I’ve Been Seduced By A Windows Phone

OK, so a year ago, I wrote about the fact that I had not upgraded my trusty old Nokia 6310i to a Smartphone.

I didn’t want to get an iPhone (I’ve never liked Apple’s walled garden infrastructure) and Google’s Android environment seemed to me to be too much of a free-for-all, where, rather than evolution, cancerous growth seems to be the result of letting too many cooks spoil the broth.

The third way seemed to be Microsoft’s Windows Phone, where a firm grip was taken on the base specification, while allowing for innovation in hardware. I was underwhelmed by the first release of Windows Phone 7, but by last September, with the Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) release, Microsoft seemed to me to have achieved critical mass. The operating system had good reviews and seemed to offer something of interest. Yes, in terms of market share, Microsoft languish well behind Android and iOS, but I think that this can reasonably said to be because of other factors.

So, from September onwards, my interest has been piqued by the possibility of buying a Windows Phone. Since I have been using a Nokia mobile phone since 2002, my first thought was that it should be a Nokia Windows Phone.

When Nokia announced the Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 710, my mental crosshairs centred upon the Lumia 800, in the Cyan colour. That seemed to me to be the best possible merging of hardware and software design in a mobile phone.

Since then, I’ve been tracking the availability of the Nokia Lumia 800 here in the Netherlands, and comparing the price plans that the suppliers have been advertising. A couple of weeks ago, there was an offer that I could not refuse from The Phone House. A Nokia Lumia 800 on a one-year’s contract from Vodafone totalling less than 400 Euros – this at a time when the phone itself retails at between 450 to 480 Euros, without any additional connection charges included.

I admit I was seduced.

And so it was, on the 23rd December, that I took possession of a Cyaan Nokia Lumia 800, and today, Vodafone have completed the porting of my mobile number from my old Nokia 6310i to the Lumia 800.

I have to say that the basic experience of the combination of the Nokia Lumia 800 and Windows Phone 7.5 is a joy. The physical design of the phone feels absolutely right, and the user experience of Windows Phone 7.5 is beautifully done.

I was worried about the shortcomings of the Windows Phone Marketplace infrastructure, but I have to say that while they are still there, I’ve been able to paper over the cracks. I now have a unified inbox for all my email accounts, and I’ve been able to bring in my Contact lists and Calendars from other places on the web. It’s not perfect, but I think I can live with it, which is what I never thought that I would say a few months ago.

I’ll follow up this post with some thoughts about the applications that I have installed on my Windows Phone. Some are brilliant, and some are so-so. The fact remains that I think I can now bid farewell to my trusty Nokia 6310i and hail my Nokia Lumia 800.

Le Roi est mort – vive le Roi!