supposed to, and based on the reviews out there it was supposed to be this system. Now I'm sure they will fix these bugs but it's not the greatest experience when you get a new phone, you'r giddy with excitement and you run into such problems of basic functionality.
Anyway, what do you think guys?
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