Without a whole lot of forethought, I picked up a Nokia Lumia 920 phone on Friday. This replaces a phone so old that calling it a "smart" phone is a stretch: a first-generation Motorola Droid.
I've not yet acclimated to Windows Phone, but I can provide the following quick thoughts:
Positives
- The hardware is solid. Fast processor; clear OLED screen with a decent coating that reduces glare and finger-printing; relatively good hard-button placement. It's larger and a little heavier than I'd like, but cell phones these days are getting larger and heavier, not smaller.
- Windows Phone 8 is a refreshing change. It does things its own way and it's proud of it. Think of it like using a Mac back in the day.
- Wireless charging is awesome. No cable fuss. Makes that whole whiz-bang connector on the iPhone 5 seem kind of antiquated.
Negatives
- The pre-loaded applications are chaotic. Microsoft has built some good reference applications for maps and music. But then Nokia went and made their own maps and music applications, and even outright hides Microsoft's Maps application. You can still get to it through some trickery, but that is just silly. Worse, AT&T then adds their own silly custom apps which, again, include things like maps and music. What the heck?
- I can't get Windows Phone to authenticate with my Google account. I've tried everything including changing my password. No go.
- Most significantly, I find it astonishing that the phone doesn't integrate more thoroughly with my Windows-powered household. A Windows phone should join a home's HomeGroup network and interact with documents and media hosted by all of the sharing devices. I should also be able to use the phone as a Play-To remote. Omitting this capability must have been intentional since it's so obvious. But what could be the intention?
Overall, I'm very happy. It's not clear if I'm just happy to be done with my old Android phone or if I am happy with Windows Phone 8 in particular. Some more time is needed to know that for certain.