Category Archives: Windows

Day 4 with the Nokia Lumia 1020

November 16, 2013Reviews, Tech News, Windowsnokia lumia 1020 reviewGavin Fabiani-Laymond

I’m a bit late writing this as I was out last night at a business/work function. It was a black tie event, so it was ideal conditions to test low light shots with the 1020.

I can’t publish any of the photos from last night, but needless to say the photos were all ok. The xenon flash helped really well, in particular preventing blurring on low light. I also took a few shots with the iPhone 5S which also were acceptable but not at the same level as the 1020. I also had a few blurry shots from the 5S, but not the 1020.

I must admit the more I have had the 1020, the more it has grown on me. The camera is the showcase feature, but actually I am finding the rest of the phone a joy. I will not hide the fact that I like Windows Phone operating system. I just find it fun and refreshing to use and totally different to android and iOS. At first I struggled to understand the camera immediately, but as the days have progressed I am starting to get to grips with its capabilities. It is a serious “bad ass” piece of camera technology. That’s a positive statement by the way.

During the business/work function I showed the 1020 to a number of people. Nobody could quite believe how there was a 41mp camera on the phone. Everyone had a go using the phone and everyone loved it.

And that comes nicely to my closing thought of the day. At the end of last night/early this morning I was thinking about the real possibility of using the Nokia Lumia 1020 as my main phone. It is that strong a package for me.

Day 3 with the Nokia Lumia 1020

November 15, 2013Reviews, Tech News, WindowsNokia Lumia 1020Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

I took some more photos with the Nokia Lumia 1020. See my flickr account for some of the shots. Sadly whilst the sun was present, so was the brutal weather. The sunrise shots were taken just as the heavens opened up at full blast. The other shots taken during the day were against gale force winds.

Actually the wind was strong enough making it tricky to stand upright. But none of the 1020 shots were blurred. That was partly due to the optical image stabilisation. I also noticed with some of the shots with bright sun, the xenon flash fired to help spread the light more evenly.

I still stand by my first findings that in good light, the benefits of the 1020 camera will be not visible. It you need to zoom in, then the 1020 is ideal. In lower light the 1020 starts shining. And when you start getting creative with the camera settings I started to take some photos impossible with other smartphones. I also think the 1020 post processing is slightly too aggressive on some photos.

Moving on to the rest of the phone, it works as expected. It is good to see more camera centric apps appearing, as well as more mainstream apps. Whilst the 1020 feels less polished compared to an iPhone, I am finding it far greater fun to use.

I took a number of photos and did notice the battery level dropping, so if I was out for a while, I would get the camera grip which has extra battery power built in.

The polycarbonate build of the 1020 is excellent. It feels great in the hand, just bright yellow is not my colour. Black would be my colour of choice.

One thing I don’t get is why I can’t transfer the 41mp photos over the air. I will have to connect the 1020 to my computer at the weekend to extract these via USB. I had heard about slow camera start up times and slow shot to shot times. My experience is that it’s reasonable in its start up, and perfectly ok between shots. It didn’t slow me down. However, if it was an action shot of the moment, the 1020 would miss the moment.

Update – late last night I finally extracted the Pureview Hi-res versions off the 1020 on to my mac. Not as easy as I thought as you have to download special software from Nokia, and at first I downloaded the wrong app. I am exporting 7 hires shots to my flickr account at the moment (6.20am) so by 7am the full 34mp photos will be uploaded. The extra definition is excellent.

MetroTalk for Windows Phone hit by Google Decision to ban all 3rd Party Voice Apps

November 14, 2013Android, Apple, Tech News, Windowsgoogle voiceGavin Fabiani-Laymond

From MetroTalk –

We are sad to announce that after a request by Google, MetroTalk will be removed from the Windows Phone store on May 1, 2014. We apologize to all our users for this but the decision is beyond our control, and in fact affects all third-party Google Voice apps. The good news is that the app will remain available and fully functional for 6 more months, and you can expect bug fix updates during that time. A huge thank you to all of our users for making us one of the top downloaded and highest rated apps of the Windows Phone store. Once again, we truly apologize to everyone affected by this.

This is a decision by Google that will affect all 3rd-party apps, due to Google locking down on security in Google Voice. The Google Voice API was never publicly available. So if you use a 3rd party app for Google Voice you have 6 months notice.

Bit by bit the openness of Google as a platform is closing down and this is another step towards that end game.

Day 2 with the Nokia Lumia 1020 – part 2

November 14, 2013Reviews, Tech News, WindowsNokia Lumia 1020, ReviewGavin Fabiani-Laymond

Ok, so part 1 looked at bright power sunrise photo shooting. So how about no sun and very overcast. In my mind this is where I started to get really impressed with the 1020. Also, I was able to reframe and zoom in on the cows. The iPhone 5S had no chance in hell getting the level of detail on the cows when zoomed in.

So below is the first shot from the 1020.

And now a crop of the cows in the distance.

And now the same shot from the iPhone 5S. But zooming in on the cows wasn’t really that great to view at all.

So do you agree with my verdicts?

My view of the 1020 is that it really is all about the camera. In some bright light situations it doesn’t in my opinion offer a night and day difference but as soon as the lighting changes, or you need to use some of the pro features it comes into a world of its own. In fact the advanced camera features are brilliant. I took a few pitch black shots and was impressed by the results.

My only disappointment is that the new Nokia Black update is not due to arrive until 2014, and I would have loved to have been able to install this now. Not that it is available in any event.

Using the 1020 as a phone is fine. It’s the Lumia 925 in polycarbonate and with all the weaknesses and strengths of a windows phone.

Day 2 with the Nokia Lumia 1020 – part 1

November 14, 2013Apple, Reviews, Tech News, WindowsNokia Lumia 1020, ReviewGavin Fabiani-Laymond

It was a great sunrise this morning and so I thought I would take a few photos with the Lumia 1020 and iPhone 5S. Later on in the afternoon the sun faded and the light wasn’t very good. So what I have found is that while the 5S takes very good shots, as soon as the light fades, the 1020 can still take really good shots. Also in every shot the 1020 appears to have more detail, and the proof is on the reframing and zooming in on a photo even in poor light. In fact the level of detail possible was impressive on the 1020. And don’t forget the iPhone 5S has hardly any controls for the camera. The 1020 has a wealth of options to help take a stunning photo.

The photo above was taken with the 1020. Below is the same shot using the iPhone 5S, normal and the other in HDR mode.

Ok, another view from the 1020 below.

And now the iPhone 5S , in normal and HDR mode.

So which do you prefer?

From what I can notice the 1020 does sharpen and saturate the colours more. The 5S is more natural in its results. But there is no denying the 1020 delivers more detail.

Nokia Lumia 1020 First Impressions

November 13, 2013WindowsNokia Lumia 1020Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

When I returned home yesterday I had a yellow Nokia Lumia 1020 waiting for me.

The Nokia Lumia 1020 is basically a Lumia 925 with a 41mp camera on the back. If you want to read about the features of the software, either click the reviews link, or if viewing the mobile format, tap menu, reviews.

So my first impressions. Instead of an aluminium frame on the 925, the 1020 is made of a high grade polycarbonate. It feels better built than the 925 in every way but has identical specs apart from the camera.

So with my sim installed, I fired up and setup a few accounts. I then went to run the software update and it was telling me I had the latest firmware installed. Except I don’t. I have tried so many times but I can’t get the new update. So I then opened the windows marketplace app store to reinstall my purchased apps, except there was no list showing me which apps I had downloaded or even previously bought. So far it wasn’t going so well.

So time to try the camera. I tried a number of photos inside the house in dim overhead light. The detail and clarity is clearly evident and on the whole very impressive. I need to try taking some more photos over the weekend to see really test the camera. In one low light shot, I actually felt the iPhone 5S took a more natural looking shot (colours) than the 1020.

Anyway, it’s very early days, so if you have any questions please fire away.

Nokia Lumia 1020 coming up

November 11, 2013WindowsNokia Lumia 1020Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

Now that Windows Phone has had GDR3 and all the extras updates from Nokia, I thought it was a good time to spend time with the 41mp smartphone from Nokia.

I must admit to being excited to use another Windows Phone. The Lumia 620 and especially the 925 were a joy to use. As to parts that were important to me, the camera and sound quality via headphones were both excellent. So the Lumia 1020 and it’s 41mp shooter potentially could be a match made in heaven.

We shall see.

Nokia Lumia 929 revealed

November 6, 2013Tech News, Windowsnokia lumia 929Gavin Fabiani-Laymond

WPCentral have revealed the above photo of the new Nokia Lumia 929, which will be an exclusive to Verizon. The hardware looks great and the specs below are more than adequate. Microsoft just needs to improve the platform and then it’s game on.

– Qualcomm Quad-core Snapdragon 800 at 2.2 GHz
– 5 inch AMOLED display, 1080 x 1920
– 2 GB of RAM; 32 GB of internal storage (no micro SD)
– 20 MP PureView rear camera with oversampling (16 MP + 5 MP photos); Front facing camera
– Dual LED flash
– NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE
– Qi wireless charging
– FM Radio
– At least three HAAC microphones
– Data Sense, NFL Mobile, Verizon Tones, VZ Navigator, My Verizon Mobile, Nokia StoryTeller, Nokia Screen Beamer
– Available colors: glossy white or matte black

iPhone 5S vs Nokia Lumia 1020 – Camera Shootout and the winner is not the 1020

November 1, 2013Apple, WindowsNokia Lumia 1020 vs iPhone 5S camerasGavin Fabiani-Laymond

This is not going to be popular but the new iPhone 5S was pitted against the venerable Nokia Lumia 1020 with its 41mp camera versus the 8mp iPhone 5S camera. The test was done by Laptopmag. To see all the photos and verdicts click here http://blog.laptopmag.com/iphone-5s-vs-lumia-1020-camera .

Now most would already give this contest to the Lumia 1020 but I am afraid it lost the shootout. Laptopmag used both phones in auto mode and HDR off. Wait, it had to do this as the 1020 doesn’t have HDR mode. It also used the Sony NEX-F3 mirror less camera as the control.The 5S even won the night time shot.

I must admit I was somewhat surprised by the results myself. And I also felt laptopmag were fairly balanced in their scoring as they did not mention that the Lumia 1020 needs 4 seconds between each shot using the ProCam app.

Now I will add that if you were to start using all the manual mode options with the Lumia 1020, better photos will be possible than the iPhone 5S in my opinion.

Catch up on 20 of the Latest Phone/Gadget Reviews

October 27, 2013Android, Apple, Firefox, Reviews, RIM, Tech News, WindowsReviewsGavin Fabiani-Laymond

It is often difficult to find the reviews of devices and accessories I have written about, so below is a quick way to find all the articles for the key reviews. Or use the top right search box to search for anything on my blog.

Netatmo Urban Weather Station Review

Sony XBA-H1 Headphone Review

Sony Xperia Z1 Review

Sony QX10/QX100 lens review

ZTE Open Review – Firefox OS

Huawei Ascend P6 Review

Nokia Lumia 925 review

HTC One

Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom Review

Sony Xperia Z Tablet

Samsung Note 2 review

Nokia Lumia 620