I'm already switching over from my Nokia Lumia 822 to a Samsung Galaxy S3. And it's only been three weeks since I first acquired the former phone.
Why switch over so quickly? I'll be perfectly blunt here -- I've greatly enjoyed my Nokia Lumia 822, but I can't keep it. It's just not what I need right now (or ever), and let's be honest, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is simply a superior phone in many ways.
Why a Nokia Lumia 822 in the first place?
The most obvious reason I ended up with a Windows 8-powered Nokia Lumia 822 was I went through Verizon for my plan, and -- let's be honest here again -- the phone (exclusive to Verizon) is free with a two-year contract.
I'm a writer, so I don't have a lot of money to spend on phones. The Nokia Lumia 822 seemed to have some pretty decent reviews, looked great and Windows 8's tiles design makes the phone extremely easy to use and very accessible.
I'm definitely going to miss my Nokia Lumia 822. Make no mistake: It's a great phone in a lot of ways. Fast, smooth-running (for the most part), very well designed, relatively light for a medium-sized phone ... I've been nervous about switching over. It's that good of a phone.
And I was somewhat afraid the Samsung Galaxy S3 might be a bit too complicated for me to use.
(Not to mention the time it takes to switch over your email information, your phone numbers at the store, re-downloading apps, the whole magilla. No doubt about it: Switching phones is a pain.)
Battery power
But, I did find in my original analysis of the Nokia Lumia 822 that a few reviewers mentioned some complaints when it came to the phone's battery power.
"Fair enough," I said to myself, moving along anyway and taking on my nice-looking, accessible, smooth-running and free Nokia Lumia 822.
Within two days, I found my Nokia Lumia 822 had conked out. Completely. I couldn't turn it back on. I was in the office, it was the morning, I had charged the battery the night before completely. I panicked. How could my phone already be dead?!
I took it to a Verizon store nearby during my lunch hour (waste of time) and the woman there reassured me it's just a simple matter of taking the battery out -- she noted it may seem like you might be "breaking" the cover by taking it off the way you need to in order to get to the battery (how "reassuring") -- and putting it back in.
It worked. No harm done. She told me that since I had just gotten the Nokia Lumia 822, I should make sure it doesn't conk out again, otherwise I would maybe need a new unit.
Great. Just got a new phone and already I might have to switch up.
I kept loyal to my Nokia Lumia 822, though. And it did indeed conk out a few more times. I also found that, yes, the battery power overall on the Nokia Lumia 822 plain and simple sucks in my humble opinion.
I turned off all the background activities -- no needless Wi-Fi searching, no Bluetooth, no GPS, etc. -- and was even taught by a fellow at Verizon (I was popping in there a bit too much over my Nokia Lumia 822 tenure, as it turned out) how to scroll back to the home page in order to make sure nothing was running that would wear down the battery.
(When I asked him if there was a way I could do this without needlessly wasting time scrolling all the way back, he kind of shrugged his shoulders with an almost sardonic smirk ... Something I was growing used to with these guys as regards my apparent lemon.)
Even with all this, I still found my Nokia Lumia 822 needed to be charged at least once a day, if not more. And I barely use it. I'm not playing games. I'm not listening to music. I'm not sitting around downloading apps or liking everything on Facebook or generally being a fourteen-year-old girl or some high-powered businessman on my phone all day. I make a few calls. I download an app maybe once every few days. I check for directions. I check my email a few times a day.
And then my battery is at 23% and I have to charge it all over again. How did that happen? (And, yes, I did download the Battery app that shows the most accurate battery percentage.)
Originally, I was told I could let my Nokia Lumia 822 battery get down to 10% without there being a problem. But then I was told by a much wiser-seeming Verizon guy that, no, I shouldn't let it get past 20%. Terrific: Now I have about 80% battery power to start with all the time. Balls.
And on top of all that, my phone continued to conk out, and I needed to keep taking off the Otter Box and phone cover to take the battery out and get the phone back on. True, this might just be a problem with my particular Nokia Lumia 822 unit, but when I asked yet more Verizon guys about it, they all kind of shrugged their shoulders again and explained this is something one might just have to get used to with such a phone.
Next.
The App Gap
There's no question Apple and Google rule the market when it comes to apps. There's so many apps at the Google Play and Apple App Store that it's absolutely daunting. When I had a chance to speak with a Nokia representative at DigitalFocus in NYC about two weeks ago about the "App Gap" (his words) with Windows phones, he agreed Microsoft might be falling behind quantity-wise, but that this doesn't mean its apps are of any less quality.
And he was right. The Nokia Lumia 822 has access to some pretty amazing apps, many of which come with the phone. The Home Navigation apps in particular are truly terrific. Sure, they can sometimes get you lost anent which subway you should take, but it's becoming more and more clear that all navigation apps are not perfect and that even Google Maps has some perennial kinks (hint: Someone could make a fortune finally figuring out how to make here-and-now, to-the-second-updated navigation apps/tools that really, actually and finally work all the time).
But seriously, I love the Nokia Lumia 822's Home Nav apps and they became a big part of my being able to navigate New York's labyrinthine urban jungle at all times of the day/night.
I also absolutely love my Yivosoft Voice Recorder app for Windows phones. It's a bit pricey at $3.99, but well worth it as a voice recorder for my phone that has allowed me to record and play back (with various controls) interviews on the road.
Ultimately, that indisputable inferiority when it comes to apps of the Windows phones versus those of Android phones also got me to switch over with apostastic glee.
The biggest app issue for me was GChat. Since almost everyone else I work with uses an Android phone and everyone has Gmail, we all communicate with each other via GChat. Well, I downloaded the GChat app to my Windows phone and it works. Sometimes. Actually, strike that and make it "almost never."
I pretty much gave up on my GChat app for my Windows-powered Nokia Lumia 822 around the same time I realized this would be a phone with shitty battery power that would conk out on me every few days for no discernible reason.
When I asked the trusty folks at Verizon what they thought of this conundrum, they -- you guessed it -- pretty much shrugged their shoulders and smirked knowingly that a sucker is born every minute. An Google app working on a Windows phone? Of course that's not going to happen.
Hype/flash/swag
This last rationale for switching from my Nokia Lumia 822 to a Samsung Galaxy S3 might seem immaterial or even a bit infantile, but it's true: The S3 is a more popular and just flashier phone than any of those in the Lumia series, except maybe the 920.
Samsung is the biggest mobile manufacturer in the world. Everyone wants a Note 2 or the forthcoming Galaxy S4 or the Note 3 (maybe). Its tablets are pretty awesome, too.
And Android phones are where it's at, period. BlackBerry is no contender and iOS is fine but Apple is certainly struggling. So when you put together a Samsung phone with Android power, you get something pretty eye-turning. And we all know that the Galaxy S3 is just simply a pretty kick-ass phone with a reputation that might only be usurped upon the release of the S4.
Again, I'm a tech writer. I'm interviewing people in the industry. I'm mingling at events. People ask me what kind of phone I have. Windows Phone devices just don't have the same cred.
Finale
So it's time to switch over from my Nokia Lumia 822 to my Samsung Galaxy S3. I am still nervous about re-learning everything, re-entering everything and re-acquainting myself with an Android ecosystem (especially as I have a Nexus 7 that will now be much easier to use with the S3).
I'm sure, in a few days, I'll be right back in the groove of things, showing off the phone and its great apps, features and specs like the best Texan used car dealer with a silly hat (festooned with Indian feather and all).
I'll miss my Nokia Lumia 822 -- no doubts there -- but it's time to trade up. I'll let you know how it goes.
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