Windows phone...merits?

marshac

American Hero
Joined
Mar 25, 2003
Messages
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Has anyone gone from Android to Windows Phone? What were your experiences like? Did you miss anything or find it lacking somehow?

Android has begun to seem more and more bloated, and with the exception of perhaps Nexus phones seems to require top notch hardware for decent fluid performance. Contrast that with Windows Phone which seems fast and fluid on a phone with laughable specs. Case and point- look what $80 gets you on the Windows Phone side vs Android side.

The other part of my question is the whole Google ecosystem- I'm thinking of bailing on it, but would need to switch from Android to something else... my desktop/laptop etc are already Windows, so jumping to Windows Phone and the MS ecosystem would seem to be the logical replacement.
 
One thing you might want to look is HTC One M8 vs One W8. It's pretty much the same hardware, but the W8 has a superior battery life. Obviously, you pointed out that Windows run smoother, so I don't need to get into that.

Windows 10 for Phones will get more universal apps working, but the best apps are still not on the Windows Store yet. And this is the reason why I'm still not going Windows. There are just simply too many apps on Apple/Play Stores that Windows doesn't have. There are so many accessories with app supported smart abilities that I can't use when it comes out, and I have Android; and Windows is way worse!

I still think the Google is wrong to design android with true multitasking for any app. I think apple and Microsoft is doing it right with state saving and only allowing certain (category of) apps to multitask.

Hence, I have to suggest Apple if you are looking to switch. I'm considering Apple and I've been accused of being an Apple hater many times.

P. S. I used a Samsung Focus for a long time.
 
I'm enjoying my Lumia 930 immensely. One thing you need to remember about smart phones in general. The calling portion of the phone is secondary to all things. They are devices designed to get you to spend money on apps. WP8.1 doesn't have a great selection, but what is available makes for a functional device that is good for work. Nokia HERE is great for navigation, and I'd say the Lumia (Pureview!) cameras are second to none.
 
the lack of app support on WP is a little overblown.. but updates are indeed slow.

I would not get the One m8, as I have encountered significant problems with it (it shipped with a reboot bug that would reboot the phone if you didn't have anything open - it still suffers from dropping the LTE connection when going from wifi back to LTE).

I enjoy the feel of the OS and the aesthetics.

overall, I'm torn. I often want to go back to android, or give apple a try.
 
One thing you might want to look is HTC One M8 vs One W8. It's pretty much the same hardware, but the W8 has a superior battery life. Obviously, you pointed out that Windows run smoother, so I don't need to get into that.

When it was initially release(don't know about now) the W8's performance was worse than the M8. It was jerky terrible.
The said nothing about Windows but more about HTC and the job they did optimising Windows for their hardware. Just like would say the same for any Android hardware maker when Android runs like total shit.


I still think the Google is wrong to design android with true multitasking for any app. I think apple and Microsoft is doing it right with state saving and only allowing certain (category of) apps to multitask.

Google made the right decision. Hardware is fast enough that it really doesn't matter any more and battery life is only getting better.
I rather write apps and use real apps isn't of some second class implementation of them.
 
I'm grossed out by the fact that it doesn't even have a YouTube app.
 
When android became popular thanks to the original droid, it still took years before android had what some would call full app support. Now, lol it has 85% of the market and there are still those whom argue apps are better on the iphone. My point is even though windows 10 is coming we will not see significant windows app support until at least 2 years after windows phone gains major traction assuming it ever does gain major traction.

Now how important is that? Well its up to you and what you like. personally I don't make as big of a deal of it. Hell most of the time I cant use the garbage apps companies make because the desktop website is better and more feature rich than either the app or the mobile website on any platform. But some people do have a problem with it. If you used a phone for major gaming then its probably a bad idea to look at windows. But if your use is more point driven, web surfing, gps, email, office, etc... Then I don't think windows phone is missing anything significant.

But ultimately I think its easier and safer to go the route of finding a more open android phone like a cyanogen mod phone.

IMO MS needs to work on making it possible to run windows phone on the most popular android phones as a choice. Because besides apps the other major downfall of windows phone is MS doesn't have any windows phones like many of the top android phones like the galaxy note.
 
But ultimately I think its easier and safer to go the route of finding a more open android phone like a cyanogen mod phone.

"more open android" huh?
Cyanogen mod had just been a more unstable android rom and now we all are seeing how doucebaggy the company that has formed from it really is.
 
This indeed is a problem that Microsoft is not able to solve.

It actually lacks all the Google apps, because Google doesn't allow it. I switched from Xperia Z1 to 930 and I'm happy. Phone is blazing fast, no problems with anything... the only two apps I'm missing are DarkHorse Comic and my banking app.

Can't wait for Windows 10 and Cortana. :)
 
I use the TouchTube app for Youtube and it works better than any YT app I used on Andoid.
I really like my Lumia 1020, it survived things that no other phones would have survived as well (dropped it a lot, fell in bath, fell in river,...).
It really works well for me, with the build in office and Onedrive sync.
 
I went a Galaxy S (2.3) to Nokia 928 (WP8/8.1) and just recently back to Galaxy S4 (CM11) and I am missing WP8.1. it was smoother, stable, and fit my style for a DD better. if you want the customizability of Android and its large selection of Apps, it won't win you over. however I think for a lot of people WP would be a great option, if they were to give it a try.
 
I have used all three OS's. I've used WP for about a year.

I can tell you that every app you more or less need is there right now. Some custom apps are better than the standard apps. For example, TouchTube, a custom YouTube app, lets you download HD videos offline over Wifi and it keeps them there. You can't do that in Android unless you're in India and even then it is only stored for a few days.

Here maps is far better than google maps. Even if here maps is now avaiable for Android.

Aside from that, the OS is extremely smooth and fast. Zero lag, nothing of the sort. No bloatware or similar stuff. Awesome.

A few downsides:
Multitasking. I mean you can do it, of course, it's just slower than in Android/iOS, especially Android, where you can close a number of apps very quickly. It takes longer in WP.

Notification bar. There is one, and there didn't used to be one, but it is still paltry.
However, with WP 10, that is more or less fixed. In my view, once WP 10 hits, I'd say the OS is very close to parity and in many aspects, it's actually ahead of the competition. Also, you can forget about viruses/malware. Basically doesn't exist for WP.
 
I run WP 8.1 on a nearly 3 year old Lumia 810.

things I like are

Apps on sd card
Butter smooth
Call and SMS blocking
Automatic app updates
Live tiles
Nokia HERE apps
Cortana
Ease of use with PC... plug it in and storage is auto mounted
App store is easy to use

As for weak app selection.... talk about beating a dead horse..
 
One thing we are finding with my wife's new Windows phone is that it will not cast to my chromecasts or fire sTicks at all. Bought the plex app for the fourth time before finding out that it will not cast.
 
I have a 2 year old 928 and it is awfully good. Just got windows 8.1 update and that brought many useful features.
I got updates on a 2 year old phone that were a serious improvement
All the apps I need are there
Tiles are awesome. I have meetings listed on lock screen to know what's where and when
Outlook beats every other email program senseless
Cameras are awesome and 8.1 update gave 4K to existing year old phones - no one else matches that
At least 50% of the Android "apps" are complete trash. How many of those have you sifted through installing and deleting till you found the right one?
Live tiles are smooth and give useful information on a fully customizable home screen.
Here maps is equal or better than all others and you can download the maps for offline use. Not something you'd do on Google maps. Try that when you are traveling.
Easy blocking of spam calls and megs. 2 clicks
Notification center and easy reach of settings
Super easy tethering
IE11 works super well on websites and many of the things you need "apps" for on other devices work natively within the browser just fine on Win phone.
Consistent, fast and smooth interface. App switching is painless and easy.
Local scout finds stores, movies, restaurants, even gas stations easily.
You really can get more information at a glance and then get actions done faster on a Win phone than others.
Maps gives satellite views which can show you right down to what trail you are on - try that on the others.
Projecting pictures to Samsung TV (or video) is basically a click of a button
Sharing anything, links, contacts, emails, pictures, is done with a click of a button
Office Lens lets me scan documents or whiteboards to PDF and share those
I can scan business cards into contacts and share those as a VCF that others can load into their contacts. It character recognizes the entire card and text.
I can remove ANY app that comes with the phone. Ever seen Android folks grumble about "non-removable" apps? lol
Multiple work mailboxes can be pinned as separate on the home screen allowing you to categorize your incoming mail and deal with urgent items on a timely basis.
Exchange synching means that changing a meeting on a notebook shows up instantly on the phone
Storage sense allows me to see what's taking up space quickly and deal with it
Data sense lets me monitor the data usage of all apps and services and deal with those if they misbehave

That should be a few things to get you started.
 
I've owned both and I switched back to amdrpod for two reasons primarily. First being the delta app. It lags behind a lot. The second being you can't get a truly unlocked phone. Se have carrier specific firmware, all the others have thing like disabling tethering at the is level based on the carrier its connected to at that time. I won't accept that
 
Unlocking is now required to be enabled by law. So while I'll bet carriers are taking their sweet time doing it, you do have the weight of "you have to do this for me because it's the law" behind you.

Tethering decisions by carriers affect everyone. Android just has more hacks around the problem. Not a fan of hacks but also not a fan of the restrictions. I'd prefer to deal with pressuring the carriers to give up the restrictions.
 
I've owned both and I switched back to amdrpod for two reasons primarily. First being the delta app. It lags behind a lot. The second being you can't get a truly unlocked phone. Se have carrier specific firmware, all the others have thing like disabling tethering at the is level based on the carrier its connected to at that time. I won't accept that

no that is not true at all. I have used AT&T WP on T-Mobile and internet sharing works as advertised. The only thing you need to do is run network setup and it will properly set everything to work with the carrier as defined by the SIM card...WP makes the request to the carrier to see if it is allowed and if so, it will enable it for you. If your account does not allow tethering then the option is not made available.
 
Just as an update, we took the Windows phone Lumia phone back to bestbuy and exchanged it for another android phone. Not being able to cast to chromecast or firestick from the phone was a deal breaker. I will probably try it for myself though when Windows 10 comes out and support for chromecast and/or firesticks are installed.
 
I used a Lumia 525 with Windows Phone 8.1 for a short while and enjoyed the UI but the lack of apps alone was a deal breaker (along with the poor screen resolution). But all in all these phones are a solid value.
 
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