I had been an iPhone user for a while, like years. And not just an iPhone user, a complete Apple user. Macs, iPads, iPods. Everything. Then one day, I made a switch to the Lumia 928. That’s right. A Windows Phone. The complete opposite spectrum of smartphones. Even though it took a few weeks for the shock to my system to wear off, I ended up loving the phone despite some ups and downs in the process.

The Good:

The first unit I bought was black because I figured it would look good with everything and any scratches would look minimal on it. The second unit I got was the white model which I admit looked WAY better than the black. It appeared much sleeker and overall attractive.

Coming from an iPhone what enticed me the most was the size of the screen. It is MUCH bigger. The iPhone screen can fit inside of the Lumia 928 screen. Plus the responsiveness of the touch screen is one of the best I have ever experienced. One subtle flick of your finger sends the screen reeling wherever you want to go.

Previously when I found myself roaming about in a not so great cell service area (oh like Kentucky for example), my iPhone would die within a matter of hours. The Nokia Lumia 928 lasts much longer. On one charge, in a particularly terrible service area it would be around 12 hours before it would get close to dying. Significantly better than the iPhone. It should be pointed out that this only applies when not using frivolous apps and such in those particularly terrible areas. In good cell areas, like my big city, I still found the Lumia to have better life all together when compared to the iPhone.

The Lumia boasts a Sunlight Readability feature which is INCREDIBLE. Anyone who has ever had an iPhone knows the pain of trying to read anything in the sunlight. It is near impossible. With the Lumia, that is not a problem. The screen adjusts and you can read anything and everything no matter where you are and no matter what kind of visibility you are in. I cannot tell you how much of a step up it truly is until you experience it on your own.

As a Xbox Live gamer, I absolutely ADORE the integrated gaming between Windows Phone and my Xbox. The integration allows you to play certain Xbox games on your phone and the gamer points you earn on your phone will show up on your Xbox! I absolutely love it. You can even see you gamer avatar and adjust it on your phone, see which of your Xbox Live friends are online and what they are doing and check out the achievements you have earned so far. The Xbox integration is by far my favorite feature of the Windows Phone.

If you have a need for Microsoft Office products on the go without wanting to carry the Surface Tablet around, the Lumia also has Office products integrated. I have my work email which runs on Office Outlook synced to my phone so that I am never left out of the work loop. I love being able to see presentation and Word documents whenever I need to on my Lumia as well.

When I first switched from the iPhone I was surprised by how much better the camera is on the Lumia 928. The photos are much crisper, cleaner, and well-defined. The zoom works infinitely better than on the iPhone with the photos coming out clearer. The Lumia also has a much better rear facing camera pixel ratio.

The Bad:

The bad aspects of the phone are far outweighed by the good which is why I plan to keep it regardless of what they are. But they exist and here they are.

Currently, there are a lack of apps when compared to the Apple App Store and the Android App stores. Though on the plus side it is growing. There inst a free Spotify version, which I find very frustrating and my bank doesn’t even have Windows Phone app yet. When I first started using the Windows Phone there were not a lot of official apps for popular websites but that has started to change over the past few months so don’t let that change your mind. Vine, Instagram, and others have started creating platforms for this smartphone so it will be a matter of time before it will be just like any other. It is just a matter of hanging in there!

While the Lumia 928 is a lightweight sleek model, putting it in a case somehow made it feel bulkier and uncomfortable. The first Lumia I purchased, I made sure to put in a case. I purchased the silicon case through Verizon. I hated it. It felt somehow larger and much more uncomfortable in my hands (which are tiny by the way) so I switched to this model which was much more comfortable. Though the phone still never felt as comfortable as did without a case.

Which brings me to the worst part of the phone design. The rough edges and the reason I ended up with TWO Lumia 928’s. Despite my first 928, the black one, being in a case. It shattered. I dropped it from about a foot off the ground and the entire screen just shattered even though it was in the above mentioned Incipio Case. As you can imagine, I was beyond pissed off. I was a year from my contract renewal with Verizon. But accidents happen I suppose and the Lumia does not have rounded edges so it should be noted that impacts can be rough.

But also…

The Incredibly Annoying:

Here is what I find very annoying about the Lumia 928 but not also not enough so to switch back to the iPhone ever again.

There are not enough color choices for the tiles. I end up switching through the same five colors ever few days and it gets a bit boring. I think it would be a lot more fun to have customization color wheel or picker, rather than just 28 colors to choose from. Though that is a lot better than the iPhone where you get no choices.

I cannot use the Lumia 928 as my music player in the car. The sound is shit. I have to turn my car stereo up all the way to MAX and the phone volume up all the way to 25 just to get good sound. Then when I get out of the car I have to turn my phone volume back down to 10 (which is where i like it and it doesn’t disturb those around me when i get calls or texts.) And I have to remember to turn my car volume back down so I don’t blow my eardrums out when I turn my radio on. I find this insanely frustrating. This is the one and only time I still use my iPhone, it’s practically a $500 music player now.

Conclusion

The Lumia 928 is a magnificent phone. It is hard to find a better smartphone for the price. It has better specs, better battery life, and a better price than the iPhone and even has a batter screen. Take the plunge and try something new. You won’t regret it. I won’t ever go back to Apple as a primary phone in my life and I doubt that if you try a Windows Phone, you would either.