Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had an iPhone 5 a year ago and then it got stolen. I can't afford to buy another iPhone because it is off contract with AT&T and even the iPhone 4s would cost me over $350 off contract. I've been curious about Windows Phone 8 and thought this would be a good way to try it out. It is a Go Phone ( marketed for prepaid plans), but if you already have an AT&T post paid phone plan, simply swap in your own SIM card and it will work right out of the box with your current phone number and plan (If you have a larger SIM card you can buy a SIM cutter for under $5 and it should work fine). I purchased this Nokia Lumia 520 phone from Amazon in mid-august 2013 (about 8 weeks ago). Anyways, I figured that for $100, I could try out WP8 operating system and if I didn't like it it would be not much of a risk or loss to me. So far, I have been really, really happy with it. It is pretty much equivalent in performance and specs to the iPhone 4s. With the Lumia 520, you lose the front camera and flash of the iPhone 4s, but you get a bigger 4-inch screen and bigger battery. The 520 only comes with 8 GB of storage, but I added a 16 GB SD card for a total of 24 gigabytes, which is more than enough for my purposes. Including the SD card, the total phone cost $115 (w/ free amazon prime shipping). I'd be satisfied with this phone if I paid $200 for it, but at $115 - I'm very happy indeed. The only shortcoming I can think of is there are not as many Windows Phone apps as there are for Android or Apple iOS, but I will not take any stars off of the phone because that is not an issue with the phone and there are more WP apps coming every day. If this was my first smartphone, there would be no complaints whatsoever. I know Apple and Android really have the smartphone market locked up in the US, Japan and UK, but I think Windows Phone will really get a foothold in EU and the developing world, so lots more WP apps should be coming down the pipeline soon form enterprising app developers internationally. My phone use is for texting first, camera second, phone calls third... fourth would be browsing the web while taking the bus to/from school, fifth as a music player and sixth for maps/directions. It does all of those things very well. The Nokia Camera app is great - I'm a photographer and I like that I can change the exposure by +- 2 stops, Nokia Here apps are awesome (maps, public transit and turn-by-tun driving) - the driving app even lets you download maps to your phone so you can get directions and view maps where there is no cell phone service (came very handy driving through the mountains in Western Nevada). The Nokia "Transfer MY Data" app was great and pulled all 300+ of my address book from an iPod Touch in about 20 seconds via bluetooth. I like the Windows Phone integration with SkyDrive and find it much easier to use and more user friendly than iCloud - there is a lot more customization options with SkyDrive whereas iCloud has a really dumbed down and simplistic interface over the web. I've even been able to do a small amount of data tethering with my iPod Touch. I've only had to do it once when I had no Windows Phone app for what I wanted to do. I've hear AT&T locks out tethering from data plans unless you pay more, but I think it was only a small amount of data and since it went to a mobile device it was able to get thru the system. I think if I had tried to tether with a laptop, it might have been blocked. I wouldn't say this is a feature, and your mileage if you try this may vary. I really like this phone and for the price ($100), I LOVE IT! I think my next phone may be a Windows Phone with LTE and I may end up getting an iPad for those few iOS apps I can do without.