In terms of the sound quality alone, audiophiles may find the sound produced by this Nokia phone, as by the other analogous phones, somewhat lacking in the low register, and the soundstage to be a little narrow. The audio out for your hands free set or earphones is located on the top of the phone, which makes the smartphone blind operation in a pocket more convenient with earphones connected. The built-in mAh battery is sufficient for nearly a day-long operation, which means a whole day of using this smartphone that utilizes the Windows OS for your work or entertainment without a risk of the battery drain.
As a rule, the earphones that come with the most smartphones, offer a mediocre sound performance, so we recommend replacing them with better ones. We suggest buying a set of closed-type earphones or headphones for an optimal sound experience when used with mobile phones as such earphones produce a very detailed sound while providing a good isolation of ambient noise.
Looking for a powerful phone that can snap high-quality photos, run modern apps, and, at the same time, not make an Ohio-sized hole in your budget? Well, you could go for used models or risk it on a Chinese knock-off but we recommend the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone instead. First things first we have to give high praise to the rear camera here. You can do a 4x zoom to get up close and do widescreen shots of objects far from you. This is helped by the optical stabilization feature that gets rid of blurring even if you have shaky hands or the object is moving.
Now, with that kind of camera to work with, you might want to go wild and snap hundreds of vacation photos. However, make sure you leave some space for the rest of your files. That might be a bit hard to do, though, since you only get 32 GB of internal storage with no slot for a memory card. Besides, the rest of the tech specs are pretty slick here. With 2 GB RAM and a powerful dual-core processor, this Windows phone might not rival a full-on modern computer but it certainly stands its ground against other smartphones and even some PCs and laptops from last gen.
By the way, we want to quickly circle back to photos. And the color and contrast settings give you room to work with so you can set the screen up to your liking quickly. All in all, the Nokia Lumia is a prime example of an alternative to iPhones and their ilk. Soon after the Microsoft company revealed their flagship Lumia and XL smartphones to the public, the budget Lumia model was introduced. That was the first entry-level smartphone by the company with the newest Windows 10 operating system, which is installed on the flagship models.
However, the phone developers decided not only to equip the phone with the fresh operating system but to add a metal case, which use is very beneficial for the phone operating life and gives users a peace of mind. The speaker, which is located on the back for the most of the smartphones, in this case is located on the bottom of the front panel. Such speaker arrangement a very convenient and thoughtful solution that will let you hear the incoming call or message more clearly.
Even when you watch videos, the sound does not disperse but reaches your ears unmuffled. The detachable back cover is removed very quickly and easily, uncovering a removable battery, SIM card slots, and a microSD memory card.
The components of this Windows phone is rather modest in terms of a raw performance, with the smartphone not intended for a heavy-load use scenario. However, the internal storage, as we mentioned, can be expanded using the microSD slot. The internal storage can be expanded to gigabytes, which was hardly credible only a few years ago. This capacity is more than enough to store a large library of books, tons of music and video content on your Lumia The more so since the 5" display of the smartphone makes viewing such media content very comfortable.
The Lumia is aimed at maintaining a fluent and effective workflow. The model is useful both on the road and at home. There are two factors in proof of this statement. The first being the capability of using services of two mobile operators owing to the two SIM card slots available. The second factor is the seamless integration of this Lumia cell phone in your working environment in case you are an MS Windows or Office user, as you will not need to learn how to use third-party applications and will be able to work with Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents directly in MS Office on your phone.
With this Lumia model, you are able to maintain the Office document workflow or prepare for a press conference while on the road. As you know, you can not only work but have a rest on a trip. And what is one of the best ways to spend your time on the road if not listening to your favorite music?
The music brings positive emotions and gives you a powerful charge of energy for the whole day. The best way to enjoy high-quality music is to use a mp3 player or a DAP, which can unleash the whole potential of your headphones or earphones and to submerge yourself in the world of music.
It is no news that most of the modern smartphone users wish to have a device that offers a seamless integration of a device for work with an entertaining one. In the entry-level segment, the Microsoft company managed to produce such a device - the Lumia The model combines an attractive price with a set of all the basic features and applications for a comfortable use in both scenarios. An effective utilization of the Lumia hardware is achieved by the use of the mature Windows 8.
The onboard quad-core CPU is capable of delivering a smooth and stable running of all preinstalled applications, thus allowing you to perform user tasks with the device with no issues. The 1 GB of RAM installed is not much for a modern device, but given the budget cost of this Windows phone and the OS optimization, this is quite acceptable.
The components are encased in a plastic body with a matte back cover, which provides a better grip and prevents the device from slip out of your palm accidentally. Among the cell communication features supported, there is the 3G communication standard that ensures a quick Internet access and info search from any location covered by the cell network.
This connectivity makes it even easier to work when away from your office. The device operation is also facilitated by the 5" touchscreen covered with the protective Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
The display supports a four-point operation, which makes it possible for a quick text entry in instant messengers, so you can exchange the information with your friends or colleagues instantly. Any modern smartphone is as convenient and useful as its software. Owing to the applications installed, the possibilities of the device conceived as primarily a phone are greatly enhanced, allowing you to use it in a wide range of situations. The Nokia Lumia is no exception and makes both your work easier and the rest more fun.
For example, you can use the Glance onscreen feature to personalize the screen saver and configure the settings of the screen clock, incoming messages display and backlight activity scheme. These measures allow you to optimize the battery use and increase the phone operation on a single charge in some measure.
You can make use of the alternative ways of controlling your Lumia smartphone, for example, by using a double-tap on the display to wake the phone up without touching the power button.
Therefore the Lumia model offers the functionality and performance that are sufficient for performing basic work tasks and provide a fun experience. Since the amount of the smartphone internal memory is limited to only 8 gigabytes, we recommend expanding it. This can be done with the help of micro SD cards, luckily there is a plenty of manufacturers and the products available.
Choose the most suitable option is much easier after reading our review. Windows smartphone is a phone running on a Windows mobile operating system, which, similar to its desktop PC and laptop version, has practically the same set of features and compatibility with various applications.
Thus, a Windows-based phone offers the functionality analogous to the one of Android and iOS-based phones while using the same main hardware components. Many global brands opted to produce smartphones based on Windows OS as they found them to be in great demand. For example, such a popular feature as the One Drive that provides a free cloud service for storing your data greatly enhances the abilities of Windows phone users to save large data volumes and access them from virtually any location via their phones.
Despite the fact that modern smartphones can easily take high-resolution photos and record videos, the quality of resulting footage and photos is still inferior to those made with specialized devices, such as bridge cameras or cameras for portraits.
With that, wherever you use it keeping memories with a portable camera will be as easy as it will be exciting. Choosing a smartphone, the first thing you need to evaluate is its Display as it serves as the main control and data output element of the phone. As numerous display technologies are developing rapidly nowadays, their names and abbreviations may be very confusing. In essence, aside from the diagonal size, we should pay attention to the display resolution and panel technology.
Many of Android and Windows-based phones have so-called Full HD displays that support the x pixels maximum resolution. With the display size of 5 and more inches, such resolution makes the text clear and sharp yet not very small and the images comfortable to view.
However, the popularity of 2K displays in smartphones that offer up to x pixels and come under the Ultra HD or UHD abbreviations is increasing. Another important aspect is the display panel technology that influences the way a given display renders colors, attains a high contrast picture, displays the image at different viewing angles, etc. Despite quite a few panel technologies used nowadays in smartphone displays, the IPS technology is arguably the most widespread as it provides a good combination of large viewing angles, high contrast and vivid colors for the display.
Modern CPUs, as a rule, have multiple cores so the more cores the CPU has the better multitasking performance it provides.
This performance improvement can be felt by users when running several applications simultaneously. Aside from architectural improvements the CPU clock speed or core speed plays an important role: the higher the clocking the better is the single-thread or single-task performance of the CPU.
The same general rule applies to the RAM: the more RAM the better is performance and ability to run multiple applications in parallel. However, 2 GB or more is recommended for a smartphone to have a room for running future OS updates and new applications while providing a comfortable phone use. The Battery , or rather its capacity, is what we need to consider in connection to the intended use of your smartphone. The battery capacity is measured in mAh milliampere-hours with the indication of the battery voltage usually 3.
Therefore, the higher the battery capacity the longer operation it provides on a single charge at the cost of size. With that, if you need a phone mainly for making calls and seldom Internet use, the mAh capacity is enough for you to use the smartphone for a day or two without recharging the battery.
Yes, sure, more than half the phones out there now run these two systems. However, there are some cases where the good old Windows OS and phones running it have advantages over this boring duo. This makes a Windows phone uniquely compatible with it and much easier to connect than an Android- or iOS-running smartphone. While there is some movement towards broader connectivity between the various OSs, it has yet to truly blossom. So, for now, Windows has the edge.
We fully acknowledge that this is subjective and might be a point of contention but we find the minimalistic yet elegant design of the Windows Phone OS to be a real winner. Things have gotten better for both Android and iOS in terms of performance speed but Windows Phone OS, unlike them, never needed that kind of long road to competence. The Windows Phones have all integrated compatibility with XBox so you can check your account, get bonuses, and talk to friends online all via the phone.
While all phones, at least as of recently, allow for downloading maps for offline checkups, the Windows OS offered it first and is the only one to give that option in an easily accessible manner. The rest seem to hide it away and make the process as mind-numbing as possible. Windows phones and Android phones share the same concept and use similar hardware parts differing only in the software platform. A: The most recent Windows version used in smartphones is Windows Phone 10, which is installed on the newest models.
However, in most cases, users of older Windows-based smartphones can upgrade their previous Windows Mobile Windows Mobile 8, 8. This upgrade is possible due to numerous Windows core optimizations and backward compatibility with older hardware of smartphones. A: In essence, desktop Windows version is the same as its mobile counterpart. Starting from Windows 8, this OS was being developed as a comprehensive solution for a wide variety of devices ranging from desktop PCs and notebooks to mobile phones.
The difference is in the way the Windows is used on such devices. While smartphone users control their devices and do a manual data input using touch screens of their phones and, therefore, the Windows touch interface Metro and its later iterations , desktop PC users mostly resort to keyboard and mouse input and bigger displays with no touch feature.
Though phone manufacturers may customize the Windows OS they install on their product by adding or removing some features, the basic OS functionality remains unchanged as the performance and features of this OS scale with the hardware it runs on.
However, you can use Microsoft Store to choose from numerous applications for your phone. A: Yes, there is the Cortana intelligent personal assistant by Microsoft, which can set reminders, recognize your voice without a keyboard input, and even answer questions using information from the Bing search engine.
The OneDrive is preinstalled on Windows 10 and allows an automatic saving of your documents and photos with an easy sharing between all your Windows-based devices. February 21, January 11, December 5, James Rogerson 8 best Windows Phones - which should you buy?
August 6, Computer Business Review. April 6, Leave a comment as or Logout. Among the large variety of smartphones on the market, the Windows phones have quite a share. Using the Windows OS for their operation, these phones provide the functionality and features analogous to the one of Android and iOS-based phones.
Please, read our review on these devices and choose the optimal option. Read more Read less. BEST Best Pick. Check Price on Amazon. This top-tier smartphone lacks a fingerprint scanner for a better protection of user's data. RAM, Storage. Size: 5. OS Version. Number of SIM Cards. Case Material. Nokia Lumia 16GB Unlocked. Reasonable Price. Nokia Lumia Windows Phone. Size: 4. The battery capacity is average at best for a phone with such a big display.
The internal storage is rather small. Microsoft Lumia RM But, as long as you're planning to get an unlimited data plan anyway, they can make it a lot more affordable to pick up a brand new phone. There you'll find a full list of what's available, including discounts on plans and even free phones.
Right now you'll score a free premium case, a wireless charger, and an S-Pen accessory - all very, very useful additions. It's not the biggest freebie, but it's very useful to have either way. This isn't a huge discount, but it's technically the cheapest if you're going unlocked with this particular device right now.
Looking for the Google Pixel 6 Pro? While it's not the latest device anymore, that's a great price to pay for a phone that looks pretty much identical to the 13 - plus it's still got 5G capabilities too. With a powerful Snapdragon chip, co-designed Hasselblad camera system, and Hz display, this one's definitely up there with the best Android devices money can buy right now. Note, we've listed the official vendor here because it has some great trade-in options, but you can also get the OnePlus 9 at Amazon for the same price.
Being refurbed by Apple itself means you're getting fully official replacement parts, quality assurance testing, and a really generous warranty and return period too. Definitely consider it if you're looking to save some cash. Deals on unlocked smartphones aren't always the most eye-popping, as they tend to offer only small cuts to the retail price.
Occasionally you'll find a major deal on a new smartphone, usually late into the one-year refresh cycle for that brand. We've seen this kind of price drop commonly for Samsung flagships, but they aren't frequent and rarely match the up-front discounts carriers offer.
However, the savings you get from unlocked cell phone deals can be hidden. That's because an unlocked phone will let you freely move between carriers, so you can always choose the mobile plan that suits you. This can make your savings add up over time, as you won't be stuck on an expensive data plan for 24 months as you pay off your phone on an installment plan. You can also sometimes get deals directly from the phone's manufacturer, as they can offer trade-in discounts that retail stores generally won't.
If you're looking to buy your device upfront, this is a very, very strong option. Apple iPhone months of free service with switch at Mint Mobile Mint Mobile's cheap plans already made it a favorite among prepaid plan users, however, it's just released a couple of great cell phone deals on the latest flagships to really entice people over.
New customers who buy either an iPhone 12, 12 mini, or iPhone 11 upfront with a month plan can get an additional months on the house. While a bit pricey upfront, this is a good option for saving some cash in the long run. This one's got a lower upfront price versus the series devices so it's probably a better choice if you're strictly on a budget and are the type of light user that would make good use of the 4GB plan. To be eligible you will, however, need to be switching over from another carrier, so bear that in mind.
Again, you'll need to be porting your number over to be eligible, but this one's a great option if you want to cut out the middle man at an unlocked retailer. Pre-paid carriers aren't locking you into a contract, so they don't have the same incentive to offer massive discounts and device installment plans. But even still, there are still some phone deals to be found, even if their sales don't quite match those found on the big carriers.
These deals will generally let you save a little bit of money upfront, while the low cost of prepaid plans can help you save even more money over time. If you want the freedom to switch carriers later on, you'll want to double check what big network these smaller carriers are with and their policy around unlocking phones. If you find them a little too restrictive, we'd recommend checking out the unlocked phone deals above. If you'd like to see more prepaid phone deals, we recommend checking out our main page on this week's best Mint Mobile deals and Visible wireless deals.
Looking for something specific? We've got a whole host of dedicated phone deal pages that are super handy if you've got your eye on that new iPhone or Galaxy in particular. Cell phone plans Looking to simply save on that bill? Perhaps it's time to switch or upgrade that old plan you've been on for years. Our roundup of the best cell phone plans in the US is one of the best resources on the web for finding the right plan for you.
No matter whether you're looking for a cheap plan, unlimited or a plan for your family, our guide will help you out. If you need a guide to the best prices on the whole range, our iPhone deals roundup is the place to start. You'll find the best offers from all the big carriers right here, as well as the cheapest prepaid and unlocked iPhone deals currently available. With a powerful new processor, improved battery life, camera upgrades, and an expanded storage capacity, both the 13 and 13 Mini are great choices for the average user.
See our bespoke guides to score yourself a nice little price cut today. Why not check out our articles on how to save some cash on the latest premium flagships from Apple, the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. These devices are the first to include a Hz refresh rate - a welcome improvement that, alongside an upgraded processor and camera system, means they're easily some of the most powerful devices you can get in Check out our latest deals roundup for this week's news on this great new device, and, where to pick yourself one up for much less than you would think Check out our bespoke deals page to see how you can potentially dodge that eye-wateringly high price tag.
This luxury phone has a lot to offer, and better still - it even comes at a lower introductory RRP than the also excellent iPhone XR. It brings a lot of impressive, up-to-date specs including Apple's A13 Bionic chip, 4K video, and a new portrait mode. Even with all this brand new tech under the hood it still manages to come in at a wallet-friendly price, thanks to the reuse of the venerable old iPhone 8 design.
That's not to say it's still not an excellent phone however with its powerful A12 bionic chip and massive battery life. Better still the prices just keep getting lower and lower, so you're really spoilt for choice when it comes to cheap iPhones right now. That doesn't mean Samsung has cheaped out though, these phones still carry a ton of great specs and a powerful new processor in particular.
With a quad-camera array, incredibly powerful processor, and stunning p display capable of Hz! Samsung's latest series of foldable phones have just been released with two excellent devices to choose from. While pricey, both the Flip 3 and Fold 3 are on the very bleeding edge of what's possible with smartphones. They're quite simply special devices with incredibly powerful components, stunning designs, and of course those beautiful foldable screens. Your first destination should be our roundup page of the best offers on Samsung's latest phablets - the Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra.
Expanded battery's, updated designs and of course awesome S-Pen functionality are all hallmarks of these awesome new and huge phones. A completely redesigned aesthetic, powerful in-house Tensor chip, and above all else - a compelling price point has meant these new devices are very worthy choices indeed. Check out our bespoke pages on these two phones for more information.
Google Pixel 5 deals It's not just new Apple phones releasing this quarter, the brand new Google Pixel 5 is also a relatively new addition. A top phone for Android users, the new Google Pixel 5 is actually much more economical than you would think, thanks to a range of excellent design choices.