My first days with a Windows 8 phone

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  1. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #1

    My first days with a Windows 8 phone


    I became adventurous and spent $79 for a Windows 8 phone. I said to myself what can you lose, I spent similar money for a USB stick. But what I can gain is some experience - as if I needed that at my age, LOL.

    My first impressions are mixed. There are really 3 parts to it.

    1. The Nokia part - they make the hardware. It clearly shows that they once were the largest cell phone manufacturer in the world. The phone is very well put together. It makes a solid impression.

    The little Qualcom CPU does a decent job and operation is fluid. The screen is ok, not more. It has a bit of a reflection and it is certainly not high def at 800x480. But even with my bad eyes I can manage. The touch works well once I had peeled the protective foil off. The camera takes pictures - not more. You are not going to win a photo contest with those.

    2. The Microsoft part - W8P is neatly organized and I had no problem with all the setups. It took me about two hours to 'tune' it my way. It feels a bit like a mini Android but it has a lot less options than Android. That is also the major weakness of W8P - compared to Android the whole infrastructure is pretty poor - e.g. few apps in the store. The best app is the navigation app, but that is from Nokia. I can now see why people prefer Android over W8P.

    A little aside - I had a question and called Microsoft where I bought the phone. They told me that they do not support the device. The person literally said that they do like Walmart.

    3. The T-Mobile part - although the phone is contract free, if you want a contract, you can only get it from T-Mobile. They want $30 minimum without data. I said thank you because for the two calls per month we would be making that is steep. Their mother company in Germany offers a minimum of E9.95. That is still too much for my purposes but more reasonable. I am now scouting the terrain for a reasonable VoIP - here again Android is a lot better. With GrooveIP the calls are free, even from Europe to the US.

    Well, as I said at the beginning, it is to gain experience. I don't really need a cell phone.
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  2. Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       #2
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  3. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks Derek. I saw that. But I would not use the phone to get on the forum. I rather use one of my other devices. A 4" screen is really small and typing is not easy - although I could use my BT keyboard.

    But when I lug the BT keyboard, I also have my Nexus 7 which is more convenient. When we go on trips, we'll mainly use the Asus Transformer though. This phone is just a toy for entertainment and navigation. Who needs a phone, LOL.
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  4. Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       #4

    I thought you might want to play, somebody needs to rate it for him, it doesn't have any yet.
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  5. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Yeah, that is an argument. Little service for a friend. I'll see whether I can find it.
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  6. Posts : 7,538
    Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit
       #6

    I know you said it was Nokia but what particular model is it Wolfgang ?
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  7. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Joan Archer said:
    I know you said it was Nokia but what particular model is it Wolfgang ?
    Joan, there is a hyperlink in the first line of my write-up. It is a lumina 521
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  8. Posts : 7,538
    Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit/Windows 10 64bit
       #8

    Sorry Wolfgang I didn't bother clicking that. My Windows phone is the Lumia 520 and I think it's a brilliant phone it takes fantastic photo's and the add-ons for the camera make it that much more useable.

    Does yours have the Black upgrade that came out a couple of weeks ago?
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  9. Posts : 17,545
    Windows 10 Pro x64 EN-GB
       #9

    derekimo said:
    I thought you might want to play, somebody needs to rate it for him, it doesn't have any yet.
    Thanks Derek for your "marketing pitch" :). No need to review, the app is very simple and only a door-opening in my efforts to create a series of SF, EF, NF & PCHF WP8 and Win 8 apps.

    Joan Archer said:
    Sorry Wolfgang I didn't bother clicking that. My Windows phone is the Lumia 520 and I think it's a brilliant phone it takes fantastic photo's and the add-ons for the camera make it that much more useable.

    Does yours have the Black upgrade that came out a couple of weeks ago?
    Was going to ask the same when Wolfgang told he's not satisfied with photos.

    Lumia Black was an excellent update, fixing a lot of things.

    My first days with a Windows 8 phone-wp_ss_20140307_0001.png
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  10. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #10

    Joan Archer said:
    Sorry Wolfgang I didn't bother clicking that. My Windows phone is the Lumia 520 and I think it's a brilliant phone it takes fantastic photo's and the add-ons for the camera make it that much more useable.

    Does yours have the Black upgrade that came out a couple of weeks ago?
    Yes, the black upgrade was either installed without me noticing it or it came out of the box. I was especially interested in this SIM unlock, but that does not seem to work on this. I hate to be tied to T-Mobile.
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