I have been using a Nokia Lumia Icon Windows Phone 8 smartphone as my primary telephony device* since that fateful day on February 21 (22?) when I gratefully ditched my Sprint HTC Arrive smartphone, and its dreadful associated Sprint cellular service.

While I liked the Nokia Lumia 520, it seemed to basic to me, lacking in several of the high-end features I wanted, most specifically, a very good camera. Moreover, it is an AT&T phone, and in my neck of the (home) woods, there is just one choice for fast, reliable service: Verizon Wireless.

As I result, I held out for a flagship Windows Phone 8 device on Verizon, hoping that the Lumia 1020 with it’s impressive 41MP camera would be offered, and not even looking at the Lumia 928, which #1 Son has.

Sadly, VZW decided not to offer their version of the Lumia 1020, but got the Lumia Icon** instead.

Specs wise, the Icon is quite capable:

• 20 megapixel PureView camera
• 5” full-HD 1920x1080p screen
• 32GB storage
• Wireless Charging
• Yada, yada…

A complete list of hardware specs is here. However, the specs above are the ones that moved me initially.

I will break my thoughts on the device into two sections: the Nokia Lumia hardware, and the integrated Windows Phone 8 software.

The Nokia Lumia Icon
Lumia Icon continues Nokia’s tradition of delivering very good devices. Nokia is especially in excellent form when they create so-called “hero” or top of the range devices.

This is a solid, well-designed, and well-built device.

The screen is bright, responsive, and touch functionality is still effective even when I wore gloves while using it, a consequence of our extended winter this year.

While the phone boasts of having four microphones, I found it to be wanting whenever I made calls outside an enclosed space.

The camera on the Icon is just superb.

Whether in 5MP mode, 5MP + 15 MP JPEG, or 5MP + 14 MP RAW modes, the Lumia Icon consistently delivered clear, beautiful, and vibrant photographs.

The RAW files, in .DNG format, are also easy to refocus on the device.

Wireless charging is a very good option, and since I was a Day One purchaser, I was gifted with a charging base by the Microsoft Store for my purchase.

I should confess that #1 Son snagged that unit for charging his Lumia 928 – a feature I did not know his phone had – and I had to purchase another one.

Wireless charging is a very good feature of the Lumia Icon. I come into my office, plunk the phone down on the charging pad, and that’s it. Tres cool.

Storage, at a static 32 gigabytes, is the one hangup of this device that I am not impressed with.

For one, you cannot expand it. As a result, I periodically swap out entertainment media in order to provide accommodation for new playlists.

Not optimal.

The Windows Phone OS & Windows Phone apps
Windows Phone 8 is a very good mobile operating system, and for me, the only mobile OS I would consider using on a daily basis.

it is vastly improved from the old Windows Phone 7x, and the apps just rum better.

Moreover, the apps being developed for Windows Phone have a very high quality feel to them, and are very well made.

Initially, there was a fear of a so-called app gap for the mobile OS, but as of this stage, the important apps have largely been ported over, with just a few holdouts***, that are running the risk of being replaced on the platform with WP8-specific apps, and becoming irrelevant to the OS’s users.

Windows Phone 8 comes with quite a few apps: News Sports, Finance, Weather, Wallet, etc. that were not available on the old WP7x OS, and which work quite well, synching user state information and data across both Windows Phone, and Windows desktop.

I like that.

What I don’t like
My primary pet peeve, is with the [former Bing] news apps, now just known as News, Finance, Sports, and Weather.

For some momentously insane reason, Microsoft has deemed that in order to share information from those apps, you MUST be running Windows 8 AND the shared link would ONLY open in the Windows 8 Metro version of the sharing app.

Does that sound too crazy? Think I am joking?

Try the link in this cut-and-pasted snip from a link I shared just now:

Comcast Is Boosting Speeds So You'll Forget About Google Fiber (CMCSA)

Sam Colt

Business Insider - Business Insider - Tue Aug 5 03:15:00 UTC 2014

Comcast is increasing its broadband internet speeds in areas where Google Fiber is set up, reports The Consumerist. Kansas City is the latest metropolis to see enhanced internet speeds at no additional cost to customers. Those paying for 25 megabit service will get 50 megabits, those paying for 50 megabits will get 105, and those paying for 105 will get a whopping 150 megabits, enough for all but the most voracious video streamers. For reference, at 25 megabit...

If you have Windows 8, open this in News. Otherwise, open in the browser.

http://www.bing.com/r/1F/V8sHB?a=1&m=en-us

Sent from Windows Mail

See what I mean?

This kind of stupidity from ‘Bad Microsoft’ must stop.

Apart from this, the OS itself has been relatively free of glitches. I am running the Developer version of the operating system, so OS glitches are something I have come to expect.

Hardware wise, there have been some problems.

There is a new – about a month old – issue whereby all I get during a phone call is a blast of static. My buddy Trent (Twitter: @WPConcierge) seems to think the device needs to go into a VZW store and get re-flashed. However, most times I’m either in Denver or Los Angeles, I am pressed for time, and only with a single phone which I am loathe to relinquish.

The placement, and sensitivity of the hardware buttons, especially the power button, is another that bothers me as I always seem to depress it and end up squandering battery life.

The most bothersome hardware issue though, is the loooooong time it takes for the camera to initialize! I cannot, and do not, want to think of the numerous times I have lost out on a candid shot because the event had long passed before the camera app – any camera app! – initialized.

I hate to say it, but if I was aware of this pitfall, I would not have purchased the Lumia Icon.

Yes, this fail is as annoying as that.

Conclusions
Overall though, this is a very good device. I like it a lot, but I am waiting to see what the follow-on flagship device from Microsoft, and importantly, offered by Verizon Wireless is going to be like.

If Surface Pro 3 is any indication, I think it will be much better.

Earlier today, Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 for Developers (beta) was released. My Icon has been upgraded to that OS beta version, and as I walk through the enhanced features, I see smart little changes and upgrades, and some very welcome new functionality.

* I have a Nokia Lumia 520 #1 Son and I use as a baseline device; him for trying out the ‘apps’ he builds with the Windows Phone developer kit, and me, well, for stuff.

** There’s a new Nokia Lumia 930 available on AT&T, however, apart from better battery life, I don’t see any differences in the specs.

*** I have decided that any app of the five or so news apps I like on other Oss aren’t offered on both Windows 8 Metro or Windows Phone, I will stop using them. So, I have.

© 2002 – 2014, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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