Am I the only one that's seeing that there's always some game-breaking issue with Windows Phones?

TLRtheory

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Before I start, I'd like to say I love the platform. Being able to have a phone that integrates nicely with my other Microsoft services and allows me to be an achievement hunter on the go has been great... I love the live tiles, passionately express that it's ecosystem may be the most underrated thing of this generation, and I even love the concept of most Windows Phones' hardware

...but oh lord... there seems to be something about every phone I've had that rubs me the wrong way.

Lumia 1020 - This has to be the only thing on the market that calls itself a quality camera.. and has no slot for external storage!!! How do you screw up the most integral part of something so clearly focused on the camera experience? I loved this phone, loved it's camera something fierce and hated to get rid of it... but the lack of SD did kill it for me. I have a lot of content that isn't ideal for streaming and feel like I'm in some post-apocalyptic Fallout 3 type living condition when I find myself having to ration between things. Streaming music sucks for the lossless audio freak, and requires me to be connected while taking a hit in the battery department. I want to have my music, my games, pictures and the space to shoot more pictures/video without compromise. It's really not a tall order.

Lumia Icon - This has to have been one of the highest quality builds (and one of the most beautiful phones). The moment I got it out of the box I was in love... then I turned it on and within the first hour it was overheating... and the WiFi was inconsistent... and looking online I'd found that this... this "flagship Windows Phone experience" was well-known for having these issues where I initially thought I simply had a lemon. Then we got into all the other common problems like signal misreads, WiFi wake delay... and the fact that this flagship couldn't take advantage of flagship features like Storage Sense... and we get a beautiful phone that found it's way to eBay.

Lumia 1520 - I finally decided to put aside my bias for this big-honkin' beast of a phone and was momentarily glad I did. It had it all... great specs, an absolutely massive battery and they'd managed to pair all that with external storage. This is my current, and I really want to love it... but while I wanted to smugly say that I'm not getting the non-responsive screen issues that everyone's fuming about, I am definitely getting the non-responsive screen issues I was warned I'd get... and it's a depressing everyday problem now. I'm coining the phrase "inoperable hot brick state" because that's what it feels like. The screen doesn't just refuse to respond, it takes it a step further by heating up my phone and sucking away at my battery life... so I have a draining hot brick in my pocket that won't respond to any of my goddamn input. It usually corrects the problem within 1-5 minutes unless I just hard reset it.

Lumia 520 - This phone has been strikingly solid... like so solid that it often leaves me dumbfounded. It's mystifying how this low-end, crappy screen phone just works so well all the time. From a functional standpoint, it's worked and been totally reliable throughout everything I've ever done with it. While I once had one, it's now the property of my wife and I'm just the slightest bit jelly seeing that; even in the 8.1DP, it's stomping all my stronger devices at being reliable. The 512MB RAM holds it back, but I can't even say I've caught this phone being a pain my ***... but the 512MB does hold it back... and for the crowd of cheap people who just want essential functions, the lack of even having a cheap little front facing VGA camera kills the appeal for the selfie-addicted crowd (and even people like me who'd be totally satisfied with this phone if it were ideal for Skype). Seriously... not even a cheap little VGA front-facer? That couldn't boost the price up that much. I understand they wanted to keep it cheap, but Skype is a big part of any Microsoft device... and cheap bitches love their selfies. This phone is kind of unideal for the crowd it targets just because of that.

I don't quite know what to do... I've got the money to get whatever I want, but I don't feel like Microsoft/Nokia have really given me the phone I want to call my daily driver yet... and it's sad because the smallest little things could've turned any one of these phones into a satisfactory experience. /rant

...I'll probably stick it out with the 1520 for a few more months and see if they patch it to resolve the "inoperable hot brick state" it loves going into.
 
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rohit111

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Hi! L1520 heating problem isn't particular to,that phone. I get it on my 820 and 520 too. It depends on your network. Where the reception is very poor the phone heats up but the issue resolves once you move into an area with better reception. At least That's how my problem resolves.
And the screen issue is because the phone heats up


2. L520 was launched specifically,for emerging markets like India Africa South Asia. Here almost everyone is on 2G. so even with the front Camera the Skype call would have been dreadful. Better off with Skype voice only.
520 was launched before the selfie craze took over so the lack of front camera also has to do with that.
 

hotphil

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Gotta agree.
I've come back to Windows Phone after heading elsewhere in the 6.1 days.
I love the UI.
But I can't put up with the following any more:

US-centric everything. From Bing Rewards to Cortana. If you're outside the US, MS don't want to know.

App-focus. MS seem focussed on making their apps and services work on mobile. But not in their own ecosystem. Why should I stick with my Surfaces and Windows Phones when I can have a better Office etc. experience on other platforms?

QA. Today's Calendar update blunder speaks volumes.

Xbox Music. There's nothing to say that hasn't been said already. But if, like me, you want to use a phone to be a music player, Windows Phone just makes it hard.

Customer communications. If an update is coming, why not tell people when it will be?

My 1020's heading to eBay as soon as I've worked out what to replace it with for daily use.

I like the hardware, and I like the UI, but the overall experience shows MS still doesn't "get it".

I might come back to Windows Phone in another few years, but it's still doesn't match other OS's.
 

TLRtheory

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My humble opinion - buy 822
I'm on AT&T so it'd have to be the 820... but WOW the entry cost is hella low. It looks like it may solve my issues too.

It'd be a normal-sized phone (1520 fits fine in my casual pant pockets... but it's HELL in my formals)... and while the resolution is low (and that inaccurate LED junk), that might work in my favor since Chaos Rings and Order & Chaos (two of my faves) are flat out unplayable on 1080p displays. Not the best in any field... but it seems like a balanced experience since it's got front cam, external storage and enough RAM to actually play higher-end games. I see it's got the same CPU/GPU that the 1020 has, but I'd imagine it runs games better simply because it's pushing a 480p display instead of a 720p. It's like... $80 off contract so it'd be a drop in the bucket to just try it out.

Seems to be the closest thing to the mythical "Lumia 525 with a front-facing camera" that I keep looking for.

I'm game!
 
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taymur

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You sound like a person who never owned a Nokia.

They never give you the perfect device, except...The al mighty Nokia N8, that phone had it all, no one bought it though.
 

TLRtheory

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You sound like a person who never owned a Nokia.

They never give you the perfect device, except...The al mighty Nokia N8, that phone had it all, no one bought it though.
What makes you say that? I've owned Nokia phones dating back to the 6850 (I still keep that around as a rainy day phone)... had an N-Gage QD and a E70 as well... and E70 was pretty darn close to a perfect phone.
 
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vk1971

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822 is well balanced phone indeed in terms of price/performance.
I don't know what's the price for brand new, but if you are up to second hand, you can easily find UNLOCKED one on ebay for 80-90-100 bucks.
 

taymur

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What makes you say that? I've owned Nokia phones dating back to the 6850 (I still keep that around as a rainy day phone)... had an N-Gage QD and a E70 as well... and E70 was pretty darn close to a perfect phone.

the N-Gage line was stupid. although the N-Gage 1 made a huge hit at my school, i remember how any kid with that phone meant that he was filthy rich. lol

on the other hand, these devices where ok, but non of them was perfect.
 

Ian Too

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Hi. Speaking as someone who has refused to upgrade from a 920 to a 930 because of the lack of an SD card slot, I have to say no.

Part of the problem here is down to OEMs. The efforts of OEMs have been so lackluster, it's clear that they they just don't want their Android model disrupted and as a result, we who dislike Apple and distrust Google have no choice except Nokia. Of course, there are new OEMs on board from India and China, and one can only hope they will make an effort to grow the platform rather than put devices out there and expect them to walk out the shops on their own. I'll believe it when I see it.

The odd thing with OEMs though is that they don't seem to realise that allowing Google (or anybody) an effective monopoly in the smart phone sector is incredibly bad for the long-term health of their own businesses. Competition with Windows Phone has already improved Android, so that it (by reports) works well on low end hardware now, thanks to the Lumia 520, so it's arguably even in Google's interests to support Windows Phone, but corporations are run by people, are just as irrational, just as short-sighted and irredeemably selfish.

Another part of the problem is us. We may have a clear idea of what x 's and y's we want, but we are legion and once our individual x's and y's are amassed, we've exhausted the greek, roman, arabic and chinese alphabets combined.

For instance, I have a clear goal of what I want to achieve with the replacement to the 920 (Enceladus, for that is her name): I want to render my iPod obsolete. I did a similar thing a few years ago when I bought my HP 614c, amalgamating the functions of mobile phone and PDA, and did it without compromise; indeed there was an increase in function. If the 930 had 128GB of on board storage or an SD card slot, I could have achieved that, but no. Right now, a Windows Phone version of the Sony Experia Z2 would meet my needs, but in fairness, what proportion of the market do I represent? And don't our collective complaints raise a miasma of discontent?

In reality it's quite unrealistic to expect all our needs to be met. What the Buddhists call dukkha - the insufficiency of life - is the norm and we have to put up with compromises. I'm actually confident that the problems we all complain of (well actually, you lot complain of. My sin is attacking Android nerds, who come here :) will be efectively addressed and I live in hope that Nokia, HTC or Sony will stop jerking us around and anounce the device we want to buy.

Perhaps when Windows Phone 8.1 is actually out...
 

TLRtheory

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So I went ahead and got my hands on an 820.

Jerk didn't bother telling me it was a demo phone... luckily the Nokia Software Recovery Tool got me off that rubbish demo firmware and onto real FW. I'm sure dropping down to 8MP will hurt me inside seeing as I'd already dropped down (only in camera quality) from the 1020 to an Icon, then 1520... but I already like the form factor. It feels extremely well-built/solid... and while it's a low-res screen, at least the hella saturated colors (and the obligatory beauty of the OS behind Windows Phone) present the appearance that it's a good screen.

Unpinning Cortana actually turned out to be the culprit causing overheating and the Loading/Resuming lockup issues... so my 1520 problems are solved and it'll be tougher for the 820 to steal me away from the 1520... but I do like the way this phone feels.
 

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