Nokia Lumia 520 Portable Media
For music and video it has everything you could need, and more. It includes Xbox Music & Video (which syncs with your collection btw) and Nokia Music plus you can download apps for music, video, and podcasts. Apps like VEVO, Pandora, Nokia Music, plenty of unofficial YouTube apps and of course — Netflix. It also includes an FM radio which works if you have headphones plugged in. The radio definitely reminds me of the Zune HD when I owned one. Not to mention there are some really nice games on Windows Phone 8.
Is it the best model Nokia’s Lumia Lineup? No, that would be its 1020 model. But the point here is, while it’s a decent phone for kids or budget conscious users, it’s also an incredible portable media device on its own. It’s prepaid and you’re not even required to pop in the SIM card to start using it. Most of the apps and services work fine over WiFi. However, if you want to us Nokia’s HERE maps and AT&T apps, you do need to pop in the SIM. You’ll also need that to activate the phone. But you don’t need to pay for a voice and data plan if you’re just going to use it as a media device over WiFi.
More Features, Lower Price than iPod touch
If you were to buy the 64 GB iPod touch, it will set you back $399. Oh, and the Lumia 520 is an actual phone too, where the iPod touch is not.
This phone completes my ecosystem of Microsoft devices and software. And at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, it fits in perfectly, just like an iPhone does in an Apple ecosystem. I just sign in with my Microsoft Account and everything is there on the phone. My contacts, email, SkyDrive files, Xbox gamer tag, music collect…etc. I’m also a subscriber of Office 365, and the Office apps work much better on Windows Phone than Android or iPhone, so that just another mark in the win category.
It’s a perfect mid-range pre-paid phone. I’ve always been a prepaid guy anyway. You can save a lot of money going prepaid. In fact, check out Austin’s article: How Much You Can Save by Switching to Prepaid. Sure it’s not the top-of-the-line 1020, but it’s solid and perfect for my needs and allows me to get my music and other entertainment fix when I need it.
If you’re contract is coming up, I would recommend trying out a Windows Phone — especially if you’re leaving BlackBerry. I know most people who have an iPhone or Android are already loyal to their platform, but even so, you might want to give Windows Phone a try. There aren’t 5 Trillion apps like the other top two platforms, but the essential basic apps are there, or if official versions aren’t in the store, chances are there’s a decent third-party version. As I get rolling with this phone over the next few days and weeks, expect to see several How To articles on WP8 and how to integrate it in with a full Microsoft ecosystem, including interesting things you can do with it, Xbox, and Windows 8.1. What do you think about Windows Phone and / or the recent news of Microsoft buying Nokia? Leave us a comment and let us know your opinions! The more I’ve played with it the more I have realized you need the SIM card in it. No reason not to. It lets you use HERE maps and set up some other services. I used it without the SIM for a few hours, but like I said, some things just don’t work. But the main answer to your question is NOPE, you don’t have to pay a single cent for it…unless you want to pick on of their prepaid plans for voice, data, and texting. I don’t know what you mean by “activating” it. If you are using it on a regular mobile sharing plan you could just use your existing SIM Card in that phone. If you are using it on a “Go” prepaid plan you pay for the plan in advance and the phone no longer functions when you run out of “plan”. If you were to use the phone without service you can just use it with WiFi. Thanks for the writeup! Then you just slide it in underneath the battery. There are pictures and directions on where it goes. There is no additional fee for putting it in. The only fee you have to pay is IF you purchase the pre-paid service…which goes on a month to month basis. It’s all simple, easy, and pure awesome! Would be perfect for a 9 year old as a media only device. Remember too that if he wasn’t on WiFi, you can stick a MicroSD card in it and load it up with video and music to watch anywhere. There’s a 620 that is around $200 and I believe their 320 is still on the market, but that is a piece of junk from what I’ve read. If you wait, a new model will definitely come up, and once it’s pulled, you’re best bet is getting a used one. I would just pick it up. If you don’t like it for some reason you can always return it. But I am happy with it…and I AM using it as a phone too…not just a media player. Are you using the apps you’ve tried over WiFi? Or did you set up a data connection? There are several You Tube apps available for Windows, but there is no way of knowing which one will work best. I had to install and uninstall a few until I found one that worked best. I have a tip, though…try the ones that are not specifically made for live tiles and that show ads. I have one of those apps, it’s totally free, and it works great. Does the one you use not show the ad overlays too? And yes, no pre-roll ads which is always cool. I have read about problems with the sd cards so haven’t bought one yet. Have you expanded your memory with success!? If so what brand/size sd card did you buy? Thanks for bringing exposure to the Microsoft platform and Xbox music! And the cool thing about Xbox Music on Windows Phone is it includes podcasts — where the Windows 8 version doesn’t — yet anyway. http://goo.gl/2UhYhR Right now it’s only $20 So I picked up a decent pair of Sennheiser CX 300-II Precision earbuds for it. Not top of the line earbuds, but the phone doesn’t come with earbuds, and if it did, they would suck anyway, all stock earbuds are terrible. But these Sennheiser’s really bring a killer audio experience. Much better than what Apple “claimed” are awesome earpods which I reviewed last year: http://goo.gl/QYZZ5h So how do I get all my music from iTunes to this? Do I use media player to manage the songs moving forward? I will have a how to article on it sometime this week I am sure :) I purchased this phone shortly after my previous posts in the comments above (Sept 5th). Granted, I’ve only had the phone on a handful of times after initial setup, but i have not seen a single update notice for either apps or the phone itself. I don’t see a way to “check for app updates” and each time I check the phone for updates in the Settings, it tells me none are available. Is this related at all to not having the phone activated? I’ve found a number of forum threads related to App Updates not working, with various workarounds (soft reset, delete IE cache, un-pin, re-pin Store Live Tile) for getting app updates working. What is your experience with the 520 and app/phone updates? The phone is a Christmas present for my son, so each week , after he’s gone to bed, I turn it on and check for new games to install, and see if there are any updates. Not a single update since I bought the phone. I will check out some of the things I’ve found tonight, but thought I would also leave you a note here to see what your experience was. Regards. Some SIM card strangeness too: Since I bought the phone, I never could get the SIM card to recognize, which impacted the ability to run Navigation. Today, I noticed something weird that seems related. I had originally set the date/time to manual when setting the phone up. Today, I set it to Auto, shut the phone down, removed and replaced the SIM card, and it recognized on next boot up! I verified the Navigation app worked, no longer giving me a SIM card not found error. Then I noticed the date on the phone was sometime in March, at 9pm, when the actual date and time were Oct 29 at noon local time. So I went back to Date/Time and set it to manual with corrections for date/time. Guess what? SIM card no longer recognized. I set the time back to auto, which did not adjust the time/date (since I set it correctly manually), but the SIM card stopped working. I again shut the phone down, removed battery, removed and replaced the SIM card, then powered it back on, and the SIM card started working. And…the date and time were screwed up again, back to March 15th at 9pm. I’m going to leave the phone on and connected to wifi for 24 hrs to see if it eventually syncs the date/time correctly, and if it does, how that impacts the SIM card. http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-selling-lumia-520-for-59-off-contract-on-black-friday I really wish Microsoft/Nokia would release a Lumia 525 equivalent (1GB RAM) media player version with dual MicroSD Cards and no cellular. Could probably get it under $150 for player + Dual 64 GB… Total Storage 132 GB for a fully integrated Windows Store App/GPS Navigation/media player/Windows Phone 8 device. The Nokia Lumia devices have been good enough that any exposure helps the ecosystem and this would be another way to expand. Comment Name * Email *
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