Life with a Cheap Windows Phone
This year I made a conscious choice to reduce my family's mobile costs. So I decided to try two things.
My use case for a Smartphone is pretty similar to most..
I have been a long time MS phone user - from PocketPC Phone Edition through Windows Mobile and Windows Phone - so I wanted to see if one of their entry level Windows Phone 8 would work.
When the Nokia Lumia 521 was announced I decided to give it a try. Sure I knew it had some shortcomings like not supporting LTE, not having a high definition screen, no flash and no front camera. But it did have expandable storage via SD up to 64Gb.
Secondly is was "inexpensive" retailing initially for $149 and then almost immediately being discounted to $120 or less by various vendors. I ended up buying one from of all places HSN for $79 with free shipping. Using TMOs web based SIM transfer service - I was up and running in minutes.
So the question was - could I live with a $80 device running Windows Phone. Here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Life with a Cheap Windows Phone
The Good
Overall the phone is easy to handle and meets the most important one-handed operation test. The power button is a bit too extended from the body for my taste and can be mistakenly turned on in your pocket.
I don't play games or do much video streaming to my phone so performance for my use case is good and does all of the typical things you expect from modern smartphone. It easily supports multiple mail accounts, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc without a hitch.
Phone and sound quality are good and while it is not an LTE phone the "4G" speeds I get on TMO around the country are fine. Having added a 32GB MicroSD - there is plenty of storage for music, photo's etc and it will support 64GB.
Personally I like the Windows Phone UI with Live Tiles. It is true that you can easily take a quick glance at your phone and see emails, texts, voicemails. etc. Scrolling is seemless and easy and the large tiles makes for easy tap and go. The VisualVoice mail service is free and great. Also the ability to change the size of the tiles and still have live updates is nice.
The camera is okay for my usage and the immediate upload to SkyDrive is also nice for sharing. I thought I would miss the flash and Front camera - but so far it has not been an issue.
From an Apps perspective - In addition to the native MS apps for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Xbox Music, etc - I run LinkedIn, PayPal, EBay, Amazon Marketplace, Kindle, as well as Bing News, Finance,& Sports, USA Today, Weather Channel, Google Search, Skype, Skydrive, OpenTable and SoundHound. I also have all of the photo enhancement apps like CinemaGraph, Panorama, etc. There is also SlackerRadio, Pandora and Nokia's MixRadio. The 521 also has an actual FM radio - but you need to attach a wired headset to act as an antenna for it to work.
I also enjoy the text to speech capability. When I receive a text the phone alerts me then reads the text and gives me the option to reply or ignore. If I say reply, I can speak my reply which is converted back to text, read to me and then sent. Very cool when driving or walking. Similarly the ability to press my headset call button and call or text a person on my contact list via voice is great. I would like to those capabilities around reading / replying to emails and calendar events but for now they aren't there.
There also voice capabilities for Bing search - but the voice activation button is small and located in the search entry bar - which makes it less than optimum. Considering the rest of the screen is just an image - it should just be a large button in the center.
The Bad
Battery life for me is just okay - I work from a home office - so I have Phone, WiFi and BT on all day - but I also leave the unit plugged in a lot. When I'm out it is 2 - 6 hours at a time, but I can easily drain the battery with multiple back-to-back 1+ hour calls - especially when also using navigation.
Another area of adjustment for me was navigation. MS made a decision to move away from their excellent Bing Maps navigation to Nokia's HERE apps. There are three - HERE Maps, HERE Drive and HERE Transit. To me they are a mixed bag. While the HERE Drive app has much more of the look and feel of a dedicated GPS device - like Garmin - it's not as accurate as Bing Maps and personally I had a better navigation while driving experience with my HTC Radar running WP 7.8 than I have with the Nokia.
I also had problems with Bluetooth connectivity and HERE Drive until I discovered a device profile error. You had to make sure your BT device supported both Voice and Music profiles in order for the Here Drive app to direct the turn by turn instructions to your headset or car. It took a little work to actually determine that was the issue since Nokia's own folks were saying that BT wasn't supported. Basically I had to un-pair/re-pair my headset until I saw both voice and music profiles appear.
Additionally MS/Nokia introduced a feature in Amber update called driving mode. It is designed to automatically notice that you are driving if you connect to a particular BT device and then be able to automatically reply to texts, calls etc if you want. But it is too sensitive to movement. I use a Plantronics VoyagerPro BT headset and leave it in all day even when working at home. So when I wonder away from my desk with my phone sitting there and my headset on it often automatically places me in driving mode - basically a nuisance.
Another nuisance is MS's approach to email "security". MS has made the determination that by default all pictures included in email are blocked. While this is similar to default approach in desktop Outlook - you can't adjust it. Sure you can tap where the picture is and it will download - but it get's old.
MS has to do a much better job with their xBox Music/Video store. While I am not a huge user of video on phone, the fact that you can not even go to the video store from your phone is simply incredulous. In addition MS needs to do a much better job of keeping their DRM up to date. I like the concept around xBox Music subscription service - but you have to make a conscious effort to open the XBox Music app and play a song, for it to update. So in the scenario were you have been working from home for a couple of weeks and not using the app, then need to jump on a cross country flight - if you haven't opened the app to refresh your DRM while you still have bandwidth - you'll find all of a sudden that your subscribed music won't play. Just very poor execution on MS's part. Sure that has improved with wider availability of in-flight Wifi - but the app should be smart enough to review what you have and update itself.
When compared to Apple and Google, MS has a poor approach to updates and fixes. They are typically slow to market and due to the dependency on the carriers - you may not get an update or wait for months after it is released. I don't understand why MS just doesn't add WP to their excellent Windows Update Service and release monthly or quarterly updates.
With the limits stated - for much of my use case for a Smartphone - emails, messaging, social, news/sports/weather, navigation, media, etc - the little Lumia 521 is a nice device when you consider the price.
Remember that $79 price was NOT subsidized - but an outright purchase. Sure that was a one-off price - but when you consider that the Lumia 925 for example is $500 you could buy a 521 for a family of 4 and still save almost $200. So a great value. When you also consider that many of the bad and ugly issues also plague the 925 - why spend the extra $.
So for the goals that I set out to achieve - the Lumia 521 worked - albeit with some pain.
The question is - would I do this again ?
The answer is maybe. While the 521 did help me meet my goal - it also had several flaws and limitations and the answer to the maybe will depend on MS's support going forward.
WP 8.1 is scheduled for release sometime in early 2014. While MS stated that WP8 users will get 8.1, they also announced changes in the hardware spec - like removing the "back" button. So it will be interesting to see if 8.1 will even be supported on this entry model. I would prefer not to have to buy another phone just to get 8.1.
MS is reorganizing itself to be a "Device and Services" company. In my opinion they need to move much faster than they are and create more consistent experience across their platforms. Sure they promote "one" look across Windows 8.x, WP and xBox One - but that simply isn't true. The apps work and look differently which is a reflection on the fragmentation of the organization.
I believe MS have many of the parts needed to create a great experience and they obviously acquired a device manufacturer in Nokia that has extensive world wide reach and the capabilities/capacity to produce world class devices. The challenge will be in a unified vision and timely execution. And right now that is not happening.
- Transition to a non-contract plan for the entire family
- Transition to a inexpensive smartphone
So first I transitioned from a traditional 2 year contract plan from TMO with unlimited everything to their Simple Choice Plan - with unlimited voice, text and 500 Mb of Data / line. The effect was dramatic - from over $200 monthly average to around $90 for 3 lines. And that included features like Visual Voicemail.
Second was to get a new phone. Previously I was running an HTC Radar with WP 7.8.
My use case for a Smartphone is pretty similar to most..
- Corporate (Exchange) and Personal Email accounts
- Messaging and UC - so Text, IM and Lync
- Social Accounts - Twitter, LinkedIn, etc
- News, Sports, Weather and Finance Feeds
- Office capabilities - read, review Word, Excel and PowerPoint + some OneNote
- Media - Mostly Music, Some Video
- Photos - albeit relatively light usage
- Navigation - so Maps with Turn-by-Turn
- 3rd Party Apps - Amazon, Ebay, Paypal, OpenTable, Banking, Airline, Cloud Storage..
- Expandable Storage
I have been a long time MS phone user - from PocketPC Phone Edition through Windows Mobile and Windows Phone - so I wanted to see if one of their entry level Windows Phone 8 would work.
When the Nokia Lumia 521 was announced I decided to give it a try. Sure I knew it had some shortcomings like not supporting LTE, not having a high definition screen, no flash and no front camera. But it did have expandable storage via SD up to 64Gb.
Secondly is was "inexpensive" retailing initially for $149 and then almost immediately being discounted to $120 or less by various vendors. I ended up buying one from of all places HSN for $79 with free shipping. Using TMOs web based SIM transfer service - I was up and running in minutes.
So the question was - could I live with a $80 device running Windows Phone. Here is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Life with a Cheap Windows Phone
The Good
Overall the phone is easy to handle and meets the most important one-handed operation test. The power button is a bit too extended from the body for my taste and can be mistakenly turned on in your pocket.
I don't play games or do much video streaming to my phone so performance for my use case is good and does all of the typical things you expect from modern smartphone. It easily supports multiple mail accounts, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc without a hitch.
Phone and sound quality are good and while it is not an LTE phone the "4G" speeds I get on TMO around the country are fine. Having added a 32GB MicroSD - there is plenty of storage for music, photo's etc and it will support 64GB.
Personally I like the Windows Phone UI with Live Tiles. It is true that you can easily take a quick glance at your phone and see emails, texts, voicemails. etc. Scrolling is seemless and easy and the large tiles makes for easy tap and go. The VisualVoice mail service is free and great. Also the ability to change the size of the tiles and still have live updates is nice.
The camera is okay for my usage and the immediate upload to SkyDrive is also nice for sharing. I thought I would miss the flash and Front camera - but so far it has not been an issue.
From an Apps perspective - In addition to the native MS apps for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Xbox Music, etc - I run LinkedIn, PayPal, EBay, Amazon Marketplace, Kindle, as well as Bing News, Finance,& Sports, USA Today, Weather Channel, Google Search, Skype, Skydrive, OpenTable and SoundHound. I also have all of the photo enhancement apps like CinemaGraph, Panorama, etc. There is also SlackerRadio, Pandora and Nokia's MixRadio. The 521 also has an actual FM radio - but you need to attach a wired headset to act as an antenna for it to work.
There also voice capabilities for Bing search - but the voice activation button is small and located in the search entry bar - which makes it less than optimum. Considering the rest of the screen is just an image - it should just be a large button in the center.
The Bad
Battery life for me is just okay - I work from a home office - so I have Phone, WiFi and BT on all day - but I also leave the unit plugged in a lot. When I'm out it is 2 - 6 hours at a time, but I can easily drain the battery with multiple back-to-back 1+ hour calls - especially when also using navigation.
I also had problems with Bluetooth connectivity and HERE Drive until I discovered a device profile error. You had to make sure your BT device supported both Voice and Music profiles in order for the Here Drive app to direct the turn by turn instructions to your headset or car. It took a little work to actually determine that was the issue since Nokia's own folks were saying that BT wasn't supported. Basically I had to un-pair/re-pair my headset until I saw both voice and music profiles appear.
Additionally MS/Nokia introduced a feature in Amber update called driving mode. It is designed to automatically notice that you are driving if you connect to a particular BT device and then be able to automatically reply to texts, calls etc if you want. But it is too sensitive to movement. I use a Plantronics VoyagerPro BT headset and leave it in all day even when working at home. So when I wonder away from my desk with my phone sitting there and my headset on it often automatically places me in driving mode - basically a nuisance.
Another nuisance is MS's approach to email "security". MS has made the determination that by default all pictures included in email are blocked. While this is similar to default approach in desktop Outlook - you can't adjust it. Sure you can tap where the picture is and it will download - but it get's old.
The Ugly
MS has to do a much better job with their xBox Music/Video store. While I am not a huge user of video on phone, the fact that you can not even go to the video store from your phone is simply incredulous. In addition MS needs to do a much better job of keeping their DRM up to date. I like the concept around xBox Music subscription service - but you have to make a conscious effort to open the XBox Music app and play a song, for it to update. So in the scenario were you have been working from home for a couple of weeks and not using the app, then need to jump on a cross country flight - if you haven't opened the app to refresh your DRM while you still have bandwidth - you'll find all of a sudden that your subscribed music won't play. Just very poor execution on MS's part. Sure that has improved with wider availability of in-flight Wifi - but the app should be smart enough to review what you have and update itself.
When compared to Apple and Google, MS has a poor approach to updates and fixes. They are typically slow to market and due to the dependency on the carriers - you may not get an update or wait for months after it is released. I don't understand why MS just doesn't add WP to their excellent Windows Update Service and release monthly or quarterly updates.
Finally it's the apps or lack there of. MS certainly has deep enough pockets that it could sponsor some of the leading app development shops, banks and airlines to create WP versions. While some more trendy apps like Instagram and Vine have made it to WP, they are not as feature rich as their iOS and Android cousins. And while MS has added some cool apps recently like Unit Converter, Xbox One SmartGlass, and Office Remote - but they don't make up for the loss of apps like Square, Sonos, Starbucks or UPS that are just not there and probably never will be. And outside of a Google authored Search app - you will most likely not see a Google authored You Tube, Maps, etc.
Final Thoughts
With the limits stated - for much of my use case for a Smartphone - emails, messaging, social, news/sports/weather, navigation, media, etc - the little Lumia 521 is a nice device when you consider the price.
Remember that $79 price was NOT subsidized - but an outright purchase. Sure that was a one-off price - but when you consider that the Lumia 925 for example is $500 you could buy a 521 for a family of 4 and still save almost $200. So a great value. When you also consider that many of the bad and ugly issues also plague the 925 - why spend the extra $.
So for the goals that I set out to achieve - the Lumia 521 worked - albeit with some pain.
The question is - would I do this again ?
The answer is maybe. While the 521 did help me meet my goal - it also had several flaws and limitations and the answer to the maybe will depend on MS's support going forward.
WP 8.1 is scheduled for release sometime in early 2014. While MS stated that WP8 users will get 8.1, they also announced changes in the hardware spec - like removing the "back" button. So it will be interesting to see if 8.1 will even be supported on this entry model. I would prefer not to have to buy another phone just to get 8.1.
MS is reorganizing itself to be a "Device and Services" company. In my opinion they need to move much faster than they are and create more consistent experience across their platforms. Sure they promote "one" look across Windows 8.x, WP and xBox One - but that simply isn't true. The apps work and look differently which is a reflection on the fragmentation of the organization.
I believe MS have many of the parts needed to create a great experience and they obviously acquired a device manufacturer in Nokia that has extensive world wide reach and the capabilities/capacity to produce world class devices. The challenge will be in a unified vision and timely execution. And right now that is not happening.
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