Lumia 1020 - after 9 months (useful for people considering purchase)

[RainbowSeven]

After 9 months of extensive use of the device I decided to move on and get a new phone.
Windows 8.1 Developer Preview changes are included in my feedback.

Pros

?camera (details, low light performance, OIS, DNG support)
?excellent sunlight visibility -- better than any phone I ever owned (including iPhones)
?excellent one handed usability
?good loud speaker -- loud
?very useful instant camera button
?very ergonomic and intuitive Windows 8/8.1 UI
?excellent keyboard (WP 8.1)
?OneDrive -- nice UI, nice integration, nice sharing
?UI responsiveness -- no sign of lag at all
?very good apps (especially paid) - it takes some time to find good 3rd party alternatives, but they are often better than originals (Mehdoh - Twitter, Owl Reader - Pocket, MetroTube - YouTube etc.)
?finally - updated Spotify and Endomondo!

Cons
?lack of mutitasking and long ?resuming?? resuming? - it?s flaw #1 of Windows Phone IMO; returning to applications sucks (using live tile shortcuts which is natural way), let MS do something about it!
?Bluetooth - unusable for me - random reboots, losing connection with my car and various headsets (I survived 9 months without bluetooth?)
?Skype client (chat lag, long resuming) is terrible - what a shame
?sharing photos via email or social network - reduced quality defeats the purpose of having such a great camera (we deserve at least an option to upload/attach full quality photos)
?ultra slow camera performance and shutter lag -- best for static images such as landscapes, architecture, foliage; low shutter speed in low light - moving objects almost always blurred
?video recording - automatic focus kills the experience in low light (trying to achieve focus)
?battery life - usually acceptable/bearable, sometimes terrible drain and overheating (no one really knows why and what to do) - could be fixed in latest 8.1 update?
?OneDrive: unable to upload full quality photos with cellular connection (WiFi only) - annoying, no option to change that
?lots of poor quality apps in the store - acceptance criteria lowered too much
?Microsoft (Skype is terrible, native Remote Desktop ok but late) support for its own platform is worse than for iOS or Android (fact acknowledged by Joe Belfiore) - it?s really hard to understand, it makes me sad about WP future

Problem #1 (IMO)
Windows 8.1 doesn?t fix fundamental application lifecycle design flaw for heavy multi-app user such as me.
Resuming apps is too slow, even worse than on iOS (instant).
Smooth animated dots are not the solution.

Want to check weather quickly again? - use task switching UI, (long press back key), do not start app using live tile - you?d have to wait several seconds for it to resume and refresh weather data - it really needs to be fixed in WP 9 (2015 I guess), until then I go back to iOS/Android.

Verdict: (still) an excellent choice for mobile photographer if you can accept OS limitations and camera lag.

I really enjoyed Lumia 1020 for a long time as my daily driver and keep it in my bag as my portable camera for landscape and foliage pictures.

 

[Zihad al amin]

Just sold mine! Had severe problem in ear piece speaker!! Back again in iOS!
But missing the mighty camera.

 

[heickelrrx]

I would like to get one. My classmate got one And I didn't see any lag from camera. If you talk about Nokia Camera it should be better after cyan update lol.

Still good smartphone has very reasonable price for it badass camera and it design aren't shabby at all. And thanks to it huge RAM all store app are ready for it

If you using Preview you may find great feature but somehow it suffer you battery and make you device hot. (need firmware update ASAP) when using 8.0 my L625 can survive avout day and half before totally dead. But since preview it may run out for about 6-8 hours. ._. And about a day on idle state.

Skype always terrible here. The skype team maybe already work on it but so far i enjoy it video call. But I use LINE free call for dialy use

If you talk about apps. It always commonly suck on wp ._. Compared to other platform our apps may have lot of missing but that's reasonable since WP 8 is new OS compared to other

The best thing on wp are we don't have to worry about security. It store may not have lot of choice but completely secure. Cloud service are very good I think the reason why they don't give option to override pic upload via cell because not all people doing it. Not mention you phone has badass camera it may take lot of battery and suffer your bill. (Using WiFi saving your battery a lot)

In conclude i wouldn't say it bad smartphone. So far nokia has done good job for this one I don't think this phone going to succeded by other really soon

 

[anon(8555314)]

Regarding bluetooth, I have a Voyager Edge which works great with my Lumia 1020, including the ability to summon Cortana by touching the bluetooth device.

 

[Kubiubo]

I mostly agree with the points you have here. For me, personally, I got the Lumia 1020 because of the camera. As an enthusiast photographer, carrying around my DSLR around everywhere I go isn't practical. In addition, while the 1020 doesn't replace a DSLR, it really is a fantastic camera - unmatched by anything else on the market.

I don't see myself replacing it until something comparable is released.

As they say, the best camera is the one that is always on you.

 

[vlad0]

For me WP still has "beta" written all over it, maybe things will stabilize with threshold, but I have me doubts. When they switched from Windows CE to Windows NT I knew that it will take least 2-3 years to iron out everything, and most importantly, for the hardware to catch up.

Windows NT has amazing multitasking, but not on a weak ARM cpu with 2gb of slow RAM.. it has great multitasking on an Intel Core machine with 4-8gb of RAM that is either always plugged in, or has a huge battery. Power consumption was never a strong side of that particular kernel.. or any other kernel that was originally designed for "always plugged in" machines...

Granted, Apple and Google have done a great job on Linux and Unix to make them work better with limited*resources, but it took a while.. if you remember the first iOS and Anroid version had awful multitasking, or no multitasking at all. Android was saved by better hardware, and even to this day, the multitasking is not perfect. Apple.. well.. they seem to really know what they are doing when it comes to software development.


In other words, until we see even more powerful hardware and better batteries, it will be very hard for Microsoft to "unlock" the full potential of their OS on mobile phones. 3000mah batteries and 2gb RAM is simply not enough.

Verdict: (still) an excellent choice for mobile photographer if you can accept OS limitations and camera lag.

I really enjoyed Lumia 1020 for a long time as my daily driver and keep it in my bag as my portable camera for landscape and foliage pictures.

Thank you for sharing!

What really gets me, as a long time Nokia smartphone user, is that when they switched from Symbian/MeeGo to Windows Phone the point and the promise was that it will be better overall with faster updates, better UX, more stable, etc. While, the UX aspect might be true (still.. Subjective) the rest of the promise is yet to come true. I have less issues on my 808 than you do with your 1020? far less.

It has been 3 years .. I just can't help but imagine what could have been if Nokia continued to invest in their own platforms.

unmatched by anything else on the market.

It's predecessor is in fact better in some ways..

 

[Bahamen]

What really gets me, as a long time Nokia smartphone user, is that when they switched from Symbian/MeeGo to Windows Phone the point and the promise was that it will be better overall with faster updates, better UX, more stable, etc. While, the UX aspect might be true (still.. Subjective) the rest of the promise is yet to come true. I have less issues on my 808 than you do with your 1020? far less.
It's predecessor is in fact better in some ways..

My experience was quite the opposite. Symbian, prior to Belle FP2, was very unstable, buggy and laggy. It's got to the point that I need to restart every couple of days. In contrast, WP has been very solid, reliable and smooth for me. It may not be as feature packed as Symbian but I'm fine with it as I never used those features anyway. Beta is when something is not fully tested and may be buggy. To me Symbian was definitely "beta"; WP is not.

 

[bijak_riyandi]

Cons
?ultra slow camera performance and shutter lag -- best for static images such as landscapes, architecture, foliage; low shutter speed in low light - moving objects almost always blurred

there is a thing called manual settings
do you use it?

It's predecessor is in fact better in some ways..

it's predecessor is no more in the market

 

[EwingMCSE]

As they say, the best camera is the one that is always on you.

This is so true. You can pro/con items all day, but the one you use, for whatever reason, is in fact the best.

Also, I have to agree that with default settings the camera speed on the 1020 was unpleasantly slow. Not in taking the picture itself (settings easily handle this with a little learning), but the time it needed before it was ready to take the 2nd picture.

I find on my Lumia Icon that the picture taking speed is MUCH better, though I do miss being able to zoom in on pictures until I can see people's retinas. 20MP is pretty good, but the 41MP super-camera on the 1020 is mind-blowing.

 

[heickelrrx]

Try to wait for bit more.maybe they fix lot of issues with nokia cyan Update

 

[vlad0]

My experience was quite the opposite. Symbian, prior to Belle FP2, was very unstable, buggy and laggy. It's got to the point that I need to restart every couple of days. In contrast, WP has been very solid, reliable and smooth for me. It may not be as feature packed as Symbian but I'm fine with it as I never used those features anyway. Beta is when something is not fully tested and may be buggy. To me Symbian was definitely "beta"; WP is not.

There are thousands of different cases out there, and people have different priorities and expectations, so I guess its only natural that we all have different experiences.

I've been using Symbian since the E71 came out and the most unstable version was PR1.0 on the N8 which was technically the first Symbian^3 phone. The 808 has been rock solid for me since I got it almost two years ago.

My point was that I am yet to see any real benefits from switching from "home made" OS to someone else's.. not that it matters anymore since Nokia phones are no longer independent anyway.

Some old issues are gone, some new ones occurred, and the software still has that "unfinished" feel that a lot of people had with Symbian/MeeGo..

I am sure that it will get better, but who is to say that their own platforms wouldn't get better for that same time period ?

it's predecessor is no more in the market

If you are referring to the US carriers, it never was.. but otherwise you can still find it on amazon/ebay so I would say its still available for purchase.

 

[buxz777]

I still love my 1020 , wish the battery was changeable , memory isn't an issue because I have the 64gb version although id like 32gb and micro sd slot really ;-) looked at s5 and z2 but after the 808 and now the 1020 I cant go back to anything less , even my point and shoot camera would have to be a rx100 or the nokias and I don't use my g3 micro 4/3rds half as much as I used to now because the results and editing I can do on phone is immense ;-)

as it is 1020 battery can be hit and miss and a power pack is a good idea if your a heavy user a photographer but for ?240 in the uk for a 64gb model brand new with 2 year warranty I don't think you can get a better phone that offers so much bang for buck ;-)

 

[rkarolak]

I have similar feelings about the 1020. It's a really nice phone overall, but it has its tradeoffs.

The shot-to-shot speed for the 1020 is the more glaring problem, in my opinion. My iPhone 4s could practically take 8 MP pictures as fast as I could tap the shutter icon, the 1020 takes 2 to 4 seconds between shot depending on the resolution. The 4s loads the camera in a second or two while the 1020 takes twice as long. On the the other hand, the quality of the 1020's camera is very excellent. A bit of a trade off, but I wish Nokia tried to mitigate this even more considering it is the selling point and niche advantage of the 1020. I'd think with 2 GB of RAM it could buffer the shots in memory while allowing you take additional pictures instead of waiting to write to storage, similar to a DSLR, but there may be reasons why this isn't done (or maybe it's being done, but is still slow).

My battery life was mixed, although the latest 8.1 update seemed to make a noticeable improvement.

There's lots I like about my 1020. Also areas that I feel it could use some improvement. 8.1 and its updates have helped address many of my previous gripes. Hopefully it continues.

As far as this side discussion about Symbian - I didn't care for Symbian much at all... It was a reason why I didn't consider the 808 at all. I know some people loved Symbian though, so each to their own. I do own an N9 and I liked Meego, but it did always feel sluggish compared to iOS and Android, plus with the limited app catalog it had some glaring shortcomings as well. With that said, Meego had some great features and you could hack it to your heart's desire, which was awesome if you liked to do that. At one point I had a full LXDE desktop with several desktop apps installed. While the screen was kind of low-res and the camera was mediocre, the N9 otherwise had really nice hardware.

 

[Marc Weiss]

After 9 months of extensive use of the device I decided to move on and get a new phone.
Windows 8.1 Developer Preview changes are included in my feedback.

Pros

?camera (details, low light performance, OIS, DNG support)
<snip>

I have same camera, latest 8.1 developer preview, but can't generate DNG pics. With DNG setting, only small JPG is produced. Can you confirm DNG capability with OS 8.10.12393.890? What are your firmware and hardware revision numbers?

Any help would be appreciated -
_______________________
theWeissGuy

 

[buxz777]

what people forget is nokia broke all barriers to bring this phone to us ...... the operating system is to blame for the shot to shot time not the concept of the phone and it was either no 1020 or try to bring it to us with restrictions in place

the biggest restriction was it being a new o/s compared to Symbian , one nokia hadn't done much work on let alone produce oversampling and things on , we then had the problem of windows only supporting dual core cpu and the one in the 1020 was the best available that windows supported at the time of the 1020 release let alone development , if the operating system had allowed them they could have used a quad core and increase shot to shot time or found another way to add a Broadcom like chip that was used in the 808, we then had the size and weight of the device which nokia were ripped for with the 920 , they then had to bring ois to a sensor that was huge compared to other devices that nokia had built ois for , micro sd cards were rare on windows phones with the o/s not fully supporting them to recently so again maybe this was left out because of the way the operating system was , the 720p screen was all that was supported by the o/s again

in fact nearly all of the 1020s short comings aren't 1020 short comings they are short comings of all devices around that time because the o/s didn't support lots of stuff and in my eyes nokia worked miracles to get us this 1020 and with whats changed since I expect them to make a great 1020 successor ;-)

 

[sguy156]

Hopefully Nokia cyans update fixes the delay in taking pics ..

 

[buxz777]

cyan wont fix the shot to shot time as the hardware is quite old and what nokia were limited to use , its a dual core cpu running everything , nokia have done well to get it to perform how well it does considering the amount of work it has to do with this camera beast ;-)

expect the next camera centric device to perform better as the hardware nokia/Microsoft can use wont limit things so much ;-)

nokia really were against it with the 1020 and as I mentioned in the post above there are a string of limiting factors from Microsoft and the operating system as to why the 1020 is the way it is , if nokia had more freedom it would have performed much much better ;-)

 

[bijak_riyandi]

read somewhere here that Microsoft Mobile is working on to reduce shoot-to-shoot time on Lumia 1020 on the next Nokia Camera update
can't wait for that

 

[buxz777]

read somewhere here that Microsoft Mobile is working on to reduce shoot-to-shoot time on Lumia 1020 on the next Nokia Camera update
can't wait for that

unless Microsoft change something like dual capture mode or remove a feature then you wont get much faster then it is because of the hardware and whats going on in the background , the 1020 is doing a fantastic job with it hardware on board and that cpu is getting pushed to the max everytime you take an image , its being utilised and maxed out on the 1020 more then any other phone , hence the poor battery life on photo shoots and the slower shot to shot time and the heat that can be generated ;-)

when we get an upgrade things will be better because of less restrictions in the os and better hardware available ;-)

 

[bijak_riyandi]

you already made your point in this thread (and I can't agree more with you) that you basically want the 1030 to be at least:
1. Quad-core or Dual-core plus dedicated imaging chip
2. 2 GB RAM or even more, and
3. 3000 mAh battery

I don't think you need to reiterate that in every other comment

though till then, a software trick to quicken the 1020 would be a very welcomed addition...
even a 1 second less in processing would make a damn huge difference...