[Nogitsune Micah]

So is this phone really any good?

My mother's Lumia 630 is broken(She is tragically careless with phones). I am looking at getting her a new phone for her bday. I am just not sure which one. Personally a newer lumia is nice and I am a lumia fan but idk lol.

I heard decent things about this phone but it makes me wonder about it. I heard via amazon there were issues with

- Touch Sensitivity
- Slightly laggy(not compared to flagships of course)

One thing I did have to ask about...this is a Dual Sim phone, yes. So if you are only using one Sim...does that 2nd sim leave an annoying notification at the top? Can you disable that?

Overall would you recommend it?

My mother is not a power user like me. She needs something that is
1. Decent Camera
2. Decent Performance
3. Can easily text on
4. Facebook
5. Youtube
6. GPS

She's been using a lumia 635 and aside from the size and camera quality, she does alright with it.

[srcpt]

Parents need to learn to pay for their own careless mistakes :)


Sent using Tapatalk HD

[Harrie-S]

See also below posts
http://forums.windowscentral.com/blu...lu-win-hd.html
http://forums.windowscentral.com/blu...blu-winhd.html
http://forums.windowscentral.com/blu...mia-635-a.html

What I see in these are that the blu has a nicer and bigger screen. So texting should not be a problem and also watching youtube should be fine.
Lags somewhat more. But for your mom it should be no problem.
Has a front camera. But back camera is not that "good"
Has some more sensors.

A dual sim will always show 2 sim icons on the top. And if you use only one sim you will still see 2 icons.
And 1 of them will be a "missing" sim icon. Which can not be removed.

[AndyCalling]

What about the Lumia 640XL on the horizon?

[RumoredNow]

I've not had mine 48 hours yet. I plan on a fuller review later after some more use and testing. I've owned a 521, 925, 1520 and 520. I still have the last two.

First... It's got 5" of IPS LCD display. Good pixel density. The viewing is nice. There are no dial ins like with a Lumia. No color profile or brightness profile - just a brightness setting and the automatic won't really compensate for bright sunlight, but manual High works.

Yep dual SIM with dual icons. And it did not read my ST SIM fully. I had to manually add APN and MMS. Should be no biggie for you to set that up for your mom.

8GB on board means you want a microSD. My San Disk 32GB Class 10 is working smooth. But 32GB is the limit on the spec sheets.

Lagginess... I've not noticed any (relative to the class of hardware), but I'm still putting it through its paces.

Pros:
The screen size and ppi
1GB RAM
Battery life seems good
Not noticed any overheating
Sensors include Proximity and Ambient Light

Cons:
Lacking Lumia firmware touches
No sensor core features

Worries:
Of the things you mentioned Camera worries me. Many users feel the camera is sub-par and compared to the Lumia line it is at the same MP level. It's a bit fussy. If your mother is a point and shoot gal, the camera may leave her cold. But if she likes trying different camera Apps and post shot editing, then she'll be happy touching up photos to get the best out of them. It's a candid sort of shooter out of the box. I'd call it adequate without editing.

<edit>
Mine was an "opened box" deal through Amazon. It came without screen protectors. I just added a hard plastic sheet type of Screen Protector that I got at Walmart. It seems to have enhanced touch on the device. I'd say the screen assumes you will have a protector on. It may be set to highly sensitive at the factory. Oddly enough, a certain Trim-to-Fit style is exactly the right size and bundled 3 for $6 at Wallyworld. It fits the width perfectly and when aligned at the top of the panel covers the whole display area + about 2mm. The capacitive keys are exposed and usable without feeling a seam.

WriteRight Universal Screen Protector (fits screens up to 5.3").

[Nogitsune Micah]

Does the phone act weird when charging? My research said that people had issues with the phone charging and the touchscreen.

[RumoredNow]

I've not charged and played at the same time yet... Through a mains. Plugged into USB on the computer it acts fine.

[Greg Gray]

Does the phone act weird when charging? My research said that people had issues with the phone charging and the touchscreen.

That was an early bug. It was fixed with an update a few months back.

[RumoredNow]

Speaking of updates, I believe Win HD and Win Jr both got 8.1 Update before Christmas 2014 which puts it pretty early in the release cycle and bodes well for OEM support of the OS. I know my ATT branded 520 is still waiting for that update and my 1520.3 just got it this week (first week of March, 2015).

[Nogitsune Micah]

That was an early bug. It was fixed with an update a few months back.

Ah glad to hear it has been fixed! I was a bit nervous reading that on the phone's reviews lol

Speaking of updates, I believe Win HD and Win Jr both got 8.1 Update before Christmas 2014 which puts it pretty early in the release cycle and bodes well for OEM support of the OS. I know my ATT branded 520 is still waiting for that update and my 1520.3 just got it this week (first week of March, 2015).

Yeah we just got Denim on 1520 for att recently, I am a diehard lumia fan but it really does bode well for me when I see how well they have supported the platform thus far(more so than htc and Samsung in my opinion).

So you'd recommend it as a phone for someone who is not a power user? :) I also thought about getting her a cheap HTC off amazon I think I saw 8x for like 100-120 bucks.

I am also nervous about shopping on Amazon and buying phones personally., yours was open box but is it possible to tell which are new and which are opened.

[phelme]

I got a refurb through eBay ($110), it came with all the same bits: charger, screen protectors, etc. that it comes with when new.

I'll echo that the main camera isn't that good, you really have to steady it to get decent shots. even then it needs a lot of light or things get dicey.

there is a bit of a screen touch issue still, where you try to scroll yet it's sometimes read as a tap instead. I noticed the Lumia 535 has this issue too and there was just a firmware release to try to fix it. I wonder if it's a Snapdragon 200 thing, which both phones share.

I absolutely hate the button placement though, the power and volume keys are on direct opposite sides of the chassis, which makes turning the thing on a bit of a finger dexterity issue (and there is no Glance of course). Also, the volume keys are stupidly easy to push. Many times I've tried to get the Win HD out of my gym shorts while listing to podcasts and accidently engaged the volume up key, making my ears bleed.

Compared to my 1520 (the BLU is for low-end development purposes), it's really not that bad. The screen is quite good as is the slimness. The Snapdragon 200 really only outs itself when rendering on web browsers, it's a bit of a waiting game then.

I'd say it's worth it only if you can get a deal on it. The Lumia 640 that was just announced will be a much better phone when it ships in April for around $160.

[RumoredNow]

The price and description let me know it was opened... I saved about $42 and it looks mint. $42 off for 2 missing screen protectors is well worth it. LOL

It is what it is, a budget device. I am finding it fun and worthwhile. I'd recommend it to anyone thus far. Just remember my camera advice above....

[Nogitsune Micah]

What about in Comparison to the Lumia 535?

[RumoredNow]

Sorry Micah, I never actually used one. It would just be speculation...

[Nogitsune Micah]

Sorry Micah, I never actually used one. It would just be speculation...

I actually just peeked over there in the 535 forums....i am a bit nervous to buy her that phone. It spec wise seems to be better than the win hd but hearing they have issues with the touch makes me nervous lol. I thought that only affected the 530 :/

[darkmajesty06]

I have had a win hd for around a month. I wanted a big phone for a small price. I bought mine for 99 as a refurbished unit from eBay. Came packaged like it had never been opened.

Mine hasn't thrown any fits or given me any problems. I should honestly just have a phone surgically attached to my hands, as much as im on it. I use this thing A LOT through the day and still get around 16-20 hours on a full charge. I do a lot of face book, Craigslist, games and music.


The camera sucks but It doesn't matter to me.. If im desperately needing a picture.. My wife has my old 1020 and I have a spare digital camera lying around. I didn't expect it to be perfect for 99 bucks but it has far exceeded my expectations on performance and reliability.


Two last notes to hit on.. The loud speaker. Its not ear blistering good but if your not half deaf like I am, you wont ever need it up past 7. Lastly, call quality on att is good. Holds and receives calls very well. Its a good phone. Only bummer(s) would be no voicemail app and your unable to block numbers like I could on my Lumia.

In short, I would absolutely recommend this phone if your not on a plan and want a bigger windows phone but not wanting to pay 300 bucks.

[juanitoriv]

If you can get an 8X for that price, I'd go that route. It's not expandable, but it has a good camera, 1gb ram & 16gb onboard. It's 4.3" though, so a little smaller.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

[the_moesiah]

My mom and I got one each a few months ago. I loved mine at first, but she's had nothing but problems. She's on her third, I'm on my second and we both need new ones. Thankfully we got replacement plans from the Microsoft Store.

We've had several problems with the phones ranging from:

-Poor battery life (only on our current phones)
-When taking to someone, the phone will put them on hold and then call a number from the saved contacts list
-The web browser will on occasion go insane. Random links will open, the page will scroll up and down, the browser will go back and fourth to previous and current pages...
-Horrible sensitivity. I can't scroll up or down without opening every link I pass
-HD videos lag horribly since the phone doesn't have LTE


And that's just off the top of my head. Do yourself a favor and pass on this phone.