Just broke my HTC 8x screen, thinking of switching to Nokia 520

[ebk14]

Sooo today I dropped my less-than-a year old HTC 8x (Verizon), and while the glass didn't crack, about 1/4 of the left side of the screen is out. I'm the kind of person where this drives me absolutely insane to look at and don't think I can go another year or so until I get an upgrade. I'm thinking of switching to a Nokia device for a number of reasons (better support, exclusive apps, etc..) What is a reasonably priced device that you all recommend? Where's the best place to find one....Ebay, Amazon....new/ used? I know the Nokia 520 is pretty cheap but I'm a little worried it's too bare bones (doesn't even have a flash and I take lots of pics). Or should I try to find another 8x? I really like the design of the 8x and feel that no Nokia i've seen matches how sexy this thing looks . Thanks for the help!

 

[mike13ftw]

Wait for Lumia 525 . It will cost around 120$

 

[fdalbor]

I bought a 520 as a back up in case something happens to my 820. Got it for 64.99 from Amazon. I was reallly shocked at how nice it is considering the price. I fired it up and uploaded all the apks I have on my 820 to also have them on the 520. Wifi works fine without a sim card in it. I even took the sim out of my 820 and put it in the 520 for a few days to try it out. This is a really nice phone for the price and I highly recommend it. I'm not going to stop using my 820 ( I really like it); but its nice to know I have a back up ready of go and I didn't spend even 75$. Trouble is I don't know if you can even get a 520 anymore. Amazon is out, Best Buy is out and Microsoft store is out. I think the 525 is going to be awhile before it appears, but good luck. You won't go wrong if you can find one. But you may have a problem with getting a 520 that works on Verizon.

 

[ebk14]

What happens if you put a verizon sim card in a phone made for a different carrier, like the 520 for ATT and 521 for t-mobile?

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I bought a 520 as a back up in case something happens to my 820. Got it for 64.99 from Amazon. I was reallly shocked at how nice it is considering the price. I fired it up and uploaded all the apks I have on my 820 to also have them on the 520. Wifi works fine without a sim card in it. I even took the sim out of my 820 and put it in the 520 for a few days to try it out. This is a really nice phone for the price and I highly recommend it. I'm not going to stop using my 820 ( I really like it); but its nice to know I have a back up ready of go and I didn't spend even 75$. Trouble is I don't know if you can even get a 520 anymore. Amazon is out, Best Buy is out and Microsoft store is out. I think the 525 is going to be awhile before it appears, but good luck. You won't go wrong if you can find one.

I bought mine at Walmart for $67. (plenty of inventory) I've been using an AT&T iPhone 4 w/StraightTalk SIM for 1.5 years and have always wanted to try out a Lumia. For the price I thought it would be worth the risk... worst case it would make a fine Zune-like media player. I'm extremely impressed with the device. I've been tweaking it to see if I can get the same battery life as I get with the iPhone (3+ days between charges).

 

[fdalbor]

Nothing, except it will not work.

 

[fdalbor]

Best I have been able to get is a little over two days. But I am sure there are more tricks I haven't found out about yet that can push it higher than that.

 

[I Unquello]

@fdalbor I just bought a 520 as well to use as a beater phone/music player/emergency phone. I was a Verizon customer for about 12 years before switching to ATT for the 920. I have a couple of questions as I am new to using SIM cards. I switched my SIM over to the 520 and was asked to do a either a restore of the 920 or start new. I picked restore. This set things up nicely for my 520, but I see that the About screen is showing it as the same name as my 920 (duh). Should I have picked start new? Would that have erased data for my 920? When I switch the SIM back to the 920, is there anything special I should do? Thanks for your help!

 

[Grimlock]

I actually broke my 8X screen a few months ago and bought a Lumia 520 and like it very much. The 520 has a soft feel that is similar to the 8X, and it's also not very large like other Nokia phones so it wasn't a huge change. The only major drawback in my opinion is the lower resolution screen, but you get used to it after a few days (and as long as you don't look at another high res phone). It's amazing that the 520 runs about as fast as other windows phones while using the first party apps, so there isn't much of a tradeoff in that respect. But if you use a lot of third party apps the load times may be a little longer but nothing crazy.

I plan on using the 520 until the next gen phones come out in spring: hopefully a successor to the 8X or Lumia 925 with a snapdragon 800. I felt like right now wasn't the best time to replace the 8X, and I can sell the 520 then for roughly the same price I paid for it.

 

[Sooner Al]

I bought mine at Walmart for $67. (plenty of inventory) I've been using an AT&T iPhone 4 w/StraightTalk SIM for 1.5 years and have always wanted to try out a Lumia. For the price I thought it would be worth the risk... worst case it would make a fine Zune-like media player. I'm extremely impressed with the device. I've been tweaking it to see if I can get the same battery life as I get with the iPhone (3+ days between charges).

I have been thinking about going over to Straight Talk with my Lumia 520. Two questions...

1. Is StraightTalk 4G? For some reason this old brain can't find that answer...

2. What are the APN settings you use? I have seen various settings on the internet with a lot of frustration with them not working. These are the ones I found on the Straight Talk site...

Phone Programming | Straight Talk

...and these on the MSFT WP8 forum...

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-mms-not/7e9d973a-478d-4b7b-b562-4aa652e7f611

Thanks for helping this ol' guy out...

 

[WillysJeepMan]

I have been thinking about going over to Straight Talk with my Lumia 520. Two questions...

1. Is StraightTalk 4G? For some reason this old brain can't find that answer...

2. What are the APN settings you use? I have seen various settings on the internet with a lot of frustration with them not working. These are the ones I found on the Straight Talk site...

Phone Programming | Straight Talk

...and these on the MSFT WP8 forum...

Nokia Lumia 520 Straight Talk internet and MMS not functioning - Microsoft Community

Thanks for helping this ol' guy out...

Re: Straight Talk 4G
My phone says that it has a 4G signal. Not having a 4G capable phone before I really couldn't say if it is genuinely 4G or (3G connecting to a 4G-capable tower). Playing Netflix on it seemed fine.

Re: APN settings.
These are the settings that work for me. I suspect that these settings may vary based on the particular area of the country you are in.

Internet APN
APN: tfdata
(everything else is blank)

MMS APN
APN: tfdata
WAP gateway (URL): mms3.tracfone.com
WAP gateway port: 80
MMSC (URL): http://mms-tf.net/
MMSC port: 80
(everything else is blank)

Very easy to set up.

Looks like the battery is "settling in". I'm now getting battery life comparable to what I was getting with my iPhone 4 (iOS 5.1.1). I'm extremely delighted with the performance of this phone and battery life. AMAZING that it is only $67! I also like that the voicemail indicator actually works... on the iPhone, I only know if I missed a call, there is no way (short of jailbreaking and an additional app) to get voicemail indicator working with StraightTalk.

 

[Sooner Al]

Thanks for the help...