Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 7 - The Last Stand

Well, kinda like X-Men - The Last Stand, since its a day that I need to lived against all odds. My body aches is getting worse and I felt like I still need to cover a lot of things and visit few more places. I'm also running out of funds so I need to take drastic moves.

07:30 +8GMT, November 10, 2013

Arrived at the pension house from my relatives bonding stints in Bacoor, Cavite. I need to start my day early because I have to packed my things up. My return flight was 5AM the next day and I was planning to spend my last night at the airport so I could save an overnight rent (the drastic move I'm referring to), wont missed my early flight (lame excuse) and that its a safety precaution as well since I might get robbed whanging around the Metro at 3AM (another lame excuse). Its better to be safe than sorry. ;)

It was an exhausting morning, I felt like I already spend all my energy that I just want to stay static for the rest of the day but I have no choice but to push myself to the limits, my check-out by 12 noon. I also need to juice up my Nokia Lumia 925 and power bank because its going to be a long day and night for the phone. I might not be able to charged it again until I arrived home the next day.

Though the phone had a Battery Saver app that would help conserved battery life by turning off running background apps when the battery reached a certain level but I doubt if it will help with my techy and socially connected lifestyle. Automatic brightness setting of the phone screen could also help but it will make the phone display dull. Anyhow, I have no choice but to do both so the phone could last overnight.

12:30 +8GMT, November 10, 2013

Left the pension house and went to SM Mall of Asia. They have this baggage counter for travelers where you can leave all your backpacks and trolleys safely for free and it closed at around 12 midnight so its very convenient. I then went to another favorite place of mine to visit when I'm in the Metro, Divisoria, another shopping hub. I haven't find a Nokia Asha 501 yet so I tried my luck.

14:00 +8GMT, November 10, 2013

Arrived in Divisoria in a demure pace with the body ache thing going on. The place was ideal for shopping but the traffic going their is terrible. How I wish the City government could find a solution for this long due problem, its not fun to be stuck in an hour of noontime traffic inside a jeepney with all those fumes and foul smell around.

I then went directly to Tutuban Town Center, one of the most prominent malls in the area to find mobilephone stalls selling second hand phones. It was again a spin-off, it took me several turns around confusing hallway blocks to find the only shop selling a Nokia Asha 501. All my efforts finding the phone for the past 2 days though was rewarded because it only cost me PhP2,800 for a unit with charger. Definitely a huge steal since the brand new price of the phone is PhP4,500 saving me PhP1,700!

I also was able to find my dream phone, the Nokia 808 PureView, on display sold for PhP10,000 only but I don't have enough money to buy it. The phone would probably remain in my dreams forever since only God knows when will I be back and it would probably be sold already when that time comes.

I also find several Lumia phones on display, even the Lumia 925 being sold only for PhP13,000 unit alone and PhP14,000 with complete set. The brand new price of the phone is still somewhere around PhP21,000, I would have save a huge PhP7,000 for it. Anyhow, if only I have enough cash, I would have bought them all!

17:00 +8GMT, November 10, 2013

Drop by Recto avenue to look for 2nd hand Law books. Yes, second hand again, no frills! But really, when your studying law, 2nd hand or brand new won't matter since laws doesn't changed much and new books only offer new case annotations. Believe it or not, I found four books that save me PhP8,000 compared to buying new ones.

FYI: Did you know that this place is well known for replicating just about anything? You can buy an almost genuine copies of school Diploma's with all the stamps and seals; Transcript of Records where you get to decide the grades; ID's of all schools, institutions and government agencies, etc., at the right price! Just name it, they have it!

Meanwhile, one thing I've notice about the phone being subjected to a ruckus environment was that I usually missed several text messages. I don't know if it was just me, but really, I find the message alert system of the phone too quite. This is also a problem with the Windows Phones that I've trialed so far, I find the notification system silent to my liking. Maybe its because of the message alert tones, that most of the built-in tones were too soft to bare and that users cannot add tones in the existing lists; or perhaps due to the phone's speaker, but in either way, I hate it, text messaging is still one of my main toll in communication, I cannot afford to compromised it. Microsoft needs to fixed this problem fast before I get tempted to buy an iPhone or any of the Androids!

18:30 +8GMT, November 10, 2013

My last pit stop for the rest of my wandering before hitting my last stand, Rizal Park, Manila. They have a new attraction that is always featured on television, the dancing fountain. I thought it could be a perfect opportunity to test the video capability of the Nokia Lumia 925 that's why I included it in my itinerary.

Well, to my surprised, there were lots of people watching the light show. What's even more interesting was that I was liking it, I thought it was only a kids show but I was wrong, adults will also find it entertaining. Got a few snap shots of the fountain using the phone, video sample will be featured in a separate article, watch out for it.

Battery checked after all the picture and image ordeal, 40%. Well, I haven't really used much of the phone early on that's why it lasts me that long. Usually, in this time of the day, I'm already almost drained. 

22:00 +8GMT, November 10, 2013

Arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 safe and sound. It wasn't the first time that I slept overnight in this airport, I always do this every time I have early flights the next day. It even had a memorable experience the last time because I got struck by an Amoebiasis early morning from the Siomai that I brought the day before from a street vendor outside the Department of Health Manila, ironic. It was my worsts experience ever, I got a throbbing stomach ache every 30 seconds and I have to defecate every 20 minutes. I was dehydrated like hell! Well, those were the days!

Anyways, after arriving at the airport, I went directly to my favorite area to spend the rest of the night, a corner in the second floor near the food court, just lying on the floor pavement. I was actually able to use my Nokia Lumia 925 for an hour of surfing via a free public WiFi before it drained. I then call over for the day and took a nap amidst fellow traveling bystanders eating and chatting.

2:30 +8GMT, November 12, 2013

Woke up to checked-in. Luckily, their was an available wall socket at the boarding area that's why I was able to charged the phone for awhile. Hopefully, their will come a day when people don't have to worry about battery life or care about charging phones manually via a wall socket, and that phones will just recharged on their own harnessing available natural energy around.

05:00 +8GMT, November 12, 2013

Boarded the plane and slept my way through the whole ordeal. Two hours after I was already back home and yes, you guess it right, slept the rest of the day to regain my senses.

...And their goes my Nokia Lumia 925 wandering and adventures ladies and gents. It was quite a brawl in a fun and techy way. 6 days was surely not enough, hopefully I could stay longer the next time around, or travel somewhere else, with lots of cash on hand and using a Nokia 808 Pureview, Nokia Lumia 925 or Nokia Lumia 1020 of my own. :D Quite impossible but who knows?

Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 1
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 2
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 3
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 4 - Camera and Sunset
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 5 - Two Days More And Counting!
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 6 - Camera And Night Shots

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Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 6 - Camera and Night Shots

Night Photography started as early as 1900. Night photographers uses artificial light or a long exposure, exposing the scene for seconds, minutes, and even hours in order to give the film or digital sensor enough time to capture a usable image. It was long considered tedious by must people not until the advent of technology with the likes off highly-sensitive digital image sensors, wide-aperture lenses, and high speed processors that makes night photography increasingly possible using available light. All this features combined, to the Nokia Lumia 925, making it the very first smartphone device fully dedicated to light-challenged conditions.

I admit, I was a bit skeptical with Nokia creating an advertising stint of the phone being the low-light photography king, well, they were right, the phone indeed deserves the title which made me love night photography more.

As I've mentioned in Part 5 of this blog series, I subject the phone to night frenzy over at SM by the Bay Manila. It was an emotionally uplifting moment, and here are the reasons why:

Prism Center Up-Close SM Mall of Asia Manila

Prism Center SM Mall of Asia Manila

Christmas Cheer Prism Center SM Mall of Asia Manila

9th Auto Focus Motorshow

9th Auto Focus Motorshow

9th Auto Focus Motorshow Lexus

9th Auto Focus Motorshow Party Gig

Magic Dance

Cruise By The Bay

Night Cruise

MOA Eye

The Globe

Six

The most challenging part about night photography is how to deal with the lights around and how to convert it to your advantage. My Nokia N8 struggled to adapt to the scene while the Nokia Lumia 925 easily handled it in automatic mode eliminating stray lights and converting it to illuminate the scenes. Some of the images above like the Motorshow poster, were even taken in pitch dark and yet images came out vibrant. Very impressive indeed!

Parting shots: I couldn't really help myself from being mesmerized as history unfolds within my very eyes, night photography finally owned and mastered by a smartphone technology. It might not be as detailed and intricate like the professional camera's but I'm happy that its within the helms of mass applicability. Isn't it not that it will broaden photography's appeal?

Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 1
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 2
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 3
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 4 - Camera and Sunset
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 5 - Two Days More And Counting!
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 7 - The Last Stand

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Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 5 - Two Days More And Counting!

Its already been 4 days then since I arrived in Manila but I wasn't really able to make the most of it because of my body aches. I haven't been to my favorite places yet nor have not visited my relatives in Cavite. I have no choice but to force myself to go out and enjoy the remaining two days of my short travel stints. The jog thing was really a bad idea, I forgot to consider its consequences. :(

09:30 +8GMT, November 9, 2013

Got everything up and ready for my busy day ahead. I had the Nokia Lumia 925 fully charge, my powerbank fully loaded and my cash ready for a whole day of shopping spree!! :D

To-do and shopping lists on paper? Those were the days, there were now lots of mobilephone apps that could do the tasks easily, and one of the best for Windows Phone 8 is Pin Notes, a free app that allows users to make any lists with checkboxes and have them pinned to the Homescreen so it can easily be seen. You can even make as many live tile notes as you want in multiple colors.

11:00 +8GMT, November 9, 2013

Arrived in my first destination for the day, Greenhills Shopping Mall! I couldn't remember any occasion where I have not visited this mall everytime I'm in Manila. The place is a shopping haven for anyone who loves bargain prices. Just imagine an Aeropostale shirt that cost PhP2,000 pesos in regular malls, stalls inside Greenhills Mall only sell for PhP350, a chunk of difference from the other, though the later is a class A imitation.

My mission on the mall, to buy myself sweat shirts and shorts for my soon to be jogging frenzy, ragged t-shirts for my daily use and a Nokia Asha 501, my dream reloader phone. Brand new price of the said phone in regular malls is about PhP4,350, I'm hoping to find a second hand unit at half the price.

Its was really fun roaming around with legs aching, I can only afford to walk slower than stroll, I even had a hard time going down a regular stairs! Even so, I'd manage to walk through all stalls selling t-shirts, looking for the best bargains. I was able to buy two Adidas sweatshirt for PhP150 each, an Adidas sweatpants for PhP125, and an Ateneo sweatshirt for PhP200. I was also able to score an Old Navy t-shirt for PhP300.

If I have an easy time for the t-shirts, the Nokia Asha 501 was a bit of a problem, I have not found any second hand units around. Most of the stalls I've visited were saying that they have no stocks because its very salable, and that due to its high demand, they're even selling it for PhP3,500. To much I believe because the difference between the brand new and second hand is only PhP850, and these second hand units doesn't even have original charger and headphone with it. I have no idea, the phone was that popular!

14:00 +8GMT, November 9, 2013

On to my next pit stop, the Business Capital of the Philippines, Makati City, to visit an agency I've been in business to for the past 2 years to check a few things. While in the area, I also took the time to snap a few pictures of the high rise buildings around with the Nokia Lumia 925. Daylight were were pretty descent, more detailed and sharp as compared to my 5 year old Nokia N8, but the difference wasn't far-fetched unlike its night shoot images.

I also tried Nokia City Lens in the area, an augmented reality software that shows information directly to the phone’s camera display, about the users surroundings such as shops, restaurants, and points of interest, being shown as virtual signs overlaid on or above buildings. It was a fun app but for the time being, only limited information were being shown unlike in other foreign cities. More improvements on this and it will be very usable.

Nokia Maps 3.0 and the walk and drive navigation on the other hand are arguably good. The satellite view were detailed enough and you can rely on its walk and drive software. The search engine on the map though needs improvement, it needs refinement, most specially that there were buildings that had the same names deferring only in sub-names. The Cityland Tower for example, I didn't know that there will lots of them in Manila and the search engine only showed one and it wasn't the tower I'm supposed to go to.

17:00 +8GMT, November 9, 2013

Drop by to my other favorite destination, Quaipo Church, the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene. The church is prominent Roman Catholic Latin-rite basilica located in the District of Quiapo in the City of Manila. Its one of the most famous religious site in the country because of its many faithfuls and devotees. The Black Nazarene is known to have miraculous powers that could grant wishes and heal the sick. Well, I'm not really a devotee of the Black Nazarene but there was ever no incident again that I missed to visit this place every time I'm around.

Besides hearing masses at the Basilica, the surrounding area is also a shopping sanctuary, but unlike Greenhills where the stalls were enclosed in an air-conditioned area, Quaipo vendors with ambulatory stalls, display their goods along the street thus shopping is rather challenging. Its definitely not safe around the area that I did not dare taking my phone out for documentation.

19:00 +8GMT, November 9, 2013

On my way to my last destination of the day, Bacoor, Cavite to meet my relatives. They invited me for a dinner and an overnight stay, and since I hardly visit Manila, I cant not say no. 

Battery on the Nokia Lumia 925 after a long day, almost drained. Good thing that I always bought me a power bank to temporarily charge the phone. The power bank won't really charge the phone properly but at least it will keep it awake to receive important calls and messages. The phone is definitely not like my oldie Nokia N8 where it can last a day or two on regular use. Well, its the screen size perhaps since it needs to power more screen pixels; the apps running on the background; nor perhaps the dual core processor. Whatever it is, it falls short to my daily normal needs.

Spend the rest of the night then, chatting with my uncle, aunt and cousins, and for the third straight night, booze and beers.

Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 1
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 2
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 3
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 4 - Camera and Sunset

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Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 4 - Camera and Sunset

"More than your eyes can see", a catchy advertising slogan for the Nokia Lumia 925 primarily depicting the phone's expertise, such though, refers to its low-light photo capability as it carry the most advance low-light imaging technology yet on a mobile phone. I have been teasing you about the phones imaging performance for the past 3 posts, now its about time to show you what I've got.

The images were unedited, have not undergone any modification, nor have been taken using a 3rd party camera enhancement application. Everything was original and taken in Automatic mode.

First to be featured are my Manila Baywalk images. Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and casts one of the most scenic and dramatic sunset in the world.

True indeed, I felt that my heart stops for a minute of watching it. You can really see and feel the power of nature gripping on you to the point of appreciating life even more. The situation was amplified further by the Nokia Lumia 925's camera capability, it seemed to take beautiful shoots every impossible time.

To see is to believe, here are some of my best.

Sunset Cruise

Not So Sunset

Sunset Gaze

Sunset Ready

Sunset Traverse

Sunset Bystanders

Emerging Sunset

Almost There Sunset

Going Down

Last Few Breaths

The Nokia Lumia 925 rocks sunset! Do you agree? Hit the comments section below!

Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 1
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 2
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 3
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 5 - Two Days More And Counting!
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 6 - Camera And Night Shots
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 7 - The Last Stand

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Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 3

Yes I admit, I'm already falling for the Nokia Lumia 925 after 4 days of wandering with it. The phone had a unique appeal that you felt positive about life when your holding it. Must have something to do with the design and built of the device and how it conforms perfectly to my hand which is within my ideal size for now since I haven't personally use huge display devices. Also, scenario-wise, the Nokia Lumia 925 is very much ideal if your living within the Metro Manila area since 5" or more screen size devices definitely attracts robbers and thieves that lurks around the corners.

8:30 +8GMT, November 8, 2013

Started my day very late since I could barely move with all the muscles aches. It was like I was hit and dragged by a bus or something. As much as I want to stay static for the rest of the day, I have to meet an architect who designed my boss's hospital floor plan for important changes she made. Yes, it was suppose to be a vacation but, who can say no to your superior. Anyways, I have to drag my aching legs to the nearest train station to meet her.

I then decided to open the Music player to distract my attention over my soaring dilemma. As usual, Nokia takes important emphasis on these feature in all its devices, and I love them for doing that because I'm a huge music fan. Nokia had an exclusive app for it called Nokia Music where you can access all your music files, but as much as I love the apps interface and connectivity features, Nokia Music, like Windows Phone's proprietor music player, had no option for creating playlist directly on the phone. This is a major step back for Nokia most specially since this playlist feature had already been in their devices ever since they created a music capable phones. As mentioned in Part 1 of these blog series, I really can't understand why Microsoft forgot to add this feature on Windows Phone 8. For now, playlists could be created with the help of a Windows PC via Windows Media Player, a huge problem for people who doesn't own or has no access to PC.

Quality-wise, the phone's music player is top notch. It was one of the best I've used so far in a mobile device most specially when paired with its Dolby enhance headset. Users can also choose among the preset equalizers and enhancement options like Dolby sound and audio leveling. I like the Bass Boast equalizer with Dolby and Audio leveling.

11:30 +8GMT, November 8, 2013

I arrived in our meeting place ahead of time so I need to wait, and its not really much of a problem with the Nokia Lumia 925 since it had all the features that could keep users busy for hours. Email, Foursquare check-in and Twitter, these were usually the apps that I ran every time I open my phone during spare times.

It was then the same moment when I started playing and instantly got addicted to a Nokia enhanced exclusive game Rail Rush. The game was more like Temple Run, only more exciting, colorful and graphic-rich. It has several paths to explore across mines, several special levels, cart power ups, among others, unlike the former. More details on the game in a separate review posts about it, watch this space.

Its about lunch time when the architect came. We talk about the changes and relay this information to my boss via a long phone call. Its not usual that I get to converse over the phone for more than 45 minutes but the said call took a huge chunk of the phones battery life.

12:30 +8GMT, November 8, 2013

I was on my way back to the pension house planning to spend the rest of the afternoon sleeping so I can go with my cousin and his friends in a weekend night out. Padi's Point along SM by the bay, they were saying? Nevertheless, I arrived safe and sound, but really exhausted. I then, charged the phone to prepare it for the night ahead.

20:30  +8GMT, November 8, 2013

My cousin came with two of his "tropa" (friends), and they told me that the rest of the group will meet us there. It was supposed to be a bar hopping stint but I informed them earlier that I couldn't do it because I can hardly walk.

We were already at the said bar 30 minutes after and I got very excited by the surrounding scene. It was inside a theme park so it would mean that I could test the Nokia Lumia 925's night shoot capability further. After a few chat and meet and greet with the rest of the group, I then jilted away to take pictures amidst my body aches to satisfy my geek photographers thirst. It was the first time that I took the phone for a real night shoot camera test and it was, like the sunset photo's, outstanding. The color contrasts, the image saturation, the sharpness of the night pictures, etc., it was incomparable giving me nonetheless, the most impressive night images so far on a mobilephone. 

I then, got so carried away by the phones camera prowess that I roamed around further in the area to take images of just anything thats worthy. I even bumped to an autoshow nearby that time and crashed in to the party to take more images. Unfortunately, I have to tease you further and show my taken images till the next blog post. Wicked!

22:30  +8GMT, November 8, 2013

I rejoin the group after almost two hours to their surprise. I was then snapped with questions as to what I have been doing and I told them I was so thrilled by the situation that I could not stop myself from taking images because of the phone. I then spent the next 30 minutes talking about its superlative features amidst a rowdy environment and even compete with the live band that was playing on the background, super geeky!

02:30 +8GMT, November 9, 2013

We capped the fun day off, and parted ways. I went back to the pension house tipsy. I admit, I never been that drunk ever since I started law school. It was indeed a break-off for me at the same time a break-in for the Nokia Lumia 925 since it crawled its way even closer to my heart in a slow yet sure fashion.

Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 1
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 2
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 4 - Camera and Sunset
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 5 - Two Days More And Counting!
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 6 - Camera And Night Shots
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 7 - The Last Stand

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Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 2

I had a wonderful two days with the Nokia Lumia 925 so far. Its quite an impressive device so it kinda made my geeky days perfect. It had some small bumps along the way, battery life for one, but not enough to defeat my positive travel vibe.

However, did it continuously impress the rest of the way? Read on.

04:30 +8GMT, November 7, 2013

Woke up very early for my first jog ever. Well, for those who had been reading my blog, I'm in the course of battling overweight for quite sometime now. So far I had lost 30 pounds and I'm planning to loss 20 more. With my current exercise routine and diet, I was stuck to the 30 pound level so I need to level up and jogging is one of my best option. What could be best place to start this healthy tryst other than Manila Baywalk, the healthiest corner in the metro with almost a hundred joggers sweating around all day and night. Not that the air doesn't smell stench due to the polluted coast, but the scenery was really encouraging to those who are starting.

I was a bit hesitant though to bring my the Nokia Lumia 925 with me that because I might get rob along the way, so I left it at the pension house. I would have want to try the Nokia Lumia exclusive Active Fitness app that allows tracking of fitness, health and activities of users, then had this information's shared to any social networks. It was really entice to try it that morning but I couldn't risk losing the phone since I cannot afford to pay for it.

Anyhow, my first jog was fulfilling but very tiring. It was like losing a ton of body sweat but gaining muscle aches that I haven't ever felt before. Early in the day, I wasn't still feeling its after effects not until mid noon when I'm beginning to feel muscle pains all over my body. I would have want to stroll more but my body aches took a tool on me.I spent the rest of the afternoon then sleeping and set my alarm for 15:00 hours  to catch the Manila Baywalk sunset.

Barely holding myself up, I still went on with my plan and walk my way through the Baywalk, and it was all very worthy because I had witnessed the most beautiful sunset yet in my entire years of existence. I was speechless and so awed by it. The Nokia Lumia 925 on the other hand added to the jest since it captured the sunset impressively. Its amazing how the phone seemed to get a wonderful shot every time. It has the right color density and saturation, the right texture and tone, etc. It was by far the best cameraphone I've used, hands down. Of course, I did a little comparison test with my Nokia N8 which I took also with me, and the difference was huge. The phone bested my 5 year old camera companion easily. I will have a separate blog post to show you all my amateur shots, stay tuned.

I also tried the Nokia Smart Camera app and it was fun to use. I like most specially, the action shot feature of the app were it can combine several photo sequences into one and edit it to my liking. Users can also experiment with the rest of the app's feature like Motion Focus, adding blur on the background to emphasize motion; Remove Moving Objects; or Change Faces to choose the best faces for a great group shot.

I then stayed at the bay for the next two hours, enjoying every moment and taking all possible and interesting snapshots possible, then went to Robinson's Manila for a quick grocery and dinner. My cousin came later on who would have wanted to stroll me around the Metro further but since I could even hardly walk, we just spend the rest of the night in a small bar below the pension house and had a few drinks.

Anyways, to capped the day off, I have to give the Nokia Lumia 925 a sky high grade for today, it really was outstanding camera-wise and it did not die on me. The automatic brightness setting had really help a lot in managing my power consumption. Users can also tweak few of the phones settings to further conserved power.

More of my travel experience with the Nokia Lumia 925 coming up, stay tuned!

Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 1
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 3
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 4 - Camera and Sunset
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 5 - Two Days More And Counting!
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 6 - Camera And Night Shots
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 7 - The Last Stand

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Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 1

Its not usual that I get to travel out of town, I have 2 full time jobs, law school during the weekends and a part time career as a blogger . Vacation to me is a luxury in terms of time and money most specially, since I'm only earning minimally. I can only afford a single week of vacation per year locally in a tight budget.

When Nokia Connects announced that they have available units for trial, I did not hesitate to ask them for a Nokia Lumia 925, I thought it would be nice to bring something useful during my trip, a camera centric device that could account my travel stints and memorialized it in grand.

11:30 +8GMT, November 5, 2013

Went to DHL Ozamis to pick up the package. Though thrilled and excited, I tend to break my tradition of opening the package right there and then, and instead took the package with me to work. I also had a not so good experience before when I trialled the Nokia Lumia 720 where it dreadfully auto connect and auto download phone updates via data, tripling my bill payment for the month. I thought it would be safe if I have a WIFI connection during the initial phone set up to avoid similar incident.

As soon as I arrived in the office, I opened the package right away in front of my colleagues with my intention to gauge their impression on it. My initial reaction, "the phone to beat" in terms of design and construction because it looks and feels absolutely gorgeous. It feels so light to hold and yet sensibly solid as a result of the metal frames around the edges. The Lumia 925 was definitely an advancement in design for Nokia aside from the innovative features and specifications they've introduce with it. The phone for me easily became the most beautiful hardware that Nokia ever created by far trouncing others even their current flagship, the Nokia Lumia 1020. 

Reaction from my colleagues? Overwhelmed, they thought the phone cost a fortune because of its superb built quality. Well, I told them that that its just half the price of a regular 8GB iPhone 5S surprising them big time, everyone thought its as premium as the latter.

Turning the phone on runs the same story, the phone's screen was beautiful and enticing to look at, though it wasn't as crisp and clear as the Nokia Lumia 920. How vital is this screen display and resolution to me? Well, I only consider it as a deal maker or breaker. It was the main reason why I did not pursue buying the Nokia Lumia 720 because of its pentile screen display amidst the rest of its very capable specifications and features. To correlate this with Nokia lumia 925, the phone's screen alone could seal a deal for me because I love watching the PureMotion HD+ and ClearBlack display working hand in hand impressively on the it.
   
Then, I spent the rest of the afternoon going over the phone's settings (don't tell my boss), making sure that its fully suited for travel, and me, out-rightly connected before my flight early morning the next day. I love the mechanism in setting up a Windows Phone device, all you need to do is enter your Windows account and everything from contacts, texts to calendars saved on the cloud appears, though, I need to manually update some of my Contacts who had changed mobilephone numbers or email addresses. How I wish their was a way to update cloud-saved Windows Phone contacts from non windows phone devices because its not unusual for anyone to change mobile numbers or email addresses every now and then. Also, Microsoft should seriously consider adding an option to save phone settings on applications to the cloud so that users need not have to manually install application individually if they want to transfer or upgrade from one Windows Phone to another. Transferring music files and videos was easy as well because its a matter of copy and paste, but creating Playlist on the other hand is not possible on the phone so you need to use Windows Media Player on a PC to create one. How in the world did Microsoft missed this feature on Windows Phone 8?

I then capped the rest my evening preparing the rest of my travel essential and charge the phone overnight.

5:00 +8GMT, November 6, 2013

Woke up early to suite up since I got an early flight going Mega Manila. Within an hour, I was already at Ozamis City's Labo Airport. Funny thing about having a shinny new gadget in hand, you always tend to flaunt it to everyone. I was definitely on the mode for doing so because the Nokia Lumia 925 was really worth showing.

While waiting for my flight, I fire up my WiFi, Location and Foursquare app to check in. I was quite surprise how fast the phone is in finding my location compared to my 4 year old Nokia N8. Must have something to do with the GPS chips nowadays.

One of the major concern in smartphones at the moment is battery life, with the advent of dual cores and quad core processors, it had a huge negative effect on the phones power consumption. Windows Phones are not spared with the problem as well, with my previous Nokia Lumia 920 an 720 trials, I can't seemed to have it last a full day or two without charging. The Nokia Lumia 925 suffers the same problem because within an hour of used for texting, calling, a bit of picture taking, downloading apps and browsing over the airports free WIFI, I lost the least 20% of battery.Within the next hour, my battery was already within 60% level so I've decided to disconnect from the web. Well so much I guess for the phone as a surfing buddy while traveling.

10:30 +8GMT, November 6, 2013

I arrived in Manila, hoping for a safe stay most specially that I'm carrying a very expensive device. It cannot be denied that the city had all the crooks and thieves operating and just waiting for the right time to struck. Call yourself unlucky if you became their prey.

Anyhow, everything went fine from the airport going to pension house where I stayed along Pedro Gil Avenue, Malate, Manila. I'm not familiar with the place so I fired up the HERE walk and drive navigation to locate it. The good thing about HERE is that its free, its reliably accurate and best of all, it works offline.

The neighborhood seemed fine as well, its near a mall and schools with lots of restaurants. Its also near Baywalk, where I could catch a glimpse of its world renowned sunset. I got lots of good sunset photo's taken on the Nokia Lumia 925 which I will feature in a separate post very soon. Watch out for it.

Spend the rest of the day then roaming around, taking pictures and going from shop to shop. Photo performance of the Nokia Lumia 925 so far; daylight image, above average while night images were outstanding. It indeed live up to its promise of taking night images to the next level. Again, I will be featuring such images in another blog post very soon.

While roaming around, I then had my first live encounter with the Nokia Lumia 1020, my dream device. It would definitely remain a dream device for me because it cost a fortune ranging around PhP32,000 to PhP35,000 with camera grip. If I would save at least a thousand of my salary per month, I could buy the device in 2-3 years time. How I wish Nokia Philippines had special installment program for poor bloggers.:D

Up front comparison, the Nokia Lumia 925 is far attractive, its thinner, lighter and more solid to touch than the Nokia Lumia 1020, though the later had a more vibrant screen. I kinda like the camera bump at the back of the 1020, it makes the phone bold and manly.

I would had want to be call my cousins for a night stroll around but I already felt weary. Besides the Nokia Lumia 925 had already drained on me so I decided to call it quits. My power bank had keep the phone alive since 5PM, at its running out of juice as well.

More of my wandering with the Nokia Lumia 925 next time, stay tuned!

UPDATE:

Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 2
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 3
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 4 - Camera and Sunset
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 5 - Two Days More And Counting!
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 6 - Camera And Night Shots
Wandering With The Nokia Lumia 925, Part 7 - The Last Stand

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Smart Telecom's Complete Nokia Lumia 925 Postpaid Packages

The Nokia Lumia 925 is one of the top tear Windows Phone device at the moment. It had a stylish metal framework design, thin and lightweight, and geared with innovative front line strides with its 8.7MP Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, the critically renowned PureView camera technology, the most advance aperture and sensor settings that gives the best low light shots, the best screen display with PureMotion HD+ screen and Clear Black Display technology, the latest software applications like the Nokia Smart Camera mode and Nokia Smart Camera, on top of Nokia and Windows Phone services like Here Maps and Navigation tools, Nokia Music and so much more.

Smart Telecom, the Philippines largest telecom network, is the exclusive partner of Nokia for the Nokia Lumia 925 and its currently being offered competitively under the following Postpaid Plan packages:

ALL-IN PLAN (24 Months Lock-in)
PLAN	CASH OUT PRICE	SERVICES
500	P19,000.00	Could be use in one or combination of the following as long as it doesn't go beyond the 500 limit: *Sun Talk (PhP99) - 50 minutes call to Sun for 30 days *Sun Text (PhP99) -  1000 text to Sun for 30 days *Internet Bundle (100) - 8 hours of mobile browsing for 30 days *Sun Combo (PhP199) - 1250 text and 50 minutes call to Sun for 30 days *Internet Bundle (PhP200) - 20 hours of mobile browsing for 30 days *IDD Bundle Saver (PhP200) - Call abroad at local rates + free 5 minutes of international call   *All Net Talk (PhP250) - 80 minutes of call to Smart, TnT, Sun for 30 days *Trio Talk (PhP300) - 300 minutes of call to Smart, TnT, Sun and PLDT + 2000 text to all network + 150MB worth of mobile browsing for 30 Days *All Net Text Upgrade (PhP350) - 3,500 text to Smart, TnT and Sun for 30 days * Unli Tri Net Text (PhP350) - Unlimited call to Smart and TnT for 30 days  * Tri Net (PhP400) - 500 minutes of call to Smart, TnT, Sun and PLDT + 2000 text to all network + 150MB worth of mobile browsing for 30 Days * Unli-Talk (PhP500)- Unlimited call to Smart and TnT for 30 days * International Flexi Call and Text (PhP500) - 400 minutes of call or international text to USA Canada Hong Kong and Singapore for 30 days.
800	P16,500.00	Same services as Plan 500 and as long as it doesn't go beyond the 800 limit, plus: *Unli Call and Text (600) - Unlimited call and text to Smart and Tnt for 30 days
1200	P12,500.00	Same services as Plan 800 as long as it doesn't go beyond the 1200 limit, plus: *Always On (995) - 20GB worth of mobile browsing for 30 days *Unlimited Call and Text Combo (999) - Unlimited call and text to Smart and Tnt + 1GB worth of mobile browsing for 30 days *Unli Surf (1000) - Unlimited browsing for 30 days
1800	P3,000.00	Same services as Plan 1200 as long as it doesn't go beyond the 1800 limit
2500	FREE	Same services as Plan 1200 as long as it doesn't go beyond the 2500 limit

LTE PLAN (24 Months Lock-in)
PLAN	CASH OUT PRICE	SERVICES
1500	P5,500.00	120 Free Text to all networks 60 minutes Free Call to all networks 1.5 GB Data
2000	FREE	*200 Free Text to all networks *150 minutes Free Call to all networks 1.5 GB Data

Best package of the bunch of course is the All-Unli Plan 1800 because it offers all possible package combinations, and yet users have to shell out only PhP3,000.00.

The problem though is that the phone, as of press time, is currently Sold Out due either to high demand or low supply, and so getting one is on a reservation basis via Smart Store. 

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