Hi everyone! Firstly I want to say thanks for all the great posts in this forum, I have lurked here the past few weeks and learned enough to take the plunge to Windows Phone.
Background
Being a longtime Apple guy, I hadn't paid much attention to Windows Phone, but a couple of developer friends have kind of kept me in the loop here and there.
A few weeks ago my trusty old iPod shuffle (the white "gum pack" model) died and I was in the market for a new iPod. I also carry around a Sprint flip phone, but don't make a ton of calls.
I was close to just buying a refurb Nano but started wondering if I should get something like an iPhone with a cheap prepaid plan and combine devices. But used iPhones are still pretty spendy, and I'm not looking forward to the new design of iOS 7.
Enter WP and the Lumia 520
Thanks to the fine folks here in the forum, I learned of the cheap Lumia 520, and that it is a capable little device. For $99, I'm spending the same as I would on the Nano, but it would do so much more. The biggest concern for me was that I wanted something small. I knew the 520 was decently sized, but hoped it wouldn't be "too big."
The 520 arrived yesterday and so far I am very pleased.
1. This thing is light! At first I thought it felt a little wimpy or fragile-ish, but after a day of using it I think it feels nice in the hand, has just enough weight to not feel like it's breakable.
2. It's just a little bigger than I'd like (this is mainly a PMP, after all) but it isn't gigantic, so not a deal breaker. I hear the 620 is a little smaller, but so far so good.
3. Windows Phone interface is nice and snappy on this phone. It didn't take me long to get used to, and I was really happy to see my calendar and everything synced up nicely once I put my Gmail account into the phone. Very slick. (Maybe I shouldn't be so amazed, but after fighting with tech stuff all day at work, I was happy to see the phone "just work" when I set it up.
4. WP has just the apps I need. I'm not a big app junkie, and so far I've found the ones that I need, and also discovered stuff like Runtastic that I wouldn't have been able to use with an iPod nano.
5. Decent camera. I don't expect to take a lot of photos, but might use the camera for taking videos this winter of kids on our ski team, for training purposes. This of course would be outdoors, and usually during the day, so the lack of flash won't be a problem.
Final thoughts
I'm planning on putting an H2O sim in this phone, which I'm told should work.
I did brick the phone last night. Well, not bricked because I was able to reset it. But after I inserted the micro SD card, it wouldn't boot past the AT&T logo... just a blue screen. An inconvenience because I had to set everything up again.
The last thing that I'm trying to figure out right now is how compatible my iTunes music will be with this phone.
I know that WP doesn't play protected iTunes files, but most of mine were either purchased after Apple changed its DRM, or pulled down to my PC from iCloud (MP3's that were already synced to iCloud from my Mac, and I used iCloud to bring them onto the PC so I could move them to the Lumia).
Does anyone know if iCloud songs are playable on WP? I dragged them to the music folder, but most of my music isn't showing up on the phone. Wondering if this will be an issue.
Thanks for letting me share, and for all the tips so far!
Cheers,
Paul
Background
Being a longtime Apple guy, I hadn't paid much attention to Windows Phone, but a couple of developer friends have kind of kept me in the loop here and there.
A few weeks ago my trusty old iPod shuffle (the white "gum pack" model) died and I was in the market for a new iPod. I also carry around a Sprint flip phone, but don't make a ton of calls.
I was close to just buying a refurb Nano but started wondering if I should get something like an iPhone with a cheap prepaid plan and combine devices. But used iPhones are still pretty spendy, and I'm not looking forward to the new design of iOS 7.
Enter WP and the Lumia 520
Thanks to the fine folks here in the forum, I learned of the cheap Lumia 520, and that it is a capable little device. For $99, I'm spending the same as I would on the Nano, but it would do so much more. The biggest concern for me was that I wanted something small. I knew the 520 was decently sized, but hoped it wouldn't be "too big."
The 520 arrived yesterday and so far I am very pleased.
1. This thing is light! At first I thought it felt a little wimpy or fragile-ish, but after a day of using it I think it feels nice in the hand, has just enough weight to not feel like it's breakable.
2. It's just a little bigger than I'd like (this is mainly a PMP, after all) but it isn't gigantic, so not a deal breaker. I hear the 620 is a little smaller, but so far so good.
3. Windows Phone interface is nice and snappy on this phone. It didn't take me long to get used to, and I was really happy to see my calendar and everything synced up nicely once I put my Gmail account into the phone. Very slick. (Maybe I shouldn't be so amazed, but after fighting with tech stuff all day at work, I was happy to see the phone "just work" when I set it up.
4. WP has just the apps I need. I'm not a big app junkie, and so far I've found the ones that I need, and also discovered stuff like Runtastic that I wouldn't have been able to use with an iPod nano.
5. Decent camera. I don't expect to take a lot of photos, but might use the camera for taking videos this winter of kids on our ski team, for training purposes. This of course would be outdoors, and usually during the day, so the lack of flash won't be a problem.
Final thoughts
I'm planning on putting an H2O sim in this phone, which I'm told should work.
I did brick the phone last night. Well, not bricked because I was able to reset it. But after I inserted the micro SD card, it wouldn't boot past the AT&T logo... just a blue screen.
An inconvenience because I had to set everything up again. The last thing that I'm trying to figure out right now is how compatible my iTunes music will be with this phone.
I know that WP doesn't play protected iTunes files, but most of mine were either purchased after Apple changed its DRM, or pulled down to my PC from iCloud (MP3's that were already synced to iCloud from my Mac, and I used iCloud to bring them onto the PC so I could move them to the Lumia).
Does anyone know if iCloud songs are playable on WP? I dragged them to the music folder, but most of my music isn't showing up on the phone. Wondering if this will be an issue.
Thanks for letting me share, and for all the tips so far!
Cheers,
Paul
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram