First impressions: Lumia Icon Windows Phone (unboxing)

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  • The little red box

    The little red box

    Earlier this week, I described my intention to give Windows Phone a fair and unbiased look . At the time, I set up a set of questions and requirements that a phone would have to meet in order to meet my needs. Both iPhones and Android phones can meet these requirements. I wondered if Windows Phone could stand up to the comparison.

    Microsoft was kind enough to loan me a Lumia Icon, which I just opened up today. Here are my first impressions, coming mostly from the process of unboxing the thing. I’ll have more in-depth discussions of the hardware, software, and ecosystem in future articles.

    I have pretty mediocre wireless coverage across carriers at home, but Verizon is the best of the lot. Microsoft provided me with a Verizon phone, so we’re in for a lot of red.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • A smartphone box is a smartphone box

    A smartphone box is a smartphone box

    The box the phone comes in is pretty much like any other smartphone box. The one thing that gave me a grin was the overlaid description of the buttons and connectors. That’s just cute.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • It's alive!

    It's alive!

    As soon as I lifted the phone up, it powered on. 

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Clean design

    Clean design

    The back is a simple white. I was worried I’d get some terribly gaudy Nokia color, and I’m glad that this is a phone that doesn’t scream “look at me, I’m plastic candy!”

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Quick activation

    Quick activation

    Next up was connecting to the network. This took a little work, because I have pretty terrible reception. But within a few minutes, I was using the phone.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Nothing special besides the phone

    Nothing special besides the phone

    This is what comes inside the box. More red.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • No earbuds!

    No earbuds!

    Three things of note: First, there’s a lot of paper. Given that I read Kindle books on my phone, well … TL;DR. There’s a USB to micro-USB cable and a power adapter. One thing the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy have that the Lumia doesn’t: earbuds.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Top 'o the phone

    Top 'o the phone

    The top of the phone. If you have earbuds, this is where they would go. It’s also where the SIM card goes. No, that’s not extra memory, although this thing comes with 32G (of which 25GB was free right out of the box), so that’s not bad at all.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Bottom of the phone

    Bottom of the phone

    As the overlay says, “Charger/USB Port”.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • It can stand up

    It can stand up

    No controls at all on the left side of the phone. It’s flat enough to stand up by itself on my desk, and yet it’s still reasonably comfortable in my hand. That’s kind of cool.

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Dedicated camera button

    Dedicated camera button

    The Lumia Icon, which has a 20 megapixel camera, is pretty serious about camera functions. That’s a dedicated camera button there. For those of you old-time iPhone users, remember when Apple pitched a fit when one of their developers had the audacity to try to use a button to take pictures?

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

  • Not your typical Android or iOS interface

    Not your typical Android or iOS interface

    It’s very, very red. It’s also a completely different UI from Android and iOS. I’m very much looking forward to playing with it. Stay tuned!

    Caption by: David Gewirtz

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It’s very, very red. It’s also a completely different UI from Android and iOS. In many ways, though, it's just another high-end smartphone. And that's a good thing.

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The little red box

Earlier this week, I described my intention to give Windows Phone a fair and unbiased look . At the time, I set up a set of questions and requirements that a phone would have to meet in order to meet my needs. Both iPhones and Android phones can meet these requirements. I wondered if Windows Phone could stand up to the comparison.

Microsoft was kind enough to loan me a Lumia Icon, which I just opened up today. Here are my first impressions, coming mostly from the process of unboxing the thing. I’ll have more in-depth discussions of the hardware, software, and ecosystem in future articles.

I have pretty mediocre wireless coverage across carriers at home, but Verizon is the best of the lot. Microsoft provided me with a Verizon phone, so we’re in for a lot of red.

Caption by: David Gewirtz

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