Smartphone Technology Review
#1 of Non-Furry Related Works
My non-furry related smartphone review. My old phone vs, my new phone.
Alcatel One Touch Fierce (T-Mobile, Silver)
VS.
Nokia Lumia 920 (Unlocked, Red)
My reviews: Switching from Android to Windows 8 Mobile
My name is Ray HuskyPunk. Im a tech geek living in the suburb/downtown of Arlington, Texas. This is my review on Android vs. Windows. "The Almost-Forced Change"
I recently bought myself a new phone. The Nokia Lumia 920 from AT&T. I bought it from a store named "Entertainmart" for $179.99 used. It was an unlocked phone. It has Windows 8. I bought the phone as a major upgrade to my "starter android" phone I had recieved from T-Mobile with my added account to our Family Plan. That phone was the Alcatel One Touch Fierce.
Firsthand look of the Alcatel One Touch Fierce: It looked like a nice phone to me. It had a big screen, the size of the phone felt nicely in my hands. My hands are big enough to hold a Kindle Fire like a phone. Anyway, the phone had a nice color, and I had heard of a company named Alcatel. I have heard that their phones were mid quality but mostly for starter android users. Being that it was my first time actually being on a monthly service, I decided to get it. Better than being on Tracfone for the past 5 years. The phone had a nice interface, stocked with Android 4.2.2 Jellybean. Being that I had been using Android on tablets and Non-Service android phones and devices, I got the style of this phone very easily. It was very repsonsive, the screen quality was better than I thought it would be. The camera was a bit downgraded from what I was used to, and I'm only talking from phone cameras. The camera quailty was still good enough for me, and the front cam was the normal VGA format I was used to.
After owning the phone for about 6 months:
THE BAD: Many issues linked or popping up all together. The space on the phone wasn't very good. With the amount of apps I used, the 2GB was filled within the first 2 months, and a 4GB MicroSD card didn't help much except with pictures and music. The audio quailty of the phone was good, mostly normal for a stock android phone. The problems didn't stop there though. I am highly dependent of wi-fi, and my house had enough range to reach around the entire house. The range wasn't the problem. The Alcatel would sometimes not detect the signal or would not connect altogether. After about a month of using this, it stopped connecting to wi-fi completely. It was a good thing I had Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data with a 1GB 4G LTE cap. The data worked perfectly fine, until it slowed down to 4G after my 1GB was filled. It would fill as fast as 5 days, and the rest of month was nothing but 4G. But I never really noticed the data speed change after a while. Another problem was with the space. When I wanted to update apps, I had to delete other ones even though I clearly had enough space to update them. When I had recieved one of my generic android tablets back, I transferred everything to it and my computer and almost took everything off the phone. It finally updated the apps. But then the phone had random issues. Anywhere from randomly powering on and off, to randomly making noises even on silent, to even the data going out in some cases. It got to the point of damaging a MicroSD card I had in there. Still unusable to this day.
THE GOOD: The phone was durable, even without a case on it. But I always kept the case on it. I had dropped it and thrown it multiple times and it never broke. The data range went literally everywhere, and was fast as heck on Wi-fi hotspot and such. The phone was thin too, and easy to store along with other devices. The battery was ok, but I was able to manage it better. Thats about it for the good.
REVIEW: A good starter android phone, with basic features and a little more to offer, and not loaded down with service provided apps. Even good enough if you don't want the newest thing out there but want a little extra in your phone.
Performance: 6/10, the 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Processor being fast enough for me.
Durablility: It was dropped a few times but the phone itself was pretty good. I had bought a holster case for the phone but only kept the case on. That case was DURABLE, totally worth the $16 at T-Mobile.
Visual Appeal: I liked the Silver Color along with the phone. I generally like White and/or Silver on phones or tablets.
OVERALL RATING: I give it a 7 out of 10.
Firsthand look of the Nokia Lumia 920 (Red): Wow. That was all I could say when I first looked at this phone. It looked to be very high quality, and the color was fantastic. I picked up the phone, and the weight of it was pretty impressive. Me having big hands means I kind of need a well-built phone that wont break when I use it. I turned it on and was actually suprised how nice Windows 8 had actually looked. Being an Android user, there is a BIG difference between the two. The phone was responsive, felt great in my hand, and the call quality was amazing. Keep in mind, I am a T-Mobile user, and this Nokia was an Unlocked phone from AT&T, so I didn't expect much. The orice wasa good, considering I could've bought one not unlocked for $60 cheaper. BUT, I dodn't know the cost of unlocking it and didn't want to go through the struggle of that. I had already tested the phone and it worked very very well.
After owning the phone for a few months:
THE BAD: The only issues I have had with the phone: Getting Used to Windows 8, The App Store, and the overall usage of the device. I liked using Windows 8, considering the organization was phenominal, it was easy to find everything I had downloaded, and it worked flawlessly even if I had multiple apps running.
The appstore wasnt the greatest, but it still had a lot of the main apps I wanted. When they finally added Minecraft, I flipped out. The start menu was a little different but nothing bad, just take some getting used to.
THE GOOD: Okay, there were a lot of things good with this phone. But the best had to be when it Updated to Windows 8.1. The update made the phone even better, adding Cortana, more customization, and some more features that are unique and like very much. Cortana has been help to me a lot, especially when searching for something specific on the internet. I have grown used to using Bing and actually like it a lot better now. BUT, I will still be a long-time Yahoo! user. The phone is fast, it responds to everything I do on it. The touch screen is sensitive and responsive, I can even use it through non-touchscreen compatible gloves! For the phone only-having a Dual-Core processor, the device runs better than almost any tablet or phone I have ever used. The battery life is very good. It mostly gets used up by web browsing or music. On a day I use it a lot, it will last about 10 hours. If I don't use it a lot, it lasts about 2 days. So much better than my previous phone. It charges amazingly fast too with the Nokia charger. Its fully charged from 18% in about 30 minutes. I've ran the battery down to a mere 2%, and it still charged fully within 45 minutes! The phone's speakers are very good, and provide quite a bit of sound. The dual mics really help with recording media as well. Have had nothing but crisp, clear audio. The camera is very nice. I have gotten very crisp, clear pictures and very nice HD 1080p HD Video. The mics really help in that situation too. The LED flash works very well and is very bright for dark areas. The space is absolutely amazing. I have just about everything I want on the phone. Music, Photos, Video, everything. And I have only used about 15 GB of it, and I still have 13GB of space left. 32GB goes a long way.
REVIEW: This phone is one of my favorite devices, I'll keep it even when I decide to upgrade to my dream phone, the One Plus One. It makes an amazing music player. This phone is great for Windows 8 users and I would recommend this phone to everybody.
PERFORMANCE: 8/10 for performance. It would be higher, if the only problem wasn't the weird notficiation bar, but other than that its perfect.
DURABILITY: Nokia phones DO live up to their name in Durability. This phone has been dropped, thrown, and stepped on and it has done nothing. Not even a scratch. I did buy a case for it but I don't really think I will need one.
VISUAL APPEAL: The bright red is always attention grabbing. Love the color, makes the phone look out of the ordinary.
OVERALL RATING: 9/10 for this phone.
Thank you for reading!