Well, I said in the "thinking of switching" thread I was thinking of switching, and I have switched. In place of my Icon running Insider builds I now have a new Galaxy S7 running Android 6.0.1.
I gave my reasons in that other post, here I would like just to note my initial reactions. Basically, it's way better than I thought it would be.
The handset:
... is beautiful. Thinner, lighter, sleeker and more powerful than my Icon, sort of what I imagined a Surface Phone would be like. The body is metal and glass, the buttons feel very solid, the display is amazing, and although I haven't experimented much yet, the camera seems at least as good as the Icon's. I don't miss the camera button because I can go directly from locked to camera by double-clicking the home button. I prefer the separate volume buttons to the Icon's rocker. And I absolutely don't miss the search button, because I was always hitting it inadvertently, like when I handed the phone to someone to take a picture for me. I always wished I could disable the search button when in an app... And I can get to search on this phone by long-pressing the home button.
The O/S:
... isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I do miss the live tiles but I get live wallpaper
The app drawer and the home screens are okay, not that different in principle from the app list and the start screen on WP. And some things seem just a little more polished than on WP, the notification center for example.
The apps and the app store:
... well, here's the big win of course. Every app I need is there, and many of them are superior to their WP counterparts (where such exist). The store tracks my download history and shows me the update history of the apps. There's a lot of junk in there of course, and a lot of them are not as good looking as WP apps, which I think tend to have better typography and crisper graphics. But I don't have to wonder if an app I want is there (or assume it isn't and try to make do).
Bottom line is, I hadn't really been aware how much I've been making do, settling for less, accepting limitations. It feels like a layer of stress is gone, now that I'm not checking Windows Central six times a day, looking for some scrap of good news, or struggling with mobile web pages trying to get something done.
So goodbye to Windows Central, and thank you all.Thanks to the writers for the top-notch content and the dedication to us readers. And thanks to the community, which I found intelligent, engaged, and generous. You have helped me out more than once. I can only say "Good night, and good luck"
P.S. here's my new home screen.
I gave my reasons in that other post, here I would like just to note my initial reactions. Basically, it's way better than I thought it would be.
The handset:
... is beautiful. Thinner, lighter, sleeker and more powerful than my Icon, sort of what I imagined a Surface Phone would be like. The body is metal and glass, the buttons feel very solid, the display is amazing, and although I haven't experimented much yet, the camera seems at least as good as the Icon's. I don't miss the camera button because I can go directly from locked to camera by double-clicking the home button. I prefer the separate volume buttons to the Icon's rocker. And I absolutely don't miss the search button, because I was always hitting it inadvertently, like when I handed the phone to someone to take a picture for me. I always wished I could disable the search button when in an app... And I can get to search on this phone by long-pressing the home button.
The O/S:
... isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I do miss the live tiles but I get live wallpaper
The app drawer and the home screens are okay, not that different in principle from the app list and the start screen on WP. And some things seem just a little more polished than on WP, the notification center for example.The apps and the app store:
... well, here's the big win of course. Every app I need is there, and many of them are superior to their WP counterparts (where such exist). The store tracks my download history and shows me the update history of the apps. There's a lot of junk in there of course, and a lot of them are not as good looking as WP apps, which I think tend to have better typography and crisper graphics. But I don't have to wonder if an app I want is there (or assume it isn't and try to make do).
Bottom line is, I hadn't really been aware how much I've been making do, settling for less, accepting limitations. It feels like a layer of stress is gone, now that I'm not checking Windows Central six times a day, looking for some scrap of good news, or struggling with mobile web pages trying to get something done.
So goodbye to Windows Central, and thank you all.Thanks to the writers for the top-notch content and the dedication to us readers. And thanks to the community, which I found intelligent, engaged, and generous. You have helped me out more than once. I can only say "Good night, and good luck"
P.S. here's my new home screen.
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