To Buy Or Not To Buy?

So recently I was sent the Nokia Lumia 735* to try out and review. Let me be clear immediately here, I was not paid in any way, I do not get to keep this phone, there was no compensation for it. There. Now maybe you'll stop thinking this post is an Ad, lol.  So why did I agree to do it? Well to be honest, I'm in the market for a phone. Or at least I will be in a few months time. So this seemed like a great opportunity to try out one and see if it works for me, before committing to it. You never get that opportunity otherwise, so I thought I might as well take full advantage.
Now I need you all to know I'm someone who LIVES on my phone, seriously. I know many of you can relate here, but I need to tell you how bad it is. I check Instagram as soon as I wake up, reply to tweets on the bus to work, spend the day glued to my phone throughout work (I'm allowed to), reply to emails almost instantly, shop on my phone, make notes on my phone, listen to music... everything. It's definitely not recommended. But that's the way it is. So it's important to me that I have something easy to use, full of useful functions, looks and feels nice and keeps up with me. Here's how the Nokia Lumia 735 did on trial...

The Good: The sleek, beautiful design. Orange isn't really my thing, but this gorgeous bright design does appeal to me. I seen online it also comes in bright green, which looks BRILLIANT. And the thin, super sleek style felt amazing to use, I definitely prefer the feel of this to my current phone. As for the camera, this phone boasts to be the 'selfie phone'. And I will admit, the facing camera was better quality than what I'm used to. It does well in low light, and keeps things sharp. 

The Okay/Bad: The normal camera view however, well.. I kind of expected more. It wasn't bad by any means, but it just wasn't great, you know? I really felt more of an effort could have been made here since they tried so much with the selfie cam. The main thing I didn't like though was the usability. At first I thought it'd be because I wasn't used to this totally different phone, but after two weeks I can confirm I just don't think Windows phones have cracked it yet. They've mastered beautiful designs, but functioning day to day just isn't cutting it for me. I didn't like that the menu was hidden off to the right of the screen, where you swipe it back and forth, rather than as an option on the 'home' screen. It didn't seem to pull my notifications in immediately from my apps, even though I could see them popping up on my existing phone. The sound quality through headphones was great, but not so good as a speaker. (Although this is not very important to me.)
The Verdict: While there are many great things about this phone, I don't believe I would purchase it myself. I liked it very much, and found a great deal to admire. But ultimately I think I'd go for something else. I think it's fantastic value for money as a mid-range phone, and would recommend anyone within a mid price range to try it. But I use my phone so much, I'm willing to pay out more for something that I'll love everyday.

Do any of you have this phone? If so how do you find it? :)


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