In October 2013 I wrote here that I
had moved on to a combination of an iPhone 4 and Sony RX100 II as my phone /
camera combo. I expressed some
frustration that Nokia’s relatively new flagship phone, the Lumia 1020, had
none of the technology that I had loved in the Nokia N8, but hedged my bets by
saying I might still buy one.
In August 2014 I was struck by the number of positive
reviews the 1020 had received. I was
concerned that, as with the Pureview 808, I might regret missing the full
product life of the 1020. At the same
time, I could not bear the thought of having to make do with 32GB of
storage. So, I took a punt and bought an
O2 64GB variant from England.
After a lot of trial and error, I finally managed to buy an
unlock code so I could use the 1020 in Australia. I have now been using the 1020 for 5 months
and it is a good time to report on how it has performed.
First, the camera.
The camera has excellent image quality, there is no question about
that. It has
impressive detail and great
dynamic range. The big problem with it
is the shot to shot time. It takes what
seems like an age. Worse, after I press
the shutter button the image on the display freezes as a kind of preview, after
a second or so, but then, when the post-shot auto-review is shown it becomes
clear that the actual image is even later than the frozen preview. Countless times I have framed up my son
walking towards me anticipating where he will be in a step or two and thought I
have done just fine based on the frozen preview only to discover his head is
missing in the final shot. What that
means is the 1020 is really only any good for completely static subjects.
Secondly, the music player.
My music use has changed a bit since the Nokia N8 days. With my iPhone, I could use Telstra’s Mog app
to stream music. Because Mog is
unmetered that made it a very attractive proposition. The iPhone plugged into my Renault via an
HDMI to SPDIF converter. If the songs
had been downloaded on WiFi they would be higher rate MP3s, not perfect but
quite acceptable. Moving to the 1020
created a couple of problems. First,
there is no wired digital out on the 1020.
I found a way around that by buying a little Bluetooth to SPDIF
box. The 1020 appears to have the higher
resolution APTX protocol of Bluetooth so the sound quality is pretty good,
plus, no need physically to plug anything in.
Secondly, player software. There
is no Mog implementation for Windows Phone.
I tried Spotify instead. No
unmetered use but if I planned ahead and synced the music using WiFi that was
OK. I was very happy with Spotify. It introduced me to some new artists and led
me to new albums by some old favourites that I did not know existed, including
Ross McLennan’s album “The Night’s.Deeds Are Vapours”. However, that led to another problem: when I
wanted to go back over some old favourites I found they were not on Spotify at
all. For example, Ross McLennan’s old band Snout is not present (there is an
American band called Snout and they may be great but they are not Snout). Some of the key songs from Julian Cope’s “Saint
Julian” are missing, like “Pulsar”. There
is no “Rip Rig and Panic”. I worked out that
with iOS, Android and, hey, Symbian, you can sync your own local MP3 tracks via
WiFi or USB to your device. Windows Phone? Nope.
Worse, on Spotify’s community site they say “no present plans to
introduce”. C’mon! At least lie a little bit, say it is one of a
number of new features we are considering, not just “no present plans”. I move on to Deezer which is not quite as
slick as Spotify but for all practical purposes is the same plus it actually
allows you to upload your own MP3s to the Deezer cloud (I have never worked out
whether anyone else can access them, I assume not) and then sync to your
device. In summary, I was pretty happy
on the music front.
Thirdly, the apps you get everywhere else. There is a lot of talk about Windows Phone
missing a lot of apps. I think it is
rubbish. Enough of the big names are present and the implementations are generally top notch. The
Spotify app is missing one feature of the iOS version but it is every bit as
slick as the iOS version, if not more so.
As for productivity, I find email, messaging, calendar, clearer to read
and easier to use on the 1020 than on the iPhone. The version of carsales on the 1020 is better
than the version on iOS. The presentation of information about individual contacts is great.
Fourthly, the apps you cannot get anywhere else. Maybe I exaggerate a bit but I have some apps
that just do not seem to be available for other platforms. I have an app called TV Torrents that shows past
and upcoming episodes in the slickest form I have seen anywhere. The glance screen inherited from old N8 days is great.
Finally, remote control of my Sony RX100 II. The 1020 cannot do it. There are three apps that use Sony’s
published API to control various Sony cameras and none of them quite works with
the RX100 II. They need very slight
tweeks to work because the RX100 II strays slightly from the API. It only needs a little work because if have
used my 1020 to send HTML POST and GET commands to control the camera, which is
not feasible for actual photo taking but works as a proof of concept. There is an app called “Remote Photo” which
allows photos to be retrieved by the 1020 from the RX100 II but its companion
app “Remote Camera” does not control the camera.
In conclusion, I have grown to love the Lumia 1020, mainly
because I just love Windows Phone more than iOS. However, I feel that the 1020 is going to
have to go. The delay in photo taking is
the deal breaker and it looks like I am going back to the N8 after all.
I am hoping that either the rumoured 1030 will be out later
this year and will fix those issues. Otherwise
the Panazonic Lumix DMC-CM1 may be the next choice, which will permit retiring
the RX100 II as well.
