Searching for Signs of Spring with the Nokia Lumia 620 #NokiaSpring

I’ve never been a keeping up with the Jones’ kind of girl. Quite the opposite even, as I’ve been known to hold out on ‘must have’ mainstream devices longer than most. Take the smart phone for example. Friends marvelled at how I resisted it’s urges for so long and was met with more than a few eye rolls when “text me when you get here” was met with an awkward “ummm?”. So there was a collective sigh when I finally joined the ranks of the smart phone wielders before Christmas. Friends joked that I would be addicted by New Years Day, but sadly the magic did not take hold for me like it did for others. More often than not, it lay at the bottom of my purse, battery dead. 

With Spring, supposedly right around the corner, a new challenge was presented in the form of the Nokia Lumia 620. Could this be the phone to cast the spell? I kept it close at hand over the last few weeks as I documented my search for Spring. 

If first impressions were anything to go by, it had a lot of potential. I loved the look of the Nokia Lumia 620 right away. With a sleek 3.8″ display screen, easy to hold design and funky Windows 8 blocks, this phone looked like a lot of fun to use. At first, I was a little nervous about switching from my Andriod to a Windows 8 phone, but I instantly fell in love with the customization and swift swiping motion to get around. 

Easter weekend was the perfect time to embark on my hunt for Spring, with my Nokia Lumia 620 at the ready to document my findings. It was dangerously close to not even needing a coat as my oldest son and I took to the city for some one on one time. 

How we used the Nokia Lumia 620

* We called Daddy a few times on our outing to check in. 
* I conveniently checked my email and tweeted about the dire conditions at my local McDonald’s, as Big Brother romped in the play place.
* Kids Corner to the rescue! Big Brother keeps busy on the drive home playing some downloaded games. 

Kids Corner is a genius little feature that allows your child to handle your phone and only have access to what you have set up for them. It keeps their little fingers slicing fruit like a ninja and flinging angry birds instead of dialing calls to china and accidentally deleting your emails! When you are ready to take back control, you just need to put in your password and your back in action! 

The kids weren’t the only ones to try out game apps either. Hubs and I installed a few of our favourites and we’ve been having our own fun crushing jewels and rolling the dice! 

Our Signs of Spring count was pretty high this weekend as we discovered flowers blooming in the garden, the boys rode their bikes for the first time of the season, and we devoured lots and lots of Easter chocolate! 

The nice Easter weather did not last long though, as the following my weekend my BFF was in town and we took to a new city for a girls shopping day. Back to heavy coats and mitts. brrrr…..
Being in a new city gave us the chance to try Nokia’s own apps for city navigating like City Lens and Maps. 

With Nokia City Lens, just holding up your phone reveals everything around you. Watch shops, restaurants and businesses pop up. Discover places you never knew existed. Then tap the screen to see reviews, directions, and links. 

These are still in the beta stage, and we had a few glitches, but it has a ton of potential!

How we used the Nokia Lumia 620

* Snapped some silly BFF pics
* Surfed the web to settle a celebrity debate at lunch. 
* Navigated a new city with Nokia apps

Spring turns from bad to worse, as an ice storm hits the city. Any signs we did see from Spring are long gone and burried under a sheet of  ice!  Tree limbs were down, birds were hiding, but I was able to keep tweeting myself with the Nokia Lumia 620.

How we used the Nokia Lumia 620

 * Kept a close watch on the Weather Channel app
* Stayed connected with social media
* Snapped some pics to document the icy day
* With the lights flickering on and off, I appreciated the long battery life of the Nokia Lumia 620

Taking pictures has never been more fun than with all the interesting lens apps, that you can download for your Nokia phone. The Cinemagraph app lets you pick sections of the photo to animate! Then you can post the image on facebook or twitter to get everyone laughing! The Smart Shoot app is perfect for a large and wiggly family like ours. 5 pictures are snapped within seconds, so you can pick your favourite faces and put together the perfect family photo! Even without the fun apps, the 5 megapixel camera does a great job snapping pics!

So while my search for Spring ended in a bust, I did find myself growing quite attached to the Nokia Lumia 620. Turns out, I just didn’t have the right phone before! As for Spring, if you ever decide to come, just text me when you get here, I’m tired of waiting! lol