Wednesday 26 November 2014

BIMU Reviews: Why I Hate My Windows Lumia 620

My very first smart phone, I purchased on a 2-year contract plan in April 2013.
I wasn't going for the Nokia Windows phone series - too expensive, like the iPhone in my opinion- and this would've been my third or fourth phone since moving here (either new or second-hand).
I walked into my local phone shop, Elisa, and had my eye on the affordable Samsung Galaxy Gio for about 50-60€.
Then one of the store representatives sent me to the "Windows Lady" and I thought, "Sure, I'll let her give her spiel but I'm really not interested in the phone."
I did and ended up walking out with a Windows Lumia 620 that day.

It's a good sized phone, you know when it's in your pocket and it certainly won't bend in half like it's non-related iPhone 6 (based on a few buyers).
The flash which can also double as a flash light is quite bright and I loved that my phone had a bright yellow cover so I could find it easily.

Within 6 months, my phone power button was broken.  It's the middle button on the right-hand side of the phone that allows you to power the screen on without receiving a text or phone call.
It's the only way to get that phone on or off or allow you to have the wait screen show up so you can flick it up and use your phone.
Thankfully, it was under warranty but the warranty was only good for a year.  I chose not to get extra because it's a brand new phone - why would it break?
They advised me it would take a couple of weeks to be repaired.  It took much longer than that and when it was ready, over a month had passed.
I was thrilled to have my little phone back and as I left the shop, relished in pure happiness that the power button works.

But the volume buttons didn't.  I could decrease the volume but not increase it.
What the heck?! I just waited over a month for this thing to be fixed and the line up was really long now - so I guess I'll go back the next day, since thankfully - that warranty is still in place.
It is not possible to increase or decrease the volume in the phone's settings unfortunately.
Hence my big dilemma!

I went back the next day with the slip that my phone had recently been fixed, and let the store rep fiddle with my phone only to confirm that yeah - it's broken again and no, I didn't drop it.  It didn't work before I left the shop the night before.
Within 2 weeks, I got a text message from the phone company advising me that my phone was ready.

Well, that was fast! you're probably thinking.
No don't think that because what they ended up doing was replacing my phone entirely with a new one.  They figured this was the most economical and easiest solution.
Unfortunately the warranty didn't renew itself another year.

I had a lot of trouble this past summer with regards to someone(s) hacking my e-mail account and with a Windows Live product - you need a Hotmail or Outlook account.
I wasn't able to change my e-mail, despite being able to crack into my e-mail on the computer. 
Fine - I'll check my email on a computer instead.
But this also meant I couldn't use any of the Windows Outlook features on my phone.  I couldn't use "One Note" (my grocery shopping list maker), "Word" - none of it.

But then I couldn't download any apps and got a few weird error codes (the phone is currently buried in a box somewhere in my closet).
I was also regularly kicked out of sites that were too busy for my phone to handle - okay fair enough, probably they weren't using mobile-friendly versions of the site - makes sense.

I dropped my phone once and the screen cracked and had to be replaced.  I paid a company 79€ to replace it and when I got it back - everything was fine - but I still couldn't download anything (and not for lack of space!).
I already had Instagram, Whatsapp and my Facebook app wouldn't let me delete it (clingy bugger).
So I cherished those apps with every ounce of me - except the Facebook one - because it didn't work.

Then the fun really began within the last month or two.
My Whatsapp would simply not work.  Messages I sent to friends weren't being sent.
I couldn't see my conversations - they disappeared.  I'd have to re-start my phone or completely remove my battery (after shutting it down properly) repeatedly.
My poor friends who tolerated my phone and my repeated messages of frustration - thank you.
My keyboard was funky when typing statuses and ONLY statuses on Facebook.  Despite the key being lit up and me pressing the correct button - nothing was writing properly and the predictive text didn't work either - but only for statuses.

Despite my phone settings for my images to go to a micro SD card that was installed in the phone - quite often, I'd try to take a photo and the phone would advise me that there wasn't enough space.
Again, I'd have to re-start my phone.

Oh and my volume button started acting funky again.  I could go up but not down now.  So I tried to keep it at 15/30 for a volume setting but while I thought my boys figured out how to decrease it via Youtube or something like that - it turns out that every time I re-started my phone - the volume would go back down to 13/30.
Weird eh?

Last bit - out of nowhere - V-Man's Youtube videos wouldn't play anymore.  He'd get about 5 seconds of a song and that was it.  And they worked before!  It was really a shame because this was the way I kept him calm when having to wait for food or to wait in line to pay for groceries...he was a mess and so upset!

Anyways, I'm so glad my neighbour had an old phone I could have and use.  And no, it's not part of the Lumia family.
I've converted to an iPhone 3GS - yes, an older model and I don't care.  It works.
The only tiny downside is that there isn't a flash or double camera (handy for Skype) - but I can definitely survive without those (if I were to compare or consider switching back to the Lumia 620).

The unfortunate thing about the Lumia - is that I haven't even had it for my full contract term.  It'll be two-years next April in 2015.
I'm confident my shop wouldn't fix my phone anymore because the warranty has expired already and that's the key part.

Overall - the Lumia takes fantastic photos in bright, natural lighting and the flash light was handy.
But the phone was a huge disappointment and I won't be purchasing a Nokia again (despite living in the country that has the city with this fine name).
I know I'm not the only one who has similar issues, as I recently did a search online and there are several others with the same problems.

BIMU

1 comment:

  1. Shame about Nokia having gone down the tubes like this - they used to be the name for the best and most durable. :(

    ReplyDelete