My first days with a Windows 8 phone

[whs]

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.

 

[derekimo]

Kari has an app for that,

PC Help Forum | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

 

[whs]

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.

 

[derekimo]

I thought you might want to play, somebody needs to rate it for him, it doesn't have any yet.

 

[whs]

Yeah, that is an argument. Little service for a friend. I'll see whether I can find it.

 

[Joan Archer]

I know you said it was Nokia but what particular model is it Wolfgang ?

 

[whs]

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

 

[Joan Archer]

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?

 

[Kari]

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.

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.

​

 

[whs]

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.

 

[whs]

Karri, the photos is not a big deal for me. I use my 16 megapixel camera with a Zeiss optik for photos.

But tell me how I can find your little PCHF app. I was looking for it in the store, but could not find it.

 

[Kari]

You should find it by searching PC Help Forum in WP Store. See this post: http://www.pchelpforum.com/threads/pc-help-forum-app-for-windows-phone-8.164581/#post-1067895

Alternatively, using your WP browser go to http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/pc-help-forum/6891bc8d-f604-4061-8483-311e49b1e77d.

 

[whs]

Thanks Kari. I will try that later when it's off the charger.

 

[Kari]

BTW Wolfgang, have you already installed the WP app for Windows 8? It integrates the WP really nicely into Win 8: Windows Phone app for Windows in the Windows Store

In addition I use the Windows Phone dekstop app: http://blogs.windows.com/windows_ph...dows-phone-app-for-desktop-now-available.aspx for syncing music to my WP devices.

 

[whs]

The WP8 I did not install because I do not want to sync my stuff from the desktop to the phone. I put a selection of folders (pictures, music and videos) on the MicroSD card and that is all I want on the phone.

The second one I have to see what is does for me.

 

[Kari]

The WP App for Windows 8 does not sync anything, by default it simply only copies photos and videos from the phone to PC, default location being From XXXXX (XXXXX = name of the phone) folder under your Pictures folder. I find it nice, easy and fast to go through the phone content, for instance checking which photos to keep and which to delete.

My a** has already been saved once by the app as I forgot the phone to a pub; I located my phone using the WP app, which gave an address of a pub where I had been the same afternoon. Drove there, checked the corner I had been sitting earlier, did not see the phone, called Angie at home and asked her to click Ring my phone link in my PC's WP app. Asked the barman to turn the background music down and listened, and following the alarm found my phone between the seat cushions. Notice that my phone had ringtone muted as always when I enter public locations so it had been useless simply to call it and trust someone answers and returns it to me. The Ring my phone alarm is loud and annoying, also working when the phone is muted.

If I had not found it, I could have locked and / or erased the phone remotely using the app.

​

 

[whs]

Thanks Kari. That's a good application. Although I usually don't lose things, but you never know.

 

[derekimo]

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.

You're welcome Kari, reviews are nice anyway.

I was looking for your Nine Forums one too, but noticed in that thread over there it has hit a roadblock.

 

[whs]

I downloaded and ran Kari's PCHF app. Works well although the forum is a bit of a challenge on my 4" screen and me who does not see so well. Thanks anyhow Kari - nice effort.

 

[Joan Archer]

I can agree the alarm is loud, I've just tried it out. I will say though it didn't work at first because I hadn't realised my phone was out of charge, plugged the charger in and tried it again, I already had the app on my Notebook, it then found the phone so I clicked on the ring button.

Hubby wondered what was happening as he came out from his office to see what the noise was, the app on the computer told me it had rung my phone.

It's useful to have but as I only leave the house once a week for a couple of hours I don't even need a mobile, but it's a gadget so that's my excuse.
Another reason is that it takes good photos and as it's always handy, unlike the camera which is never charged when you need it.

If you're a more serious photographer I suppose a proper camera is the order of the day but for me I'm just a snapper who sees something I want a photo of and my Lumia is perfect for the job.
I use it to take photos of my knitting for uploading to a forum I belong to and it works perfectly.