Microsoft Lumia 550 UK SIM-Free Smartphone - Black

This is a solidly built Windows 10 mobile smartphone.Don't expect the bells and whistles functionality of the more expensive models, they just aren't there. PERIOD!But if you require a basic high-quality phone for business or personal use, this is it.The app store is limited - for now. You can be assured that it will grow as the user base does.It's very much early days for this platform, but expect it to flourish. With interesting results.If Android adopted this platform then it would be far greater than the sum of Windows and Android combined.There is already information out there for "rooting" and "hacking" these phones to work with Android apps and I don't suggest trying that for now, but it shows that people are interested in moving this beyond the Windows 10 mobile system.A bright future is ahead for this cheap and effective smartphone.

I like windows phones and Windows10 is a good system. Sure, it has its bugs, but it is getting constantly updated and gets better with every update. I bought this phone for my mother in law, who needed an easy essential phone to use for the usual apps. Unfortunately, this model was not as reliable as I'd hoped. The battery doesn't last long and is a little slow even with very simple apps. However, it is quite a good smartphone for the price and if windows improves the software it would be worthwhile having. Definitely is very cheap for a smartphone and works better than other android models at the same price.

Great little phone with more than enough functions for me. In fact I have removed some apps that do not interest me. Only down side is battery life, I have found it struggles to make it through a day, even with limited usage and whilst using the battery saving mode.

This camera is nice, has Windows10, and generally lovely: IF it worked; I mean it keeps hanging and has a mind of its own. I think I just got a dud from a floored batch. Battery life not good either 1 day average. Its like me nearly good.

We bought two of these for my wife and myself. We wanted to get away from the Android OS as we both disliked it and were already very familiar with Windows 10 - it is on our PCs, laptop and tablets. This meant that the phones felt familiar from the start with lots of icons showing apps which we were already using on other platforms. Pruning these down to the essentials was easy and the great thing is that you don't get constantly badgered by Google with updates to all their apps - we are now Google-free! I should point out that we primarily use these for messaging and phone calls, we are not heavy data users. Customizing was relatively straightforward. We quickly changed the ringtones from the default settings to our own familar jingles. Changing the tone for incoming text messages (SMS) was less straightforward. The key to this is to send the phone several texts and then the messaging app becomes available in the Settings/Notifications menu. You then scroll down to find messaging, tap on it to open the options, then change the default tone to your own one with which you are already familiar. Adding new ringtones and notification tones (and for other apps) is very easy. Just plug your phone into your Win10 PC and it opens like another drive. Just drag over the mp3 files you want into ringtones on the phone and then change whatever you want.Battery charge seems good, about usual i.e. similar to the Samsung S3 Mini which we replaced with these.The massive improvement for us is that the phones are fully intercompatible with all our other kit. OK the Windows store doesn't have anything like the range of apps as for Android, but for our type of use there is more than enough.Finally, a very pleasant bonus is that all the awful Samsung emojis are a thing of the past (dreadful green frogs instead of smileys) and there are tons of them on the 550/Win10 mobile, everything you could possibly want.

I needed a 4G capable phone with mobile hotspot. I'd used 2 Windows phones (HTC 8s [W8] & Lumia 435 [W8.1]) for about 3-4 years before I bought this, and was interested in Windows 10 mobile. It was GRADE B REFURBISHED; however, I'm certain that has no part in the issues I had, as it came pretty much brand new and the issues were prevalent on other Windows products I own. For the week that I put up with this phone, my experience with it was TERRIBLE!When people say Windows mobile is a dying platform, they're not kidding. It was already falling behind other platforms -- but that was okay! "P-people use their phones too much. I don't want to be like them anyway," is what I kept telling myself to make using an inferior product bearable. But when basic functions don't work properly, there's a problem, and I've noticed the problems increase on each newer OS Microsoft release, with 10 being the worst on Mobile and PC.Mobile hotspot issues:-Frequently had to restart the phone for mobile hotspot to work, otherwise it would hang on "connecting"/"connection not shared"/"not available" status for various amounts of time but never actually activate.-Activating mobile hotspot would lock my screen within 10 seconds, even though it was set to never lock by itself.-Hotspot would automatically turn off whenever I tried to connect my PS4 to it.-No option to permanently disable Wi-fi. It kept reactivating itself after the phone was reset or randomly when trying to turn on hotspot (both cannot be on at the same time).Other issues:-System time kept changing, both when set manually and also when set using the internet.-Icons in the drop down tray stopped working until the phone was reset. One instance had the phone acknowledge the rotation lock command but not show this visually, leaving the icon showing the opposite of what the phone was doing (e.g. rotation off, icon showed rotation on)-Screen not properly responsive.-Phone got hot easily.-Music with headphones often turned into distorted screeching, which can seriously damage the ears.-Couldn't update the phone with Wi-fi.I'm using an Android phone now with no complaints.