Upgrading Nokia Lumia 1020 to Windows 10 & Project Astoria questions

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Heya and welcome

1) To be able to upgrade from Windows Phone 8.1 you need at least Build 8.10.14219 and the latest firmware update. In some cases and depending on the mobile the Lumia 1020 sometimes did not get the latest (Denim I think) firmware.

2) If you use the "normal" PhoneUpdater you can basically only select Windows 10 Mobile Version 1511 Build 10586.107 (13080.107). After you updated you can then select a couple of newer Builds from Version 1511 or Builds from Windows 10 Mobile 1607 (14393.xxx). As soon as you're on 14393.xxx PhoneUpdater will allow you to select 15063 aka Windows 10 Mobile Version 1703.

3)
With Windows 10 Mobile Version 1511 everything on your phone works as good as possible. That's because it was made for those older phones too.
Starting with Windows 10 Mobile Version 1607 glance screen would not work anymore but in terms of App-Support, Edge, its a much better Version and overall probably more polished.
With Windows 10 Mobile Version 1703+ you will have App rendering issues because Microsoft changed the rendering engine and the GPU driver is not compatible with all Apps. So if you for example want to use the Maps app you might not be able to see streets name or so, or the screen might even be just white.

That said: Version 1703 has still the best Support in terms of Apps. If you're after Apps that will still be the best version. Batterylife is usually not as good though.

There are also some Bluetooth problems I heard about with Version 1607 / 1703 but those are usually fixed after you've done a hardreset, which is very important anyway.

Regarding the Camera: All you need to make sure is: Keep using the Lumia Camera App not the Windows Kamera App. With the Windows Kamera App you can take photos but only the Lumia Camera App is optimized for the 1020s Camera. As long as you keep using that app. You will have the same great camera expierence you always had. It might be a bit slower because the OS is more heavy but all in all it still works fine.

My recommendation would be: Update to 10586.107 (13080.107) after that update to 10586.1176 (14003.1176) do a hard reset and see how it works. If you're happy with the Apps and Edge (sadly not even Twitter PWA is supported on that old version of Edge), I would probably stay on that Version. If you really need more apps then try out 14393 and only after you're missing some apps I would upgrade to 15063.

Regarding Whatsapp, I have honestly no idea. I would think you might be able to get it via your library in the Store but I'm not sure about that.

Thank you so much ToUrNiQuEt for the extremely detailed response! Thanks, my brain will first need some time to digest all of that info before I make any further steps :-) Since it's my father's phone, I don't want to screw anything up, and end up with a brick LOL.

Regarding Whatsapp I guess the only way to have it working after 1st Jan 2020 is via Astoria cause it seems it will stop working on Windows Mobile after 31st December (https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/wp/21485198). I hope there's a way via Astoria to get it installed and working.