This is the first in a series of articles giving real world feedback from Symbian users of varying levels of expertise who have tried moving to Windows Phone in general and the Nokia Lumia 710 in particular. Here Paul Sargeant finds a lot to like in terms of day to day use and loves the hardware, but it's fair to say that it still didn't completely replace his existing N8.
Each mobile operating system has its own way of multitasking. As such, Windows Phone 7.5 has its own unique way too, which might be somewhat strange if you're coming from, say, Symbian. Even if you're not a developer, it can be useful to know why your phone works as it does, and so here is our guide to understanding the nuts and bolts beneath the hood of your Windows Phone.
The Lumia 610 is Nokia's first low-end Windows Phone 7 device. That bottom tier of the market is critical to the success of the platform, as it needs to compete directly with low-cost Android smartphones. Guest reviewer, Rob Brand, takes us through his observations with the Lumia 610 - from its attractive body work to the performance of third party applications. Has the Lumia 610's low-end hardware been fine tuned enough to satisfy less demanding users? Rob answers this question and more in his review.
There are a group of people to whom Windows Phone 7 has not been very friendly, and that group is Linux users! With heavy reliance on Zune desktop for firmware updates and multimedia transfers, and only web access to SkyDrive, Linux users have had a pretty rough deal. All that might be set to change with Windows Phone 8 though. With support for microSD cards and over the air firmware updates, there's going to be much less reliance on having a Windows PC. That just leaves integrating SkyDrive with the Linux desktop. Well, I have a trick for that too.
Windows Phone is fast, and a lot of that is down to Metro UI and a clean design around people using social networks and wanting to stay connected. But I wonder if that speed is actually too fast for people to fall in love with their smartphone?
This morning's news from Nokia was bleak, with 10,000 job losses and a revised financial outlook that will see the company's key Devices & Services division report losses of several hundred million Euros for Q2 2012 on the 19th July. Media coverage has understandably focused on these key points, but a number of important strategy changes were part of today's announcement and these are worth examining in more detail.
Looking back on my trip to Azerbaijan, one of the things that I've realised is just how much I trusted my Lumia 800 to work. I've spoken before (mostly on the regular Insight podcasts) how it's important that I have a smartphone that 'just works' when I am away on business. I don't want to have to think about the handset, I just want it to work. For me, Windows Phone has crossed that barrier.
The way in which producers of Windows Phone 7 handset makers differentiate themselves is by providing an exclusive collection of applications. In the light of its partnership with Microsoft, Nokia has gone all out to add value to its Lumia devices with its set of exclusive applications. From mapping to music, ebooks and news, there's something for everyone as we present our round up of everything you can get out of, and put into, your Nokia Lumia device.
The announcement of the Nokia Lumia 610 and ZTE Orbit bought a new set of lower specifications to Windows Phone. While almost all built in functionality is retained, one of the consequences of the reduced RAM requirements (from 512MB to 256MB) is that some apps cannot be installed, due to their higher memory usage footprint.
In this feature we look at detailed statistics, culled from the AAWP App Tracking service, around the compatibility of apps and games from the Marketplace with these 256MB RAM devices. Currently just 1.6% of apps and games are incompatible and this number is expected to fall over time as developers release updates. We're also providing a complete list of incompatible apps and games in our free downloadable PDF report.
The 'my phone (or smartphone platform) is better than yours' debates across the tech world rage on, somewhat amusingly. Yes, I know that megabucks are involved, that sales of successful products now reach into the many tens of millions, that each launch is bigger and better funded than the last. But I also can't help notice that we've only been seeing gradual improvements for the last five years and that, in truth, I could happily use almost any top-end device from that entire period to accomplish all the things I need a smartphone to do.
