[mayafab]

Hi, I would like to put down some impressions on how it is to live with the new Nokia 800 and the WP7.  Perhaps the below is unedited and with typoes, sorry, I have kids, can't spend too much time...

Anyway, here goes...

Briefly, the background.  I am new to modern smartphones having soldiered-on for about 5 years with WinMo (HTC Tytn II).  I admit that although IMO Apple makes (well, made, before the 800 came-out) the best products, but I would not be seen dead with an iProduct – I am a contrarian and can't stand the poseur, narcissistic/egotrip image/nature of the Apple brand, and much less the cultish missionary zeal of the mainstream media that idolizes Apple and revels in any downfall/setback of its competitors (e.g., the clumsy “campaign” by the media in November to dig out any figures (mostly wishful analysis) to show that Lumia is “not selling [that] well” before it even reached shops, that the name is some obscenity in Spanish etc., you know the drill...).

Because I needed a new phone (my Tytn II more or less disintegrated in Dec 2011) but did not want to go for the iPhone, the choice was between WP device and Android.

In Dec 2011, there were 2 major products launched – the Lumia and the Galaxy Nexus.  There were two things that made me go for the Lumia:

1. The OS – WP looked so much fresher than the icons-grid of iOS and Android that looked Jurassic in comparison.  The transitions and animations were nothing less than mesmerising, reminding a bit the still-born but intriguing Emblaze Else.
2. The shape: Nexus was nice but when I saw that the actual phone is not nearly as curved as the teaser-photos, I cooled, especially that it was huge, and I wanted to be able to easily slip it into a jeans pocket. The killer blow was when I saw the Cyan Lumia pictures – the large black display cover that is symmetrically positioned flush with the main body and minimalistic design.

So there I was in late-November, probably one of the first in UK with a Cyan Lumia from “3” shop (they were very committed to the device from the outset), bought it on Pay-as-you-go (nothing is free, so I did not want to go for a contract) then paid to unlock it with a code, I use it over Vodafone network.

Below I tried to summarise my experience and suggestions in table form, so as not to be what one of the commenters to my other post as “verbose”.  I divided my opinions into:

1. General observations – self explanatory, I hope;
2. Gripes – things that I find missing, difficult to achieve, rough corners etc.
3. Bugs – clear things that don’t work properly
4. Suggestions – there’s been a few, I’m sure, a great one is here, but below is what I think Nokia and Microsoft should do to improve the experience.

Nokia’s lunch has been eaten by Apple, not Android (actually, Apple is eating the lunch of everybody, including that of MSFT, but that’s another matter).  For Nokia’s survival, it is critical to ascertain whether the new Lumia WP7 line is a decent alternative to Apple’s iPhone, on the background of free-mason like worship of Apple in the mainstream media and the free promotion of everything Apple. 

On this, I would like to say that the WP7 is definitely a viable alternative, except for one thing.  It is not the lack of Apps (this will come), but what I would call “uncertainty”.  Whereas in the case of Apple, people believe rightly or wrongly that everything “works” and there are no major bugs, this is not yet on our Lumia.  The battery “plays” and there is not knowing why, the phone would not start for hours after a shut-down, critical things don’t work (e.g., BBC’s iPlayer) while at iModror everything always seems to be sorted out (again, rightly or wrongly).  There is only one way for Nokia to fight the “uncertainty” – openness.  If there is a problem with the battery, explain it to the full plus what will be done to address it, publish internal WP7 and Nokia descriptions of the obscure headings such as “charge: 65355%”, etc.  Make your clients feel part of the effort, not suckers fed by rumours and kept in the dark – at least let people know what will be rectified/addressed and what will not be.

Anyway, below is a summary of my notes on living with the 800.  Note that I am not at all a “power user”, before Lumia I had an ancient Tytn II and I feel that I haven’t yet mastered the bulk of the possibilities of the new phone, the OS and the “ecosystem” (what a fancy word for programs and content...):

 [see continued in next post due to limitations of size]

[mayafab]

General observations           

High quality product: The way it looks and feels, the Lumia 800 gives an impression of a high quality, designer product.  No other WP7 devices come close to it, not even the new Galaxy Nexus. The 800 is on par with the iPhone, which is the paragon (IMO) of clean and “perfect” design.  The 710, BTW is not, it looks mundane even if not cheap.

WP7 UI – “exquisite”, slick:             Transitions and animations are elegant, just the right delay, not the iPhone eye-candy that becomes boring and tiresome after a short time (at least I find it).  I simply can’t stop marvelling the elegance of the tiles appearing “on a hinge” and the transitions are best described as “buttery-smooth”, they don’t seem to become predictable as iPhone’s transitions.  The super-simple Metro UI design-language is responsible for it not becoming a boring eye candy, at least not yet.

The colour scheme is fantastic: especially that the “teal” one matches my Cyan device like Jenifer Anniston’s clothes match her clutch.  The font looks just too simple to be nice, but boy is it clear and easy for the eye to read it “sub-consciously”.

On the other hand, despite being very useful and intuitive, one can argue that MSFT’s Metro UI is “different for the sake of being different”.

Live tiles – OK but not perfect        Although the media would have you believe that Apple invented the fire, the wheel and the grid-icons interface, it merely improved it, but now, its looks “Jurassic”, but I have to admit that it does have its advantages, such as easier identification of the eye, but this comes with the cost of it becoming boring to the point of annoyance after a while.  Perhaps Apple have to make some the transitions variable in a random way.

Never frozen, very stable     iMedia wants to project that Apple’s OSs are 100% stable, while others  suffer the Blue Screens of Death but until now for more than a month of use, the Lumia 800 has not frozen or hung on me, except the “uncertainty” of once not starting after a shut-down.  This is a good sign that the OS is stable. 

Auto brightness not bad        I found that the auto brightness is not intrusive and adapts well.  The proximity sensor works like magic.

The phone function is flawless          My previous HTC WinMo (Tytn II) would miss the call 25% of the time when I tried to pick-up.  Not on Lumia.  Quality of sound is great, but the speaker is not loud enough.  I also don’t understand why Nokia did not put 4 speakers at each corner to have a stereo effect at both orientations.

The display is superb The display in my opinion is the best in the business, to the point that I enjoy looking at it, just to enjoy the real black.  I was afraid that the resolution will not suffice, but from 30cm I simply can not distinguish pixels, unless I concentrate hard and that I just don’t do...

People gasp when they see the photos on the thing.  I just have a gripe – why Nokia did not have a N8 style always on pixels (I think it is possible with AMOLED without killing the battery) – to have a clock and the notifications.  Is it possible to change in the future?

Gripes

General          The key issue is the “uncertainty” about the OS and the phone integration that I mentioned above.  Nokia must know whether these problems are common to all other WP7 devices and whether yes or no, to disclose it to the people that chose “uncertainty” over the warm swamp of the iThing’s “always works”.

Outlook (non) integration.    This is a HUGE missed opportunity by MSFT.  Yes, for 12 year olds with 25 contacts and facebook instead of email, I’m sure that the live-tiles system will not let them miss any “Status update” of their pokes.  But for someone with hundreds of contacts, three email accounts – the only alternative is Blackberry, and I will not go into such details as limitations on number of characters when transferring contacts to Windows Live.  And about Tasks, please don’t start me, I am weeping.

How come, MSFT did not understand that painless integration with EXISTING and large Outlook system will easily woo a large chunk of Blackberry users, while as it is today, sync with Outlook is an unmitigated nightmare.

“more information”   In some screens (e.g., “Settings/About”) – there is a button “more information” to open more details.  This is unnecessary, confusing and counter-productive in an easy scroll environment.

No landscape in many apps and screens       This is so obvious, I just don’t understand how MSFT did not mandate it as compulsory.

No “drop-in” charger possible          Why oh why Nokia did not devise some contraption that would have allowed charging by dropping the device without the need to open a fidgety flap, trying to insert the worst connector since the SCART?  This also precludes to negate iPhone/iPod/iPad advantage of their standard connector (which is “drop-in”, BTW) – if you can slide-in/drop the device into a charging slot, then the connection can be easily done by Bluetooth or wi-fi so that the need for a connector is not there and you are not concerned about your battery in the meantime, but Nokia did not see it, I guess.  Pity.

Flap flimsy      This is obvious in all reviews, no problems yet, but I am sure will be.

Zune, Pictures interface not intuitive          I find the Zune and Pictures interface not intuitive and definitely not flexible like the good-old drop-menu UI.  It is OK when you have 38 songs and 9 videos in one folder, but not to a family situation with 4 PCs and a central storage, etc.  Whatsmore, there is very little control over the PC Zune software, if things are not standard, tough luck, mate.

No speed-dials            Have to go through too many clicks to call the missus.  First, the “Family” hub, then her picture, then decide do I call home or mobile etc. etc. Why not just the good old speed dial for ONE number?

Speaker quiet, no stereo       Mentioned above.  Don’t understand why Nokia did not put 4 speakers at each corner of the device to have a stereo effect at both orientations.

Screen in landscape   “almost symmetrical” – looks like it will be corrected in Lumia 900.  Even though I am not an iFanboy, you can't but acknowledge that the iPhone’s design is “perfect” in a sense that it is clean and symmetric, something that makes is timeless really andeasy to look-at and work with.  Other phones (except some older Nokias such as old N900) all have the screens offset to the centre on the vertical axis so that it is not in the centre when held in landscape.  Sometimes it seems that designers have instructions NOT to put the screen in the middle (in landscape).  On N9 the screen is equidistant from top and bottom edges, but for some bizarre reason on the 800 it is offset to the top... At least on the new Lumia 900 it seems sorted out.

Camera underwhelms            Not that it’s bad, but I would expect more.

Can't access all parameters  As I mentioned above, this is one of the new interfaces that looks slick and intuitive but is built for a first-time 12 year old with 35 songs, and all contacts and messaging on facebook.  For a 40+ yr old professional the restricted menu is awful.

Charging is very slow            I’d says the charge the takes from very low battery to full is more than 4 hours.  That is too long.  About the battery and charging problems there are mountains of writings so I wont go into that, but it seems that unless there is something sinister going in the background (and the device becomes warm), then the battery life is not bad.  But it must be sorted (AND NOTIFIED TO USERS) – to address the dreaded “uncertainty” (see above).

No removable memory card  Again, many wrote about it, I think it would be nice to be able to put ALL my music, is say FLAC on the device, now it is not possible.

While the shape’s beautiful, the edges are sharp    The black screen cover floating (symmetrically! though the display itself is offset, see above) on the sea of teal (cyan) is almost majestic, but the edges are quite sharp.

Resolution of screen could use a bump, but this is not really a big issue               As above, the screen is so good that I like to look at it just for the sake of it.  However, Kindle reading is not as perfect as one would want.  Higher resolution has never hurt anyone (except the wallet)

No Flash, no iPlayer  Jobs killed many companies, he also killed Adobe when he rubbished Flash.  Those caught in Apple’s merciless sights must have therefore closed ranks and tried to promote Flash, but  for inexplicable reason, they all danced to Jobs’ flute.  What it means is that Lumia can not have many apps that use for example even HLS (beats me, but that is why BBC iPlayer is not going to develop for WP7).  Given the status of the underdog and late-comer – with MSFT’s clout and resources, they should have just BUY Adobe and make sure that the alternative to the iThing is viable.  Instead, many apps that could have been exclusive to WP7 are not even considered by the developers.

Apps setting confirmation “apply”   In many apps, the “settings” page has no “apply” button, although usually the “back” arrow does the same, it would be clearer to have the “apply changes” or “save changes” button.

Live tiles from Apps  Sometimes the live-tiles from apps are “over-active” – instead of being static, they change in unpredictable manner in a bizarre “flip” which makes them difficult to read and less useful, e.g., for weather.  Is it that the tiles can only change by “flipping”?  Also, a small point – on the so called “connection tiles” – while WiFi and Cellular do show “on” or off”, the Bluetooth does NOT show on/off on tiles in ANY app (and there are quite a few).

Bugs   

Battery issues            Well documented (I also shared my experience), I seems like a solvable issue and now I get very decent life on my device (certainly enough for a day’s work, but with 2G, not with 3G on...) but the “uncertainty” (see above) is killing.

Non-uniform menus   There seem to be small differences in basic menus – e.g., “Settings” “time and date” on different phones – probably due to variations of “branded” mobile providers.  Strange. I wonder if there is a way to “unbrand” a device and make sure that the menus are the most inclusive, for example, my device does NOT have “auto” update of time, no “speech reading” etc.

Many apps don’t work at all, some with bugs          I guess that this is not exclusive to WP7, but when there are ten times less apps then other platforms, if apps don’t load or don’t work, it is not so good.  I wonder why MSFT doesn’t have a “whistle-blower” line on apps and/or has its own apps team that will make sure that if there is even a minimal demand for an app, they will “transpose” it to WP7

Wake-up from switch off or full battery discharge Mentioned above, but very scary.  As someone said – you can't trust a device that cuts you from the world for more than a minute, especially that you don’t know WHEN it will wake-up...  The dreaded “uncertainty”...

Bluetooth dropouts    While usually the Bluetooth experience is flawless, I do experience some dropouts when walking on the street, difficult to pin-down.

Suggestions (apart of course – to debug the Bugs...)

Slide-show for welcome-screen        The first screen perhaps can be assigned a slide show – now my kids are fighting whose picture will be there...

Gesture-based one slide to places other than live-tiles      This is a phone, for god’s sake.  Why not – swipe the first screen left – get the dial-pad straight, swipe right – get “recent dial history”, swipe up – get the live tiles?

Some way to operate slider switches from the live-tiles    Why not enable/allow slider-operation on the level of the “live-tiles”? e.g., WiFi, 3G, etc.

AMOLED allows for always on screen notifications?        I think that in some Symbian phones, the AMOLED screen has some pixels constantly on (on AMOLED apparently it does not drain the battery) that shows the time and one or two notifications.  Why not on Lumia 800?  I had some Nokias in my time, never understood why on some cheap phones they had the screen always on (except the backlight) to display the time... why the hell not display the signal strength, the battery status and the missed calls/SMS received too?  So please Nokia, on the WP7 there is no blinking led to indicate reception (green) and missed calls (red,etc.) – why not have it on the screen so that the user doesn’t have to switch the thing-on?

Radio with Bluetooth headset?         To play FM radio, one needs to plug the phones into the 3.5mm hole to serve as an “antenna”.  Does it mean that listening to FM radio with Bluetooth phones is not possible?

Allow to close open apps from “app view”  The ability to see all the open Apps (press and hold the “back” arrow) is great, but why not have some small “x” at right top corner of each App-window to allow closing the ones you want?

Battery performance charted           Battery life is the bane of our smartphoned-times.  Sophisticated users (probably the ones that form the opinion about a device) will want to identify patterns and alternatives to extend the day-life of their devices.  The “Battery Status” screen of “Diagnostics” is quite helpful, but will be much more so if one can see the history of current drain as a chart on time scale.