So what have I got for my £110 or so?
I can now create and edit contacts. Much stronger feature than those on its predecessor (also a Nokia).
I can now send and receive text messages in a reliable way. One: the feature whereby it tries to guess the word you want usefully speeds up typing with the small virtual keyboard. Two: the recovery of old text messages from the PC to which the old phone was often connected and sometimes backed up was very patchy.
I can now make telephone calls in a reliable way. Receive a bit more hit and miss as I have not quite grasped how to get from off to answer. Three: don't get any choice about ring tone out of the box. Looks as if I have to download something to get that. And probably pay for it.
I occasionally use the feature whereby you can read Office documents. Documents surprisingly visible on the small screen. Handy for reading in a hotel bed in the dark when you do not want to disturb your partner and/or when you have forgotten to bring a real computer along. It looks as if it might be update competent but that will probably remain theoretical in my case.
I frequently use the camera, with which I have been very impressed. Huge improvement on its predecessor. I have got as far as using the focus feature which comes with the half pressed snap button, but I don't suppose I will get as far as downloading soft lenses, whatever they might be.
I do have what seems to be the necessary Microsoft account, but I have not yet tried to connect the phone to the Internet, partly because I am a bit twitchy that this will suck me into spending money. For example, to put some maps underneath the presently empty map button on the phone. Then what about worms and viruses? If the phone runs on Window 8, presumably all the malware which runs on a PC will run on the phone. Whole new can of worms, so as to speak.
Added a further £10 to the £110 I paid for the thing by getting the local, ever helpful print shop on West Street (print.centre@btconnect.com) to print off a manual downloaded from the Nokia web site. Four: manual not terribly helpful, vastly inferior to the sort of thing that the (government) tax people knock out. For example, the instructions in the manual about turning the thing on and off do not seem to correspond with what happens in the hand. But I will keep on trying from time to time.
Integration with the PC very easy, at least as far as documents and pictures are concerned, with the phone coming up in Window Explorer in the same way as a data key or my Kindle. I think I can manage the documents and pictures on the phone from the PC. But then I try for contacts, the things that really are a pain if you lose them. Five: despite giving the matter quality time, I am no where near being able to back up my contacts on my PC.
First step was to ask Google, which resulted in a completely indigestible mound of stuff. Not much help at all.
Second step was to ask the Nokia site. Not much help at all.
But while I was doing all this, up came a unsolicited pop-up in which a Microsoft Technician with an eastern European name offered to talk to me. So far so good. His first suggestion was that the Nokia software I already had on the PC ought to do the trick. Tried that once again, just to be sure, and no go. His second suggestion was ask Nokia - and at least he was confident that something is needed on the PC, rather than something - maybe an app - on the phone.
So off to Carphone Warehouse where they say, full of confidence that what I want is Zoon. They even write it down for me. Back home to find that Zoon does not exist but something called Zune does. Foolishly, forgetting what happened last time, I tried this, I downloaded Zune from some miscellaneous free download site. And down it came, complete with a whole lot of rubbish, use of a lot of which involved flashing the plastic. Even more annoying, it messed around with the display that I got from Google. This was clearly no good, so I uninstalled it all. And after a reboot or two, Google was back where I started.
Next I try downloading the same thing from the Nokia site. Which somehow got me into the Xbox part of the Microsoft world. Or perhaps that was later. Anyway, some time later, I have installed the Zune thing to find that (according to Wikipedia anyway) it has been discontinued and that it appears to be a Microsoft version of iTunes rather than a tool to back up my phone. And I can't find a sensible description of what this large product does anywhere. Even the usually helpful Wikipedia fails me.
Which is where the matter rests. I have a Zune icon on my desktop but I don't have a clue either how to use it or whether it does what I want. And I don't think that the people at Carphone Warehouse are going to be much help. They have too many different phones to keep track of and I am far too old for them to waste much of their quality time on me. Maybe I will have another go tomorrow if it is too wet to move onto the next DIY project, building a house from sundry outdoor pipe work against the coming frosts.
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