Hey guys, just recently got my Nokia Lumia 920 on Rogers in Canada. I thought I'd share some of my initial impressions of the device, and offer some insight if you are thinking of switching from ios to WP8.
I've had my iphone 3GS for three years, and was very happy with it. The thing took a beating, and kept up with me (for the most part) over the last 3 years of my contract. Towards the end, the phone was unbearably slow, apps would crash frequently and my wifi and 3G would cut out from time to time. Needless to say, time to upgrade.
I considered 3 phones when upgrading, the iphone 5, lumia 920 and HTC 8X.
I have no loyalties to any brand, I own two windows computers, an ipod and an ipad (all of which have caused me no grief). I use my phone for emailing, facebook, twitter, web browsing, maps and music.
One of my biggest concerns with purchasing the Lumia was a poor music interface on the desktop side. All of my music is meticulously organized in iTunes, with quite a few playlists that i really wanted to preserve. I run a music blog so having solid music integration is a key factor for me. I'm not iTunes number one fan, but if my music and playlists could not easily be transferred to the Lumia, that would be a serious pitfall for me. Other than that, i was wholeheartedly prepared to give my business to another OS manufacturer that in my opinion has more potential for growth and has the 'cool factor'. My other deciding factors were size, weight and onboard memory. This is where the 8X came into play. I decided i should go with a phone with more memory (because i'll be stuck with it for 3 years), and upon holding the device, the weight and size of the lumia didn't really bother me that much.
Initial impressions:
The phone is solid. It is a heavy phone, as i'm sure you all know. You definitely feel it in your pocket. One thing you definitely feel with the phone is that it is a substantial device, and feels like it could take a drop or two. I'm very careful with my stuff, but over a three year period i can guarantee the phone will be dropped a handful of times, so this is important. It definitely feels more premium than the 8X. In fact i would place the build quality nearly on par with the iphone. Upon turning it on and getting it set up, I love the live tile interface. It's smooth, quick and looks beautiful. I like the real time information on the tiles and the lock screen, and social media integration is top notch. There are a few apps i miss from my iphone, including Soundcloud, teamviewer and chrome. Overall though this is not a huge detriment as i use my ipad to run these apps most of the time anyways. I really like that the home screen is not limited to just apps and web pages, but you can pin contacts, maps, widgets and more. I have pinned my individual email inboxes, my favorite playlists and my most used contacts, which is quite handy.
Negatives (coming from iphone):
The desktop music interface is terrible. I could not sync my itunes playlists and the program would repeatedly crash mid-sync. This was quite frustrating as this is highly important to me. After doing some digging online, i found an alternative program that works reasonably well called 'DoubleTwist'. It imported my itunes playlists and recognized the lumia right away. The first couple of times i tried to sync the program froze, but i rebooted the lumia and the computer and was able to get through a full sync. All of my itunes music is on the phone now in my playlists, so i'm happy. Unfortunately there is one extra step i must take when adding new music and modifying playlists in order to get them on the phone (which i do on the daily). I would like to see windows come out with a fully featured desktop music manager similar to itunes, or have the ability to seamlessly connect with itunes.
App selection is weaker compared to apple and android, but we all know this. As mentioned before, the apps i am missing are soundcloud, teamviewer and google chrome, facebook pages, tsn, wordpress and assorted banking apps. The lack of these is not a dealbreaker for me, as i use these apps primarily on my ipad. It would be nice however to transfer funds, listen to soundcloud mixes, manage my facebook pages and remote access my desktop using my phone. because of the growth of the OS, i am sure that many of these apps will be coming down the pipeline soon, so i am not too worried
Battery life is not the greatest. I'm not sure if i have a faulty unit, but my battery seems to be draining quicker than it should. I have disabled NFC and unused background apps to no avail. I hope that an update addresses this problem, I may take it in for a replacement.
Camera performance, compared to the hype, is a little underwhelming. I like the night shooting capabilities as well as the two stage shutter button, but the quality of the images (especially since the camera was hyped so much) could be better. Again, hopefully an update addresses this problem.
Final thoughts
After using this phone for a few days, i can say i am quite impressed with it. The OS is extremely slick and works very well. My iOS loving friends all think i'm crazy for going to Windows Phone, but i have absolutely no regrets so far. The biggest improvement that should be addressed by Microsoft in my opinion is the desktop music manager. I know that apple and MS don't play well, but MS should recognize the HUGE number of customers that use only iTunes for music management. Once iTunes integration is improved, i can say with confidence to any apple ****** that my phone is better. If you're in the same boat as me, no brand ties and are in the mood to try something new and fresh, i would highly recommend the Lumia 920. It's a solid device albeit with a few minor flaws that hopefully will be addressed in upcoming updates.
Hope this helps the potential buyers out there, any questions for me just shoot a reply and i'll do my best!
I've had my iphone 3GS for three years, and was very happy with it. The thing took a beating, and kept up with me (for the most part) over the last 3 years of my contract. Towards the end, the phone was unbearably slow, apps would crash frequently and my wifi and 3G would cut out from time to time. Needless to say, time to upgrade.
I considered 3 phones when upgrading, the iphone 5, lumia 920 and HTC 8X.
I have no loyalties to any brand, I own two windows computers, an ipod and an ipad (all of which have caused me no grief). I use my phone for emailing, facebook, twitter, web browsing, maps and music.
One of my biggest concerns with purchasing the Lumia was a poor music interface on the desktop side. All of my music is meticulously organized in iTunes, with quite a few playlists that i really wanted to preserve. I run a music blog so having solid music integration is a key factor for me. I'm not iTunes number one fan, but if my music and playlists could not easily be transferred to the Lumia, that would be a serious pitfall for me. Other than that, i was wholeheartedly prepared to give my business to another OS manufacturer that in my opinion has more potential for growth and has the 'cool factor'. My other deciding factors were size, weight and onboard memory. This is where the 8X came into play. I decided i should go with a phone with more memory (because i'll be stuck with it for 3 years), and upon holding the device, the weight and size of the lumia didn't really bother me that much.
Initial impressions:
The phone is solid. It is a heavy phone, as i'm sure you all know. You definitely feel it in your pocket. One thing you definitely feel with the phone is that it is a substantial device, and feels like it could take a drop or two. I'm very careful with my stuff, but over a three year period i can guarantee the phone will be dropped a handful of times, so this is important. It definitely feels more premium than the 8X. In fact i would place the build quality nearly on par with the iphone. Upon turning it on and getting it set up, I love the live tile interface. It's smooth, quick and looks beautiful. I like the real time information on the tiles and the lock screen, and social media integration is top notch. There are a few apps i miss from my iphone, including Soundcloud, teamviewer and chrome. Overall though this is not a huge detriment as i use my ipad to run these apps most of the time anyways. I really like that the home screen is not limited to just apps and web pages, but you can pin contacts, maps, widgets and more. I have pinned my individual email inboxes, my favorite playlists and my most used contacts, which is quite handy.
Negatives (coming from iphone):
The desktop music interface is terrible. I could not sync my itunes playlists and the program would repeatedly crash mid-sync. This was quite frustrating as this is highly important to me. After doing some digging online, i found an alternative program that works reasonably well called 'DoubleTwist'. It imported my itunes playlists and recognized the lumia right away. The first couple of times i tried to sync the program froze, but i rebooted the lumia and the computer and was able to get through a full sync. All of my itunes music is on the phone now in my playlists, so i'm happy. Unfortunately there is one extra step i must take when adding new music and modifying playlists in order to get them on the phone (which i do on the daily). I would like to see windows come out with a fully featured desktop music manager similar to itunes, or have the ability to seamlessly connect with itunes.
App selection is weaker compared to apple and android, but we all know this. As mentioned before, the apps i am missing are soundcloud, teamviewer and google chrome, facebook pages, tsn, wordpress and assorted banking apps. The lack of these is not a dealbreaker for me, as i use these apps primarily on my ipad. It would be nice however to transfer funds, listen to soundcloud mixes, manage my facebook pages and remote access my desktop using my phone. because of the growth of the OS, i am sure that many of these apps will be coming down the pipeline soon, so i am not too worried
Battery life is not the greatest. I'm not sure if i have a faulty unit, but my battery seems to be draining quicker than it should. I have disabled NFC and unused background apps to no avail. I hope that an update addresses this problem, I may take it in for a replacement.
Camera performance, compared to the hype, is a little underwhelming. I like the night shooting capabilities as well as the two stage shutter button, but the quality of the images (especially since the camera was hyped so much) could be better. Again, hopefully an update addresses this problem.
Final thoughts
After using this phone for a few days, i can say i am quite impressed with it. The OS is extremely slick and works very well. My iOS loving friends all think i'm crazy for going to Windows Phone, but i have absolutely no regrets so far. The biggest improvement that should be addressed by Microsoft in my opinion is the desktop music manager. I know that apple and MS don't play well, but MS should recognize the HUGE number of customers that use only iTunes for music management. Once iTunes integration is improved, i can say with confidence to any apple ****** that my phone is better. If you're in the same boat as me, no brand ties and are in the mood to try something new and fresh, i would highly recommend the Lumia 920. It's a solid device albeit with a few minor flaws that hopefully will be addressed in upcoming updates.
Hope this helps the potential buyers out there, any questions for me just shoot a reply and i'll do my best!
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