Pros: Cheap, decent specs, Windows Phone OS, Micro SD support

Cons: Mediocre screen, small battery

Overall Review: I bought this phone when it first came out as I wanted to try out Windows Phone without fully jumping ship until I knew I liked it. This phone is cheap and off contract and, despite is limited specs, runs Windows Phone OS like a champ. Unlike Android, WP runs as smooth on a phone like this as it does on a higher end device. Sure apps may take a bit longer to load, and high end games may stutter a bit, but if you want to test out Windows Phone without dropping hundreds and getting stuck with it for a 2 year contract this phone is a great, inexpensive way to get a feel for the OS before moving to a higher end device as i did.

Pros: I needed an inexpensive smart phone to use for calls, texts, and basic internet browsing without being unbearingly laggy.

I purchased the Galaxy S2 as my first smart phone several years ago and, after it prematurely died on me, it left a bad taste in my mouth in regards to buying expensive smart phones. I tried out one of those Chinese knock-off Android phones and that was an even worse experience (terrible screen, laggy, etc...).

At that point, I just wanted a phone that works and works well. I was extremely hesitant about getting a Windows phone, but I did not want another cheap Android phone and, as a college student, I didn't have a large budget. Needless to say, this phone exceeded my expectations. It is very snappy, the OS is easy to get used to, you can use MicroSD cards up to 64gb, the screen is decent, and I haven't ran into any problems with it. I love this phone.

Cons: The app store leaves a lot to be desired, but it is getting better. I use my phone for music exclusively when I'm on the go and I was disappointed by the selection of music apps, but I am just being picky. The current one I'm use will suffice, but it's just not as good as the app I was using on Android.

Overall Review: While I do love Android as a platform, the OS is simply not optimized enough to provide a super smooth experience on low end phones. I honestly have zero clue why people need to spend $500 on a phone, but if you're needing a good phone that isn't a lagfest and is inexpensive, then this is it.

Pros: added this to my recently retired Wife's Windows arsenal... Now her Desktop, Laptop, Dell Tablet and Phone all run on Windows 8x and all her info is linkes, shared, accessible from every device (especially her OUTLOOK calendar)

Cons: none

Overall Review: if you had any doubts about the collaborative and synchronizing neture of Windows 8 on these devices, be assured it really works seamlessly and completely

Pros: First off, the Newegg description is incorrect. This phone has "4G", which means it runs off T-Mobile's HSPA +21 network and can get download speeds faster than regular 3G, but it is not an LTE phone.

For the price of the hardware you're getting, this phone is an amazing value. The build quality is far better than any entry-level android phone you'd be able to get for the same price.

Pros:
-Long-lasting battery life. With all my accounts set to push notifications, and a lot of use I can last the entire day on a single charge.
-Windows Phone OS is buttery smooth, and no longer will you need a task killer app to free up your RAM.
-Looks and feels very nice, with responsive buttons.
-Awesome speaker
-Here Maps by Nokia lets you download a map of your entire state so you can view it offline.
-The camera and especially the camera software is fantastic.

Cons: -4G is slow compared to 4G LTE.
-The screen is terrible. The resolution is too low and it doesn't get nearly bright enough in broad daylight to see anything on the screen.
-Windows Phone doesn't have all the cool apps android and Apple have.
-The capacitive buttons aren't backlit, so it's a pain in the neck trying to find them in the dark.
-The power/screen unlock button is in an awkward position that takes some time to get used to.
-The keyboard isn't very good.

Overall Review: As long as you keep in mind the price you're paying for this phone, the pros far outweigh the cons. If you're looking for a good phone on a very tight budget you won't be disappointed.

Also, don't let low-end specs fool you. Windows Phone 8 is a much more efficient OS than android.

Pros: Faster O.S. than Android, Good Sized Screen, Easy Navigation, 4G Capable, Not Bulky. MS Office Cloud installed.

Cons: Glitchy in some applications but not many.

Overall Review: Excellent Windows Phone if you are looking to break away from the Android miasma. This phone WILL work with Simple Mobile if you are looking for a better deal on your service.

Paired this up with a nice silicone case, anti-glare/finger print screen protectors and a 32GB SD Card (Supports up to 64GB). Expecting to get 2 years out of this phone.

Pros: - Low Cost, this is a budget phone for anyone that wants a smartphone and not pay over $200+
- Sturdy. The phone is made out of full plastic with the exception of the touch screen glass. It's really sturdy and dropping it so far hasn't broke mine.
- Good battery life. Can last a day or so watching videos, having live updates, etc.
- External SD Card available for more storage space
- Camera quality is pretty nice and takes fast pictures.
- Speakers and mic are really clear

Cons: - Windows Phone. Limited apps but I have everything I personally needed.
I have Facebook, Whatapp, SnapChat (6snap), Skydrive (Onedrive), Instagram, Twitter, Pandora, Facebook Messnger, Bank of America, Imgur, Reddit, Netflix, and a whole lot of other useful apps. This phone really isn't missing anything.

Overall Review: For a budget phone, at a low price in which you can find on sale a lot for under $50, this is the perfect phone.
Fast, responsive, and easy to use.
I would recommend this phone to anyone, even the operating system is getting better. It's really good and windows shouldn't be casted away. It's getting there with the community.

Pros: Price, For a Windows 8, I paid $80. This is an great OS for this phone, it moves very fast, no big issues. I like the phone and how well it is to use.

Cons: Apps, Apps, Apps. I moved from an android phone, Ginger Bread. Samsung Relay S. I have had some serious growing pains changing phone. A lot of the android apps I was use to are not available.

Overall Review: If I had not misplaced (lost) my phone. I would have stayed with my andriod.

Pros: Price. No Contract. Works well with T-Mobile and is recognized and supported by their network and retail outlets.

Very good MAP feature.

Cons: None really. Somewhat of a cheap feel to it but it is a cheap phone! Has some Nokia bloatware installed but it can be removed.

Overall Review: Bought this for my wife to replace a 5 year old Nokia Nuron that still worked but definitely showing its age. Her company is 100% Windows based so I thought the phone would work well with that environment; Outlook especially. It was very easy to setup and sync her phone to Outlook calendar and email. She also used Hotmail and it works well with that also. She is somewhat of a technophobe. I think this phone was easier for her to learn and use than Android. She is adjusting to the new phone and is very happy with it. BTW, the latest Windows Phone updates will be coming to this phone.

Pros: Good phone in a cheep price

Cons: sometime call loss.

Pros: great operating system. I liked it, easy to use

Cons: After 6 weeks , the phone went totally dead. Even the T-mobile techs could not get it turned back on. Battery was fine. Reboot didn't work. Just simply a dead phone! Oddly enough, there was a lady at t-mobile store that day who ironically had the same problem with the same phone! DO NOT BUY!!!! JUNK!!!

Pros: Relatively fast; not the processor, the OS.
Unlimited free music
Decent camera
Loud-enough speakerphone
Wi-fi calling
E-mail app
Good, downloadable maps/driving app
Removable battery
Good battery life

Cons: Extremely faint screen (hardly visible in sunlight), which makes the driving app only half usable
Very slightly distorted sound (hardly audible)

Overall Review: Got a good deal on it for $60, including shipping. shipping was slooow. As the sun is pretty bright in Vegas most of the time, I gave it away after a couple of weeks.

Pros: Very reasonable price for a Win8 phone.
Easily updated to Win8.1 using developer unlock.
Perfect for my kid.

Cons: No flash.
Plastic body but for the price, totally expected.

Overall Review: When we updated to Win8.1, the Wifi Calling somehow defaulted to 'wifi only' mode. When i activated, and could not obtain a signal, i spent over 2 hours on tech support trying to figure out the billing issue (cannot add minutes using a credit card for some reason) and then the 'technical issue'. Once we turned wifi calling mode to 'prefer wifi' it connected just fine to the T-Mobile network.

Pros: T-mobile confirmed that this will get the windows phone 8.1 update, Bluetooth, wifi hot-spot, $60 bucks NO CONTRACTS OR REBATES!

Cons: Camera quality suffers in low light. Not very good unless the subject is bright in the frame. Contrasting pics with bright spots and dark areas do not look very even.
The voice clarity on the receiver is not great. Calls have no problem hearing what i'm saying, but there is some garble issues experienced with low-moderate voiced callers on this end. The volume is not so great. There is no front-facing camera.

Overall Review: Even with all of the mentioned cons, there are certainly huge advantages with this phone. First is the price. There is no question about the other abilities of the phone. For under $100, The Wifi is strong and fast. bluetooth is also reliable. The screen is small, but the image quality is good. The MicroSDHC is fast using a generic 32gb chip. The apps load up and run fast for a low-power phone. The battery life is easily twice that of my HTC One, which maxes out at about a day moderate usage all bells and whistles on.

Pros: WHEN IT IS ON SALE FOR 59 DOLLARS, IT IS A GOOD MP3 PLAYER AND PHONE FOR MY YOUNG SON. EVEN IF HE DROPPED IT, I CANNOT FEEL THE PAIN.

Cons: NO LTE, BUT FOR THAT PRICE 59 DOLLARS, CANNOT COMPLAINT.

Pros: affordable, easy to use, easy to set up.

Cons: Wish there was an option other than white.

Overall Review: I bought this phone for my soon to be 13 yo daughter. She enjoys the windows platform and finds it easy to use. The camera is decent enough. I wanted something on the cheaper side incase it is stolen or lost. This fits the bill, however still keeps her in the smartphone range.

Pros: Has no bloatware. Anything can be deleted.
Auto stores to the SD card (64gb!)
Really great camera with aperture control and more.
MS Office with 7gb of cloud storage.
Great call quality.
Text to talk and talk to text so you can text hands free.
Very nice display.
MS games are free and great.
WindowsPhone store has plenty of good apps.
Live tiles!
Great GPS (HERE Drive, HERE maps)
Transfer My Data SW to move data from you existing phone.
Seamless network handoff.
4G
Good battery life.
No front camera.
If you use Windows learning curve is low.
Nokia has video tutorials online. So does WindowsPhone.

Cons: Plastic screen needs an anti-glare protector.
No camera flash.
No front camera for Skype.

Overall Review: It is my favorite phone to date. The Nokia 925 has a glass screen with higher resolution and can be found for $200. If you have the cash buy the better phone. If not you will love this phone.

Pros: Bought this phone to replace my Samsung Galaxy S2. I've been using Samsung Galaxy SI and SII, and this phone is so far much better than those phones. It's been more than a month, and I haven't been forced to reboot or turn off the phone. The battery also lasts longer than my previous phones. At this price, you won't regret buying this phone.

Cons: Screen is smaller than my previous phones

Pros: Comfortable, compact design
Good call quality
Amazing Battery Life
Great Nokia build Construction
No lag
4G
Tethering Capable
MicroSD slot (up to 64GB)

Cons: Low viewing angles
No flash for the camera
No LTE (but does have 4G)
Plastic backing
Low quality camera

Overall Review: The Nokia 521 is an amazing phone for an amazing price point. The phone runs as smooth as the higher end Lumia’s and also comes with all of the software. The battery is also a lot better than what I was expecting. I will be using this phone as a backup phone in my car for emergencies. I also bought the Lumia 521 to get my foot in the door to see what Microsoft and Nokia have to offer and I use an iPhone for my main phone. So far I am really enjoying the phone and the platform. It’s a great buy and I would recommend getting this phone if you need a cheap backup phone or just want to get your feet wet in the Windows Phone platform.

Pros: *Very inexpensive for a smart phone...great value!
*Very smooth & easy WP8 OS operation...fast enough for most tasks
*Large screen with live-tiles...easy to read
*Favorite people pictures can be pinned to Start Screen for easy speed-dial or messaging....very good feature!
*4G Network & WiFi calling feature....not found in most iPhones
*Additional SD card slot for more storage
*Replaceable battery....not many phones has this feature!

Cons: *No front-facing camera
*Could use a faster CPU and a little more internal storage & RAM if you use the phone for some heavy apps....not a problem for my use!
*Kind of slippery in the hands...could use a little more texture on the case design.

Overall Review: My wife has an iPhone and Android tablets so, my comparisons are based on what I see with those devices....
In general, this phone is GREAT for what it cost unless you want to use it for heavy games and other heavy-duty apps!

Pros: This is an amazing phone for the price. I purchased the Lumia around Christmas of 2013 and I love it. Window's phone is simple much like the Iphone OS so you don't need a quad core 1.5 MHZ processor to run it. Although the camera doesn't have a flash, you will be surprised when you take low light pictures. When you are about to take a picture it may look dark. When you snap the photo it does brighten up. It is 4G capable and everything downloads and refreshes quickly. The screen is very smooth to the touch and ultra sensitive. Nokia has been working with Gorilla glass to make smudges less of an issue. Call quality is good and you can easily connect to wifi or Bluetooth. With Window 8, the OS does a great job on automatically connecting people and putting everything you need into one place. Overall, I love this phone.

Cons: No major issues at all. Maybe some issues with customizing specific areas. But that is a part of having a really fast phone.

Overall Review: This is a great phone for the price. You can't expect an amazing camera and LTE capability on a phone less then $100. Some reviews I see people really hit hard on the things it doesn't have like that. Common sense says for an affordable phone you wont get great hardware. If you were to buy a phone at this price anywhere else you could not find an great OS, Screen, 4G, and build structure compared to this one. You get what you pay for. In this case, I feel like my moneys worth.

Pros: Plastic back feels durable, buttons feel decent, respectable performance for a budget device

Cons: As a user of Gmail, I had no idea there would be any issue. Email notification is a big deal to me for my phone, and my old phone (Galaxy SII) received emails instantly with push notifications. Windows Phone does not support push notifications, so the best you can get is a refresh every 15 minutes. I found this to be a big deal breaker for my use, and it's ultimately why I went back to Android.

Screen on this was rather bland, many said it was decent so I expected it to be good enough but it was a bit underwhelming. The finish on it smudges easy and it was very hard to wipe it off so it didn't still look streaky. My Galaxy SII no matter how smudged could be wiped off with a shirt or a rag and be perfect (No screen protector applied to it).

I found Windows Phone 8 to be disappointing in some regards. Many of the apps are kind of pointless. I could not find a YouTube app that actually worked completely. The best rated app has to be paid for and while the cost is low, I bought the 521 to try out Windows Phone - I don't think anyone should ever have to pay to get a decent usable YouTube experience. But all the free YouTube apps were next to useless. The best one (I totally forgot the name, but it's one of the first ones you find in the Windows Store) looked great, did everything good...except it wouldn't play any videos from my playlists. For some reason it only let me look at the video pages with the playlist, there was no option to actually play the video. If I searched for the video manually I could play it, but I use playlists often and again found this to be a really poor experience. Other YouTube apps were just the equivalent of navigating to YouTube in IE - just a single click shortcut to it which seemed pointless for functionality. For the record, iOS still has the absolute best YouTube player (MxTube I believe).

Overall Review: If you aren't coming from another smartphone, the 521 might be a lot better. It can't be faulted for its price which is fair for what you get. It's been said before but Windows Phone really does have a limited selection of apps, and implementations of the big ones aren't necessarily done that well. I doubt unless Microsoft can greatly increase their market share will they ever be as good as iOS and Android versions of their apps which are far more profitable/visible and thus receive a lot more quality development.

Overall for me I was most disappointed in Windows Phone 8 as a platform. Definitely did not live up to the expectations I had for it, and did not meet my needs well at all. The 521 itself was fine, other than the rather bland screen that smeared way too easily. I believe it's the lack of gorilla glass, as swiping on the 521 feels more resistance and smudgey than on say an iPhone or premium Android phone which you finger glides over. But it is a budget device, and overall performance is acceptable if you can live with the caveats of Windows Phone 8.

Just a sidenote, I actually bought my 521 from the Windows Store and Microsoft just doesn't get how to provide a decent return system. You have to call to authorize an RMA. But when you call, the system asks for a 9-digit order number when the actual order number is 11-digits. I also put in my phone number used in the order form as well which was its next step if I "forgot" my order number. It rejected them and then hung up on me. Renavigate through the menu, do it again, hang up again. I wasted so much time and then finally just picked another category to get a person on the line. Why Microsoft won't just allow you to go online and start an RMA like everyone else I have no idea, but I highly recommend never buying anything from the Microsoft Store for this reason. They did pay for return shipping which was nice, but the atrocious phone system was very frustrating to use.

Pros: very nice and well priced backup phone. Have no issues, screen a bit small for what I've gotten use to with premium smartphones, but for the price, it can't be beat ... vs. features and performance. and it's Nokia quality unlike the Asian counterparts such as LG, samsung

Cons: form factor could've been slimmer, but do understand that would add cost

Overall Review: well priced and well featured phone, windows or not

Pros: Great little phone. Windows 8 on this phone is wonderful. Access to office and all live emails. I cannot say enough about this phone. At $89.00, how can you go wrong.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I dislike android, it seems to lock a person up to its own programs.

Pros: cheap

Cons: lasted only one year

Pros: -cheap price
-Windows phone operating system works very well. Less glitches than my android phones.
-Windows account log in so it synch's with other Windows stuff well.

Cons: -all plastic construction
-lowish resolution camera
-not as many apps as IOS or android

Overall Review: So I purchased on 02/28/14 as a first phone for my teenage daughter - figured if she lost or broke it I was only out $100 vs. a $500+ flagship phone. It honestly worked better than I expected and the Windows operating system had a lot less issues than android and apple over the same period of ownership. So all in all a good first phone for a kid. Only day to day drawback was the camera quality is not very good.

Flash forward to 05/02/15 (warranty expired of course) and now the phone won't charge. Looked online and it is a common problem with no clear solution. I tried a new battery ($40) and as long as the batter had charged it worked, but one the charge ran out it was back to not charging. I plug it in and it tries to turn on then buzzes and turns off without charging. Tried various chargers with same results.

So long story short - not a bad starter phone, but don't expect it to last. On the plus side you can pick them up for $50 or less now, so even buying 1 a year it would take several years to equal a more expensive flagship phone.

Pros: Inexpensive, Windows 8 is good, can be Hot Spot to connect devices to the Internet. It would be a good phone if it wasn't for the problems described in "Cons"

Cons: Random "can't connect" messages when trying to make a phone call. Requires powering down and back up. T'Mobile replaced it once. The second has the same problem. The Internet has others with same problem.

Pros: Easily upgradeable to Windows Phone 8.1. With 8.1 you have smart phone with Cortana and all of the functionality you need in a smart phone. You will not find a full featured phone for $60 that can beat it on the superb T-Mobile network.

Cons: Not LTE capable

Pros: Light, Cheap, Easy Setup, and does whatever the spec list.
Support multiple-languages

Cons: User interface is creative, but it doesn't get me.

Overall Review: I got this one for my mom as an entry-level starter of smartphone. it cannot compare to iphone or Samsung's for sure. but what can I complain with this price?

Pros: Works with my existing T-Mobile Pay As You Go Plan
Cheap- got it on sale $60
Easy to use basic phone and few apps

Cons: Windows Phone .. apps not as varied or reliable as Android or I-Phone apps
Cheap build

Overall Review: I was expecting a rugged build quality of Nokia Phones. This phone was made in China and feels flimsy compared to my previous Nokia phones.
Nice phone to give to my mother.

Pros: - Windows Phone 8: eligible to upgrade to WP8.1
- Low price: bought for $59 from a shell shocker deal
- Lightweight
- Supports 64GB microSD

Cons: - Capacitive buttons do no light up
- Slight delay after pressing an item while handling a large music library on the SD card. I'm not sure if it is due to the low RAM or card access (only 512MB RAM and I have a 64GB SanDisk Class 10 UHS-1 microSD card)

Overall Review: I purchased this Lumia to be a music player as an alternative to biting the Apple and getting a 64GB ipod touch. I've been eyeing the Lumia 520/521 to so when a shell shocker deal popped up for it I HAD to grab it. I have 2 years experience with WP7 and I love the music player's interface.

All in all, I'm happy with my purchase. Performance is more than adequate for what I need

Pros: Good Smart Phone

Cons: Does not have aFront Camera

Pros: good product and Price

Cons: good product & Price

Pros: great GPS application, smooth interface, good battery life, great MP3 and streaming audio player, good WIFI receiver, a cheap way to get familiar with Windows Phone 8, includes MS Word and Excel. Quite a bundle of technology. This phone, for $60, plus T-Mobile's $30/month unlimited data plan is a powerful combo.

Cons: the assortment of apps in the Windows Store is meager

Overall Review: I actually bought this out of curiosity over the Win Phone 8 mobile operating system and for use as a music player (streaming audio via WIFI). I bought it from my local Best Buy with them matching Newegg's sale price of $60. It has a great GPS and GPS app that saves maps for use when WIFI isn't available (i.e. on the road). I will keep it for this reason alone. My own phone is an Android, which is my preferred smartphone OS. But there isn't any big drawback to a Windows Phone, unless you are a person that a) likes to jailbreak or root their phone; or b) needs a vast assortment of apps available.

Pros: Super touch screen, it works even with my leather motorcycle gloves on. To me Windows 8 phone is easy to use. Very clear and loud speaker. Amazing Nokia camera option. Thin and nice curve edging. Very low price for a real smart phone that good enough for daily use as email, weather forecast, news, Facebook, Microsoft office...

Cons: The power button on the right side is too sensitive, it needs to have time delay to prevent accidentally hit this button and the phone turn off when I need to pick up an incoming call

Overall Review: Whatever, I try to remember that I have to hold the phone with my fingers outside the power button location and when I have an incoming call, I only pick up the phone by holding the front and back if I don't want to ignore by touching the sided power button.

Pros: Price
Value
Windows 8 Phone is a pretty nice operating system.
Nokia Maps free.
Micro sD card slot.

Cons: No LTE
Pretty limited apps. I use Google Music and Amazn music which is unavailable here.

Overall Review: I have tried a lot of phones on T-Mo, at the low price of this phone I wanted to try it for a while. It was a far better performer for the price than it has any right to be, but ultimately wanted a few apps that this didn't have.

Pros: Great phone. Not hard to learn.

Cons: Just don't have access to some apps that are out there for Android

Pros: -Pretty good battery life, especially for such a cheap phone.

-Very good performance overall. Scrolling is very smooth, apps launch pretty quickly, and the touch screen is very responsive

-Cellular reception is great with T-mobile in my area. I actually get better cellular reception with this phone than I did with my iPhone 4s, on the same network

Cons: -Poor build quality, with cheap, all-plastic components

-The back, home and search soft buttons aren't illuminated, and aren't on screen, so you can't seem them when it's dark. They're also flat, capacitive buttons, so you can't feel for them either, like with an iphone.

-Cellular, wi-fi reception, and battery life indicators are hidden by default, and you have to swipe down from the top to see their status'. I couldn't find anything in the settings to change this.

-Internet explorer is just as terrible on mobile as it is on the desktop. Unfortunately Mozilla has abandoned development of Firefox for Windows phone 8, though I absolutely don't blame them.

-The interface is ugly and bland, with extremely limited customization options. You can customize your home screen, the arrangement of your "tiles" and the color of everything. It's extremely limited in comparison to Android and even iOS.

-The camera quality is pretty poor, with no flash, and no front-facing camera. It's a massive downgrade from the iPhone 4s that I had for a few months.

-Pre installed apps claim to REQUIRE your location to work properly, and if you don't agree, they won't let you update

-The app selection is pitiful. There is almost nothing worthwhile on the store, with the exception of Twitter and Pandora.

-Audio through the speaker is remarkably bad. The speaker is simply low quality, and then on top of that has the worst positioning I've ever seen. It's just a small slit for the sound to pass through, and it's right on the back of the phone, which is where your hand goes, and it's almost entirely muted when covered.

-The USB port used to charge/ connect to a PC seems to be placed a bit too far into the device itself, so you need to really make sure you're inserting the cable at the perfect cable to avoid damage.

Overall Review: I do not like this phone.

I have experience with Android on a tablet, and iOS on several iPods and an iPhone 4s. This was my first experience with a mobile Windows platform, and it was terrible. There are definitely many cut corners on the hardware of this phone, but most of the big issues come down to the software. Windows Phone 8 is awful in comparison to Android and iOS.

That's not to say this phone is a bad option for everybody. If you haven't used a smartphone before and are just looking to dip your toes in the water, this is probably an OK starting place. It will make phone calls, send texts, and you might be impressed by the different smartphone functions and web functionality if you've never used anything better

Pros: For a $70 phone, it's got a good screen and decent speed. Camera takes pretty good quality photos.Those are pretty much the only pros.

Cons: Where do I begin? My volume-up button stopped working after about a month and a half, the lock-button is now failing, and the OS alone is almost 3GB. Windows 8 OS is badly buggy in so many ways:
-Frequently when I press the lock button, I'll see my lock screen, then it'll flash to black and I'll have to lock and relock the phone to get into it. Annoying when the lock button only works 10% of the time.
-At the beginning and end of every song, there's a loud skip/crackle noise
-Skipping forward or backward in video or audio playback produces an even louder crackle noise that's nearly deafening
-Phone frequently crashes completely and reboots itself
-Freezes almost daily, have to remove the battery to fix the problem
-Next to no modern app support. Spotify won't even open without a premium subscription, and most social network apps (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Kik, and Twitter to name a few) are all unofficial 3rd party apps with little support.
-I have the $30 UL Data and Texting package from T-Mobile. I don't know if it's just where I live or what, but at (very frequent) times, I'll show as having 4-5 bars, but nothing will load and texts won't send. Often triggered by opening Facebook or other internet-drawing apps on data. Only fix is to either wait it out (2-3 hours usually) or reboot the phone.
-It has bursts of incredible slowness. While sometimes it is fast, about 80% of the time it crawls if you have more than 2 or 3 apps open in the background.
-Battery life is mediocre and gets worse over a short time
-Headphone jack is shoddy and has already failed on one of my friends' phones
-Charging port is awkward and some chargers don't work with it
-Battery gets incredibly hot when charging
-The sloped backside of the phone makes it really easy to slip out of your hand and drop it, and that's not helped by how smooth the back surface is
-Very few good cases for the phone that aren't shipping from China, but that's common among cheaper phones
-No front camera

Overall Review: Overall, for me personally, this phone started out well and became a nightmare. I abhor using it now and I can NOT wait to replace it. For moderate use, like texting and calling infrequently, this phone is probably perfect, but if you're expecting something better than an equally priced Android phone, prepare to be disappointed. I "upgraded" from a Huawei Prism II (got it for $80 right before its price dropped to $50), and the Prism II was miles better. Still a mid-range phone by all means, lacking some great characteristics, but at least it wasn't plagued by the Windows Phone 8 OS.

Again, if you're expecting anything par to Android, stay far away from this phone.

Pros: - Cheap
- Comes with a built in GPS
- Good camera for the price
- Ability to upgrade memory
- Great touch screen
- No contract
- Great sync functionality with Windows 8.1

Cons: - Plastic can feel a bit flimsy
- Vibration buttons don't function well after 4 months of use
- My first lumia 521 was DOA due to battery problems
- Can be a bit slow when many apps are running simultanously
- Windows store is lackluster at the moment. Does not compare at all to the apple app store

Overall Review: For me it was either to spend big money on an expensive Nokia or iPhone ($600) or find something cheap. This phone is the only cheap phone that truly delivers an excellent smartphone experience. What really makes this good in my opinion is the expandable memory size. Expensive phones such as the iPhone do not allow the user to expand the memory which is a huge downturn for me. I was able to upgrade my Nokia with 32GB for only 12 dollars and it works great! Overall, if you want a smartphone but you are on a tight budget, this phone will not disappoint!

Pros: Fast, reliable, great call quality and AMAZING for the price.

Cons: Windows...no need to say more.

Pros: Relatively cheap, Windows 8 front end (easy to use/customize). Worked perfectly with my T-Mobil accounts after replacing my 3G SIM card. Cheap generic cases available. The one I bought cost $6 and it came with a mini touch pen and a plastic face cover. T-Mobil's case is $30 and its face covers are $8! My Kindle's USB/Blackberry charger & cable are compatible. It chargers very quickly with my 5V, 15A Fire HDX charger. I fitted it with a 16Gig Micro SD to extend storage capacity to 20+ Gigs. Has easy Wi-Fi/VOIP functionality.

Cons: Not LTE, so relatively slow 1GHz CPU. Have had a few problems such as not being able to receive incoming calls randomly. This has happened sufficient times to make me consider an exchange w/Nokia (Newegg's return policy is only 15 days!). This I have bought a standby Galaxy Lite LTE that T-Mobil was selling for the amazing price of $48!! However my original 521 which I bought about 6 months ago (the unit under review is my wife's!) has had no such problems.

Overall Review: In all, I prefer the Win8 front end to the usual Google o/systems. I'm sorry that T-Mobil wasn't carrying the LTE Galaxy Lite at the time I bought this Nokia. I'm hoping that Nokia has a better return/exchange policy than Newegg if it continues to misbehave.

Pros: Snappy interface
Sexy start screen
Maps can be downloaded into the phone
Rugged enough
Fits nicely in your hand
WiFi calling
Takes 64 Gig micro SD card
T Mobile has economical plans

Cons: No T Mobile service where I live, despite service map claim
No T Mobile service in the 2 nearest towns to me
Music player sees 2 or 3 copies of every song -OS problem
Duplicate problem occurs on SD as well as phone storage
Listen to an album = each song 3x in a row.
Also duplicates pics and videos

Overall Review: For $60 I thought if the phone service didn't work out I would at least have a decent MP3 player. Microsoft can't even get that right. Check online. Thousands of people have the duplicate problem on different makes of Windows phones.

Pros: Cheap basic phone. Good Camera and Navigation apps

Cons: worst app experience. It takes a while to open apps.
* Whatsapp - scrolling takes really long time to load history.
* Voice Recorder - No proper voice recorder apps. The way it works is it first uses your 8GB ROM and then tries to save to your hard disk, thereby using lot of memory. The one I had crashed mid way during lecture recording and I was unable to recover the media as well as had trouble getting the app to work after that. I uninstalled the app.
* Call - Sometimes even when the signal strength is good, I was unable to place or receive calls. I had to restart phone to get it to work.

Pros: Seems nice, WiFi data only works.

Cons: IMEI not recognized by T-Mobile - impossible to activate SIM online.

Pros: none

Cons: No file explorer. Stripped version of Internet explore. Stripped version of office. Medicore phone voice clarity.

Overall Review: This is the worst smart phone I ever owned. 5 year old android phone is far superior than this phone. There is no file explorer so I don't know what files are stored. Internet explorer is so much stripped down that even Window 95 internet explorer is far superior. Cannot create new office document. Feel like to smash this phone.

Pros: Windows op system. Bright display. Huge internal memory. Good battery life. Good speaker. Light weight. Nice group of usable apps installed. Nokia music being one.

Cons: At this price point, none.

Overall Review: If you are in the market for a great user phone, don't need to play games or other such non phone things, it's a great buy. Works on TMobile, and Wally World Family Mobile. Same thing. Had a droid phone before this one. More compicated menu, not nearly as intuitive as the windows op system.