Which Lumia?
 

I hope this is the best place to post this. I'm looking to buy a new phone and I'm wanting to try Windows as an alternative to Android. I already have an Android tablet (which I love!) and have had Android phones up until now. I can get a few cheap deals on an entry level Windows phone at the moment and am looking to pick one up to see how I like it compared with the Android one I have at the moment. The options I have are the Lumia 530 at £40, the 630 at £55, and the 635 at £70. I only really need to be able to call and text, use messaging apps/Facebook messaging, and maybe use Google maps or some equivalent, plus an ereading app, but I see the Kindle app is available in the Windows store, so that would do for the majority of my phone-based reading (a small percentage compared to on my ereader/tablet). I do hope this is an okay place to ask about this!

This is the correct forum to ask your questions. I'll answer some of your questions. I have the Lumia 520, but I'm only using it as a media player to listen to music and audiobooks. I don't use it as a phone because 1) smartphones require data plans and I refuse to pay the fees, and 2) I don't like Windows because of the interface and weak appstore. But don't let my reasons stop you from considering a Windows Phone (WP). There are some members here who have WPs and love them. Hopefully, one of them can give you some recommendations.

Microsoft doesn't use anything Google, so no Google Maps. The Lumia uses different maps. I'll let someone else talk about that, because I don't use the map feature.

Go to the appstore and make sure you can get the apps you require. The store is very small when compared to Apple and Google. Looking over your post, it appears you should be able to get what you want, but check anyway.

Why did I get the 520? Because it cost me $10 and it's an excellent music and Audible player. Also, the 4" display makes it easy to put in my pocket and the speaker is very loud for such a small device.

Hey, thanks for your reply! I already have a contract and data plan so that wouldn't be an issue for me. I'm having a look through the app store just now and I think I can get most of what I require. I'm not attached particularly to Google over Microsoft, so I think I could live with a different map app but it's not even that important to me.

I'm glad it's an excellent music and Audible player as I would find that a useful bonus! 4-4.5" is about the maximum size I would consider in a phone for myriad reasons. $10 is incredibly cheap though! I liked the look of the 520 but it would cost me £60 refurbished at cheapest. The 630 is looking like the winner at the moment as the price the midpoint between the other two options and I'd be willing to sacrifice 4G (I almost never have that strong a 4G signal anyway). The 530 looks nice, but has smaller storage and I've seen a couple of reviews point out that it feels "cheaper" compared to the 630.

YW :)

The reason it was $10 was because Amazon had a sale on it for $20 and I had a free $10 credit from them. I almost didn't get it, but I'm very glad I did. I placed a 64GB mSD card in mine. I plan to load it up with audiobooks, music, and a few cartoons.

On my 520, I deleted a bunch of the pre-loaded apps and placed most of the others onto my mSD card. By doing that, I have about 4.5GB of internal storage available. I strongly recommend getting a mSD card. The phones you're considering will take up to 128GB. That's quite a bit of storage, not to mention expensive. Amazon frequently has 32GB and 64GB mSD cards on sale.

Personally, I don't consider any device with less than 8GB of storage; and then it must have a mSD card at that level. If there isn't a mSD card, then I won't get anything less than 16-32GB depending on its use.

I got a 530 about a month ago (local seller had a 60% off sale), and I love it.

It's a good size, I can read on it (once I found decent software), and it works well as a phone (something my previous Andriod phone didn't do).

The Windows Phone makes a lot more sense than the Android Phone, and is pretty easy to use.

Yeah, with either phone (I'm between the 530 and 630 now) I'd definitely be getting an mSD card. I can get 32GB for about a tenner, so it works out pretty cheaply. I'm leaning towards the 630 partially because of increased onboard storage.

Thanks for replying! The thing I like about the 530 is the small size, I have quite small hands and have found the 4.5 inch Android I have just now to be a bit big for me to use one handed. One thing I've seen a lot of people say about the 530 is that the screen is noticeably poorer quality than the 630 in terms of the black not being truly black and so on. Would you say there's any truth to that?

It has been indicated to me that the Kindle for WP8 app is not very featureful compared to other platforms -- for instance, you cannot sync Personal Documents through send-to-Kindle. The handful of other reading apps also don't seem to be very strong compared to the available Android/iOS offerings.

Get a big card up front. You cannot move installed apps between SD cards, you have to move them to the internal memory and then out.

You may be able to use some form of SD card clone software for this, though.

I don't really notice the screen quality that much. The screen quality is better than the more expensive Samsung that it replaced. I use it as a phone, and as an eReader for those rare times I don't have my Kobo with me. I don't watch video on it or play games.

And, of course the quality is going to be less, it is a cheaper phone. It really depends on what you are going to be using it for.

What I found interesting is that the reviews I read about the 530, before I bought it, never mentioned how it operated as a phone.

I'd go for the 630. Simply because it has some better stats than the 530. The 635 is only worth it if you actually have a 4G subscription.

About the maps, Lumia Maps is awesome. You can download the maps you want to use offline, for free, and even have a very good turn-by-turn navigation all built in, using the same maps, all without having to use your data connection (if you download them using wifi, naturally).

I tried to use the google map offline once, on my android tablet, I never got it to work, so I can't describe the difference (except my Lumia one works, and the google one didn't :p)

Microsoft has released a new Lumia 435 recently.
It should be coming out soon (however this might be depending on the country you are from).

If you want to get a 4 inch phone I would probably consider this one.

The reason is that it has 1GB of RAM (compared to the 512MB all the phones mentioned in this thread so far). This makes it a bit more future proof in my opinion especially considering that at the end of this year Windows 10 is released.

I know MS said that every phone running 8.x will get Windows 10, but they also said that especially the lower end ones will miss features.

I got myself a Lumia 730 recently. Bit bigger, but the best phone I ever head ;)

Caved and ended up with the 630. I only got it this morning so my use of it has been limited, but so far I'm mightily impressed. I'm coming off a slightly better specced Android phone (the Moto G 4G) but there are some things impressing me about the Lumia straight away. First of all - it's snappy as anything. Even when it hits a loading screen, you don't feel like it's stuttering at all. Secondly, the screen isn't quite as clear as the Moto G, but it looks well enough and I rather like the "tone" of the colours in it, so to speak. Overall, I just like the aesthetic of it. I've tried the Kindle app, and it's okay. For all I'll actually use it for reading, it'll probably get the job done. I've obviously given up on 4G by picking this model, but I'm very rarely out of reach of Wifi, and most of the places where I don't have Wifi, I also wouldn't have 4G signal.

A bargain at £55, I think!

Yes, that's where the difference is mostly, the screen. The more expensive models have a better screen (and a better soc and more memory, but that's also required if you want to have the same performance on a larger screen...)