5.0 out of 5 stars
WP8 masters the low-end hardware
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 21, 2013
I bought this phone as a work mobile as I did not want my main mobile number being compromised and receiving lots of junk calls to it. I also desired try out WP8, which I thought looked attractive yet I'd heard much of the poor selection of apps. I've been an Android user for the past 3 years or so and I've used ios before that on a iPod touch.
On paper, the screen isn't up there with the best, but when you first power the phone up, you wonder why this would be necessary. The flat design, simple colours layout of the home screen may be something you either love or loathe (for me, love), but it certainly does not show up any issues with the screen quality in terms of contrast, colours or resolution. The home screen can be customised you can have any apps icons on the screen, with different sizes available, 1x1 squares, 2x2 squares and 4x2 rectangles. Depending on the size, they will give you different information - for example a small icon will show you have a new message with a 1 in the corner, whereas the larger icon may show you an excerpt of the message and who sent it. This customisability is great, it means you can have the information you want on your homescreen. The colours can be changed to, or rather, only a light or dark background can be selected and one colour can be changed - the 'accent' colour, which is the colour of the tiles. There is only a limited selection of accents; you can input a RGB or hex code and use that as your accent colour.
There are many settings so you can have the phone working how you would want it.
The app selection is rather hit and miss - twitter has an app, Facebook have only just released their app for WP and many Google apps are missing. Fortunately, there appears to be many developers who want to plug these holes - there was a Facebook app made by Microsoft (a necessity really, nobody will buy a smartphone which doesn't have a Facebook app), I have an unofficial Google Drive app and there are many more. The phone comes preloaded with many Nokia apps included HERE Maps and Drive. I haven't really tested them out properly but they seem to be good alternatives to Androids Google Maps.
One thing missing from the interface, which, I believe, is being worked on for a future update, is a notification center and quick settings. I love the notification drawer on Android with the ability to quickly switch wifi on and off, turn on the flashlight and many other quick settings. This is missing and badly needs to be added to WP8, all you get is a 'toast,' a small message which quickly disappears when you have a new message or email etc. I've found an app which lets you add a homescreen icon which will take you to the corresponding settings page which does speed things up a bit, but it's not even a widget which you can tap to change the setting on or off.
In terms of the handset itself, it feels plasticky yet still solid. It's lightweight, the backplate comes off and it can be changed to a different colour but the current one has a nice rubbery plastic texture which I was fond of on my old phone, a HTC Desire. It gives you more confidence holding the phone without a case, many phones now feel like they could slip out your fingers like a bar of soap but this is nice and grippy. One thing I will note, however, is that the corners are quite pointy (not sharp) and rather inconveniently for me, when I take a call one of these corners digs into my ear. This could be a problem which few face, as everybodys heads are different but it is a small pain nonetheless. Call quality is good, I can hear people ok and I've not had anybody asking me to repeat myself because they couldn't hear. The camera is ok, I haven't really used it but you can't expect much from a cheap handset but it's good enough to capture a moment, not good enough to replace a digital camera. The 3 softkeys at the bottem are nice to use and the touchscreen is responsive. As marketed, it even works with gloves on - not just these 'touchscreen gloves' but normal gloves. For such a cheap phone it is a welcome addition and makes me wonder why my Galaxy S3 can't manage it. Battery life is excellent as long as you turn mobile data off, it will last several days between charging and that's without the power save mode on.
Overall I'm impressed, for such a cheap handset running Windows Phone 8 (which, unlike Android, will demand license fees from handset manufacturers) it performs well. Admittedly there isn't much on the Store to test the performance much and I don't use it for much more than calls, messages and emails but it's easy to use and meets my needs perfectly and at the same time has a nice appearance. If you want a cheap smartphone and you aren't too bother about games, then you could do a lot worse than this phone, it is the underdog in the iOS vs Android war but more apps are coming to this platform and Windows mobile operating systems have deep roots and is continuing to grow. It's not perfect, but as the cheapest WP8 handset on the market, it's excellent value.
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