After spending 6 years with Windows phones (Lumia 900, 720, 925,920,830,1520,950XL) and 7 years before that with Symbian, the app gap finally got to me and I switched to an iPhone 7 Plus (128Gb) last week. Here are my impressions after a week with this new OS
How I found the 950XL better
-From a UI point of view, Windows 10 Mobile was a more intuitive and better looking OS (I think this is subjective).
-I sorely miss live tiles. iPhone widgets are not as good and the grid of app icons with badge notifications is plain boring and uninformative. iOS stock apps are not at par with MS stock apps (though there are many third paarty alternatives, including MS's)
-Windows Hello was better than Apple touch ID (The OS implementation, I am not comparing hardware and recognition). You could set an OS level biometric authentication and a pin to fall back. Touch ID with 3rd party apps only supports the biometric authentication, each app needs to use a separate PIN to fall back to
-I miss the integration between Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 (Notifications etc)
-The Office apps were plain better on Windows 10 Mobile (regardless of what people say about MS prioritizing their apps for iOS) in terms of functionality and UI
-I miss the seamless integration between Photos, OneDrive. I continue to use OneDrive for photo backup in iPhone, but if I delete a photo from the Photos app later, have to delete it again from OneDrive. Also the "Live"-ness of the photos doesn't carry over to OneDrive or anywhere else
-I miss Windows maps and the system-level integration it had with offline maps. All the apps that used the system maps could access offline maps as well. Goes without saying that Apple maps doesn't' have any offline capability. In fact most stock apps are so basic, they look like they are made for kids.
-Miss password sync across all my browsers (Edge)
-Miss Glance screen
-Miss wireless charging
-Miss Windows Central's app
How I find the iPhone better
+The OS is very fluid (The 950XL stuttered in a few cases). App resuming is almost magical. You can have 50 apps open and when you open any of them afteer a few days, they resume right they were without any lag. iOS seems to have perfected this over the years
+Battery consumption is much less at both idle and during use, in-spite of having a smaller battery. The 950XL lasted only 4-5 hours with heavy use and less than a day with mixed use. The iPhone lasts till the end of the day with the exact same usage pattern. Creator's update was getting better in this regard, but still doesn't match the iPhone
+Apps. Oh man, the apps. After coming from Windows, the apps were a shock to me. Regardless of what people say, the app gap is very real. The apps that are on Windows 10 are months behind the iOS counterparts (Barring a few exceptions like Enpass, Twitter etc)
Whatsapp is much more useable and instantaneous. Even with the 8 core 950XL, Whatsapp lagged, stuck on loading. iPhone Whatsapp has proper integration with the contacts app, too
Facebook/messenger are instantaneous
The Uber app is in a completely different league
All my banking apps are much better (ICICI, AXIS, AMEX, PayTM)
Vodafone/Airtel apps are much better. Can finally get their free data offers
Aftership is a great package tracking app, even the former package tracker and Track51 don't come close.
For all the other apps, there are so many choices, it is hard to be disappointed
+Has system-wide ad-blockers
+Has automatic blue light reduction-Waited for this to come to Windows 10 with creator's update, but looks like ti has been shelved now
+Can use Aapple music (Waited for years for Groove music pass to launch in India, gave up)
+The camera performance (I don't think there's much difference in image quality) is years ahead. You can take hundreds of full-res bursts in a few seconds and then choose the best (they are grouped together). This feature was present in Windows Mobile 8.1, but shelved in Windows 10. In Windows 10, burst is just taking 7-8 photos in series (Aafter which it gets stuck in "saving"). Bursts are not grouped together. Many times some pf the photos would get corrupted and get saved in low-res ".thumb".The iPhone camera works flawlessly every time. Auto focus, especially in low light is much faster
+Is waterproof/dustproof.
+Taptic feedback is kinda cool, but loses its charm after a few days
Although I do miss the core-OS functions and integration with MS services, I am happy with my switch and regret living with the terrible app gap for so long.
I still use a Lumia 650 for work, so I am not gone yet.
How I found the 950XL better
-From a UI point of view, Windows 10 Mobile was a more intuitive and better looking OS (I think this is subjective).
-I sorely miss live tiles. iPhone widgets are not as good and the grid of app icons with badge notifications is plain boring and uninformative. iOS stock apps are not at par with MS stock apps (though there are many third paarty alternatives, including MS's)
-Windows Hello was better than Apple touch ID (The OS implementation, I am not comparing hardware and recognition). You could set an OS level biometric authentication and a pin to fall back. Touch ID with 3rd party apps only supports the biometric authentication, each app needs to use a separate PIN to fall back to
-I miss the integration between Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 (Notifications etc)
-The Office apps were plain better on Windows 10 Mobile (regardless of what people say about MS prioritizing their apps for iOS) in terms of functionality and UI
-I miss the seamless integration between Photos, OneDrive. I continue to use OneDrive for photo backup in iPhone, but if I delete a photo from the Photos app later, have to delete it again from OneDrive. Also the "Live"-ness of the photos doesn't carry over to OneDrive or anywhere else
-I miss Windows maps and the system-level integration it had with offline maps. All the apps that used the system maps could access offline maps as well. Goes without saying that Apple maps doesn't' have any offline capability. In fact most stock apps are so basic, they look like they are made for kids.
-Miss password sync across all my browsers (Edge)
-Miss Glance screen
-Miss wireless charging
-Miss Windows Central's app
How I find the iPhone better
+The OS is very fluid (The 950XL stuttered in a few cases). App resuming is almost magical. You can have 50 apps open and when you open any of them afteer a few days, they resume right they were without any lag. iOS seems to have perfected this over the years
+Battery consumption is much less at both idle and during use, in-spite of having a smaller battery. The 950XL lasted only 4-5 hours with heavy use and less than a day with mixed use. The iPhone lasts till the end of the day with the exact same usage pattern. Creator's update was getting better in this regard, but still doesn't match the iPhone
+Apps. Oh man, the apps. After coming from Windows, the apps were a shock to me. Regardless of what people say, the app gap is very real. The apps that are on Windows 10 are months behind the iOS counterparts (Barring a few exceptions like Enpass, Twitter etc)
Whatsapp is much more useable and instantaneous. Even with the 8 core 950XL, Whatsapp lagged, stuck on loading. iPhone Whatsapp has proper integration with the contacts app, too
Facebook/messenger are instantaneous
The Uber app is in a completely different league
All my banking apps are much better (ICICI, AXIS, AMEX, PayTM)
Vodafone/Airtel apps are much better. Can finally get their free data offers
Aftership is a great package tracking app, even the former package tracker and Track51 don't come close.
For all the other apps, there are so many choices, it is hard to be disappointed
+Has system-wide ad-blockers
+Has automatic blue light reduction-Waited for this to come to Windows 10 with creator's update, but looks like ti has been shelved now
+Can use Aapple music (Waited for years for Groove music pass to launch in India, gave up)
+The camera performance (I don't think there's much difference in image quality) is years ahead. You can take hundreds of full-res bursts in a few seconds and then choose the best (they are grouped together). This feature was present in Windows Mobile 8.1, but shelved in Windows 10. In Windows 10, burst is just taking 7-8 photos in series (Aafter which it gets stuck in "saving"). Bursts are not grouped together. Many times some pf the photos would get corrupted and get saved in low-res ".thumb".The iPhone camera works flawlessly every time. Auto focus, especially in low light is much faster
+Is waterproof/dustproof.
+Taptic feedback is kinda cool, but loses its charm after a few days
Although I do miss the core-OS functions and integration with MS services, I am happy with my switch and regret living with the terrible app gap for so long.
I still use a Lumia 650 for work, so I am not gone yet.