Early this year I switched from iPhone to Nokia Lumia 920 and every since I am loving Windows Phone experience. When I am travelling I carry as a second phone, so intermittently I use an iPhone or Android, but I find those uncomfortable. This speaks volumes of the clean and simple interface of Windows Phone. It is the iOS of 2013!
So why did I upgrade from Lumia 920 now (and didn’t do even when I broke the glass few months back). My development team working on Windows Phone apps wanted Lumia 920 for dev/testing, which got me to part with it.
When I shopped around for a new phone, I was clear that it has to a Windows Phone (No Android or iPhone5) and a Nokia Lumia. I loved having Nokia Music which sports unlimited download of even Kollywood albums. I narrowed my choices to Nokia Lumia 925 and Lumia 1020 – both were not shipping in India when I gave away my Lumia 920. I didn’t go with Lumia 1020 as that would have given me a great camera but the phone will be of same weight as Lumia 920, similar size & battery time; and Nokia India didn’t have a shipping date for 1020. This was on 11th August 2013 when I saw in Flipkart, Preoder offer for Lumia 925 for Rs.33,999 with a free Blaupunkt BT HS 112 In-the-ear Headset, so I placed my order. I got the phone delivered last week on 20th August.
My complaint about Lumia 920 has been its weight & thickness. Compared to Lumia 920’s 10.7mm thickness and 185g, Lumia 925 is compact at 8.5mm and 139g, both makes a huge difference when you carry the phone in your pocket or hand. Otherwise specifications of Lumia 925 is same as 920 – screen-size/battery/processor/memory. One bump-up was display is an AMOLED instead of IPS, one let-down is 16GB vs 32GB storage in Lumia 920.
Taking the device out of box, I setup Windows Phone restore from Skydrive using my Microsoft Account. In few minutes it brought all the Text Messages (SMS), Apps & Photos I had from Lumia 920 to 925 seamlessly. This feature rocks!
One disappointment was Nokia Music Unlimited music not being enabled for me. I emailed Nokia support (customercare@nokia.com) but after two days no solution from them. When I did a Live Chat with Nokia support they got the problem sorted out in few hours. The support engineer was very helpful, he even called me to guide me on getting the version number and so on.
I have been using Lumia 925 for over a week now and I am happy with the choice & device. The phone ships by default Windows Phone 8 DDR2 Update (Amber) OS this offers many new features. My favourites are Glance Screen (which shows a clock without pressing power button), Flip It (silences when you flip the phone) & FM Radio. The most significant benefit with Lumia 925 (thanks to Amber update) was the great battery life. In Lumia 920 I had to keep Data switched off when not needed, but in Lumia 925 even with 3G & Wi-Fi always ON, I am able to get over 24 Hours comfortably.
Some of the apps I have added to my original list here are:
- 6Tag – Free Instagram clone by Rudy Huyn, as good as official Instagram in Android
- Wikipedia app by Rudy Huyn – Free App
- World Clock by Microsoft – Free App
- Easy Tiles – $1 Paid app is a must to have. Get frequently used settings pinned