Windows Phone App Review: Nokia's ESPN App

Nokia will be offering several exclusive apps for their Lumia Windows Phone lineup. One such app is the ESPN App. We mentioned it in the Lumia 710 review and now we'll take a closer look at things.

The app is broken down into three panoramic pages that cover scores, videos, news and ESPN social feeds for all your favorite sports leagues. A fifth page is present to allow you switch between sports leagues and covers the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NCAA Basketball and Football, Soccer, Formula 1, Cricket and Rugby.

When you first start the app, it will display general sports information that crosses all leagues. When you choose a specific league or sport, the pages then reflect information specific for that sport. In addition, where applicable, you will see a teams page appear that will allow you to access ESPN's website page for that particular team.  When you're ready to switch sports, just hit the back button to return to the main or primary pages of the app.

It appears that if there is a team page present, the video page disappears.  For example, the Formula One pages lack a team page but does have the video page.  The NCAA Basketball pages have a team page but no video page.

From the three dot menu, you have options to refresh the data, view the About Screen and when viewing a particular sport you can create a live tile specific for that sport. The good thing about this option is that it sends you directly to that sport. The bad thing is that you can't back out and access the main pages to go to another sport.  To do so, you will have to exit the app and launch the primary version of the app.

All in all, the Nokia ESPN app is a very nice sports information app. One that I really wish was available to all Windows Phones. It gives you a quick glance at scores, news and other information on your favorite sports without having to dig for it.  If you want more information just tap on the scores, news items, or social feeds and the app takes you to the ESPN website for more information.  The app ran smoothly but I did experience a few data errors in loading the Social Pages.  Videos loaded nicely but every now and then I would get a "this video won't play on this device" error.

If you have a Lumia Windows Phone that doesn't have the ESPN app pre-loaded, you can find the ESPN app in the Nokia Collection portion of the Windows Phone Marketplace on your phone.  It is our understanding that the Nokia ESPN app is globally available on all Lumia Windows Phones.  I'm not sure if the ESPN will tip the scales in favor of a Nokia Windows Phone but it will make for a nice bonus.