Best way for me to get into a Windows 8 Phone?

[pveezy]

Hi all,

I am a current Android user (Galaxy S3 with latest Kit Kat or whatever). I really like the hardware, I absolutely hate Android, and more specifically the god awful bloated version Samsung forces on Galaxy devices. I find it a real clunky OS, everything conflicts with everything else. Android updates break Samsung stuff and apps, Samsung updates break apps and Android stuff, everything is a fight between Google account this, Samsung account that. Nothing looks right together... Google apps run in an all white theme now, Samsung stuff runs all black, and both have awful keyboards so I had to add a 3rd party one that looks like nothing else on the phone.

The phone gets progressively laggy and choppy on everything unless you reboot Android to factory settings on a regular basis... the S3 has more power than laptops I used a few years ago, yet struggles even on simple smartphone tasks like sending texts, emails, etc.

Android is a mess. My friends who use it are split between people who hate it as much as I do, or are die hard fans but have a huge list of hacks, roots, mods, and other crap they use to get it to work properly.

So long story short I want to ditch this thing. I thought about going back to Apple but my last phone was an iPhone that bored me and I don't like the iOS 7 changes.

WP8 on the other hand looks really fresh to me. I love the new live tiles and the Metro theme. Live tiles are way better than the Android widgets that lag the phone and look like a hodgepodge mess of different looks and themes.

Using WP a bit makes going back to the pages of icons on Android and iOS feel like you are in the Windows 3.1 era. It is missing a few key apps that I like (SiriusXM, my online banking, etc), but most the stuff is there and I am willing to make the plunge.

So anyway, now I have to get through all the roadblocks to replace a phone at a reasonable price without signing a new contract. I live in Canada and am stuck on a 3 year contract with about 2 years left. I seem to have 3 options here, but I am a bit of a newbie. I usually never upgrade phones until the contract is done and get it straight from my carrier.

1. My carrier (Bell in Canada) seems to not care one bit about WP8. They currently only have ONE WP8 listed on their website. They have dozens of cruddy Androids of all shapes and sizes, iPhones, and even god awful Blackberries that look circa 2005... but one WP8... The Samsung Ativ S LTE. I am fine with that phone (same as my S3 but with WP8) except for one fact: it has been out of stock on the upgrade page for weeks, and I have no clue if they plan to get more, or any other WP8 phones for that matter. They haven't responded to my inquiry online. I might call this week. The cost for this would be: $270 for "early upgrade penalty" + $49 for the phone, total $319ish. There is probably also something in the fine print to screw me into more years on the contract. This would be an easy option if THEY EVER RESTOCK THE DAMN PHONE.

2. Buy another WP8 device outright from another carrier, and unlock it. I've never done this and don't know much about unlocking... but I guess I could buy a pre-paid Windows 8 device meant for Rogers or Telus (who actually seem to care about supporting something other than Android), and unlock it to use on my network. I am not sure if this is even possible since some retailers say you can't buy one of these phones without activating in store (WTF?). But the options in this range are the Nokia Lumia 520, or 625 (would be a downgrade for me to non HD), or the HTC 8X (like it), these are in the $75-200 range. I really have no knowledge on unlocking phones or if it is even possible with all models.

3. Buy something used from a shady Craigslist type.... the online sellers are full of used and "new in box, bro" phones of all shapes and sizes, and all conditions... some unlocked, some not... Who knows where they came from. The ATIV S on these sites seems to be going from $150-$300 depending on whos selling it and the condition.

I'd love one of the newer, good Lumias like the 920 or 1020, but way too expensive in any non-contract situation from what I can see up here.

None of these options seem that great for me, but I am really tired of Android... I could probably sell my S3 for $100-$200 once I get something new.

Sorry for the novel but I'd love advice from people who have been in similar situations or have advice. For what its worth my primary smartphone uses are streaming video (Youtube and Netflix), music/podcasts, email/text.

 

[Shawn Magm]

I don't know much about Bell, but do they use GSM technology? You could buy an unlocked Lumia 520 on Amazon or eBay fairly cheaply, or some other Lumia. In the US, there were some very cheap 520 deals over the Holidays. At least on Amazon, you should have some time to try it out, and if you don't like it, you can return it though there may be a restocking fee.

 

[mtalinm]

Hi, I was in the same boat having grown frustrated with my Android phone, but not sure whether I wanted to make the "big switch".

So I found a windows phone for my carrier on ebay. I bought it with a cracked screen, which made it really cheap. I figured I could live with a cracked screen as I was just taking it on a test drive.

So glad I did. I was previously worried about the # of apps, but after having had the phone for a week I realize this is a non-issue. The OS is great and smooth, much more refined than Android ever was for me. And I looooooooooooooooooooooove the "Glance" feature.

Good luck.

 

[jfmanzo]

Bell is GSM.

Unlocking is very easy but you can get carrier unlocked phones from several sources in Canada too... But it'd be cheaper to buy a handset outright from eg Rogers and then buying the unlock code from one of the many reputable unlockers in cyberspace. They'll explain the procedure to you in detail...very simple.

 

[fdalbor]

You can get a 820 from Amazon for about 250$, it has the same insides as the 920/925/928 etc and would make a excellent phone for you as it has a SD card slot (the 9XX series does not), and a removeable battery (the 9XX don't have this either), perfect for those long video sessions. I bought one about six months ago and would not trade it for any of the 9XX's.

 

[Anglerdk]

I switched from s3 to Lumia 925, mostly due company rules regarding connection to the exchange server.

If you run kk on your s3 , this is not an Samsung release and probably not a stable release either. There is some Samsung based rom where you can remove the bloat ware (or simply root it).

Anyway this is what I have "discovered"

1. Wp8 is more homogeneous in layout and style (but you cannot customize it nearly as much, actually colors of theme is the only one... And some apps overrides this as well)

2. Wp8 is very restricted, on android there is almost a solution for every need eg:

You don't like the keyboard - to bad on wp8, you are stuck

No fast or automatically actions if you want to disable WiFi, Bluetooth etc - Tasker for android makes wp8 looks like a feature phone, even moobots for Symbian can do stuff wp8 can't.

Calendar, no edit , new appointment if you use exchange unless you use stock calendar (which is very basic)

No way of changing default app, so URLs in mails are always opened in is, even Facebook links.

VPN is not working(I use it on android with hola unblock to gain access to all Netflix content eg us, UK)

3. Wp8 can be laggy too, and sometimes close apps even if you use them (if you lock your screen or is switching between to apps). Primary a concern with tapatalk which sucks on WP.

4. Overall wp8 is fast, but on my 925 there is some waiting , the camera is not fast

5. On my s3 I can stream, hook it to my tv, mirror my screen from windows, use a mouse / eksternal keyboard - a poorly stream function is on wp8

6. My s3 eats every file formats also movies, wp8 is more picky.. Also battery performance when watching films is 30-50% worse , thinks wp8 cannot hw decode.

7. File manager is missing big time, but I use my NAS alot.

8. Office for wp8 is worse than quick office, eg no zoom,in word

9. Many apps is missing (primarily streaming tv and apps which improve basic functions)

That's all for now , since tapatalk will not make me see more of what I am writing





Sent from my RM-892_eu_sweden_243 using Tapatalk

 

[Anglerdk]

I switched from s3 to Lumia 925, mostly due company rules regarding connection to the exchange server.

If you run kk on your s3 , this is not an Samsung release and probably not a stable release either. There is some Samsung based rom where you can remove the bloat ware (or simply root it).

Anyway this is what I have "discovered"

1. Wp8 is more homogeneous in layout and style (but you cannot customize it nearly as much, actually colors of theme is the only one... And some apps overrides this as well)

2. Wp8 is very restricted, on android there is almost a solution for every need eg:

You don't like the keyboard - to bad on wp8, you are stuck

No fast or automatically actions if you want to disable WiFi, Bluetooth etc - Tasker for android makes wp8 looks like a feature phone, even moobots for Symbian can do stuff wp8 can't.

Calendar, no edit , new appointment if you use exchange unless you use stock calendar (which is very basic)

No way of changing default app, so URLs in mails are always opened in is, even Facebook links.

VPN is not working(I use it on android with hola unblock to gain access to all Netflix content eg us, UK)

3. Wp8 can be laggy too, and sometimes close apps even if you use them (if you lock your screen or is switching between to apps). Primary a concern with tapatalk which sucks on WP.

4. Overall wp8 is fast, but on my 925 there is some waiting , the camera is not fast

5. On my s3 I can stream, hook it to my tv, mirror my screen from windows, use a mouse / eksternal keyboard - a poorly stream function is on wp8

6. My s3 eats every file formats also movies, wp8 is more picky.. Also battery performance when watching films is 30-50% worse , thinks wp8 cannot hw decode.

7. File manager is missing big time, but I use my NAS alot.

No more right now, since tapatalk cannot show anymore on my screen..

Btw ativ s and s3 uses different hw.

The l820 only uses 800x600, 9xx has limited storage though.






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[Anglerdk]

If you uses google services they are buggy on wp8. I shifted my drop box, Gmail, gdocs out with SkyDrive, outlook/hotmail, office web apps and besides web app it's a downgrade. Google cloud print I must use if I want to print.



If you still want to a simple smartphone I would consider Nokia with clearblack screen which enhance contrast but more important it make it visible in sunlight (image is 620 vs 520).

Also usage with gloves is nice too



The Lumia 720 is nice and not to fat , but lacks speed compared to the 1gb 1,5ghz models (820 and up).



Also on Nokia you get turn by turn navigation.






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[pveezy]

You are right... I just checked and I am still on Jelly Bean... I had some random pile of updates pushed about a week ago that changed a bunch of the features of the phone... I assumed that was the latest Android but I guess I am still a step behind (there's another Android annoyance).

 

[pveezy]

As far as losing my ability to customize the OS... that is a two edged sword for me... I'd rather have an OS that worked well out of the box but wouldn't let me customize, than one that I can customize but runs like crap.

For example you mentioned the keyboard... If the default keyboard works, I don't care to worry about downloading another one. In iOS I couldn't customize the keyboard, but that was fine by me because the Apple keyboard was perfect, worked well, and always seemed to know what I wanted to say with the autocorrect. With my Android, the Samsung keyboard is awful, laggy, and always seems to pic ridiculous words for auto-correct or predictive text... so I switched to the Google keyboard and disliked it too... so now I am using Swiftkey which is much better but also laggy as hell for inputs leading to misspelled words. Coming from a Blackberry years ago I was concerned about switching to iPhone and losing my speed typing ability... but Apple's fantastic keyboard put that to rest... now Android is a major step back in regards to typing/touch screens. I will have to try some Windows phones thoroughly though to make sure I like them totally... (hard because all the ones I see in stores are dummy units, next to 15 working Android demos, no wonder this OS is struggling in Canada ).

 

[chezm]

I had an S3, I had a WP8 and i went back to iPhone after 4 years couple of months ago.

With that said, i can understand why you would want to leave Android...all of the frusterations you've had with the platform were all too common to me as well. As for the guys statements above, while some of his points are true (lack of management, customization and restrictions) some such as running laggy, or slow, or the 'poor keyboard' are not things i had complaints with. I had a Lumia 920 for 10 months and it ran solid, never lagged, i think the stock keyboard works well (no you wont have to buy another one to compensate like in Android) and its definitely a breathe of fresh air if you've used Android or iOS. There are restrictions and rightfully so, hence by WP8 and iOS run solid...cause they're locked down secure. You wont have to worry about bloat ware or installing antivirus protection either which is a bonus.

If you're dependent on Apps, it will be a tough transition since Androids store offers a lot more conventional first party apps compared to WP, although its slowly starting to come around. If you use the phone to surf the net, text/whatsapp and stream videos are runs great. If you want the additional features like file manager, full customzation, freedom to modify as you please and all the exceptional shortcuts on Droid, you could be disappointed.

I would suggest as stated already to get a 520, its $100 in Canada (im Canadian as well) in a lot of places...take it for a test run. If you really like it A LOT, you can wait out for the new upcoming devices in few months or get a 1020 unlocked....or the Samsung if you want.

 

[pveezy]

Thanks for the reply. I actually came very close to upgrading to a iPhone 5C/5S this week through my carrier... then I realized that the catch was that to upgrade early I have to cancel my old plan and re-sign a new plan.

Of course, I love my plan ($60/6gb data/fab 10), and of course it no longer exists, so I'd be looking at a $40-50 per month bill increase just to keep the features I have now. Thanks Bell, but no thanks.

So an iPhone is pretty out of reach off contract because they cost in excess of $700. If I still want to buy an off contract/unlocked phone, my only option is to go WP8, or stick with Android and get something like a Nexus and hope it works better than the Samsung perversion of Android.

 

[seangprice]

Deals are to be had if you shop around. I bought a 521 to get me back in the WP8 game then found a lightly used 925 with the wireless charging accessories for 220 locally. If you buy used carry an active sim to verify the phone isn't stolen.. Ie blocked imei.

 

[hopmedic]

Another option you could look into is getting one of Verizon's Lumias. The 928 and 822 are very good phones, the 928 being equivalent but better than the 920, and the 822 being equivalent but better than the 820. Both are not only available unlocked, but due to Verizon's agreement with the FCC, they are not available locked. Verizon is not allowed to lock any of their LTE phones to the carrier.

Yes, Verizon is a CDMA carrier, but both phones have GSM radios, as they are so-called world phones. I have successfully gotten an 822 to work on Straight Talk with an ATT SIM for my step-daughter. Yes, there were challenges, but once worked out, the phone works just like you'd expect it to using ATT's towers. If you check over on the 822 forum, you'll see this thread that talks about setting it up for Straight Talk. Surely the same would work for your carrier, but with their settings.

Just a thought. :wink: