Upgrade from HTC 8s.

[maggotbeer]

Greetings to all!

First of all, please excuse me for my bad english, it's not my native language.

I own an HTC 8s with Windows 8.1 Developer Preview installed and I'm thinking of upgrading to a Lumia 925. I searched the forum and found almost all the details that I would like to know about the phone.

(My second choice would be the Lumia 1320 but I'm afraid that it might prove too large for my taste.)

Anyway, my only question is this : will I experience a notable performance improvement over the 8s or should I expect it to be roughly the same?

I have no problem navigating through the OS with the 8s, everything is smooth and I really like Windows Phone, but most of my apps take too much time to load, especially compared to my other phone, a Galaxy S4. I have them installed on the microSD card and I moved some of them to the internal storage to see if there would be any performance improvement but there wasn't. I also did a hard reset.

Will it be better with the 925 or should I expect about the same performance?

Thank you in advance!

P.S. corrections about my use of english are very welcome too!

 

[heli0m]

Is there a particular reason why you chose the Lumia 925 ? The ram will be an obvious upgrade, but the use of your microSD is gone
Also, is there an app you absolutely need to use that seems to lag on your HTC ?

 

[maggotbeer]

Is there a particular reason why you chose the Lumia 925 ? The ram will be an obvious upgrade, but the use of your microSD is gone ��
Also, is there an app you absolutely need to use that seems to lag on your HTC ?

Well, it's a very nice looking phone and it has a good camera from what I can tell from the photos that I've seen in flickr.

I also believe that it's the best choice considering my tight budget (it costs 250 € where I live).

I will definitely miss the microSD card but it's not a deal breaker for me since I store all my music on my other phone, the Galaxy S4. I think 16 gb will be sufficient for my photos and the few apps that I use.

I use very casual apps like Facebook, Twitter, Poki etc. but they all seem to take ages to load on my 8s. I don't do any photo or movie editing mainly because the camera on the 8s sucks! I use my Galaxy S4 and VSCOcam for that and it would be great if I could do that on my new phone but it's not something that I cannot live without.

Thank you for the quick reply!

 

[Cadet Christmas]

Well, it's a very nice looking phone and it has a good camera from what I can tell from the photos that I've seen in flickr.

I also believe that it's the best choice considering my tight budget (it costs 250 € where I live).

I will definitely miss the microSD card but it's not a deal breaker for me since I store all my music on my other phone, the Galaxy S4. I think 16 gb will be sufficient for my photos and the few apps that I use.

I use very casual apps like Facebook, Twitter, Poki etc. but they all seem to take ages to load on my 8s. I don't do any photo or movie editing mainly because the camera on the 8s sucks! I use my Galaxy S4 and VSCOcam for that and it would be great if I could do that on my new phone but it's not something that I cannot live without.

Thank you for the quick reply!

Your English is very good! Better than probably half the fellow Americans I meet on a given day haha

I recently got a Lumia 925 coming from a 620. I loved that phone, I STILL love it, but the microphone stopped working and it was only a little more money to get a new phone rather than repair. But hey, now I can relate to the decision youre trying to make!

The 925 is gorgeous. I love the size of the 620 and how compact and tough it is, but the 925 is a beauty. Mine is silver and white (T-Mobile), but the other colors look great too, especially the all black one. I seriously can't say it enough though, its a beautiful phone, I'm blown away. If only they made it in some optional colors to get that Nokia flavor. Now, the performance...

The performance is BLAZING fast. I was pretty satisfied with the Lumia 620, only very intense apps like Here Maps or Drive or Pro Camera would ever lag a bit, but the 925 doesn't lag much at all. The ONLY time I've seen a loading message now is for the weird categories in "Settings" and for Nokia Camera. But everything is faster, smoother, and I think it takes Windows Phone to the next level. Multitasking is easier, it doesn't suspend apps as quickly, I love it. The camera is faster, processes images faster, the extra RAM plus better CPU and GPU (I think) really make a difference. Only cons I've noticed is that my Lumia 925 can sometimes get pretty warm above the camera lens and to the right. I think I've improved that though with some settings changes, and that's pretty normal for phones anyway if you're doing lots of games or video or internet.

SO. Overall. I'd say the performance of the 925 over the 620 is definitely noticeable and much better. It feels a lot more like a premium experience. I think the 620 is about equal to the 8S, so I'd bet you would instantly notice the performance difference too

If you have any more questions ask away! I'm just getting used to the phone and I'd love telling you anything you wanna know about it!

 

[maggotbeer]

wow I couldn't have hoped for a more detailed response, thank you so much!

I'm slightly confused about its battery life, I've seen many people complaining about it while others find it excellent.

How is your experience regarding battery life so far compared to the 620?

 

[Cadet Christmas]

wow I couldn't have hoped for a more detailed response, thank you so much!

I'm slightly confused about its battery life, I've seen many people complaining about it while others find it excellent.

How is your experience regarding battery life so far compared to the 620?

Oh you're totally welcome! Haha yeah I can get carried away sometimes, I hope it was detailed enough without being boring

The BATTERY life....thats a super good question. And this will be my worst answer unfortunately haha. I'll explain.

For me (so far), the 925 battery life is good. Not great, but good. People complained about the 620s battery life and while i DO think it could've been much better, i could get a full day and sometimes a little more out of it. The 925 battery hasn't wowed me yet, but it IS definitely lasting longer than the 620. The problem is, I've actually only had the 925 for a couple days! And I've heard it takes a at least week for a brand new battery to get a max capacity cycle. SO! I'm not sure how accurate my battery life is so far but as of now on the third day of owning the phone, I've been getting about a day and a half of battery. I will say that my phones been in boot camp soon as I got it. Restored it, updating apps, GPS, internet (WORLD CUP!!!) and I've been messing with it a lot of course

I hope that can help a little tho! TL;DR, battery life isn't amazing, but the 925 definitely lasts longer than my 620. A day and a half so far with moderate use. It seems "tougher" too, it doesn't drain as fast when doing intensive things. For example, battery saver activating on my 620 meant I would get another hour if I kept using it for calls/text/a little data. Today, battery saver went on and I had to make multiple calls, and it never died. Was at 2+ hours and going strong!

Ill update in a few days to see how the battery is then!

 

[maggotbeer]

I just bought the phone and I would love to say that I'm excited, except that I'm not!

I was able to complete the initial setup but after that it keeps freezing all the time! I also did a hard reset but nothing changed.

Does that mean that there is a hardware problem?

Is there anything that i can do before I send it to Nokia?

not my lucky day it seems!

 

[heli0m]

Hey congrats on the leap to Lumia ! Sorry for not answering again until now. X:
In regards to freezing, I would definitely go get it replaced ):
The 925 shouldn't freeze the way yours has.

Also, I would like to add that my battery life is bueno, as in wow. But the catch is if you have Here Drive+ open running for at least forty minutes, there goes about ten percent.... My husband keeps leaving Here Drive+ and all of his messaging windows open during work when he's using my phone and doesn't close them so the battery zaps horridly. Yesterday he came home with it at 23% only after about six hours of work. ):
Angry Birds Epic crashes often and zaps battery. Another Case Solved another game, zaps battery even when charging.... AHAHAHA (that doesn't stop me from playing it though). Leaving location on seems to slowly decrease battery. Double tap to wake will decrease battery, but not by a lot. Glance doesn't do anything to my battery, but does turn off when Battery Saver is on.

Another thing LOL I WROTE SO MUCH UUUUH please please put your 925 in a case. I took mine out to show my friends at back casing and it almost slipped. And get a screen protector because mine has miniscule scratches already.

 

[Cadet Christmas]

I just bought the phone and I would love to say that I'm excited, except that I'm not!

I was able to complete the initial setup but after that it keeps freezing all the time! I also did a hard reset but nothing changed.

Does that mean that there is a hardware problem?

Is there anything that i can do before I send it to Nokia?

not my lucky day it seems!

Woah yikes! Yeah that's not normal at all! :\ That' sucks man, that's some AWFUL luck. Heli0m has it right, you should look into replacing it right away. Depending on where you got it you could try and exchange it for a different unit. I can only think of one time EVER that I've seen a Windows Phone freeze, that's terrible luck.

congrats on the new phone though! Hope you love it! and yes to add to Heli0m, some sort of case would be a good idea. It's a beautiful phone, but there are plenty of light cases that give you a bit more protection and don't take away much of the beauty. OF course, you can always get a more protective case too!

 

[metalchick719]

I think you're making a great choice. The Lumia 925 is a HUGE leap up from the 8S! You're going to get more RAM, an amazing camera and a whole new visual experience as the screen is incredible. Unfortunately, there's of course no SD card support on the 925, but that doesn't even matter because it's such a great phone. It's also gorgeous and lightweight.

 

[maggotbeer]

Thank you everybody for your responses! I'm writing from the phone right now, waiting for it to freeze! I have it fully charged and it seems to be ok but I don't trust it!

I'm going to have it replaced tomorrow or get my money back (it was their last unit available today) and I'm definitely buying the same phone again, it's beautiful and way faster than my old HTC (that was a bit of a surprise for me, I didn't expect such a huge difference).

I'm sure that when I finally have a working model in my hands I will enjoy it a lot!

 

[maggotbeer]

talking about battery life, I prefer having the light bakground (at least I did in my HTC), should I expect a noticable difference in battery drain compared to the black one in the Lumia 925?

 

[metalchick719]

talking about battery life, I prefer having the light bakground (at least I did in my HTC), should I expect a noticable difference in battery drain compared to the black one in the Lumia 925?

It's been said that the light background can drain your battery faster. I've minimally used the light background on my phones, but I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

 

[heli0m]

It's been said that the light background can drain your battery faster. I've minimally used the light background on my phones, but I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

AMOLED screens and their abilities are best in dark colors. T: