Upgrading Lumia 520 phone to 550... any issues?

bmay529

I'm thinking of upgrading my Lumia 520 to a 550 mainly for the front facing camera, flash and extra ram. Has anyone done this, how did it work and how did you deal with transferring everything from their 520 to the 550? I have to say I found the 520 great and the windows phone OS very easy to use compared to Android that I had used but I havn't heard much about windows phone 10.

Davy

Transferring contacts, pictures, settings etc over wouldnt be an issue, games and apps will start fresh. I found the 550 very buggy when first relased, a lot more stable since with updates.

The 550 is a good step up from the 520 but I would look at the 650 as an option if budget allows.

bmay529

Davy wrote: »

Transferring contacts, pictures, settings etc over wouldnt be an issue, games and apps will start fresh. I found the 550 very buggy when first relased, a lot more stable since with updates.

The 550 is a good step up from the 520 but I would look at the 650 as an option if budget allows.

Cheers. Is Windows 10 much different to 8.1? I used to use android and was surprised how easy windows was to use and I find the tiles easier to organise. The 520 has been amazing value compared with what I used to pay.

I have just looked at the 650 which had not been on my radar. Three have it at €199.99 while the 550 is €99.99. The big difference seems to be better front and back cameras. Three also have some 640's left @ €129.99. What would you think of it? Two differences I noticed were that it only has a 1mp front camera and is on windows 8.1?

Mickeroo

bmay529 wrote: »

Cheers. Is Windows 10 much different to 8.1? I used to use android and was surprised how easy windows was to use and I find the tiles easier to organise. The 520 has been amazing value compared with what I used to pay.

I have just looked at the 650 which had not been on my radar. Three have it at €199.99 while the 550 is €99.99. The big difference seems to be better front and back cameras. Three also have some 640's left @ €129.99. What would you think of it? Two differences I noticed were that it only has a 1mp front camera and is on windows 8.1?

640 will upgrade to Windows 10 when you start it up I think. Reviews I've read seem to suggest it's a better phone than the 650 too(though maybe folks in the know here might know otherwise?).

Argos have the Orange 640 for 111.99 sim free at the moment which is a very good price for it provided you're not picky about the colour. Not many places have it in stock though. Athlone only place that have one I think at the moment.

theothernt

bmay529 wrote: »

Is Windows 10 much different to 8.1? I used to use android and was surprised how easy windows was to use and I find the tiles easier to organise. The 520 has been amazing value compared with what I used to pay.

It's similar, but some of the built in apps (phone, music, maps, photos, etc) have changed but not so drastically that you won't be able to use the phone.

Most of the changes are for the better, and I think most people will adapt in a few days. If you're unsure, have a quick look at some Lumia 950 or 640 review videos on YouTube to get an idea of how it looks and feels to use.

beauf

I find 10 better in almost every way. But its still buggy. But no worse then the 520 on 8.1.

The 650 has a better screen, more internal storage, slimer, looks nicer (apparently). Other wise the 640 has better battery, faster cpu and gpu. I'd get the 650 or 640 over the 550.

The 640 for 111 in argos seems sold out everywhere.

Mickeroo

beauf wrote: »

The 640 for 111 in argos seems sold out everywhere.

Athlone & Carlow both have one in stock anyway.

bmay529

I called in to Three today to look at 550/640/650 vs my 520 only to find that the 550 had just dropped in price to only €80. That seemed great value to me and given that it added flash, front camera and better all round performance to my 520 that I found totally reliable and great value itself I put my hand in my pocket. I hope the price drop does not signal that the 650 is going to drop significantly!!! From my experience staff in any of the shops I have visited know very little about windows phones. Three said their cloning m/c did not work with Windows so now I am trying to figure out how to get all my stuff transferred from the 520 to the 550... I havn't transferred my number yet until I get a handle on it... I want to transfer all my apps/tiles, contacts, one Note notes, photos/videos (most on SD card which I presume I can just move from one phone to the other). It would be great if anyone who has done this could give me any pointers or let me know what worked/did not work for them.

Fingleberries

For the most part, if you do a Backup of your original Lumia 520
- All photos and videos to SD card, you can just plug that it to the new phone.
- You can backup your Apps and Settings to OneDrive (link)
- When you are setting up the new phone for the first time, it will ask for your Microsoft Account. If you use the same account as before, it will detect the backup that you performed on the Lumia 520 and ask if you want to restore it or set it up as a new phone - select Restore.

I recently did this for a phone going from a Lumia 520 to a Lumia 640 (I had upgraded it to Windows 10, too)

It's worth noting that it will probably take a good while to download all the apps and then the app updates as part of the restore process, that's perfectly normal. There'll probably be a reboot or two as well if it installs the latest Windows 10 version as well.

beauf

Took mine a few hours to set up, with updates and apps. Wish WP took a backup like iPhone. But then its not €800

bmay529

Fingleberries wrote: »

For the most part, if you do a Backup of your original Lumia 520
- All photos and videos to SD card, you can just plug that it to the new phone.
- You can backup your Apps and Settings to OneDrive (link)
- When you are setting up the new phone for the first time, it will ask for your Microsoft Account. If you use the same account as before, it will detect the backup that you performed on the Lumia 520 and ask if you want to restore it or set it up as a new phone - select Restore.

I recently did this for a phone going from a Lumia 520 to a Lumia 640 (I had upgraded it to Windows 10, too)

It's worth noting that it will probably take a good while to download all the apps and then the app updates as part of the restore process, that's perfectly normal. There'll probably be a reboot or two as well if it installs the latest Windows 10 version as well.

Thanks. i had backup set and to be sure did another manually on the 520. I setup the 550 to have a look before transferring my phone no over to it. Forgive my ignorance but when it "downloads all the apps and then the app updates" does that include the tiles and tile layout on the start screen or do I have to manually recreate all of that again from an apps list?

beauf

You have to recreate it. At least I did.

bmay529

beauf wrote: »

You have to recreate it. At least I did.

Thanks Beauf. I was thinking that... a big pain. Did you upgrade from 520 to 550? If so what has been your experience with the 550?

beauf

I picked up a used 640 to play with. Win10 worked so much better on it. I've switched to that. The 520 is now used by the kids for games. I couldn't go back to WP8.1 now.
That said Win10 still is buggy. Also I'm still missing some useful apps which are on Android/IOS etc. So I still might switch away from WP in the future.

theothernt

beauf wrote: »

Also I'm still missing some useful apps which are on Android/IOS etc.

Not to side track too much, but what apps are you missing (just curious) ?

Fingleberries

beauf wrote: »

You have to recreate it. At least I did.

Some apps worked (about 90-95% for me), the ones what were missing on the Start Screen layout were the likes of Calendar, Mail, XBox Music, since they have been updated in Windows 10 with different apps.

I had to authenticate again to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, but the tiles were there. The rest of them were loaded correctly in the All Programs view.

beauf

I know some of these have workarounds like text services, or websites but its not the same.

I'd like the app for parking meters, train car parks. Bike lockers, UPC/Virgin, Leap, Fantasy Footie. things like that. I'd like a train app that works differently too.

bmay529

Does anyone know if OneNote files ill restore?

beauf

bmay529 wrote: »

Does anyone know if OneNote files ill restore?

That worked fine for me

bmay529

Windows 10 Mobile on 550 vs 8.1 on 520: Does anyone know where I can find good detailed instructions (I have trawled through many so far) or preferably a video on Windows 10 mobile ( I have version 1511), specifically interested in the differences between it and Windows 8.1. While I have worked out where features have been relocated I am trying to figure out the difference in how tiles are handled especially where I want to link a web page to a tile where there is no app (tiles for apps are fine). W8.1 took a pic of the site screen when you hit the "pin" option and placed it in the tile so you could easily identify one tile from another. W10 doesn't seem to do this but instead all have "e" in the tile and tiny text and no text where the tile is at its smallest!!! Can you change the text/content in a tile!! Any pointers appreciated.

beauf

bmay529 wrote: »

... W8.1 took a pic of the site screen when you hit the "pin" option and placed it in the tile so you could easily identify one tile from another. W10 doesn't seem to do this but instead all have "e" in the tile and tiny text and no text where the tile is at its smallest!!! Can you change the text/content in a tile!! Any pointers appreciated.

You'd have to read the reviews and forums. I don't think theres anywhere this is all in one place to find.

Yes W10 can't do that. I can't do the same with Photo Folders as W8.1 could. Theres are some issues like this. Photo tile can't be favorites anymore. W10 feels like 3 steps forward and 1 back. This has always been the problem with WP. It seems to be written by people who don't use phones. You'd imagine they'd make a list of all the stuff on other OS'es that works well and use that as a minimum starting point. Instead it seems to be a mix of new ideas, and bad ideas that were fixed on other phones 5yrs ago. Calendar is another example. No custom time for reminders. For me as I write an appointment it starts to remind me of this appointment before I've even saved it, so I have to turn off reminders or set it before doing anything else.

It not consistent either. Everytime I reinstall WP10 lots of little things change. My last build I could edit the glance screen, the build I have currents seems to have lost. Again its the 3 steps forward 1 back. But then MS have always down this with IE, Windows Vista, Start Menu's, Office. It seems to be whatever culture is at work there.

bmay529

beauf wrote: »

You'd have to read the reviews and forums. I don't think theres anywhere this is all in one place to find.

Yes W10 can't do that. I can't do the same with Photo Folders as W8.1 could. Theres are some issues like this. Photo tile can't be favorites anymore. W10 feels like 3 steps forward and 1 back. This has always been the problem with WP. It seems to be written by people who don't use phones. You'd imagine they'd make a list of all the stuff on other OS'es that works well and use that as a minimum starting point. Instead it seems to be a mix of new ideas, and bad ideas that were fixed on other phones 5yrs ago. Calendar is another example. No custom time for reminders. For me as I write an appointment it starts to remind me of this appointment before I've even saved it, so I have to turn off reminders or set it before doing anything else.

It not consistent either. Everytime I reinstall WP10 lots of little things change. My last build I could edit the glance screen, the build I have currents seems to have lost. Again its the 3 steps forward 1 back. But then MS have always down this with IE, Windows Vista, Start Menu's, Office. It seems to be whatever culture is at work there.

Have to agree with everything you said. I took the plunge and activated the sim on my new 550 today. I paired bluetooth on both my old 520 and new 550 before doing this and it transferred my contacts and calendar automatically.

After activating the sim I could find no way to download my apps or messages even though I set the option to backup both with W8.1 on the 520 and checked it had been done.

After much pain I also discovered you have to use a Merc code to pair the lumia 550 phone with bluetooth in my Mercedes. I don't know if the same applies to all phones and/or to different car makes.

Overall first impressions of the Lumia 550 that it is not as straightforward and easy to setup as the 520 was. For some that may be a good thing as it can do more but for others it will be a problem as there is absolutely no support of value. However, for €80 I suppose what can you expect, it has to be super value though for a decent phone. As I wade my way through it first impression of the changed W10 calendar is not good... very difficult to see your plan for the week and maybe even a few bugs!! So many of the things seem so straightforward (to me) that you would wonder why Microsoft did not pick then up from users in trial runs prior to launch. Maybe the fact that W10 works across all platforms places some restrictions!!!

I purchased the lumia 550 from Three and none of their staff I have spoken to know anything about Windows. I was on to their help line twice and both times they gave me either wrong information or no information. I tried the Chat feature on their website from my laptop. No problem asking the question and I even got an answer, but then could see no way of responding to the their answer. After a few mins I got messages more or less saying was I still there and after a few mins again was cut off. I tried that twice with same result. I then called into one of their shops but nobody knew anything about windows. They said phone could not restore apps or messages and to use the code 0000 to pair with the bluetooth in my car... which as I said was wrong.

Anyhow the phone is working so I will continue with the setup and see how I get on with the phone.

theothernt

bmay529 wrote: »

After much pain I also discovered you have to use a Merc code to pair the lumia 550 phone with bluetooth in my Mercedes. I don't know if the same applies to all phones and/or to different car makes.

That sounds very odd, where did you hear about that?

bmay529

theothernt wrote: »

That sounds very odd, where did you hear about that?

from MSL who service my car. Couldn't get 550 bluetooth to pair in my merc. MSL gave me a code and it worked first time and seems fine since

theothernt

bmay529 wrote: »

from MSL who service my car. Couldn't get 550 bluetooth to pair in my merc. MSL gave me a code and it worked first time and seems fine since

A code for the car or the phone?

bmay529

theothernt wrote: »

A code for the car or the phone?

When I loaded bluetooth on both the car and the phone only the car looked for a code. When I put the code I was given in the car the phone then asked for a code and when I entered the same code we were in business. When I entered the 0000 code 3 gave me this did not happen. I think I also read somewhere you only get 3 chances to enter a code!!

AnCatDubh

bmay529 wrote: »

After much pain I also discovered you have to use a Merc code to pair the lumia 550 phone with bluetooth in my Mercedes. I don't know if the same applies to all phones and/or to different car makes.

Each device which you pair with should have their own bluetooth pairing code - typically these may be 0000 or 1234 - I think this code was intended as a form of security (0000, 1234 - secure eh? ) but they can be anything. I guess the Merc being a bit more premium than your buyincoins $5 bluetooth gizmo thingy probably has a bit more care and attention paid to the security of the device which may be why you needed to get it from MSL.

I purchased the lumia 550 from Three and none of their staff I have spoken to know anything about Windows.

@lumiahelp on twitter seems to be responsive enough on windows phone issues. Worth a try if you can't figure out anything.