All Things Windows Phone - Apps, Phones, and Discussion

Agreed. Samsung's got the focus (no pun intended) all wrong with its point-and-shoot/smartphone hybrids. Users in general aren't pining for much better zoom functionality on smartphones. The key issue is high quality images under the widest range of circumstances, including low-light. And while that's important, the general market would probably prefer a slimmer, more easily usable phone for day-to-day functionality, which is exactly what the Galaxy S4 Zoom does not provide.

Nokia's got that figured out with the Lumia 920 and 1020, the latter of which sacrifices a minimum of form for improved camera functionality. Unfortunately, with its minimal market presence and poor sales, it seems Nokia wasn't able to get as nice of a carrier subsidy on the 1020... which will undoubtedly also hurt sales.

 

Well, I guess I'm going with the ASUS VivoTab Smart ME400. It's great and quite cheap, and features Windows 8. Yes, the Atom won't allow me to play any games, but I wasn't looking to play games on the tablet anyway, that's why I have my laptop.

 

Whilst I couldn't comment on the 1020, I have to disagree about the 920.
It's certainly a solid performer in terms of the camera but it's no better than a number of devices from other manufacturers and it's most certainly not competitive when it comes to size, weight etc - it weighs more than the Note2.

 

Notebookreview's sister site just did a review of the cameras in the Lumia 928, iPhone 5, Galaxy S4, and Blackberry Z10. The Lumia 928 came in first in three out of four tests and second in the fourth.

Smartphone Camera Showdown: Who is the Best?

 

On the first set, it should have been the Z10 that won. It was the only one that got color saturation/luminance correct while also getting the temperature/white balance perfect. The Lumia exaggerates luminance... just look at the greens and blues. The GS4 has a lot of resolved detail, but Samsung just always produces cold images for some reason. It's like they're intentionally trying to make their images cold. Apple just embarrases itself... that image, compared to the others, is just bad.

Second set, the GS4 should have won, although it could have had a tiny bit longer exposure. It nailed white balance and color temperature though. In this one, the Z10 is cold. The Lumia is still exaggerating luminance and it over exposed the image to try and evenly expose the entire frame. The iPhone is just a noisy, under-contrasted mess.

The GS4 wins on the third set, by a large margin. The Lumia blew out that red like that was it's job. Makes the Coke can look almost fake. The Z10 is just underexposed, and the iPhone is a blown-out hot mess once again.

Lumia wins the fourth set, but it's exaggerated luminance once again makes things look fake. The iPhone captured noise with color, basically. And the other two are just way too underexposed.

IMO, the GS4 wins. The Z10 did ok in daytime shots. The Lumia needs to dial down the colors a bit, and bring them back to the natural realm. And the iPhone needs a better sensor.

Minimal lighting with no flash? That's still hard for actual cameras, much less phones. Just turn on the flash, in which case the GS4 is the best.

 

Flash ruins the spontaneity that you can get with a smartphone camera. It just screams "hey everyone, I'm taking photos now!"

I also like flash-free photography because my autistic son has anxiety about camera flashes, but I realize that's not exactly a widespread concern.

 

Lumia 520 announced for AT&T. $99 for the GoPhone. Should sell extremely well

 

I get the price, and I agree it will probably sell pretty well... but still, 512MB of RAM with a dual-core Krait/Adreno 305? Why? Purpose? Can't be cost.

I feel like Windows Phone has backed itself into a hole in regards to hardware. It can't raise the amount of RAM in lower end devices, because the current flagship (1020 excluded) still has 1GB of RAM. And doesn't having just 512MB limit some of the apps from the Marketplace?

 

Yep. Nokia needs to consolidate their lineup too, there are way too many variants out there and the model numbers make it difficult to distinguish which one is better. Currently there's the 520, 620, 720, 800, 820, 920 and now the 1020.

 

Having only 512mb of ram limits some of the more demanding games, but WPcentral just published a report and 99% of apps and games will run on 512mb of ram. Have a Windows Phone with 512MB RAM? Report shows you can enjoy 99% of apps and games | Windows Phone Central

I honestly get the specs for the price. Compare that to any Android GoPhone, and you are going to get a much better experience on the extremely low-end WP8 device. $100 contract free is a steal, and I doubt someone interested in that type of phone will miss the 1% of apps that they cannot run

Also, on a side note... I have had my 1020 for about a week... and absolutely love it. It'ls still weird to me that it is so much lighter than the 920... looks like it should weigh 3x as much lol

 

Dont forget the 521, 810, 822, 900, 925 and 928.... lol

 

Yep, it's extremely confusing in their midrange offering. The 720 seems to have the largest screen of all the Lumias, but it's WVGA resolution and you are stuck with the slow 1 GHz Snapdragon S4. The 520 and 620 has the same processor, but they're offered with a 4" and 3.8" screen respectively (Wouldn't that make the 620 a downgrade to the 520?).

Nokia needs to consolidate their phones. Have a Lumia 500, for budget, Lumia 700 for midrange and Lumia 900 for the high-end. Maybe keep the Lumia 1000 around for their 'phablet'/EOS devices.

 

Thee Samsung Smart PC Pro 700T is on sale for 800€ instead of the 1.2k €. My parents already bought the VivoTab (600€) so it's too late to go back...

 

Can't you just simply return it to the store?

 

sure he can--if you're putting up the additional €200.

OT, windows phones...

Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express

 

From his post it sounds like he could spare those additional 200EUR on the tablet.

 

Maybe, but they bought it as a birthday gift, I supposedly don't know about it, so I can't juse open it and say "hey yeah I want the other tablet".

 

Oh right. Who's gonna be 17 tomorrow?

I guess that's why you should be more careful when buying things. That i5 in Gnusmas would be much better than Atom in ASUS. But look on the bright side, ASUS' battery will hold charge longer.

 

Exactly. Finally I'll be held off gaming while in class tho, because I know that that i5 could run games nicely.

Yeah, this gift was a bit unexpected anyway, I didn't ask for it, it was their idea when I mentioned I wanted to sell the laptop for a desktop.

Even if I got the Samsung, I probably wouldn't game on it anyway, and the speed improvement doesn't justify for the added money nor for the lost battery life. I wanted a Win8 tablet for work, and that's exactly what I get with the ASUS

 

Photo taken with the Lumia 1020 (not by me):

Upright Squirrel Brigade | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

^^^Those eyes, I fear for my life...

 

I'm stuck with my HTC Trophy and Windows Phone 7 for another five months or so....

Windows Phone 8 will be a nice updgrade, but it's the HTC phone that I'm so ready to replace! It's becoming very non-responsive to my touch (or poke/prob, sometimes even tossing across the room)...maybe that's part of the problem???

I'm also anxious to see how well WP8 and the Bluetooth HandsFree Link in my car get along! I bought a new 2012 Mazda CX-9 last November and it won't import my contacts/phonebook into the system from WP7. The voice commands also don't work with my current setup. So it's not so "hands-free" for making calls, but incoming calls still show the number on the NAV display (just not the freakin' name) and I can accept or reject from the buttons on the steering wheel. But to make a call, I have to dial from the handset then it mutes the audio and I can talk hands-free.....

It probably wouldn't irritate me as much if I hadn't paired my Mom's iPhone to the system on a recent roadtrip with my parents. (Not that I regularly take roadtrips with my parents....my aunt died out-of-state, I have the vehicle the most room, so I spent 800 miles round-trip with my mom, dad, grandmother and two elderly aunts (who were stuck way back in the 3rd row seat, out of sight, out of mind)...but I digress...

Anyway, Mom's iPhone imported her contacts instantly and the voice activation/commands also worked flawlessly with it.....but I'd rather go back to a 'brick-in-a-bag' mobile phone than get an iPhone....

 

I've been pretty happy with my Lumia 810, but do have one issue with it. If I'm making a call and I've had the phone on my ear, when I pull the phone away, the screen is blank. When I push the button to engage the screen so I can end the call, it blinks on for a second, then turns off again. I've got to push the button five or six times before it stays on and I can hang up. Anyone else see this?

 

it's the phone trying to conserve battery by turning off the screen when it's in use and thinks you're holding it up to your ear. but the accelerometer gets--confused, we'll say, from time to time. no way to turn it off in "attentive phone" or anywhere else for that matter. drives me nuts.

 

I'm thinking about getting a L1020, just to check in on WP. I like to try them all every once in a while... just to keep on top of things, and see how things are progressing. The L1020 seems like the current creme of the crop with Windows Phones.

Hmm. To buy, or not to buy?

 

From the reviews I've seen of the L1020, it seems to be a great phone. But, will you be using the camera heavily?

Even so, it's a great phone with good battery life that'll last through the day.

 

Definitely a defective proximity sensor. I would try to get that replaced/ repaired if you are under warranty.

@HAL. The 1020 is a great device. Surprisingly light weight given the huge camera sensor and takes stunning pictures.

 

If the camera's important, buy. 2Gb isn't a factor for WP right now and AFAIK that's all that's different.

Personally since the Pureview tech still ultimately results in quite smeary "compact camera" images I'll continue to rock my RX100 - and I'm not buying another Nokia until the OS gets whatever major update MS are preparing (so that'll be next year, sigh) - just a little too many holes in things right now so I'm not spending >€500 on another halo WP handset until I know things are at least starting to be resolved and that their still too-slow updates are actually major functional leaps this time around, instead of architectural (like last October).

 

I doubt it's under warranty as I bought it new on eBay so I could do prepaid. I've dropped it a few times and they'd probably say it's the small crack in the glass causing the issue. You know how they are? It's not that big of a deal, but thanks for the replies.

 

Oddly enough, with optics being universal... it probably is the crack in the class, causing issues with the proximity/lux sensor.

Where is this crack?

 

It's in the very upper right corner. It can't be more than 1/4 of inch, but I think I recall it happening before I cracked it.

 

lest we forget that i experience the exact same phenomenon ZaZ describes on a completely different handset similar to his only in OS.

Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express

 

Then that seems like an OS bug. I remember Windows Mobile used to have a similar problem... except you'd have to just reboot the thing to get it to work again. Ahh... Windows Mobile, good times.

Seriously though, as soon as you pull the phone away from your face, your screen should light up immediately. Seems WP isn't polling the proximity sensor fast enough. Android polls twice a second during calls, or more if you write a new value into the kernel.

 

Trust me, it's not an OS bug. I have had over 15 WP8 devices, from all manufacturers, and one of my Lumia 920's had the same issue, it was replaced and never had the issue again. There are some other known WP8 bugs, but this isn't one of them

 

Interesting.

 

I often have the opposite problem with a number of WP7 & 8 handsets in that I found I was pressing buttons with my cheek - muting calls, sending calls to BT, even ending calls, etc.

 

H.A.L. is right in that it's a polling issue with the accelerometer and/or proximity sensor. the "bug" is triggered by pressing the lock button just before the display turns back on automatically. although it seems like the lock button is pressed first, the display is triggered by the proximity sensor and then the lock button press actually registers and turns the display back off. the handset then bugs out and, by tilting the phone, the screen gets stuck in a flashing on/off loop until you stop pressing the lock button. it seems trivial and easy to avoid but it's annoying as hell.

 

Android's not perfect either, although given the mediocre implementation of many features on this phone, it wouldn't surprise me if the wonky prox sensor behavior (my cheek can activate the notification shade partially before the screen goes out + screen take a while to turn on if I pull the phone away from my ear) was Motorola's doing instead.!

Sent from my DROID3 using Tapatalk 2

 

This isn't a surprise

Despite the state of WP8, I'd much rather use a midrange WP as my daily than the highest-end android. And on the occasions I have app envy, I have the iPhone. No Android phone has lasted longer than 6 months in my possession since ever (though I tend to buy the must-have flagship at least twice a year so there can be continuity from time to time).

 

I'm still kind of annoyed with the Skype situation on Windows Phone considering I can get calls with Skype running in the background on Android but not WP still.

I'm still stuck with a HD7 until I get a job so I can't do anything about it, 100 minutes on T-Mobile is a bit limiting considering the situation I'm in, blah.

 

And it's even more annoying/ironic because Microsoft owns Skype. I mean, srsly. They can't make their own service work correctly with their own OS.

Spoiler

Or is this a WP 7.5/.8 thing? Is this different under WP8?

 

I've also heard that SmartGlass for Android is better than SmartGlass for WP, a baffling situation. Come on Microsoft.

 

This was fixed in WP8. Skype now works as it should, and also integrates directly into the People Hub

 

So the multitasking in WP8, in addition to the 1/2GB of RAM, fixed it. Nice. So that works as intended on the 1020?

 

The multitasking hasn't been fixed completely some of the same quirks are still there (not instantly resuming, closing after a certain # of apps are open) but, there certain apps and services get around those quirks (skype being one of them, turn by turn GPS apps have special permissions as well. Overall, Multitasking is one of the main areas that WP8 is still a bit inconsistent in... but its getting better.

 

I can't help but feel that MS is working far too slowly in mobile. It's understandable that Windows development is slower than, say, Android's, due to the significant variety of hardware configurations running Windows, and the critical stability requirement that Windows must deliver on. But Windows Phone isn't really bound by this sort of restriction: the customer base is small enough (with likely a very small percentage of enterprise customers) that MS should be able to push out rapid improvements and change things around to quickly make the WP experience just as comprehensive as that of iOS and Android.

 

Well if WP8 has fixed the issues WP7.8 has I'll be fine with it, I don't use my phone for much aside from web browsing and maps, Whatsapp and Skype being the other way I contact people; I used to be annoyed with no Steam app but I've moved past that since I've more or less stopped being social on it.

 

I saw someone (average joe) with a windows phone today in the work break room. Still a somewhat rare sight.

 

Agreed, they need to get aggressive with the updates. Some Skype features are available on iOS, Android and BB, but not on WP8. MS stated that it was because they wanted to integrate Skype deeper into WP8. I'm fine with that, but get to it already, don't put it on the we'll get around to it some day list. The reorg at MS might change things, but let's just say that I'm not keeping my hopes up.

MS has something that has good potential with Windows Phone, but it's like they tend to forget it exists.

Some of their UI guys between WP8 and Windows also need a serious talking to. It's rather annoying to have live tile behavior being different in Windows 8 and WP8. It's only small things, but given the similarities between the WP8 and Windows 8 start screen, they should behave the same way. Some tiles set to medium square size display info in real time on WP8, but they need to be max size to display that info on Windows 8...

MS made that ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS6r8QgLfLk, but they seem to have some trouble making it actually happen. Obviously, some thing have to be different because of different form factors, but there are still kinks to work out.

 

If I recall correctly, you select a WP tile (to modify or move it) by pressing and holding it, whereas you select a Win8 tile (to modify or move it) by flicking it.

The fact that you don't do it the same way in both is asinine.