Toadfish Monastery

I missed the whole Palm Pilot era, not having a mobile phone until the late 90s or a PC until the early noughties, so can't reminisce with you on that, but as for something to hold things you can never remember (eg - phone numbers), or for something to do in long queues, it's superb to have something.

I usually take a book (or my eReader) with me so that I have something to pass the time, but now I have my new phone, unless i'm going away for long periods of time, I can just use my phone. It will take ebooks, so that's that problem solved, it can take music, it can take pictures, so it's handier to have just one device capable of all these things rather than 3 of them, more so for shorter periods of time.

It's not perfect in the dark, Griffin, just in low light. Even Nokia can't perform that type of miracle.

Quote from: Griffin NoName on December 04, 2012, 08:42:14 PMMy phone does camera and video, so not totally dark ages.

If you turned up in the Dark Ages with even the most basic of phones, you'd still receive a warmer welcome than is entirely comfortable.

Thanks Zono. It's odd how attached we become to our gadgets and the way we're able to interact with them.

It would have been nice to try out Android on this phone, but it wasn't to be. It was this one I specifically wanted, so it was WP8 or not this phone. Not a hard call for me.

I've managed to tear myself away from the free trial on Netflix (wow!) momentarily to give my opinion of my new phone. First off I need to come clean. My name is Roland Deschain (on here), and i'm a Nokia fanboy. There, i've said it. I love Nokia, and have only owned 2 non-Nokia phones since my first mobile phone back in 1998 (ish). That's not to say that i've not used other phones belonging to other people, but nothing did it for me like Symbian. This has changed though, and this is an all-singing, all-dancing, Windows Phone 8 (WP8) device.

Operating System (WP8)

As I alluded to above, I loved the Symbian OS. Its layout was intuitive for me to use, and moving onto any other OS layout was a complete mission for me, which is why I was a little nervous that i'd have issues with WP8 at first, but I could hardly have been any more wrong. The OS is just as intuitive, if not more so, than Symbian. It is quick and responsive, which is obviously partly to do with the massive touchscreen the phone bears, and scrolling works like a charm.

The menu screen with all the pretty icons on it can be completely personalised, with app shortcuts not only placed onto it at will (as long as the app supports that feature), but also resized and moved into your preferred position. All it takes is pressing a finger down on the icon you want to move/resize, and you are presented with the option to do so. So simple.

Its drivers install automatically and easily to Windows Vista to browse folders for removing files from it, and placing files onto it. The file system is fairly straightforward, allowing the wonderfully simple drag-and-drop method of file transfer.

Screenshots are also easy to take, needing the pressing of the Windows key and the screen lock/power button, an easy thing to do.

Apps

I've been playing with the apps a lot, having not really had the opportunity to do so on previous phones, and have only had one issue so far, but that was because the Kerrang Radio Player app hadn't had WP8 functionality added to it.

That's not an issue though, as there are now around 150,000 apps available in the market place ranging from the usual Facebook/Twitter integration, through to Hotmail and other webmail clients, but that's not all. Games, fart machines, Family Guy quotes, BBC Radio stations, Reddit, Amazon, The Guardian, whatever you could wish for is there, and although it doesn't have quite the size of the Android Store, you can't go far wrong with this many apps.

Most are reasonably priced, but there are some I find to be overpriced, although if you shop around, you're bound to find a cheaper (or free) app doing almost the same thing. A nice feature is the related apps feature, which shows you apps similar to the one you've been looking at, and it is through this that the cheap and free ones are the easiest to find. This is not to say that the category and search options are bad, as they're not, but to make it even easier, this is one feature that is well worth having.

The addition of Xbox Live integration, along with the ability to import your Gamertag and True Achievements, was a nice touch, and certainly would have been a missed opportunity. What makes this all the better is that there are many games where you can earn Achievements to add to your Gamerscore.

Along with this is the new and improved Nokia Maps, which works like a charm, and maps can be downloaded for almost the entire planet for use offline, saving battery. Integrated with these maps in Nokia City Drive is a full-on Sat-Nav app, which is once again almost perfect. There are only 2 female and 2 male voices available for it as far as I know, and they're included, but I have yet to search for more voices, as there will hopefully be.

Hardware

What can I say about the hardware onboard except that it is awesome! The screen is 4.5!, more than large enough for comfortable viewing of files, and being capable of a 1280 x 768 resolution, always appears crisp and sharp. It shows up very well in sunlight, having almost zero glare, and although I have yet to test it in the height of summer, it has done very well on a cloudless Autumnal day here in dear old Blighty.

The phone itself is large, as it needs to accommodate all that touchscreen real estate, but the casing is not much bigger than the screen. The phone is heavy, weighing in at 185g, which makes it one of the heavier phones on the market, but all this I am now used to, as it really only took me a few days to forget that part. It's also reassuringly always in your pocket, as there's no mistaking that.

It's 4G ready, being compatible with most 4G bandwidths in the UK (and the US/Europe, as far as I read), but due to 4G's inherently oppulant price, i've gone for a standard 3G connection on T-mobile, but fear not. It has dual antennae inside it, and is compatible with wi-fi and internet sharing. At home I get blistering speeds over my wireless network, downloading 7MB files in a matter of a second or less, but with the dual antennae, this isn't really diminished much when on the move. I've tested downloads on a moving bus with no issue at all, so as long as there's an EE/T-mobile/Orange network nearby, I can use the data allowance with no worries.

And then there are the cameras. It has a pretty bog standard 1.3 Megapixel camera on the front, which is handy for videophone calls if you can be bothered to pay for them, but it's the back camera that is the star of the show.

This is an 8.7 Megapixel camera, and you're wondering what's special about that these days, but it is the inclusion of the Pureview technology so deftly used in the 808 (that 41MP behemoth from earlier this year) that makes it special.

This includes a Carl Zeiss lens, optical image stabilization, autofocus, and a dual-LED flash, which makes this camera able to take much clearer pictures with a little shake in the camera. The night vision is out of this world though. Taking a picture at night was so easy with Night Mode activated. The picture was so clear, and it picked the colour out, even in very dark conditions. You can change the f/stop value from f/2.0 to f/-2.0, ISO from from 100 to 800, aspect ratio, white balance, and conditions. The focus assist light is a major feature, and is what helps get a little extra detail.

The camera also has geo-tagging ability with Nokia City Lens, an app that you use to show where local points of interest are. You use the camera to look at a street, and it will create an augmented reality on the screen, tagging those places (not tried it out yet). There's touch focus on the camera too.

Battery Life

This is, so I am told, from above standard smartphone length to upper echelons smartphone length. For me it lasts a day with moderate usage, but i've had it up to 3 days with little unintensive usage (ie - light newsreader browsing). Games suck it dry, so be warned!

Design

I love the overall design of the phone. I don't think it's a little blocky at all, as some people have said. I find it easy on the eye, having the stately black version and not the gaudy yellow/white/cyan/red version, and something I can finally once again be proud of holding in my hand in public. The one complaint I would have of this phone is that the search button, which rather unhelpfully opens Bing (used for QR code and Barcode recognition), is situated in the wrong place for the right-handed phone user.

When you hold the phone in your right hand and type or punch the screen with your right hand at the same time, it is all too easy to press the search button with your palm. This necessitates more careful holding of the phone, but it's nothing major, just a niggle.

Overall

I would definitely give this a 9.5/10, as although there is room for improvement, all that improvement will do is make this phone perfect.

Total time logged in: 4 days, 6 hours and 17 minutes.

I may have to leave myself logged in permanently to have any hope of catching up.

Quote from: Swatopluk on December 01, 2012, 02:53:22 PM...It was difficult enough to get the 3hours+ version (most editions run only 2 hours, which I am not willing to accept)...

That's me as well with films. I was going to get the original Dragon Tattoo trilogy of films until I found out there were much longer versions made for TV, and the films were basically cut versions of them. They'll take some getting through, for sure.

Quote from: Opsa on November 26, 2012, 02:39:42 PM

Quote from: Pachyderm on November 26, 2012, 01:17:40 PM
Vat, check.
Motor, check.
Nekkid, check.

Come on in, the butter's lovely...

Y'arrrrrgh, this is the loif. Lubricated inside and out.  

Why am I never invited to these kinds of parties?

^ Brilliant!

Griffin, that was pure Woody Allen and [classic] Mel Brooks there.

A corporate executive, a Tea-Partier, and a union worker are in a cafe, and order a plate of 12 cookies. The executive takes 11 of them, and turns to the Tea-Partier saying, "You'd better watch out for the union worker. He's trying to take your cookie."

Es ist nicht alles im Arsch. <--- Thanks, Google, for that rather bizarre translation.

What it should say is - Es ist nicht alles gefickt.

Last _{now where's my cake!} Post.

Alles klaar.

Ah, some more decent films to watch. I shall add them to the rather long list.

Zack and Miri is definitely a good film, and i'd recommend it to all here who haven't indulged in it yet. Jason Mewes plays his role well, as do all of the cast. Again, highly recommended.

I've begun season 3 of Forbrydelsen, which is to be the last, apparently. Sophie is back with her sweaters, and is a few years older than the last time. The story is a little darker, I think, but it plays on the tried and tested formula so successfully done in the previous two seasons. A must see. Now to wait for episodes 5 and 6 appearing on the iPlayer tonight!

How dare Rachel Maddow say those things. We all know the Republicans are right!

We've now had the first official frosts of the season here. The weather has been getting decidedly colder over the last month, and now that December is here, we've had some proper frosts overnight. Yay!

Quote from: Sibling DavidH on December 01, 2012, 11:10:17 AM

Quote from: OpsaThat would make some very cool wallpaper.

I think there are laws about using wildlife for home decoration.

You'd also need the 1970s back.

Those layered cheeses are nice, as you get a taste explosion when eating them the correct way round. I hope it was nice for you.

I treated myself to a breakfast in my local cafe the other day, and chose the Turkish breakfast, which rather nicely comes with Halloumi. I love Halloumi!

Then on my way home, I stopped in Tesco to buy some Manchego. That was extremely well received upon its devouring.

St. John definitely liked his mushrooms, as Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman told me so in Good Omens, so it must be true. He (John) has an awful lot to answer for.

Last ^{mushrooms are}_{so much fun!} Post.