I received a Nokia Lumia Icon from Verizon; all opinions are my own. #VZWBuzz
As an avid hiker and outdoors man, I was excited to see what the new Nokia Lumia Icon smartphone could add to my outdoor life. The first thing I did was visit the Window’s App Store and download a set of apps that were in their “Outdoor Lovers” collection.
Possibly the most immediately useful application I found was the “WTA Trailblazer” app. This simple app lets you look up hikes withing Washington State by different categories such as dog-friendly or kid-friendly, and then it sorts the trail list by proximity to your current position. I have already scheduled some hikes to go explore these newly discovered trails in my area!
Hiking with the Nokia Lumia Icon
During my weekend off, I set out to explore one of the WTA Trailblazer app’s recommended trails and I brought the Nokia Lumia Icon to see what it could add to my outdoor experience. Before setting off I activated another application from the Outdoor collection, this app is called “Route Tracker”, and as you may have guessed it tracks your hiking or biking route. This is great for people interested in the fitness aspects of hiking or trail running as it tracks total length of your trip as well as the elevation gained or lost.
I enjoyed having the Nokia Lumia Icon along on my hike. The size is perfect for slipping into my pocket and it weighs very little. It’s sturdy and I’m not worried about damaging it on the hike.
Nokia Lumia Icon – Camera
During my hike I was able also to take the Lumia Icon’s camera for a test spin. This is no normal smart phone camera, this was designed as a true photography tool, and it produces amazing results even from an amateur like myself.
This camera, which contains a Carl Zeiss lens, shoots up to 20 megapixel photos. If it was your wish, you could print one of your shots as a wall print without losing any of the quality.
One of the best features of this camera suite is that it saves two copies of a photo every time you shoot. It saves a full size 20 megapixel version as well as an easily sharable 5 megapixel version, perfect for posting that summit shot to Facebook as soon as you find cellular service again!
It will definitely be part of my go-to hiking gear from now on and I’m searching for more great apps to take with me. What apps do you use in the great outdoors?
I am still in the researching phase of getting a new phone but I do want a smart phone and I love taking photo’s. I hike every couple of months and it is so beautiful I would love to try the camera out on this phone. Thanks for the review.
I would love to test drive this phone. I was wanting to buy this phone a little over a year ago when the ATT rep talked me out of it due to it’s limited number of apps in the app store. If it had an android OS, I would be all set and in love with this phone. 😉
My son loves it, but he doesn’t do Social Media. It wasn’t for me because it doesn’t have many of the apps I use everyday. It depends on the user if it’s a good fit or not. For me the Samsung S4 is perfect.