(This is mostly a copy-paste from a version I posted in the Crackberry forums so sorry about the tone)
Hi I'm currently using a Lumina 435 while my main Blackberry Z30 goes in for warranty. I've been keeping Windows Phone in mind for a while as a plan b, and picked up the Lumina to try out while I wait to hear back on my Z30. So far I pretty much like it, but there are some differences compared to BB10 that I'm having to wrap my head around.
A couple days ago I had dropped my Blackberry phone on concrete, and although it did not damage the exterior it somehow broke the LCD, leaving it off save for a few lines that terminate at the crack. I had called Blackberry and they sent me a box to send to them for a warranty repair, which will be done in a couple weeks or so - unless the damage is worse than I thought or the warranty somehow became void.
In the meantime I had picked up a prepaid Microsoft Lumina 435 for $72 and popped my Koodo SIM card in it. I had been looking at Windows Phone as a potential backup plan as I strongly disagree with the design and support philosophies of Apple and Google, and I found this phone when I was actually looking for a $200 Telus model (Telus locked phones work on Koodo).
So far I have it set up with all my accounts on it and am pretty happy with it. For $72 it's actually a pretty capable and speedy phone, and I do believe I can recorded it to others. But there are some things that are dramatically different that I have to get used to:
1. No sound profiles. I use Bedside Mode all the time on my Blackberry, and WP8.1 doesn't even have profiles. It has a "Quiet time" mode that would enable automatically, but it even mutes phone calls. I work nightshift so I do need to be alerted to calls. Quiet time will allow people that call more than two times in three minutes to break through, but not very many people will do that.
2. Switching between apps is pretty invisible, and frequent. In BB10 The animation makes it clear when a link had popped you to a different app, but WP will simply jump you over. So If I'm browsing the web and want to google bing something, typing the search terms into the address bar will switch you over to the search app as opposed to bringing you the bing search page. Or if I'm in settings and want to change something, it'll transparently hop me to a utility app, giving me the "resuming app" when I go back.
3. Systemwide back button. Coming from a Blackberry 10 device, I have little familiarity with the concept of a back button. And to make matters worse, It works different than even BB7. In BB7 you go back-back-back-quit in an app, but using the back button in WP will actually hop you to a previously used app. So if I had hopped around a bit pressing the back button would actually do this: webpage -> previous webpage -> search -> different webpage -> different previous webpage -> another different previous webpage -> start screen -> camera -> camera roll -> start screen. It's confusing as hell especially as I don't always remember what I was doing last. Holding down the back button pulls up what looks like all running apps that ca be closed, but there can be multiple different instances of some apps such as search or web browser.
4. the interface is different. I think Blackberry is pretty good at making it easy to view content and locate navigation and icons. WP seems to use significantly larger fonts and minimal visual cues in comparison. A prime example of this is the email app, which does away completely with lines dividing the individual emails and simply has another line break.
In the end, it is a pretty decent device. I don't fully understand it, but nothing stands out as being a really stupid design, and the things that do come up are more or less unfamiliar implementations that in the end are pretty decent once you get used to them. If I get my Blackberry back I will keep this as an emergency phone for me and my mom on Telus, and to try out the WP10 preview. I have to see how the next couple weeks go if I start having Blackberry withdrawal symptoms or not. I am using this time to fix the messes with my contacts and music (Blackberry doesn't sync contacts with outlook, which i want to make the primary contacts archive as I've lost my blackberry contacts a few times now; and my music is a mess with three similar copies of the library having been merged). Plus there's a chance (if small) that my Blackberry cannot be fixed under warranty and I may not be able to afford to repair it, In which case it's possible I might move to WP completely.
Hi I'm currently using a Lumina 435 while my main Blackberry Z30 goes in for warranty. I've been keeping Windows Phone in mind for a while as a plan b, and picked up the Lumina to try out while I wait to hear back on my Z30. So far I pretty much like it, but there are some differences compared to BB10 that I'm having to wrap my head around.
A couple days ago I had dropped my Blackberry phone on concrete, and although it did not damage the exterior it somehow broke the LCD, leaving it off save for a few lines that terminate at the crack. I had called Blackberry and they sent me a box to send to them for a warranty repair, which will be done in a couple weeks or so - unless the damage is worse than I thought or the warranty somehow became void.
In the meantime I had picked up a prepaid Microsoft Lumina 435 for $72 and popped my Koodo SIM card in it. I had been looking at Windows Phone as a potential backup plan as I strongly disagree with the design and support philosophies of Apple and Google, and I found this phone when I was actually looking for a $200 Telus model (Telus locked phones work on Koodo).
So far I have it set up with all my accounts on it and am pretty happy with it. For $72 it's actually a pretty capable and speedy phone, and I do believe I can recorded it to others. But there are some things that are dramatically different that I have to get used to:
1. No sound profiles. I use Bedside Mode all the time on my Blackberry, and WP8.1 doesn't even have profiles. It has a "Quiet time" mode that would enable automatically, but it even mutes phone calls. I work nightshift so I do need to be alerted to calls. Quiet time will allow people that call more than two times in three minutes to break through, but not very many people will do that.
2. Switching between apps is pretty invisible, and frequent. In BB10 The animation makes it clear when a link had popped you to a different app, but WP will simply jump you over. So If I'm browsing the web and want to google bing something, typing the search terms into the address bar will switch you over to the search app as opposed to bringing you the bing search page. Or if I'm in settings and want to change something, it'll transparently hop me to a utility app, giving me the "resuming app" when I go back.
3. Systemwide back button. Coming from a Blackberry 10 device, I have little familiarity with the concept of a back button. And to make matters worse, It works different than even BB7. In BB7 you go back-back-back-quit in an app, but using the back button in WP will actually hop you to a previously used app. So if I had hopped around a bit pressing the back button would actually do this: webpage -> previous webpage -> search -> different webpage -> different previous webpage -> another different previous webpage -> start screen -> camera -> camera roll -> start screen. It's confusing as hell especially as I don't always remember what I was doing last. Holding down the back button pulls up what looks like all running apps that ca be closed, but there can be multiple different instances of some apps such as search or web browser.
4. the interface is different. I think Blackberry is pretty good at making it easy to view content and locate navigation and icons. WP seems to use significantly larger fonts and minimal visual cues in comparison. A prime example of this is the email app, which does away completely with lines dividing the individual emails and simply has another line break.
In the end, it is a pretty decent device. I don't fully understand it, but nothing stands out as being a really stupid design, and the things that do come up are more or less unfamiliar implementations that in the end are pretty decent once you get used to them. If I get my Blackberry back I will keep this as an emergency phone for me and my mom on Telus, and to try out the WP10 preview. I have to see how the next couple weeks go if I start having Blackberry withdrawal symptoms or not. I am using this time to fix the messes with my contacts and music (Blackberry doesn't sync contacts with outlook, which i want to make the primary contacts archive as I've lost my blackberry contacts a few times now; and my music is a mess with three similar copies of the library having been merged). Plus there's a chance (if small) that my Blackberry cannot be fixed under warranty and I may not be able to afford to repair it, In which case it's possible I might move to WP completely.
as for the sound profiles, RumoredNow has given the best answer.
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