Those who bought Lumia 521s . . .

[Bateluer]

I turned mine on this morning to find that it was advertising an update. Turns out it was the Black Update.

http://www.tmonews.com/2014/03/t-mobile-lumia-521-receiving-lumia-black-update/

Lumia Black’s main features are as follows:

Bluetooth LE: All Windows Phone 8 Lumia devices will now be Bluetooth Low Energy enabled. This means devices like the Fitbit will be compatible. All we need is the apps.
Nokia Focus will now be available to you if your device has 1GB of RAM or more.
Nokia Beamer can now share documents, presentations, and photos to any HTML5-enabled screen.
Nokia Storyteller is now available to all phones running Lumia Black.
Nokia Camera has been available to PureView phones for a while, but now it is available to any Lumia running the Black update. The Black update also improves image quality.

 

[hotlavaaaa]

Updated mine last week. Enjoying finally having double tap to wake and closing apps in the multitasking view.

 

[Belegost]

I turned mine on this morning to find that it was advertising an update. Turns out it was the Black Update.

http://www.tmonews.com/2014/03/t-mobile-lumia-521-receiving-lumia-black-update/

That's a lot of good support for a phone with such a low pricetag/margins.

 

[quikah]

Does the double tap to wake drain battery? Seems like a pointless gimic.

I must say though, i bought this for my wife and am very impressed. The battery life is great, the OS is nice and fluid and i like the integration with the MS services. If there were more apps i would definitely switch for myself, still thinking about it honestly.

 

[notposting]

Does the double tap to wake drain battery? Seems like a pointless gimmick.

I must say though, i bought this for my wife and am very impressed. The battery life is great, the OS is nice and fluid and i like the integration with the MS services. If there were more apps i would definitely switch for myself, still thinking about it honestly.

Not really. I have a 520 I leave on, but don't use per charge cycle for more than a couple hours of screen time/music streaming. Averaging 60 hours per charge (with what, a 1300 mAH battery?). (edit: basically, I stream some music or watch videos while exercising every day and on the 3rd day it needs charging)

My 928 goes the whole day with double tap and Glance on, there was no noticeable drop when they were first made available. There probably is a difference, but it's negligible.

As for a gimmick, I love it. Seems far more intuitive than hunting down a button (I have tried tapping other screens now :awe and I figure it saves wear and tear on the power button. 928 has the wireless charging too so I never even need to plug it in, so the port isn't getting steadily beat up either.

I think LG is doing the double tap thing as well on their high end Android's?

 

[Bateluer]

I think LG is doing the double tap thing as well on their high end Android's?

Its a feature that has been coming to other Android devices because its pretty handy. Anand mentions it in his official m8 review, as does Droid Life in their initial thoughts m8 article.

Getting the black update on my 521 has been a weird experience though. At first, it advertised there was an update available and prompted if I wanted to download. Of course, I said yes. Then it told me I needed to be connected to WiFi. I run my 521 sim-less, so its always connected to my WiFi. It would pull about 4%, then stop and tell me I needed to be connected to WiFi. I didn't have the time to investigate further and went to work. When I got back, the update was fully downloaded and ready to install. It installed it . . . and the phone lost the ability to connect to the WiFi. It could still see the wireless, but simply couldn't connect. Again, I didn't have the time to really look into it . . . but the phone was connected to my wireless normally the next morning.

Seems to be working fine now though.

 

[Red Storm]

Seems like a pointless gimic.

It's anything but. It's a faster, more efficient means of waking and sleeping your device. It works great in hand, or if your phone is on the desk (no need to press a button or hold the phone steady to press a side or top button). I also like it because after you wake your phone your finger is already in position to interact, so I find it more efficient.

 

[pyjujiop]

Get the update. The double-tap isn't a pointless gimmick, it makes waking the phone up easier. I have the Lumia 520, which is the same phone except that it's the AT&T version, and got the Black update a few weeks ago. The main things it improves on the 520/521 are adding the double-tap feature and the image quality of the camera, particularly if you use Nokia Camera as your camera app.

Lumia 52x's come with a 1430 maH battery, which is plenty to get you through a day and then some, even if you talk for hours like I do. Also very snappy and responsive for just being a dual-core 1 GHz CPU. I bought it as a stopgap last fall, and it's worked so well that it's become my everyday phone.