According to Batwench

According to Batwench
12 Feb 14

I know that a review has already been done for this phone (see here) but since I was sent one to trial for two weeks I thought that I would give it a review as well. As well as the phone itself, I was also sent the camera grip with it and this was on the phone for the two weeks being used as a case.

I was a bit concerned at first about the size of the phone itself. I am not normally a fan of a larger screen format, as I do not have the largest of hands. This said it never became an issue and I was able to navigate around the screens and type on it one handed. It even passed the ‘bra storage test’ with flying colours; it fitted down side of bra tidy, was comfy and didn’t dig in. In fact, the way that the camera lens is not flush with the back of the phone helps all of these.

The camera, which to me is the main selling point of the phone, produced some very good photos considering that I am a point and shoot photographer. It was a shame that the phone was sent to me at the beginning of December when the weather here in Cumbria is not the best. Otherwise I would have been out and about in the fells taking some stunning scenery shots. I did however get some lovely sunset pictures; the phone camera seemed to catch the colours better than my digital camera.  (Insert Photo 1 here).

I felt that long distance shots were not as good as they could have been and the zoom when using the camera could have been better. The main reason for this may be the size of the lens itself, after all it may have a 41MP sensor but if the hole that it sees through isn’t that big then you can’t expect miracles.

The clarity of the screen was excellent and the phone felt well built. Considering I just shove them in my bag etc, it survived well and the screen glass itself was not scratched at the end of the two weeks. I was sent one with a black back but the camera grip was yellow. What is it with Nokia and the colour yellow? Touch response on input was quick and at no time did I feel that it lagged to any commands. There have been some complaints that the Windows Phone 8 App selection is poor but since they have released Instagram Beta etc nearly all of the apps that I used on the iPhone are available. The only one that has not been released is the BBC iRadio Player, but on the other hand one of the apps I have used in the past on Win Phone 7 was not available on IOS platform.

I did sign up for Nokia Beta Labs as this allowed me to download a few things that enhanced the phone experience for me such as being able to customise the text tone, why this isn’t in the main OS I have no idea. Most other phones have this as a basic function now. As I use a Mac as my main computer the Windows Phone Application (for Mac) is easy to use and install. Although there is a certain flaw in the way that you open it and iPhoto to import your photos. It has to be done in a certain way otherwise it doesn’t work.

At the end of the trial period I readily admit that I did not want to return to my iPhone and have decided to stay with a Nokia (albeit a Lumia 925 Windows 8 Phone. So expect a review on that soon). Over all I would give the phone 8.5/10. It lost marks on the clarity of long distance photo shots and the inability to customise the text tone.

Author

Ewen Rankin

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