Lumia Icon, best Windows Phone ever, receives tepid reviews

in mobile on 2014-03-19 10:57 (#3GC)

Nokia's latest offering for Windows Phone 8, the Lumia Icon is out for review, and though early reviewers approve of the hardware's build quality, battery life and high-resoution screen and camera, many cite concerns about the OS and its app ecosystem and conclude the phone fails to compel.

Sporting a 2.22Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage (but no SD slot), a 20 megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, and a 5" 440ppi, HD-capable 1920x1080 resolution screen, the phone is no slouch. But reviews by Wired , Digital Trends , Gizmodo , The Verge , and IGN all use conflicting language like "best Windows phone ever made" and "pretty but flawed," "fantastic," and "bland," or "beautiful" and "unrefined." What's going on here? Is this a winner for the struggling Windows Phone brand, or does it fall short of the mark?

Lastly, rumours are circulating that Microsoft is considering Android compatibility. Is this going to be the secret sauce, or will it undermine WinPhones the way Windows compatability led to poor sales of IBM's OS/2?

Android compatibility: yes please (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-03-19 13:10 (#P6)

I don't care what Windows did to OS/2. (Well, yes I do). But here and now, there's potentially hope for app compatibility. I've got a few Samsung Android phones, including the Note 3, which is their flagship (and it's a pretty great phone). But I'm looking seriously at the new Blackberry Q10 with keyboard. Why? I like the hardware, and Blackberry does things that no Samsung Android does today. I can assign shortcuts/hotkeys to the physical keyboard, and launch a call to my wife in a single keypress. On my phablet I've got to unlock the screen, navigate over to the phone icon, hit favorites, and select her from the list (voice control works when I have a wifi connection, but I don't always have one).

Point is just: I wouldn't be considering BB alone because their software ecosystem isn't as good. But getting a Q10 Blackberry hardware with Android app compatability is potentially a sweet spot for a consumer like me! (ironic, since most tech analysts look at Blackberry and tell them to stop making handsets, as their value is increasingly only in their patent portfolio - how stupid).