Beijing Trip 2013

Recently, I went for a 1 week work trip to Beijing for a tradeshow. Although it is not the first time there, the weather is not suitable for me but I like the food though. Compared to last year, the weather should be comfortable but instead it is cold, dry and dusty outdoors. And the temperature fluctuate. It can be warm in the day but damm cold in the night. In the end, had a number of cold burns on my hands. End of review.

Anyway, it is a good chance to try out what my Lumia 920 camera can do. Below is the pictures I took. And I am pretty impressed with a mobile phone quality pictures. But I heard the upcoming firmware will upgrade the camera pictures. So I am still using the old firmware. I have re-sized the photo for upload purpose and settings is mostly in Auto mode since there isn't much options to play with.

On a side note, my phone has been to the service centre due to a dead front camera and speaker phone issue after 3 weeks of usage. It is pretty disappointing for a flagship product but luckily they managed to repair and return to me before my trip.

 

CNCC grand hotel room

Women security officers

Night shot. Forte of 920

 Indoor shot

Indoor shot

Night shot

Night shot

Day shot

Indoor shot

Indoor shot

Indoor shot

Indoor shot

Night shot

Night shot, I think is over exposed

Famous Peking roast duck restaurant

 Nice food

 Traditional oven

 Front door

Serves all

Big signboard

 Coffee time

One person hotpot 

Sichuan grilled fish

Sichuan chicken wings

 Street view

Famous Wangfujing area

 Random shot

Novotel Xinqiao hotel room (no windows for me)

Toilet

 KFC breakfast, the meat patty is pork

Street view 

Cafe in Novotel 

 Car display in airport

 

 Car display 2

 Hotel cafe

Got myself a mobile power bank since the battery life for Lumia 920 isn't very good. Unfortunately, the seller sent me a wrong colour item. 

 Box view, it has been opened before maybe for testing.

 Output

 Back view

Lumia 920

My mobile contract has expired for quite a while. And my current Xperia S is a non contract phone. The reason for changing it is due to the camera pictures quality (grainy quality) as well as the widely availability of 4G network. I heard and read of the camera capabilities of Lumia 920 and I am tempted. The camera picture quality seems to be better than my Xperia S. And the best low light phone camera out there.

It is not a bad phone but once in a while will have hanging software issue (I have upgraded to official ICS firmware not long ago). So I decided to change to another mobile OS since I have been having Android OS phones since its early days. I still remember is HTC magic.

And this month there is IT show going on. Usually, these big shows will have better offers on mobile renewal plans. And Lumia 920 came with a good offer which is not bad, it comes with a Purity HD headset with a new line or re-contract subscription during the show. And the trade in value of my Xperia S is pretty high too. In the end, I paid about 100+ in total for a re-contract + trade in deal. Everything is done online.

And I got the 3rd party casing and screen protector online early since the delivery will not be so early. Below is the pictures (taken by Xperia S before it is traded away). The casing material is TPU material.

 Casing + Screen protector

 Back view

 Front view

Finally the day arrived for the delivery, I took a unboxing video for the phone as well as the Purity headset. Since I have no phone to record it, my old trusty FZ35 is used to record it (only 720p).

Video:

Unboxing video

In the box 1

In the box 2

Unboxing video of Purity headset:

Unboxing video

 In the package

Mini review of the phone: Took a bit of time to get used to the interface. After playing with it for a couple of days, certain things can be improved like auto updating of apps etc.

I guess Win 8 mobile OS is not that matured yet but it is pretty user friendly in a way once you are used to it. However, the battery life is poor and once in a while it might auto reboot. I suspect certain apps might have caused it. I had uninstalled some of the ones which I think may be the culprit. So far, it has not auto reboot yet (I hope never).

As all the other reviews has said, the low light photo taking is very good. Maybe in the weeks to come, I will post pictures as it goes along since I am using my mobile phone to take pictures more than my compact camera/DSLR. So a good camera phone will come in handy. By the way, I have thrown away the screen protector since I think the phone Gorilla glass is doing a great job. 

Mini review of the headphone: After trying it with the phone, I would prefer the sound after customizing the equalizer of the phone. Otherwise, the sound seems to be a bit soft on my ears. Different people different requirements I guess. But it is doing a reasonably good job.

Nokia 1280

Recently, I am going for my reservist and my LG non-camera coloured phone is dead. So it is time to get a new simple non-camera phone. And it is Nokia 1280. It has a BW screen and Symbian OS if I am not wrong. It also has a small LED touch built in. It is cheaper (30 SGD cash) compared to my old LG non cam phone, I believe is due to the screen which is BW compared to a color one. 

Below is some pictures I took:

 The package (no earpiece)

 The phone itself

 LED touch and earpiece connector

Charging port

Mini Review: Good simple phone and battery life is very good.