(Edited to clear some stuff up)
Little background first, I sold my ATIV S and also got a Huawei Y300 for free. Pretty good deal, given that the ATIV S can be found new for less than what I sold it. After 3 years using WP I was a little bit tired, and I like to know how the competition is doing.
Also, please bear in mind that I'm not comparing an high-end phone with a low-end phone. I'm comparing the user experience and its performance, which I remind you, is the same on a high-end or low-end Windows Phone like the Lumia 520.
Let's get started then. Just remember that this is my experience and my opinion. Don't forget that before you light the torch.
The Huawei Ascend Y300 was launched in March 2013, it's one of those low-cost Android competing with phones like the Lumia 520. It's already abandoned by Huawei. No official upgrade path, just firmware fixes to stuff that should work out of the box anyway.
So I ended up wasting a week upgrading it to CyanogenMod 11. I tried a ton of roms, but the performance was abismal, so I settled with the "official" port of CM11 for the Y300 + a modified kernel.
...Yep, I'm definitely using Android now.
Performance is abysmal. Sure, you can say that it's a low cost phone with only 512MB RAM, but so is the L520, so shut up. And I'm using a custom ROM, performance should be even better. But RAM usage is too high and apps take ridiculous amounts of it. I only have ~130MB free (which is pretty good on the Y300!), and Facebook + Messenger running on background take 60MB. WTF, I thought Android didn't need task killers by now. That is such a lie, RAM management in Android is still terrible, I get kernel panics if I leave too much stuff running on the background. I had to do a lot of tweaks...
In Windows Phone, you don't need to care about these performance issues. Other than the 1GB apps, the performance of WP in a low cost Lumia 520 is pretty much the same I had with the ATIV S. Android on the other hand...
So I have to seriously limit functionality to have performance. There goes one of the things people praise Android so much for, have more funcionality than WP. Oh, the irony. Moving on, I managed to compromise and the phone is now fast. Not WP fast, and no apps running on the background, I had to lock the minimum CPU frequency to the possible max, so there goes the battery,but heh, it's usable now.
Which brings me to the homescreen. So, people like to customize their Android with a nice wallpaper, which is completely useless if you populate the screen with widgets and icons because you can't see it. Huh. You need to find transparent widgets, and icons are a no-no if you want to actually see the wallpaper. I had a proper laugh when I realised this.
Widgets are... decorative. They are useful, having a quick remote to XBMC on the homescreen is neat, but unless I have it on my first screen, or immediately to the left or right, I just open the app. And that's what ends up happening after a while, widgets offer limited info and funcionality, so you just end up opening the app anyway. And that's why Live Tiles are better, they give you info on the front and back, and you can quickly open the app.
So no, the Android homescreen is not better. It sure is more customizable, full of custom stuff you won't use most of the time.
(Oh, I'm using Nova Launcher BTW, it's faster than Google Now, which is pathetic by the way, offers nothing that a widget can't offer, just on a nicer screen and it's kinda creepy how it scans your usage patterns).
Which brings me to privacy and other stuff. Google services are constantly shoved down your throat, free games constantly ask for permission to Google Hangouts and contacts and whatever. That only happens in Windows Phone with Facebook. I have so many problems with this, that I won't even go on with the rant, just that Google seriously monitors your usage much more than Microsoft. (Well, that's how the make money).
Now onto the app launcher. Am I in 2005? It looks like I'm using an old Nokia phone with Symbian, but instead of using physical keys, I'm using my fingers. And at least in WP I can go to an app by pressing the alphabet letter. It's a crowded and confusing screen, I hate this, it definitely something that belongs in the past.
And finally, apps. What about the out of the box apps? They're not bad, they are just being replaced with bloated apps like Hangouts. And there's no design consistency! At least in Windows Phone everything is consistent, only the ported apps like Tapatalk break it. Apps made for Windows Phone feel like they are part of the OS. In Android, not even the contacts and SMS apps look alike, but it does seem to be improving with the Metro design in Android 5.0. Oh, I mean "Material" design, sorry.
I find that the latest version of the Windows Store better than Google Play. Easier to navigate, less crowded, more interactive. The Play store isn't bad, just not as good as I expected. Android has so many apps, so much better than WP right? Screw you, I'm still trying to find a decent reddit client. I'll trade 100,000 apps for an app like Readit on Windows Phone. I still haven't found a decent reddit app. I don't use 500 reddit clients, I use one. And I use Readit because it's the best reddit app, and it's on Windows Phone.
Look, I could go on, and on and on. People like this mess called Android, I don't. You might like it, I respect it, but to me it sucks. You can say I have a low-cost phone and that it's much better with other phones. To you, I throw every low cost Windows Phone ever to your face, even the L610!
What this taught me is that Windows Phone is no longer in development. It's a full OS, it just lacks "insert name" app, which very rarely happens to me now. Out of the box experience is fantastic, no ROM and RAM talk, great performance, you don't waste ridiculous amounts of time "customizing", which I'm starting to think it's a word people use in the "make it usable" kind of way.
So I'm a Windows Phone user, and for the long run. Can't wait to ditch the Y300, I just wished there was more choice in the market, there are few WP models at an high price, that's the real problem with the Windows Phone market right there.
And if anyone in Europe has a decent ~200€ Lumia they want to sell, send me a private message!
For god's sake, send me a message!
Little background first, I sold my ATIV S and also got a Huawei Y300 for free. Pretty good deal, given that the ATIV S can be found new for less than what I sold it. After 3 years using WP I was a little bit tired, and I like to know how the competition is doing.
Also, please bear in mind that I'm not comparing an high-end phone with a low-end phone. I'm comparing the user experience and its performance, which I remind you, is the same on a high-end or low-end Windows Phone like the Lumia 520.
Let's get started then. Just remember that this is my experience and my opinion. Don't forget that before you light the torch.
The Huawei Ascend Y300 was launched in March 2013, it's one of those low-cost Android competing with phones like the Lumia 520. It's already abandoned by Huawei. No official upgrade path, just firmware fixes to stuff that should work out of the box anyway.
So I ended up wasting a week upgrading it to CyanogenMod 11. I tried a ton of roms, but the performance was abismal, so I settled with the "official" port of CM11 for the Y300 + a modified kernel.
...Yep, I'm definitely using Android now.
Performance is abysmal. Sure, you can say that it's a low cost phone with only 512MB RAM, but so is the L520, so shut up. And I'm using a custom ROM, performance should be even better. But RAM usage is too high and apps take ridiculous amounts of it. I only have ~130MB free (which is pretty good on the Y300!), and Facebook + Messenger running on background take 60MB. WTF, I thought Android didn't need task killers by now. That is such a lie, RAM management in Android is still terrible, I get kernel panics if I leave too much stuff running on the background. I had to do a lot of tweaks...
In Windows Phone, you don't need to care about these performance issues. Other than the 1GB apps, the performance of WP in a low cost Lumia 520 is pretty much the same I had with the ATIV S. Android on the other hand...
So I have to seriously limit functionality to have performance. There goes one of the things people praise Android so much for, have more funcionality than WP. Oh, the irony. Moving on, I managed to compromise and the phone is now fast. Not WP fast, and no apps running on the background, I had to lock the minimum CPU frequency to the possible max, so there goes the battery,but heh, it's usable now.
Which brings me to the homescreen. So, people like to customize their Android with a nice wallpaper, which is completely useless if you populate the screen with widgets and icons because you can't see it. Huh. You need to find transparent widgets, and icons are a no-no if you want to actually see the wallpaper. I had a proper laugh when I realised this.
Widgets are... decorative. They are useful, having a quick remote to XBMC on the homescreen is neat, but unless I have it on my first screen, or immediately to the left or right, I just open the app. And that's what ends up happening after a while, widgets offer limited info and funcionality, so you just end up opening the app anyway. And that's why Live Tiles are better, they give you info on the front and back, and you can quickly open the app.
So no, the Android homescreen is not better. It sure is more customizable, full of custom stuff you won't use most of the time.
(Oh, I'm using Nova Launcher BTW, it's faster than Google Now, which is pathetic by the way, offers nothing that a widget can't offer, just on a nicer screen and it's kinda creepy how it scans your usage patterns).
Which brings me to privacy and other stuff. Google services are constantly shoved down your throat, free games constantly ask for permission to Google Hangouts and contacts and whatever. That only happens in Windows Phone with Facebook. I have so many problems with this, that I won't even go on with the rant, just that Google seriously monitors your usage much more than Microsoft. (Well, that's how the make money).
Now onto the app launcher. Am I in 2005? It looks like I'm using an old Nokia phone with Symbian, but instead of using physical keys, I'm using my fingers. And at least in WP I can go to an app by pressing the alphabet letter. It's a crowded and confusing screen, I hate this, it definitely something that belongs in the past.
And finally, apps. What about the out of the box apps? They're not bad, they are just being replaced with bloated apps like Hangouts. And there's no design consistency! At least in Windows Phone everything is consistent, only the ported apps like Tapatalk break it. Apps made for Windows Phone feel like they are part of the OS. In Android, not even the contacts and SMS apps look alike, but it does seem to be improving with the Metro design in Android 5.0. Oh, I mean "Material" design, sorry.
I find that the latest version of the Windows Store better than Google Play. Easier to navigate, less crowded, more interactive. The Play store isn't bad, just not as good as I expected. Android has so many apps, so much better than WP right? Screw you, I'm still trying to find a decent reddit client. I'll trade 100,000 apps for an app like Readit on Windows Phone. I still haven't found a decent reddit app. I don't use 500 reddit clients, I use one. And I use Readit because it's the best reddit app, and it's on Windows Phone.
Look, I could go on, and on and on. People like this mess called Android, I don't. You might like it, I respect it, but to me it sucks. You can say I have a low-cost phone and that it's much better with other phones. To you, I throw every low cost Windows Phone ever to your face, even the L610!
What this taught me is that Windows Phone is no longer in development. It's a full OS, it just lacks "insert name" app, which very rarely happens to me now. Out of the box experience is fantastic, no ROM and RAM talk, great performance, you don't waste ridiculous amounts of time "customizing", which I'm starting to think it's a word people use in the "make it usable" kind of way.
So I'm a Windows Phone user, and for the long run. Can't wait to ditch the Y300, I just wished there was more choice in the market, there are few WP models at an high price, that's the real problem with the Windows Phone market right there.
And if anyone in Europe has a decent ~200€ Lumia they want to sell, send me a private message!
For god's sake, send me a message!
Last edited:
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