Nokia Lumia 520 GSM Unlock 3G Phone, 4-Inch Touch Screen, 5MP 720P Camera, Windows Phone - Black (International Version)

[Updated Dec 2014 after 1 year]I got an unlocked Nokia 520 (4-band GSM, int'l) for $150 from Hasslefree Cell via Amazon. It arrived quickly and in perfect condition. I installed a TMobile prepaid SIM card. I've bought a few apps from the MS App Store and have learned some things that may help others now, so I'll discuss them briefly.I wanted a basic phone with media player capabilities, at low cost. I have all "connectedness" turned off and so can't comment on the Facebook etc apps, nor on the maps and GPS. I have WiFi 'on' only when I'm downloading apps. I put in a 32GB SD card because I wasn't sure how well it all would work; in retrospect 64GB would be justified. The phone came with Windows Phone 8 which subsequently upgraded easily to WP 8.1,I originally bought YXPlayer to watch videos, but it had issues and stopped working completely with WP 8.1. So I switched to Moliplayer Pro which seems fine. The 520's bundled music player will play MP3s directly, but still without a dragbar, and space on the phone is limited. If you use that app you'll want to properly tag the files (Artist, Album, Track Name) so the player can sort them out.I bought Fiction Book Reader which handles .MOBI and .EPUB books just fine. To use it, first put the book files on the root (not in a subfolder) of the SD card. Then use the down-arrow button within FBR to import the file into FBR's workspace in the phone's memory.I was worried that the 4" screen might be too small for films or even books, but it's just big enough. A 4.3" phone would be better, but this is pretty cool: personal theater in the palm of your hand. Perfect for travel, especially with the ability to use a local SIM card in almost any country.Most reviews of the 520 oddly omit the MS Office (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) tools that come with the phone! With these you can view existing documents and make text and spreadsheet cell value changes. I find this amazing on such a tiny device. Windows Phone 8.1 seems to have added the ability to read and write these docs to the SD card, which is great, plus they can be retrieved from SkyDrive.The WP8.1 upgrade added the "Cortana" voice-recognition app. This relies on the internet for almost everything, and is generally useless to me personally since I don't maintain connectivity. Because my phone was evidently redirected from the Malaysian market I had to change a few settings for Cortana to appear in the apps list. Key among these were to have the region set to US; to have US (not UK) English at the top of the language list; and have US keyboard at the top of its list.I wanted Cortana enabled because it includes "Quiet Time" which at last lets me specify the only phone numbers that I want to get calls from. To do this, create each of your special numbers as a Contact; then select them individually to create an "Inner Circle" group. I set Quiet Hours to "On" with schedule "Everyday" and active from 10AM - 10AM i.e. 24/7. I enabled the options to let my Inner Circle break through, along with anyone who calls twice in three minutes. Finally... spam phone calls are stopped. They would still go to voice mail but I turned that off too, pending a fatal virus that affects only telemarketers.Why a simple whitelist isn't native to Windows Phone 8 is beyond me, but at least I have it now.WP8.1 also added the ability (or I missed it earlier) of installing or moving apps from the internal storage to the microSD card. With a 64GB chip your pocket device can have hundreds of TV shows, audiobooks, ebooks, apps, pictures etc.Overall the Nokia 520 represents amazing value; probably unbeatable if your needs are like mine. Especially since the price has now (Dec 2014) dropped to $80! I love it.

I bought this phone back when I had AT&T's pre-paid plan. I was tired of having a 'cheap' phone that always broke and had no features. I was not into smart phones or having the 'latest and greatest' phone, I just wanted something that worked and didn't look like it was from the 1800's. All my friends run out and buy the newest iPhones and Samsungs like it's the most important thing on the planet. When I take out this cheap phone, everyone is amazed at how fast and snappy the performance is, compared to their $600 iPhone. This phone now pushes the Windows 8.1 update as well.Pros:1. Swipe to text - I can't swipe to text almost as fast as I can type on a keyboard2. GPS - built in with free maps and map updates, threw my old GPS right in the trash, it's accurate and easy to use3. Wi-fi - I get speeds over 20 Mbps on my home router, I can browse the internet without using a data plan via wi-fi as fast as my home computer4. Camera - Only 5 megapixels, but shoots very good and surprisingly steady shots5. Ease of use - this phone is ridiculously intuitive. I find iOS and Android very annoying and 'dumbed down' for someone over the age of 3, all my features are easy to find and quickly customizable.6. Live tiles - again, you can easily customize your 'home screen' to look however you want it to, including transparent tiles with a background image (new to Win 8+)7. Micro SD slot - You can store your music, movies and now apps on your card, saving valuable internal storageCons:1. Battery life - After the Windows 8.1 update my battery life became awful. After a couple hours of heavy use it was almost dead. Come to find out, a lot of apps run in the background. Using the battery saver feature I identified those and restricted their usage. Battery life isn't where it was under Windows 7x, but better than after I first updated.2. Apps - There just aren't as many as there are for iOS and Android. The big ones are there (FB, major banks, etc.) but don't expect to find a lot of the smaller onesAll in all, I'm very pleased with this phone. Considering I didn't get it to enter the smart phone market, it certainly seems to be a winner. It seems very rugged and has stood up well to several drops on the pavement. Updates take forever, by the way, sometimes over an hour. Just be patient. I thought my phone was broken at first.