Nexus 5 vs Lumia 925

[ozaz]

I seem to have fallen victim of the iPhone 4S wifi greyed out fiasco, which seems to be related to the iOS 7 upgrade. I'm out of warranty so will likely need to get a new phone.

I fancy a switch from iOS. I'll probably get either the Nexus 5 or the Lumia 925.

I know the Lumia will be much weaker on apps, and Google services are not well supported. I know the camera will be significantly better on the Lumia.

Other than these differentiators, are there any other significant ones worth considering?

 

[mattopotamus]

Windows is adding more and more apps each day. I would suggest going in store and checking them both out. I prefer android, but windows has come a long way and everyone who owns one seems to love it.

 

[aneftp]

Unless camera is upmost important to you. Stick with Nexus 5.

Windows apps not there yet.

I have and currently own all 3 major OS devices.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

I would be going Nexus 5 in a heartbeat, you're getting a whole lot more bang for buck and a much more established and complete ecosystem.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Nokia-Lumia-925,Google-Nexus-5/phones/7850,8148

 

[Technarchy]

At this point I'd go Lumia 925.

I personally don't find the Nexus 5 all that appealing. That horrid camera alone is a deal breaker.

 

[ozaz]

Unless camera is upmost important to you. Stick with Nexus 5.

Windows apps not there yet.

I have and currently own all 3 major OS devices.

I am quite keen to have a top camera that works well in low light. That is the main attraction of the Lumia for me. Also, I think I would prefer 4.5" screen to 5". I've only ever used 3.5" screens. But I also think I might get frustrated by the relative lack and weakness of apps on Windows.

I think I'm going to have to get both and give each a trial run - looking at them in a store is unlikely going to be enough time (do they even sell nexus 5s in stores?). It seems possible to get good condition used Lumia 925s relatively cheaply.

 

[aneftp]

I am quite keen to have a top camera that works well in low light. That is the main attraction of the Lumia for me. Also, I think I would prefer 4.5" screen to 5". I've only ever used 3.5" screens. But I also think I might get frustrated by the relative lack and weakness of apps on Windows.

I think I'm going to have to get both and give each a trial run - looking at them in a store is unlikely going to be enough time (do they even sell nexus 5s in stores?). It seems possible to get good condition used Lumia 925s relatively cheaply.

Have to admit. I cheat. I have my iPhone 5s all the time. So rarely use the nexus 5 for pics. I do like the nexus 5 for everything else.

The nexus 5 is really light. Haven't tried the lumia 925. I had the lumia 920 and at 4.5 inch it was really thick phone compared to nexus 5.

Try to find lumia for cheap on Craigslist.

 

[ozaz]

Thank you all for your input.

In the end, I went for a used 16gb Lumia 925 (2013). I chose this over a new Nexus because of the cheaper price and the superior reputation of the camera. It was only slightly more than the cost of a 16gb used iPhone 4S (2011).

I want to share my initial experiences.

The camera certainly does not disappoint. As has been described in reviews, low light photos seem particularly excellent compared to other phones. The build quality of the phone is very good, and it's nice and thin.

There are some things I have found I liked about WP in general too.

*The OS is buttery smooth.
*I really like the people hub which integrates updates from several social networks in a single place.
*I really like the organisation of apps. User has complete control over which apps are pinned to the start screen, so it need not be over populated with apps that are only rarely accessed. An alphabetical list of all apps, which is quick to navigate, can be easily accessed when needed.
*Data sense app. Tells you how much cellular and how much wifi data each app has used for current billing period, and can restrict usage when approaching limit. Very nice.
*HERE maps. Can download regions for offline use for free. Makes for very fast browsing of the map and, I imagine, very helpful when roaming.

But there were a several things I missed from my iPhone

*Notification centre. I don't think live tiles are an adequate substitute.
*Autocapture and autocomplete of passwords in safari. Internet explorer does not seem to have this.
*Apps and app quality. Although probably 90% of my apps were covered either by official apps or decent 3rd party clients, not having that final 10%, and not always having the quality in the others is irritating when I know I could get it elsewhere.
*System wide definition lookup when you select a word.
*Rich ecosystem of hardware accesories. If I want to extend the battery of my iPhone with a battery case, there are lots of choices. Cannot find good a battery case for the Lumia 925.

In the end I think the negatives outweighs the positive for me, even though the camera is a big positive. I'll use it for a little longer but I suspect I'll be back on iPhone (probably a used iPhone 5), or giving Android a go soon.

Which items in my 2 lists are present on Android?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

But there were a several things I missed from my iPhone

*Notification centre. I don't think live tiles are an adequate substitute.
*Autocapture and autocomplete of passwords in safari. Internet explorer does not seem to have this.
*Apps and app quality. Although probably 90% of my apps were covered either by official apps or decent 3rd party clients, not having that final 10%, and not always having the quality in the others is irritating when I know I could get it elsewhere.
*System wide definition lookup when you select a word.
*Rich ecosystem of hardware accesories. If I want to extend the battery of my iPhone with a battery case, there are lots of choices. Cannot find good a battery case for the Lumia 925.

In the end I think the negatives outweighs the positive for me, even though the camera is a big positive. I'll use it for a little longer but I suspect I'll be back on iPhone (probably a used iPhone 5), or giving Android a go soon.

Which items in my 2 lists are present on Android?

I just got my dad his first smartphone, and made him buy the 925. It's the nicest Windows phone I've seen, and (quite honestly) I wish I had one. It puts my 820 to shame.

As far as your gripes, hold onto the phone until "early 2014" when Microsoft releases the Windows Phone 8.1 update. That should add the notification center, as well as some business features - VPN and the like - and you might find it better.

Hopefully by then, apps will be where they need to be, but to be honest the situation isn't all that bad. Someone was complaining on another forum about how the iPhone "just works for him" because he can sound hound a song at the gym, buy it in iTunes, and sync it back to iTunes when he gets home, and how much WP sux because you can't do that as easily, and sound hound sucks, etc...

But it's a different platform, with a different way of doing things. You can "bing" for the song, buy it in xbox music, and it'll be in the "cloud" for streaming on all of your devices, immediately. Different, but not bad... just different. Make sure you're not making the mistake of trying to do things the "Apple" way and getting frustrated. There's a learning curve, just like when you went from a PC to a Mac

 

[Oletros]

\That horrid camera alone is a deal breaker.

Horrid camera?

 

[ozaz]

Horrid camera?

I guess he's referring to initial reviews of the camera. Not horrid but somewhat disappointing given that it ostensibly has a focus on photography (based on presence of OIS).

I'm looking forward to fresh reviews of the camera following 4.4.1 software updates. A big improvement in low light performance would probably convince me to get it.

 

[ozaz]

I just got my dad his first smartphone, and made him buy the 925. It's the nicest Windows phone I've seen, and (quite honestly) I wish I had one. It puts my 820 to shame.

As far as your gripes, hold onto the phone until "early 2014" when Microsoft releases the Windows Phone 8.1 update. That should add the notification center, as well as some business features - VPN and the like - and you might find it better.

Hopefully by then, apps will be where they need to be, but to be honest the situation isn't all that bad. Someone was complaining on another forum about how the iPhone "just works for him" because he can sound hound a song at the gym, buy it in iTunes, and sync it back to iTunes when he gets home, and how much WP sux because you can't do that as easily, and sound hound sucks, etc...

But it's a different platform, with a different way of doing things. You can "bing" for the song, buy it in xbox music, and it'll be in the "cloud" for streaming on all of your devices, immediately. Different, but not bad... just different. Make sure you're not making the mistake of trying to do things the "Apple" way and getting frustrated. There's a learning curve, just like when you went from a PC to a Mac

I don't really get too bogged down in a different way of doing things. But its the complete absence of certain functionality which is a problem, and comes with relative lack of maturity of the platform I suppose. For me, the biggest problem in this regard is lack of auto-capture and auto-complete of passwords in IE which I did not even anticipate. I would hope this would get added in next major update, but who knows when early 2014 is.

Regarding the apps. The major services (aside from google) are pretty well covered. But its often the seemingly little things that irritate. e.g. there's a spotify app, but it does not have last.fm scrobbling support which is quite a big deal for me even though its probably not a big deal for most. There's no predicting when things like that will get remedied. Maybe in weeks, maybe in a year.

But I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity about WP, and if I do move back to iOS or give Android a try, I'll certainly revisit WP in a year.