Nokia Lumia 521 for $130; anyone have one?

[AstroManLuca]

I recently discovered the Nokia Lumia 521. I've been wanting to simplify my life and save some money on service so I'm thinking of switching to T-Mobile Prepaid and getting a cheap phone to go with it. The Lumia 521 seems like as nice a phone you could possibly hope for given the low price - between $130 and $150 assuming you can find it in stock anywhere (GameStop is currently the only place that has it for $130 and in stock, and it's online only).

So does anyone have one? WP8 seems attractive to me since it's "lighter" than Android. I no longer consider myself a smartphone power user so if I miss out on a few apps or I don't have the latest hardware, that's okay. Hopefully WP8 won't lag the way Android does, even on lower-end hardware like the 521.

 

[GregMal]

Check out the TMo forum at Howard Forums. Much discussion regarding this phone.
BTW.....HSN also has it in stock.....

 

[cronos]

This has been one of the best budget options lately. I was thinking of getting one before to play around with, until I found out that it doesn't have front-facing camera.

If you're not tied to Google ecosystem (primarily, Google Voice) and/or wanted to try Windows Phone, this is a great basic smartphone with WP8.

 

[AstroManLuca]

This has been one of the best budget options lately. I was thinking of getting one before to play around with, until I found out that it doesn't have front-facing camera.

If you're not tied to Google ecosystem (primarily, Google Voice) and/or wanted to try Windows Phone, this is a great basic smartphone with WP8.

I do have Google Voice but I'm not in love with it. I got it so I could avoid having to pay for a texting plan, but the app itself is pretty awful compared to real SMS apps, and it doesn't seem to work very well. Using it to forward calls is hit-or-miss. Thankfully, the number I've had for many years is NOT my GV number (they weren't able to port it in), so I can cut ties pretty easily and simply stop using the other one or just have everything forwarded to it.

I use Google Talk the most but there are multi-service IM clients for WP8 so it looks like I'm covered there. Also Gmail, but that's just an email client so no reason it wouldn't work.

I don't care about front facing cameras... my wife has an iPad and FaceTime is a million times better than anything I've ever used on Android. Zero setup, great quality, minimal lag. I will not miss the front facing camera on my Galaxy Nexus.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Check out the TMo forum at Howard Forums. Much discussion regarding this phone.
BTW.....HSN also has it in stock.....

It's $150 from HSN though.

 

[pantsaregood]

The experience of the Lumia 521 will be smooth, just as any other Windows Phone 8 device is. It has access to the majority of the ecosystem, but it can't run some high end games due to not having 1 GB of RAM. Web browsing and productivity, however, will be perfectly fluid.

At $130 (or $150), there's really nothing else in the same league as the Lumia 521. Android smartphones at that price point are generally single cores running Gingerbread with no hope of ever receiving updates - Nokia has an excellent track record with updating devices.

 

[OS]

I used one for a day, $130 from walmart, but I did not care for it. However, this is also because I am a nexus 4 user so my expectations are rather high, I just wanted to try something with a smaller budget on windows phone. But it took too many hits on the display and radio in particular. The N4 has HSPA+ 42, but it seems like the Lumia 521 only has 21. Speedtest showed it was significantly slower. The phone is also fatter/thicker than the already fat Nexus 4. I must have something of a fetish for anorexic phones.

Tmo also has an LG optimus L9, sometimes it's on sale for $150, which is a viable android competitor.

For the rock bottom price though, it's still decent and ok for light or casual use. The screen is just ok on res, colors and contrast, but plenty bright. OS and GUI very easy to use and fluid. Boot and setup kind of slow compared to android.

 

[pantsaregood]

The Lumia 521 does only support HSPA+ 21, but it shouldn't make a huge difference on T-Mobile's network. When I was on T-Mobile with an HD7, download speeds weren't a real issue.

The Lumia 521 is 8% thicker than the Nexus 4 (0.39 inches vs. 0.36), which is fairly negligible. The Optimus L9 would be a good competitor if it didn't fall in a price bracket $100 above the Lumia 521.

Initial setup of the phone is slower than Android because Microsoft uses the same image-based installation that desktop Windows installations use. Following that, booting takes under 30 seconds - you won't be rebooting very frequently, though. The only reboots my Lumia 920 has received have been for software updates.

The display is only okay. It has "super sensitive touch" like the other Lumias do, but it doesn't have "ClearBlack." The device is not exceptional - it is exceptional for its price.

 

[cronos]

The Optimus L9 is frequently found around $140-150 as well. These two phones consistently made front pages of deal sites in the last 3-4 months, because of precisely this, the low price and their excellent quality at that price point. To say that the L9 at the price bracket $100 above the 521 is absolutely false. They are completely comparable. The choice is whether you want Android or WP 8.

 

[pantsaregood]

T-Mobile sells the Optimus L9 for $250. It usually falls around the $200 range from other places. The Lumia 521 is at $150/$130, by comparison.

That said, I'm aware the Optimus L9 has fallen to the $150 range before.

 

[pcsavvy]

Walmart sometimes has it in stock for $129.99. The Microsoft store lists it too.

 

[OS]

It's on amazon for $130 also apparently. Walmart I got it local but you can try both local and web.

Some other things I just remembered about the phone, the built in maps app is really good and battery life was great.

 

[Slick5150]

I got one just as a backup phone (I also have a Lumia 920). For how cheap it is, it's impressive. It's obviously nowhere near as polished as the 920, or even the 620 for that matter, but it's not a bad phone at all and for the price, it's hard to beat.

 

[cronos]

That said, I'm aware the Optimus L9 has fallen to the $150 range before.

Yes it has been, repeatedly, through deals from several different places (T-Mobile itself, Target, Walmart, etc). Which was my point.

If you're talking about 'budget buy' of something, especially electronic devices, retail price is irrelevant. It's how low the price can be that counts.

Just to make it clear, if you look at my first post in this thread you'll see that I am heavily suggesting this Lumia for someone who's not tied into Google and would like to try a WP8 phone. Having said that, saying that the L9 is not a comparable Android counterpart that can be had around the same price point is disingenuous.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

hes going from a nice android to a $130 single core windows phone? dayum. if youre going to get prepaid tmob, why wouldnt you get nexus 4, yeah youd have a one time $300 charge but it would be SO much better....

 

[pantsaregood]

hes going from a nice android to a $130 single core windows phone? dayum. if youre going to get prepaid tmob, why wouldnt you get nexus 4, yeah youd have a one time $300 charge but it would be SO much better....

...the Lumia 521 isn't a single-core. It has an MSM8227 in it. That's dual-core Krait. He didn't say anything about his Android device being nice, either. It very well could've been one of the hundreds shoveled-out low-end Android devices.

Also, I don't intend any disingenuity, I simply mean that it's lot easier to obtain a new Lumia 521 at $150 than an Optimus L9. Used L9s actually sell at $150 pretty frequently. Similarly, Lumia 620s sometimes can be had for sub-$200.

 

[AstroManLuca]

My Android device is a Galaxy Nexus, the Verizon version.

I don't want another Android phone, at least for now. The Lumia might be a bit of a downgrade in performance - I'm losing a few hundred MHz and only get half as much RAM - but WP8 is a very light OS and I'm less worried about performance. I haven't been impressed at all with the GNex and I'm fed up with Android. I'd never get a lower-end Android device than the one I already have.

Beyond that, I want to jettison Verizon's expensive service and move to a no-contract plan. I realized how great being out of contract could be - I was concerned about service in rural Wisconsin since Platinumtel doesn't have roaming, but then I remembered that I could just get a T-Mobile SIM card for those occasions. Or just deal with not being able to make calls for a few hours while I'm driving.

 

[OS]

That's interesting, what do you not like about gnex? That is still a pretty decent phone.

I think the biggest downgrade you are going to take is the radio, you are going from LTE to HSPA 21. But for just web browsing HSPA 21 is still decent. IMO the screen is also a slight downgrade, the gnex is 720p but pentile.

Incidentally, I used to have a grandfathered VZW unlimited data plan and went to the Tmo $30/mo plan. VZW was just too damn expensive, even with corporate discount after tax it was almost $80/mo. I've used the tmo plan for almost 3 years now and I've probably saved ~$1,500 since then.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Lag, mostly. Even after a full wipe and reinstall, Android "degrades" and becomes slower over time. I know that I'm not on the very latest hardware but I feel like that shouldn't be necessary. I recently went through and ran fstrim, and uninstalled a large number of apps so I only have the bare minimum still installed, and that helped a little. But as I use the phone throughout the day it gets slower and before long I'm waiting 10+ seconds to launch an app or to switch apps. Or even a few seconds to turn the screen on or off.

Never understood the love for LTE either, even after getting it myself. Yes, it is extremely fast and has good building penetration. But it also sucks my battery dry. I have to leave it off most of the time and toggle it on only when I need faster speeds. That takes time, which defeats the purpose. Maybe this is another case of older hardware - if I had a new one with a more up to date radio, maybe I could leave it on all the time. But I'd rather have the consistently decent speeds of T-Mobile HSPA than slow/fast switching between Verizon 3G and LTE.

Not too thrilled about the battery life of the GNex either. The 521 supposedly doesn't get that great of battery life either owing to the small battery, but at least it has a small screen that isn't AMOLED. And the 4" screen size seems about perfect for me; I've been a large-screen fan in the past but it can be hard to reach all the corners with one hand.

Essentially, I see the compromises I have to make (camera flash, front camera, LTE, Android apps) and I say, those aren't major compromises, and it's not worth the cost of sticking with Verizon. I'm not sure I could give up a smartphone entirely, but I can live with a lower end one as long as it does what it needs to do. WP8 appeals to me given that it places performance above bells and whistles.

 

[pantsaregood]

LTE drains the battery on your Nexus? The only time my Lumia 920 gets battery drain from LTE is if I'm in an area with bad LTE coverage and solid HSPA+ coverage. It constantly attempts to acquire LTE signal in such places, but doesn't drain otherwise.

Anyway, HSPA+ 21 shouldn't be a problem, honestly. As T-Mobile keeps lighting up LTE in different areas and putting out more LTE devices, their HSPA+ network is going to gradually experience less congestion.

An important point with the Lumia 521 is that it only has 8GB of onboard storage, around 6GB of which is open for the user. The phone supports SD expansion, but you can't put apps on the SD card. I don't imagine it's a big deal unless you download a bunch of games, though.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Everything drains the battery on my Nexus. Getting it to last through the day without plugging it in while I'm at work has been a constant battle since I got it. Eventually I just gave up. The thing lives on a USB cable at work and is always plugged in overnight too (it loses between 10 and 40% battery life overnight, depending on whether it's connected to wifi or not). I have already done everything to maximize battery life, disabling notifications in as many apps as possible.

When I'm actually using LTE heavily, the phone gets incredibly hot and the battery drains at an alarming rate. It drains fast enough that the percentage will actually go down slowly if it is plugged into my PC's USB port (it will charge slowly if plugged into the wall while using LTE).

Not too worried about the onboard storage. I can expand it if I need to. All it really means is that I'll have to be good about moving pictures and videos off the phone to make more room. I don't listen to music. I do listen to podcasts, but they're deleted once I've finished. If I was stuck with 6 GB built in with no expansion, that would be bad, but larger SD cards are cheap if I really need one. And in the rare case that I play a game, it's something like Free Cell. With only 512 MB of RAM, I won't be able to play a ton of games anyway.

 

[kalster]

if you use whatsapp heavily keep in mind WP8 version of whatsapp sucks balls. It doesnt support sending videos etc and is generally very laggy. Also gtalk implementation is less than ideal. Other than that WP8 is quite solid. I use a Lumia 720 which has the same SoC as 52x. Nokia maps is very good and works perfectly in offline mode too

 

[AstroManLuca]

I don't know what whatsapp is EDIT: I see, cross platform messaging. I do use Gtalk as my main IM app. Seeing as how Google recently changed their Android Gtalk app to "Hangouts," which sucks balls, I can't see how the WP8 implementation could possibly be worse. There are multi-protocol IM clients that support Gtalk and others, right?

Offline maps is nice since I'll be on metered data.

 

[kalster]

never mind then, its an asian thing i guess http://www.whatsapp.com/
nimbuzz and a few others gtalk clients are there which are fine for the most part.

 

[notposting]

I use jiTalk and MetroTalk for chat and Google Voice needs.