To give a quick backstory, I upgrade phones quite often. It's kind of a problem for my wife but it's one of my favorite hobbies. In saying that i will tell you I'm mostly OS agnostic (i tend to use the best device for me not the best device everyone else). I have a 27 inch iMac and MBA (running windows 8 and Unbuntu through VM when necessary) , an iPad, a couple android tablets, an Xperia Z Ultra GPE, a 5s, an HTC one GPE (daily driver), but have never gotten to experience a WP. For the past month i decided to run a Lumia 521. Sadly, it came to an untimely death at some point during a drunken super bowl sunday. At least it was only $60. Here is my experience.
APPS
I really didn't find too many deal breakers beyond my normal repertoire of Google apps. My biggest scare was that I would have no way to read my news through the Pulse news app. I found Weaver to be more than adequate for my needs. My only issue was the Youtube app. Before you point Metrotube and youtube Hd in my face as being superior, consider my use case. I own several chromecast dongles and none of those apps include the ability to cast apps to them that the stock app has just kills it for me. So while those apps are more than adequate for on the go youtube viewing, i just missed that functionality. I also really missed clash of clans, my PS4 companion app, and Google Now but i know i can't fault WP specifically for that
The OS
When i first started to play with the phone I was pleasantly surprise by the fluidity of the device. Scrolling was smooth and nothing ever did "lag" in the android sense of the word. However, nothing was very fast. i found that the OS hid the lag behind animations and loading screens. while this may give the illusion of speed, apps simply didn't load in a timely manner for me compared to my other phones. I know it's wrong for me to say that about the 521 compared to my other high end phones, but I've seen people incorrectly claim that their lumia 520/521 is faster than high end android phones so i felt it needed addressing. Live tiles were initially a refreshing change of pace to my normal icon centric smartphone usage at first but things went down hill from there. It began to feel cluttered for me after a while and the constant need to scroll to get the the bottom tiles irritated me. On my One i keep it minimalistic and clutter free (ill include a screenshot just for comparisons sake). Before you think that i could have just not pinned so many apps to the start screen, know that i consider the alternative to be ever more annoying. The list of apps to scroll through was horrible every time i wanted an app that wasn't on my start screen. A grid just seems more useful to me. IE just sucks for me. i won't really go into everything i dislike about it but it needs an update. To shift to a positive note, I LOVE the ME tile and the unified messaging. Who needs a specific app for all these things when the Me tile and messaging have you covered. Oddly, the lack of the notification Center did not faze me and i believe in MS's current implementation.
Wrap Up
All in all WP is leaps and bounds better than i thought it would be ( and boy did i have my reservations) but its just not leaps and bounds better than iOS and android. I found the UI fresh and different just not really better in any meaningful way. I felt that there was nothing to detract me from what already is proven to work for me. That is my problem with WP. I feel that it has almost everything ANY smartphone user could ask for. It just doesn't have anything to make me say that it is better than the alternative. I am rooting for WP and competition as I just want the best device for me regardless of OS. MS and Wp has proven to me that the deserve to be on my radar and thats what matters most to me. I admit I may not be the perfect target audience considering i don't own a true windows machine or an xbox so take me experience as you see fit. Feel free to correct any errors where you see and i look forward to your feedback. (included a pic of the box to show i actually got it)
APPS
I really didn't find too many deal breakers beyond my normal repertoire of Google apps. My biggest scare was that I would have no way to read my news through the Pulse news app. I found Weaver to be more than adequate for my needs. My only issue was the Youtube app. Before you point Metrotube and youtube Hd in my face as being superior, consider my use case. I own several chromecast dongles and none of those apps include the ability to cast apps to them that the stock app has just kills it for me. So while those apps are more than adequate for on the go youtube viewing, i just missed that functionality. I also really missed clash of clans, my PS4 companion app, and Google Now but i know i can't fault WP specifically for that
The OS
When i first started to play with the phone I was pleasantly surprise by the fluidity of the device. Scrolling was smooth and nothing ever did "lag" in the android sense of the word. However, nothing was very fast. i found that the OS hid the lag behind animations and loading screens. while this may give the illusion of speed, apps simply didn't load in a timely manner for me compared to my other phones. I know it's wrong for me to say that about the 521 compared to my other high end phones, but I've seen people incorrectly claim that their lumia 520/521 is faster than high end android phones so i felt it needed addressing. Live tiles were initially a refreshing change of pace to my normal icon centric smartphone usage at first but things went down hill from there. It began to feel cluttered for me after a while and the constant need to scroll to get the the bottom tiles irritated me. On my One i keep it minimalistic and clutter free (ill include a screenshot just for comparisons sake). Before you think that i could have just not pinned so many apps to the start screen, know that i consider the alternative to be ever more annoying. The list of apps to scroll through was horrible every time i wanted an app that wasn't on my start screen. A grid just seems more useful to me. IE just sucks for me. i won't really go into everything i dislike about it but it needs an update. To shift to a positive note, I LOVE the ME tile and the unified messaging. Who needs a specific app for all these things when the Me tile and messaging have you covered. Oddly, the lack of the notification Center did not faze me and i believe in MS's current implementation.
Wrap Up
All in all WP is leaps and bounds better than i thought it would be ( and boy did i have my reservations) but its just not leaps and bounds better than iOS and android. I found the UI fresh and different just not really better in any meaningful way. I felt that there was nothing to detract me from what already is proven to work for me. That is my problem with WP. I feel that it has almost everything ANY smartphone user could ask for. It just doesn't have anything to make me say that it is better than the alternative. I am rooting for WP and competition as I just want the best device for me regardless of OS. MS and Wp has proven to me that the deserve to be on my radar and thats what matters most to me. I admit I may not be the perfect target audience considering i don't own a true windows machine or an xbox so take me experience as you see fit. Feel free to correct any errors where you see and i look forward to your feedback. (included a pic of the box to show i actually got it)
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