Windows Phone 8 – Nokia Lumia 920
August 9, 2013 1 Comment
Okay, so not feeling that cutting edge with my Windows Phone 8 – Nokia Lumia 920 atm. I swapped out my beloved Motorola Atrix 2 (which I described fully in “My Shiny New Toy” in July 2012) for this device, and found a lot of things to be rockin’ with the WP8 device .. however, I’m writing this JUST as Microsoft and Nokia are releasing the Windows Phone 8 – Nokia Lumia 1020 (41-mp camera .. wowza!).
So .. feeling a tiny bit behind the times. That said, let’s cover what I found to be cool in my WP8 / Nokia experience:
- LOVE the text-to-voice interface .. texts are read to me and I can respond in voice.
- LOVE the Metro Tiles. Wonderful to be able to place the applications I use the most within easy reach for one-handed operation.
- LOVE the ability to use Lync (meeting and collaboration software) while holding meetings on the Microsoft Corporate Network .. that was reason alone for me to switch.
- 32GB RAM .. wahoo!
Some bits I found to be not-so-hot:
- Metro tiles: not happy they are not more customizable. I have multiple email accounts, and there is only one icon (that I found) .. which is which?
- Text-to-voice: there doesn’t appear to be reliable ‘learning’ in the device. It doesn’t recognize / remember various bits of slang that I use.
- Text-to-voice: the TTV interface simply ‘gives up’ if I’m in a noisy environment, even on an earbud.
- The Bluetooth stack is oddly unreliable .. multiple earbuds will simply ‘forget’ they are connected, which forces me to the handset to complete a call. When the earbud fails, it must be power-cycled to reconnect. Further, it doesn’t accept the first attempt to PC the device (this makes me think the earbud internal system needs a reboot after connecting with WP8).
- The lack of applications. I cannot use Schwab, Alaska Airlines, Chase, BECU and so on (YMMV).
- The lack of functionality in WP8 applications: missing hardware components (barcode scanner, audio) in apps that are available.
- The lack of Google Maps. In my experience, Bing Maps and Nokia “Here” are very poor substitutes.
IMHO: the WP8 platform still has a way to go. Maybe some of these things are resolved in the 1020 .. let’s dig about and see what we find.
About Michael Coates
OpsanBlog 
It takes some getting used to. I was a BB, and Android user for years. I was disappointed with my first Windows 7.5 phone, but then I ordered the Lumia 920, after having it for almost a year now, I love it. The emails you can customize a little bit, what I do, is sort my tiles for my various email accounts, I keep my yahoo accounts in a certain place, gmail accounts in another, etc…….and I make them large or small and I put them say around my ESPN Hub app for my outlook accounts. Just get creative, and the different apps like the Nokia apps are great.
Give Nokia Maps a chance. It actually “learns” your routes you take and improves over time. When you are used to a certain system, the quirks of another system can be bothersome. its not the perfect system, but
Check out these apps
Here Drive,
Here Maps,
Free Pandora
Weave,
Chronos Calendar is good
Creative Studio
Discovery Channel,
Fresh Paint,
Here City Lens helps me all the time
Here Transit comes in handy,
JobLens is great for those like myself looking for job opportunities
MetroTalk Free
MagikMail Lite,
NBC News apps
Nokia Cenemagraph
Nokia Care
Nokia Trailers <—My kids love this free app
Note Plus Free
Panorama
Perfect 365
Nokia Photobeamer
Photostream
Photosynth <—Great Microsoft program
Redbox app comes in handy
SCAN <–great QR code/barcode reader
Simple Calendar
Smartshoot
Smartboard Calculator
SophieLens for Nokia
TLC Channel
Bing Translator
Weather Channel
WhatsApp
Just to name a few that I have personally tried. I don't work for Microsoft or Nokia, but I have used phones since T-Mobile used to be called VoiceStream, and Airtouch had high phone bills. And my Lumia 920 works great on my $55/month Unlimited Plan