Away from Android towards Windows Phone 8.1 (already) and Lumia 1020

Being a geek sometimes requires you to try many different things to form your own opinion on a subject.
I was looking at Lumia 1020 because of it's The Camera (and if you're looking for my review of this mighty 41Mpix thing you will not find it here, there are already many reviews available online).

I was kind of preparing myself to look like geeky-geek running around with two smartphones, as if two is always better than one, right?

Our local telco LMT started sellilng them on 17th of October and I got one the next day. So it is already a 2 weeks and I have some experience to share.

Currently I'm sitting in the nice place with coffee and cake, listening to Bach's Goldberg variations performed by Glenn Gould on my yellow Lumia. You can't see it on the photo though, because I don't have the second Lumia 1020 to take a picture of the first one :)

Yes, I have fully migrated from Android. So let's start.

Camera is the big argument here - I don't use anything else for shooting except smartphone  for some time now and decided that camera with image stabilization, bright optics, mechanical shutter and monster sensor is better than 8Mpix generic camera in my old Galaxy S2 where I used HDR Camera+ app to negotiate shooter's lack of dynamic range.

But the camera is not the only argument. I somehow developed feeling that Android became (or was from the very beginning?) rather ineffective on hardware and as a result - on battery use. You need 4 cores to run the thing smooth they say... Don't get me wrong here: my SGS2 with Cyanogenmod 10.1 performed well and lasted for a day of moderate usage...

I briefly played with WP8 platform before. Initially with HTC 8S and later with HTC 8X. I was impressed by effectiveness of the OS, by smooth experience and ability to listen to music for hours without any noticeable toll on battery. I was concerned though about lack of apps, especially from Google, and this is why I had plan B with two smartphones.

I do understand Google's stance on WP8 platform - competitor from one side and not that popular as iPhone from the other. As a result totally ignore-able without any harm to primary businesses.
However Google is one (if not the only) driving force of the Internet and it maintains state of order in digital world. Google harms the global digital world by not having app for each and every platform from this point of view.

I personally was least concerned by lack of Gmail or G+ apps for Windows Phone, but more by lack of native Authenticator, because two factors are obviously better than one single password.

It turned out you can grab opensource Authenticator app for WP8, which you can sync with Google to generate correct time codes. I also found native MS Authenticator app for LiveID account, which is very nice move from Microsoft.

I'm not interested in twitty thing and Facebook, so I'll leave this two apps without discussion.

Default set of HERE-apps is nice if you have Lumia. Nokia is doing for Windows Phone platform as much as HTC has been doing for Windows Mobile platform many years ago.
HTC offerings currently lack good and free turn-by-turn navigation at least in my part of Europe, which is good argument to go for Lumia. And this is pity, because I see HTC is on the decline - it is unable to compete with Samsung and LG in Android ecosystem and unable to make a statement in WP world where competition is not that fierce.

After Nokia's apps I like Microsoft apps: Lync 2013, Office and OneNote. Along with e-mail client MS apps do support RMS-protected documents, which is nice for enterprise oriented users. And the lack of support for 802.1x authentication for WiFi puzzles me a lot, which is kind of standard among big companies.

My list of apps for Lumia 1020:
Adobe Reader
Authenticator (from MS) Update: you can use this app for Google account also
Authenticator (by Matt McCormick)
ChronoMts - simple timer/chronometer
ConnectivityShortcuts with live tiles, very handy to quickly manage connectivity - useless with 8.1
Digitally Imported one of my favorite radios online
FlashLight XT because Lumia 1020 has also led along with Xenon flash, this one simple and elegant
Fotor - image editing app, maybe not the best out there, but I like it. Does any one know an app capable of editing 38Mpix RAW images?
Freda+ e-book reader, which is also available for Windows 8
Lock Manager one of the must have apps in the Market Place
Mobilly - to pay for parking/public transport (if you are in Latvia)
Network Tools to do some network troubleshooting on the go
Office Remote - you will like it when you have to deliver PowerPoint presentation and change slides with your phone
Phonly which is better implementation of Feedly for androids
Runtastic apps - for keeping your body fit, includes apps for push-, pull-, sit-ups, squats, utilizes gyroscope.
Shazam used to have it on Android and happy to have it on WP
Skype - lacks landscape mode at least and with annoying notification sound, which is impossible to change.
Skydrive requires no introduction, called OneDrive nowadays :)
Speedtest.net also requires no introduction
Viber - like it more than Skype, when no video required; it seems it's codec is more bandwidth friendly, it has landscape mode, image sharing and it has Sent-Delivered-Seen statuses.
Weather by The Weather Channel. Update: Lumia 1020 has barometer sensor, but I'm not aware of any app to utilize it.

I also deployed developer's preview to get latest and greatest from Microsoft as early as possible :) along with WP8 Preview Alerts
Nokia Music is kind of OK, but being a great fun of MortPlayer for Android I miss some functionality here. Solution for a painful process of playlist creation is here.
Data sense is handy and useful - easy to track app's bandwidth usage over wireless and over broadband.

Many apps require typing, and I'm very happy with MS keyboard, both for English and Russian. Including competency of inline dictionary. Really, my experience is way better in typing on WP8 keyboard, than using android's keyboard. Latvian keyboard is also possible, but unfortunately without dictionary and spelling. Switching between keyboards is fine and fast too.

There are some minor inconveniences though, mainly related to usability. Why do I have a quick way to switch between ring+vibrate to vibrate, but not to silent? And why only 6 fixed places for notifications on the lock screen? Nokia Glance is handy, but why I can't see notifications along with the clock? And why I can't call a contact with a single click from the main screen? And why call app is somehow separated from Address Book? And why there is no Remote Desktop app, which is already available for Iphones and Androids? And where is VPN connectivity? (8.1 has it)

Overall experience however is very positive and I see that WP platform can get a much bigger market share especially if MS will hold development pace on the same level.

Update: Lumia Black is here for some time, with nice additions like AppFolder (not perfect, however), Nokia Beamer (the way to show your phone screenshots (pictures) on friends TVs, and grandma's laptop), Nokia Glance is improved with notifications, Nokia Camera has RAW mode for images... in other words - you must have it :)

Update2: Successfully upgraded to Windows Phone 8.1 (developers preview wave). Update was long, with additional preparation step.
- Drop down list of notifications finally! with swipe to dismiss - missed it very much....
- Notifications are limited somehow, unable to select NFC on/off for example.
- Can show more tiles, so no need for fullHD screen to have 3rd column of tiles...
- 802.1x EAP-TLS wifi is working!
- Battery usage by apps is here
- Nokia Music updated
- IE11 is more speedy now and supports more tabs
- Skype has "Mark all as read feature now"
- by the way Engadget have a great article on the subject already
- to enable Cortana you need location, region and language to be set to US English
- subjectively overall performance has improved
developing...