Lumia 1520

I think I promised a few words about the large 6" I had for a couple of weeks, so here it goes. As anyone familiar with the model knows, it's a large 6" phone, or so-called phablet to be more precise. However, even though it looks ginormous, it doesn't actually feel THAT huge when you're actually holding the device, maybe thanks to its thinness.

The camera in the phone is a 21-megapixel shooter that can capture also raw, so the specs are there and quite unsurprisingly for Nokia, it also delivers. The photos are also a joy to watch on the large screen.

Other hardware niceties include built-in wireless charging and a microSD slot, which is actually a first for high-end Lumias and a really welcome addition especially if you shoot raw.

Size-wise the phone was a joy to use especially when reading or otherwise consuming content, but a little bit trickier to carry. However, in my case the carrying problems are mitigated by the fact that I have a dual SIM subscription (so two different phones receive the same phonecalls and text messages) and I have also a Lumia 620. So whenever I'm in a situation where the 1520 is just a little bit too much, I can just pick up the 3,8" 620 and be just as reachable without additional SIM swapping.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like a phablet, but now it feels rather sad to send it back. Maybe I'll need to keep an eye on the deals. If Windows Phone didn't have the shortcomings I've discussed in the previous posts, I think I'd own one already.

Mixed Feelings

I've now had my Nexus 5 for a couple of weeks and it has (not-that-surprisingly) turned out to be a very capable phone. However, some areas haven't worked as well as I thought they would. For example Bluetooth playback seems to have similar initialization issues and occasional stuttering I've had with my Lumias and pretty much never with the iPhone, so for the time being I've reverted my podcast listening back to the Lumia 925 as both phones have issues with Bluetooth, but with Windows Phone 8.1 the issues are faster to resolve on Lumia (at least until I get around to automating much of that recovery process on the Nexus).

There are many things I like on the Nexus, but still I'm not as enthusiastic about it as I should be given the capabilities. Something in Windows Phone is still appealing despite its obvious current shortcomings. Well, at least the Nexus gives me a nice break when WP's limitations start really getting on my nerve. Maybe in the following months we'll see which one I end up actually using.

Going Android (at least for now)

Me getting an Android phone? Well, what can I say? Strange things do occur. Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview arrived, so I tried it and while there were lots of nice improvements, some areas still remain behind the competition and the experience didn't improve as much as I had hoped it would. Granted, some of these issues are out of Microsoft's control since a lot of problems boil down to inferior 3rd party app quality when compared to same apps on iOS and Android. Maybe it was IE, which despite getting bumped to version 11 still doesn't quite work with many pages. "Oh, this article on Google+ sure looks interesting" ended far too often on me staring at a blank page instead of the article I was trying to open.

Then there's also the fact that drop-downs on many pages don't all too often work since the touch support has been implemented with WebKit browsers in mind while Microsoft is sticking to their own Pointer Events API which they've also submitted for standardisation. While technically Microsoft is right by avoiding de facto standards instead of true standards (apparently they did learn a thing or two from IE6), their market share on mobile is currently too low to allow any stubbornness on providing WebKit compatibility as the end result of the current approach is their customers getting a sub-par mobile web experience.

So while my "I can use Windows Phone as my daily driver" theory was busted or at least delayed until updates fix the most glaring issues, I still have my iPhone to cover for the areas that don't quite work on Windows Phone, right? Well, not exactly. My wife got my iPhone 5 to replace her old and slow iPhone 4, so I also needed a phone to take me through the stuff that my work phone couldn't handle. I thought about getting an iPhone 5s (yes, they spell it lowercase nowadays), but I didn't feel like shelling all that cash for a phone that still has only a 4" screen, no wireless charging, and is about to be replaced soon by the allegedly larger-screened iPhone 6. I also didn't want anything by Samsung since TouchWiz is very high on my list of things I don't want to use. So what to do? Well, Google Play has finally started selling devices also in Finland, so a reasonably priced Nexus 5 was finally within easy reach and that offered great value for money, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm not completely new to Android as I've had a crappy ZTE phone before as well as the original Nexus 7, but never before I've had an Android phone that's good enough to be considered my daily driver.

I've now had my Nexus 5 for a week and in general it has been a nice experience. I was a little worried about the camera, but it turns out to be better than I thought it would. For after all, the exhibition space in the Finnish Railway Museum has been challenging for my previous phones due to the dim lighting, so you can imagine how surprised I was when my Nexus pictures turned out to be better right out of the camera than my Lumia shots. Granted, I was shooting pretty much with full automatic settings, so I tend to think my Lumia shots would've been better if I had spent some time tweaking the settings available in Nokia Camera, but for casual photography Nexus seems to produce nice shots also in somewhat more challenging environments.

Before my Nexus arrived I had a brief period of Lumia-only use where the limitations really kicked in, so when I got my Nexus it was nice to once again have a fluent Google+ experience and not experience any "Resuming..." animations or white screens when checking out Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

While it looks like the Nexus 5 will be my main phone at least for a while now, I haven't totally given up on the Windows Phone. At least most of my financial apps remain on the Lumia as I have much more trust in WP keeping my stuff secure compared to Android (even when you avoid the typical risks). In addition, it looks like I'll be reverting my podcast listening back to Lumia, since my Nexus 5 is giving me some issues with starting playback over Bluetooth. While the Lumia has some issues as well (especially using the current beta OS), they are faster to solve on WP.

It'll be interesting to see what will be my main phone at the end of the year with the iPhone 6 coming out in a few months. Currently all three options are open and it's down to which platform does the best job at removing the downsides.

Oh, I also have a Lumia 1520 to try out for about a week still (thanks to Nokia's Facebook campaign!). I think I'll have a few words about that beast as well.