I just bought a Windows Phone.

[Twilight Wolf]

Yeah, I've already replaced my Blackberry. :v

Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but it was a bit outdated, and I was able to snag a Nokia Lumia 521 for ~$75 after sales tax this weekend. It's pretty cool thus far, and the touchscreen keyboard/autocorrect doesn't drive me insane, so I wanna know if anyone has any suggestions for how to get the most out of it -- what apps to get, any tips, etc.

 

[vskid3]

I've had my Lumia 521 for about 10 months. Not a bad phone. I paid $100 for mine. Don't really have any suggestions for anything, only apps I regularly use are phone, texting, Facebook, IE, Pandora, couple GPS tracking apps for running and biking, and whatever game I'm playing as a time killer (currently 2048). Solid entry-level smartphone.

One issue I have run into is that sometimes the headphone jack will only play one of the audio lines, a restart fixes it. I found others that have the same problem, but I don't know if its just a few or all of them that have this problem.

 

[ttsgeb]

Well, the great thing about Windows phone, is that it's a great phone experience out of the box. Really, getting the most out of it as a communications device is simply finding a icon placement that works for well you.
As far as using it as a multipurpose entertainment device, I basically just have Facebook and twitter on it, the Netflix for watching movies.
if anyone knows of a better browser for it than ie, I'd love to know about it.

 

[marshallh]

Love my Lumia 925

Running Windows 8.1 dev preview is neat, but watch out for battery wasting bugs.

I tihnk Nokia is releasing the Cyan update for all devices very, very shortly so you should have Cortana, as well as gesture texting etc.

Check the status http://www.nokia.com/global/support/sof ... h-america/

 

[vskid3]

I tihnk Nokia is releasing the Cyan update for all devices very, very shortly so you should have Cortana, as well as gesture texting etc.

Check the status http://www.nokia.com/global/support/sof ... h-america/

Nice! That's one thing that I dislike about most Android devices, the manufacturers usually leave you out to dry when they release their next phone, leaving you to hope that the modding community is interested enough in your phone to keep bringing updates to it.

 

[samjc3]

I just got a HTC One M8 Windows today, mostly for curiosity's sake. It seems solid enough, I guess. I find myself pining for several of the features from the Nokia branch of WP8.1 though (namely switchable column layouts and glance). But Heck, it feels good in the hand, and it's fast as *Can'tSayThisOnTV* compared to my Nokia 928, so I guess I'll roll with it for awhile and see what happens.

My 928 is running 8.1 dev preview, which is great (except for the whole battery AIDs thing). I'd kill for that OS loadout on the M8 - probably unlikely though.

Overall, I really like WP these days (In case you hadn't noticed already, I figured I'd state it outright). It does the things I want it to quite well, and doesn't feel superfluous in anything it does. If they'd fix the battery leakage in Nokia's 8.1 dev branch, and fix the media player for all of the branches, it'd be about perfect for my uses.

 

[Xerox]

I recently switched from Android to a Nokia Lumia 1020. Along with the awesome 41 mp camera, I've had nothing but a smooth experience, performance wise. I've yet to find a better browser than IE, but I've loaded up on NES, SNES, and game boy emulators. They integrate well with onedrive for ROMS and saves, and there's a decent dropbox app if you've got one of those as well.

I'm not crazy about the file system on it, but I'm getting used to it. Only complaint so far on apps is no Clash of Clans, which is literally one of about 4 mobile games I even play. I'm really excited about 8.1. I hope they come into this market a little bit more and shake things up. I hate to see just one or two companies just dominate in such a booming industry.

 

[XCVG]

Windows Phone is still a thing

Personally, I've been put off by the interface every time I've picked one up. I find the Metro design confusing and just plain fugly.

 

[samjc3]

I find the Metro design confusing and just plain fugly.

Okay, fugly I'll let you have, since that's just individual preference. But confusing? Seriously? Everything is presented on a grid or list basis with clear labels. If that's confusing, you might need to get your head checked.

 

[XCVG]

I find the Metro design confusing and just plain fugly.

Okay, fugly I'll let you have, since that's just individual preference. But confusing? Seriously? Everything is presented on a grid or list basis with clear labels. If that's confusing, you might need to get your head checked.

The biggest issue I have is the lack of separation between static labels and touchable buttons. It's just text on a background, with no clear indication of what does something and what doesn't. I'm too lazy to dig up examples, but this is present throughout Metro, in some examples worse than others. Granted, it's probably not a problem once you've used it a while, but when I picked up the device, it was immediately off-putting.

 

[Xerox]

As far as I can tell this isn't an issue on the phone OS. All of my home screen icons are touchable buttons.