[sc:mobile-category ]In my previous post about adding inductive wireless charging to a Nokia Lumia 925 I closed with half-joking reference to finding a 32 gig 925, well it turns out half-joking was actually not joking at all 😉
I started poking around on ebay.co.uk for an unlocked 925 and the 16 gig models are pretty common, the 32 gig special edition was a little less so. Also, most sellers didn’t include international shipping in their listings. However a quick e-mail to the sellers proved to be fruitful as not a single one had a problem shipping to Canada.
It took a couple of tries to win an auction and with the 5 hour time difference it did make for a late night as the auction ended at 2:20am. However I did get the winning bid at 321 pounds or about $500 Canadian.
I received the phone, which came in its original box a few days later and it booted up without any issues.
I’ve had the chance to play a bit with the 920 and while a great phone it is a tank. The 925 is exactly the opposite. Thin, light and nicely rounded curves it is the phone Nokia should have produced long ago for its flagship line.
Next I verified the 32 gig of memory and popped in my Bell SIM to verify it was unlocked without any issues. I’m not sure about the power button on the side of the phone or the USB port on the top, but neither seems to be a show stopper for me so far.
On first boot, the phone went through the standard Windows Phone setup process and to begin with I didn’t link it to my primary Microsoft account. Instead I didn’t add an account at all and just played around with the basic phone for a while first.
After spending some quality time fondling the hardware it was time to get to setting the phone up. Connecting to my Microsoft account pulled down my profile info, pictures from SkyDrive and the backup of all my text messages. Installing applications was a little time-consuming and you lose any configuration you had in them but the install application list on the Microsoft Phone website was easy enough to navigate and find out what I needed to install.
One nit pick about installing apps you have purchased is that when you select them in the store you have to hit the “buy” button and then select re-install. Not a big deal but it would be nice if the buy button switch to a re-install button.
Moving my pictures and music across (that were not on SkyDrive of course) was just as simple as connecting my old phone to my PC, copy and pasting them to a temporary location and connecting the new phone. The exception of this was playlists. As they are not “normal” files, they don’t copy across this easily and I ended up re-syncing them from Windows Media Player instead.
The camera is as good as everyone says, the image quality is great and the low light performance is exceptional as well. The camera on my last few HTC phones had been a bit let down to the rest of the phone but Nokia have spent the time to get it right.
I’ve said before my old HTC HD7 had a great form factor and so far the 925 seems to have the same kind of feel to it. I think that it’s the 15:9 screen format that seems to make it feel right. The 925 is a bit shorter and wider than the 8X (but pretty much the same weight) and just feels better in your hand.
I haven’t yet switch my SIM card over to the 925 permanently, there are a few things left to do:
- I’ve ordered a charging shell for it so I can try integrating the wireless charging in to the phone.
- I use a ProClip dash mount for GPS and streaming media to my car radio, I’ll haven’t ordered one yet as I’m not sure if I want to get a case for the 925. I could also go to the Nokia Car Mount…
- See above, thinking about a case for the 925 😉
- See above and above 😉 Otter hasn’t created a case for the 925 yet 🙁
Once I’ve gotten the wireless charging integrated in to the phone I’ll move my SIM over and then I’ll have to decide what to do about my car mount…
