"Dont know what you've got 'til it's gone"

Although a fleeting visit (unless Nokia want to furnish the Vodafone UK Microsoft Partner Manager with a permanent device),   using the Nokia Lumia 820 has reminded me of what I miss buy having a Windows Phone 7.8 device only.

Lockscreen lovelyness - Although you update the Lockscreen with the Bing homepage picture each day,  that's pretty much where the lockscreen stops.  I have been playing again with a number of lockscreen apps this week but my favourite by far is the Accuweather app.

The screen - I am not sure if its Windows Phone 8,  the new Lumia screens or a combination of both.  The Lumia 820 has a much brighter and crisper screen which is lovely to look at in comparison to my Lumia 800.  The larger screen also feels more like a modern smartphone,  like an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy,  whereas the smaller screen of the Lumia 800 feels like they have put a modern phone OS into an old skool phone.  Just goes to show that small screens on mobile phones just doesnt seem right anymore.

Xbox Music - I didnt think I would miss it but I have.  I dont tend to listen to music a lot anyway but having the music tracks and experience in sync across my PC,  Surface and Mobile is really important.  When you want to play music,  you normally want to do is straight away and therefore anything that gets in the way of this can be a pain.  Zune music on my Lumia 800 is certainly disconnected as an experience from the rest of my ecosystem.   This experience felt connected one again the second I opened Xbox Music.

More apps - As anyone following me on twitter (@markdeakin) will know,  I like to see what new apps are coming to the Windows Phone marketplace.  Increasingly,  I am finding that a lot of the new 'cool' ones are coming out on Windows Phone 8 only.  Good examples of this is 'Blink' which is only available for Windows Phone 8. 

Without a doubt,  I think I am going to miss Windows Phone 8 and the Lumia 820 when I have to return it to @nokia_connects.  My next contract renewal is June/July so need to be patient for a few more months!