Windows Lumia 735 Smartphone Review

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take part in reviewing the Windows Lumia 735 phone to see just how is matches up to my iPhone 5S. Before we start, I have to say I absolutely love my iPhone so for me to ditch it for two weeks and use another device was almost like cheating - I use my iPhone for my blog photos, I keep up to date with social media and generally do everything with my phone by my side. It was mentioned to me that the Lumia 735 is a good phone for blogging in terms of photography and it's inbuilt selfie app so I was very intrigued to see if I could swap my iPhone for a Lumia.

Let's start with a list of what I liked about the Lumia phone:

• The nice and colourful design of the phone - it just brightens up your day when you look at the screen and see so much colour!
• The big screen - great for viewing images on platforms like Instagram and Facebook and composing emails. You can also easily read all your favourite blogs on the go - yes! Also, you can easily watch videos on YouTube which I tend to do a lot on my phone. I really like the big screen on this phone, it's just easier to use and a more pleasant user experience
• Cortana in my eyes is more comprehensive than Siri. My experience with using Cortana is that she can do a little more than Siri, however one thing I would like both of them to do is to answer questions rather than pull up a search screen - now that would get my vote!
• The autocorrect on Lumia isn't as forced as on the iPhone - it simply suggests spelling, rather than correct it automatically. The amount of times I have sat there and been so angry about not being able to spell lookbook without it autocorrecting me to cookbook is unreal
• The variety of apps on the Lumia is quite wide. It hasn't got some of the apps you get on the iPhone, like for me the lack of Camera+ app was devastating because that's what I use to take my photos with so without it, I'm in a mega strop
• It shows meetings on the lock screen - this feature was really useful as I always had a reminder of where I'm supposed to be. Great for busy people on the go!
• It's really easy to share photos - however I didn't figure out if there is a feature which lets you email multiple images like on the iPhone so if someone wants to fill me in on that... 
• Great speakers - Liam stole this phone for an evening to play music videos on YouTube and the speaker was loud and clear. Actually, this phone altogether got Liam's vote and he's now thinking about buying it as his next phone

However, there were a few cons:

• I wasn't impressed with the selfie app. Below you can see a photo of my selfie (apologies for such an awful selfie but I have been severely under the weather for a couple of weeks) without any filters, and on the right hand side it was enhanced with the selfie app. Not great, Afterlight does a better job at making your dark circles disappear thanks to a filter
• The photos in my mind aren't as good as they come out on the iPhone - below is a picture of Harvey taken on the Lumia and on the iPhone. It's easier to manage exposure and focus on the iPhone and you can take some amazing pictures - no doubt you can probably do pretty great stuff with the Lumia once you know it inside and out, but as a blogger I sometimes need to capture images quickly and with great quality
• One thing that really peeved me and probably the reason I will not be buying a Lumia is the fact that as a Windows phone, naturally it syncs with your Windows account. I use Apple products so my iPhone easily syncs with my Mac and there isn't a need to import images which makes my life easier. Because I don't have an active Windows account, it eliminated a lot of functions for me and was just tiresome having to import images or send them to myself. Bottom line, if you have a Windows laptop/computer then this will suit you, if you're a Mac user then stick to the iPhone
• I got annoyed with the phone after one day of use. Just like with any new phone, it does take getting used to but I found myself really frustrated with the keyboard and the fact that I had some trouble getting apps like Blogger and Twitter to work

Bottom line for me is that although there are some clear winning points to the Lumia like having a big screen which is perfect for reading blogs and watching YouTube videos, because I use my phone for photography on my blog I will be sticking to my iPhone. There are more photography apps available for the iPhone to make the camera work ten times harder and it's just easier for me personally to transfer photos to my Mac via the iCloud.
As a non blogger, Liam loved the Lumia phone so much that he now wants to buy it!

Have you got a Lumia phone? Do you use it for blogging? Comment below and tell me what you think!

This is not a paid for post, however the phone has been sent to me to use from Connects. They asked for an honest review and I have been 100% honest about how I feel towards the phone.