What should I switch to?

[Windows Central Question]

I had 950XL. I liked it but needed dual SIM - not available in the UK and then I dropped it anyway. Build quality being what it is - ie, not a Nokia - it broke.

So then I had an Android phone for a while and hated it with a passion you can barely dream of.

And then I got the 950 dual-SIM. And here's where it gets upsetting. Because Cortana crashes roughly twenty seconds after text input, does not respond to voice input at all, SMS messaging invisibly crashes constantly - I find I simply don't get texts and can't send them for either SIM until I reboot the phone completely - the legendary App Gap is beginning to bite, what with PayPal and Ebay dropping their apps among so many other. Basic functionality of this phone is broken.

I'm going to have to switch again. What should I switch to? What apps and software can I use to make switching as painless as possible?

 

[twrist]

Well that depends. Can you elaborate as to why you hated Android so much?

I'll admit that I love my 950. If the app gap wasn't so painfully apparent, I would want to hold onto it for as long as possible, but I suspect once the full range of Android Nokias hit the market, I will drift in that direction next. I don't have much experience of Android at all, but Android-using friends claim that the OS has made vast steps forward. I don't have the same objections to iOS that many people do on these forums, but don't particularly like the design of the iPhone.

 

[rich_bryant]

I mostly hated notifications. I have a Vector watch - which I love dearly - and the Android phone spammed me with notifications to the point that it became almost unusable. It was also vulnerable to all kinds of nasty crap that's around, needed antivirus, need a Google ID for everything - and I don't trust Google one little bit - and frankly, compared to WP/WM, the user experience of Android should be taken outside and shot.

Nothing is where you expect it to be, settings tend to be app-by-app, battery gets munched by apps that don't close properly, the keyboard selection is awful compared to WM's stock, the launcher is ugly, static and uninformative.. I could go on.

Coming back to the 950 was like finally being able to relax.

 

[xandros9]

I mostly hated notifications. I have a Vector watch - which I love dearly - and the Android phone spammed me with notifications to the point that it became almost unusable. It was also vulnerable to all kinds of nasty crap that's around, needed antivirus, need a Google ID for everything - and I don't trust Google one little bit - and frankly, compared to WP/WM, the user experience of Android should be taken outside and shot.

Nothing is where you expect it to be, settings tend to be app-by-app, battery gets munched by apps that don't close properly, the keyboard selection is awful compared to WM's stock, the launcher is ugly, static and uninformative.. I could go on.

Coming back to the 950 was like finally being able to relax.

You can turn off notifications... Also you don't need an antivirus, you just need a device that gets updates. (Samsung S-series, Blackberry, Google Pixel...)

You need a MS account for everything on Windows Phone too and Google is just another company like Microsoft.
You can also get an MS keyboard for that phone, you can change the launcher to be whatever you want (I favor BB Launcher or Action Launcher 3) including something that mimic's W10M.

Ironically, it's been perfect for me. The photo picker doesn't crash like it did on Windows 10 Mobile, I can better tune the experience to what I want as well.

 

[rich_bryant]

Problems have all gone away with the 950 (so far). I backed up, used the Windows Device Recovery Tool, restored, set up language (which for some reason had defaulted to Italian on an English (UK) setup) and suddenly Cortana works, voice recognition works and SMS messaging hasn't crashed .... yet.

I'll give it a week or so and see if it stays steady.

I'm almost disappointed - the HP Elite x3 is tempting but hanging on to the 950 means at least I won't curse myself when MS finally release a W10 on ARM device with a full phone stack. And, apparently, a folding screen.