Switching platforms? | Thinking of leaving?...comment here!

[Laura Knotek]

- Xiaomi's MIUI sucks big time

If you don't like MUI, you can install a different launcher. I have stock Android devices, yet I use Nova Launcher.

 

[ManofGod1000]

Eventually, I am going to switch out from my HTC One M8 for Windows. However, at least for now, I really cannot find myself spending the money yet since the phone I have still works great. In fact, I was using a G2 for a few days and still ended up going back to my M8. Well it works, I will just stick with it.

Now, so far, the only phone worth getting is a used LG G4 which is probably what I will eventually end up with. However, if I can hold out until Black Friday, Best Buy may have the $250 gift card offer again and I will be only 2 months or so from my 2 years contract being up on Verizon. All I can do is learn to be content otherwise, I will never be happy with any phone I purchase.

 

[larrynj]

Coming up on a year with Android. What I miss most is the way outlook on WP worked seamlessly with my exchange server at work and the handling of merging contacts. They both are frustrating on android.

 

[InspectHerGadget]

I think WP will be around for some time to come but it won't ever be front and center for Microsoft.

I guess people who stick with it will be business or professional people who want a good stable phone system and compatible fully with all products made by Microsoft such as Exchange Server. In return you will get average phones with average performance, average cameras and so on.

I had a Nokia 1520 and went over to a Samsung Note 5 back in October last year. The phone is great, I use the camera enough that I can appreciate just how good it is. I miss the tiles of WP and the easy integration of email. I run my own small business and I have several email accounts to monitor and WP makes that so easy.

I guess anyone wanting to stick to this platform, will just have to accept it for what it is, an also-ran, has-been, but nevertheless still a very good system. I personally think Microsoft should have spent more energy and time and money, making more of WP. It was negligent not to make the most of what little they had left in the market.

 

[xFalk]

I burnt my Google card a while ago, so there's no going to Android for me. Even though I'm sorta stuck on Verizon with my aging Lumia 822 as long as this work horse of a phone keeps working, I'll be a Windows Phone user. It was a sad sad day when I had to give up my Palm Pre and I don't want to have to go through that again. I really really really do want a new Windows flagship or Surface phone though.

I'm not a heavy app user, so for myself, the app gap is not a big issue. It would be nice to have an app for my bank, but its not necessary since they do have a mobile site. The only thing I'm really missing not having a bank app is the ability to deposit a check. But since I haven't been given a paper check in years, really nothing missing there.

 

[windows4winners]

I would like to make it clear to everyone that I have never owned a Windows Phone/Mobile. I fully understand the question, however I believe the same reservations for upgrading or moving to WM10 apply to both. I choose to upgrade every 12 months and this tradition began with the purchase of an iPhone, this meant around September time every year I'd get the newest model.

My first was the iPhone 3G and currently I have a 6S+. I've owned every model in between disregarding the 5c and standard 6/6S.
A few years ago now I began to get bored with the look and feel of the iPhone so after only a few months I decided to trade my iPhone 4 for a Blackberry. I had heard only positive things about the Blackberry, how everyone seemed in love with the keyboard and the great BBM service. My experience fell way short of expectations, the device would constantly lock/freeze for no apparent reason the easiest to sort this was to remove the battery anything unsaved would be lost. The selection and quality of Apps available to download were poor with the exception of the Facebook app, the internet browser was slow and sometimes hard to read and the build quality was poor. In the short time I had a Blackberry the device was replaced because the trackpad had stopped working and dust/debris began collecting inside the device on top of the screen.
When the iPhone 4S was announced I was so overjoyed at the though of getting my iPhone back and swore never to try a 'change' again.

The point of boring story was to give some back ground to my past experience with trying a new OS/Phone. Now I'm seriously considering ditching iPhone/iOS to try something new again. My problem is the cost of having to re-purchase apps (if available), a genuine fear of the unknown, the confusion surrounding compatibility of seemingly every new Windows Phone version, models available Microsoft? Samsung? HTC? - their future life span and Microsofts lack of interest/confidence in the future of WM.

 

[v4nandu]

I was using Windows Phone from Lumia 800. I used Lumia 800,720,520,525,730,925 and finally 630. I am tired of waiting for a mid range good looking Windows phone from past 6 months. So, moved to iPhone.

 

[Varun Rajan]

I would like to make it clear to everyone that I have never owned a Windows Phone/Mobile. I fully understand the question, however I believe the same reservations for upgrading or moving to WM10 apply to both. I choose to upgrade every 12 months and this tradition began with the purchase of an iPhone, this meant around September time every year I'd get the newest model.

My first was the iPhone 3G and currently I have a 6S+. I've owned every model in between disregarding the 5c and standard 6/6S.
A few years ago now I began to get bored with the look and feel of the iPhone so after only a few months I decided to trade my iPhone 4 for a Blackberry. I had heard only positive things about the Blackberry, how everyone seemed in love with the keyboard and the great BBM service. My experience fell way short of expectations, the device would constantly lock/freeze for no apparent reason the easiest to sort this was to remove the battery anything unsaved would be lost. The selection and quality of Apps available to download were poor with the exception of the Facebook app, the internet browser was slow and sometimes hard to read and the build quality was poor. In the short time I had a Blackberry the device was replaced because the trackpad had stopped working and dust/debris began collecting inside the device on top of the screen.
When the iPhone 4S was announced I was so overjoyed at the though of getting my iPhone back and swore never to try a 'change' again.

The point of boring story was to give some back ground to my past experience with trying a new OS/Phone. Now I'm seriously considering ditching iPhone/iOS to try something new again. My problem is the cost of having to re-purchase apps (if available), a genuine fear of the unknown, the confusion surrounding compatibility of seemingly every new Windows Phone version, models available Microsoft? Samsung? HTC? - their future life span and Microsofts lack of interest/confidence in the future of WM.

Well my experiennce with windows phone wasnt sweet. If you are looking for an opinion wait till the next iteration of devices release or go for an android flagship. I wont recommend a windows phone but since you wanna try give a go for low end w10 mobile or wait for a proper flagship.

 

[Games Goblin]

INow I'm seriously considering ditching iPhone/iOS to try something new again. My problem is the cost of having to re-purchase apps (if available), a genuine fear of the unknown, the confusion surrounding compatibility of seemingly every new Windows Phone version, models available Microsoft? Samsung? HTC? - their future life span and Microsofts lack of interest/confidence in the future of WM.

Since you have been using the iPhone for so long, switching to Windows Mobile will be hard - especially if you use a lot of apps. I would suggest to continue using apple for a few years at least.

 

[badMojo69]

I would not even recommend spending money on a "flag ship" WP. If they put out a Surface Phone and there is no IOS or the App store is in the same situation as it is today...skip it.

 

[Matvey Andrienko]

Thanks for the tip. However, MIUI is about more than just a launcher. It also replaces default system drawer, notifications and several apps. Still I think replacing default launcher would be a step in a right direction.

 

[nadava1991]

Using WP since 2011. Now I'm using a L920, one of the best Lumias IMO. I had been waiting for Win 10, because besides that 8.1 is a great and stable OS, it has annoying features (Wi-fi turn off, settings menu, just 4 buttons in actions center etc.). BUT NO WIN 10.
L950 is too expensive considering it has only a semi-finished OS. Switching to Honor or Huawei. Bye Microsoft ..|..

I'm using L920 currently. Had been waiting to Win 10.
I'll switch to Honor or Huawei.
Bye Microsoft, good luck to retain you customers ..|..

 

[msweig]

I just switched to a Galaxy S7 about a week ago. I had a Lumia 920, liked it, but I did try W10M on it for awhile. Had some problems with it, but also didn't like the lack of ease for one handed use. After a few months I switched back to 8.1, and then about a month later got the S7. So far I'm liking it, but I will say that the first few days were frustrating as hell, as I didn't know the OS (probably took about the same amount of time as it did to adjust to Windows 8 on my laptop). I've been slowly adding apps as I go/figuring out what I want, so I don't dump a bunch of stuff on it and then find my battery life plummets or the OS starts to lag. No problems so far. Few thoughts/observations:

Frankly, the Outlook app was just OK. (For reference my primary email account is with Yahoo, and my secondary with Outlook.) I ended up liking one called TypeApp better. It has tons of options, dark theme, and works pretty well with one hand (about the only time I have to reach is to hit send). I actually prefer this to the native Windows phone client (either WP8 or W10M). Outlook didn't have a dark theme, it was not one hand friendly, and didn't have as many options. Also, and annoying as hell, when you deleted the app it yanked the exchange connection with it, which yanked all my contacts off the phone. Not exactly want you want to find out when away from the house. I could also never get the calendar to work.

Speaking of calendar, I could never seem to get the Outlook.com calendar to play nice with the phone/apps. I eventually gave up and just imported the calendar to my google account, and use that. Best calendar app I found (after looking at some of the highly rated ones) is DigiCal. It was the one that reminded me the most of Chronos Calendar (which was what I was using on Windows Phone). Some aspects of this app I like better, and some aspects of Chronos Calendar I liked better. So overall happy with DigiCal for how I work/schedule stuff.

Chrome just didn't seem to work well on this phone. The Samsung browser is fine. Everything is at the bottom of the screen other than the address bar. And you can block ads with the adblock version of it, which makes things so much faster. I haven't played much with the various browser options though.

Still using the stock Samsung keyboard. I like the number row, but other than that the Windows Phone one is better. The Samsung one sucks at swype type predictions. Way too much emphasis on the first letter. Slightly off on that and then the predictions suck. Need to try some of the other ones, like Swift, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Google Maps is awesome, other than not really being able to download maps (you can download them for a month, then you need to redo it. And, if I understand it correctly, if you have a data connection it just pulls it from there, so the downloaded maps really only work if you turn off data. But I could understand that incorrectly). Haven't tried any of the other options.

The camera on this thing focuses SO fast it is astounding. So much faster than the 950 or the iPhone 6s (I've played with both for a bit, and there is no comparison on the speed). In some ways it might be too fast, as I think it might accidentally focus on stuff in the background when trying to follow around a moving kid on video. But I need to play with that more to see if it was my imagination.

I do miss the ability to pin stuff to the start screen in Windows Phone. My main use for this was pining flight status from United's app (my wife flies a ton, so this was used frequently). But, the phone runs so fast, and you can pin flight status within the app, that it isn't that much of a time difference.

The one thing that sucks is Cortana. I mainly use Cortana for reminders. But she sucks on Android. You have to speak, or go through layers to set a notification (like in W10M, unlike the pin a reminder tab to the start screen in WP8). And then on top of it, there are only three snooze options (I think it is 5 minutes, 15, and 30), and whenever the notification goes off she speaks that you have a reminder. Even if you have the phone set on vibrate. Which is awful and really intrusive. This alone might make me try out google now.

The battery life is awesome, but coming from a 3 year old L920 the basis of comparison isn't really valid as that battery was toast...

Also, someone was mentioning bluetooth and texting in a vehicle a few pages back. When going through the android central forum a few days ago I recall seeing a thread on that, and someone mentioning an app that worked (might have been google now, or something else, I just don't recall). I didn't pay much attention to it at the time (not a function I use), but you might want to search there.

Feel free to ask any questions. So far I am liking the choice.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I just switched to a Galaxy S7 about a week ago. I had a Lumia 920, liked it, but I did try W10M on it for awhile. Had some problems with it, but also didn't like the lack of ease for one handed use. After a few months I switched back to 8.1, and then about a month later got the S7. So far I'm liking it, but I will say that the first few days were frustrating as hell, as I didn't know the OS (probably took about the same amount of time as it did to adjust to Windows 8 on my laptop). I've been slowly adding apps as I go/figuring out what I want, so I don't dump a bunch of stuff on it and then find my battery life plummets or the OS starts to lag. No problems so far. Few thoughts/observations:

Frankly, the Outlook app was just OK. (For reference my primary email account is with Yahoo, and my secondary with Outlook.) I ended up liking one called TypeApp better. It has tons of options, dark theme, and works pretty well with one hand (about the only time I have to reach is to hit send). I actually prefer this to the native Windows phone client (either WP8 or W10M). Outlook didn't have a dark theme, it was not one hand friendly, and didn't have as many options. Also, and annoying as hell, when you deleted the app it yanked the exchange connection with it, which yanked all my contacts off the phone. Not exactly want you want to find out when away from the house. I could also never get the calendar to work.

Speaking of calendar, I could never seem to get the Outlook.com calendar to play nice with the phone/apps. I eventually gave up and just imported the calendar to my google account, and use that. Best calendar app I found (after looking at some of the highly rated ones) is DigiCal. It was the one that reminded me the most of Chronos Calendar (which was what I was using on Windows Phone). Some aspects of this app I like better, and some aspects of Chronos Calendar I liked better. So overall happy with DigiCal for how I work/schedule stuff.

Chrome just didn't seem to work well on this phone. The Samsung browser is fine. Everything is at the bottom of the screen other than the address bar. And you can block ads with the adblock version of it, which makes things so much faster. I haven't played much with the various browser options though.

Still using the stock Samsung keyboard. I like the number row, but other than that the Windows Phone one is better. The Samsung one sucks at swype type predictions. Way too much emphasis on the first letter. Slightly off on that and then the predictions suck. Need to try some of the other ones, like Swift, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Google Maps is awesome, other than not really being able to download maps (you can download them for a month, then you need to redo it. And, if I understand it correctly, if you have a data connection it just pulls it from there, so the downloaded maps really only work if you turn off data. But I could understand that incorrectly). Haven't tried any of the other options.

The camera on this thing focuses SO fast it is astounding. So much faster than the 950 or the iPhone 6s (I've played with both for a bit, and there is no comparison on the speed). In some ways it might be too fast, as I think it might accidentally focus on stuff in the background when trying to follow around a moving kid on video. But I need to play with that more to see if it was my imagination.

I do miss the ability to pin stuff to the start screen in Windows Phone. My main use for this was pining flight status from United's app (my wife flies a ton, so this was used frequently). But, the phone runs so fast, and you can pin flight status within the app, that it isn't that much of a time difference.

The one thing that sucks is Cortana. I mainly use Cortana for reminders. But she sucks on Android. You have to speak, or go through layers to set a notification (like in W10M, unlike the pin a reminder tab to the start screen in WP8). And then on top of it, there are only three snooze options (I think it is 5 minutes, 15, and 30), and whenever the notification goes off she speaks that you have a reminder. Even if you have the phone set on vibrate. Which is awful and really intrusive. This alone might make me try out google now.

The battery life is awesome, but coming from a 3 year old L920 the basis of comparison isn't really valid as that battery was toast...

Also, someone was mentioning bluetooth and texting in a vehicle a few pages back. When going through the android central forum a few days ago I recall seeing a thread on that, and someone mentioning an app that worked (might have been google now, or something else, I just don't recall). I didn't pay much attention to it at the time (not a function I use), but you might want to search there.

Feel free to ask any questions. So far I am liking the choice.

If you want offline maps, HERE is still available for Android.

 

[msweig]

When I've used Here on WP (granted it was over a year ago) I abhorred it. I don't recall why, but it just didn't seem to work well for me/what I wanted. I'll probably look at it again, along with some of the other options, at some point.

 

[Tonytoronto2015]

After having owned a HTC HD7, Nokia 710, Lumia 521 and Lumia 925, no more windows phones for me. In fact, bought my second droid phone today, Nexus 5x, sweet little thing.
Its getting ridiculous the amount of main Apps missing on windows. The main ones they do have, are so feature lacking compared to android it not even funny. Its so sad,even MS office apps work better on android than they do on windows mobile. Sucked having to buy some apps again, and there's one app i really miss (Amazing Weather), the tiles were something i missed at first, not anymore. Heck, even Here Apps are working great, and free too.

 

[Laura Knotek]

When I've used Here on WP (granted it was over a year ago) I abhorred it. I don't recall why, but it just didn't seem to work well for me/what I wanted. I'll probably look at it again, along with some of the other options, at some point.

The Android version just got an update on March 30. It gets regular updates and works well for me.

 

[Chris Stevens1]

MS is currently selling a 512K phone, and was advertising it as getting W10M until Gabe's announcement.
MS has always said the WP needs less memory than iOS and Android.
W10M still has issues on all phones.
If the W10M experience is truly "poor" MS should officially state that, explain in what way any the issues can not be resolved.
Then address how they intend to deal with the owners of unsupported phones. I suspect that they will simply say "Too bad."

 

[greynightshirt]

I switched to an iPhone 5s two months ago and I haven't regretted it since.

I had the Lumias 820, 1020, Ativ S, 1520 and 830, and briefly the Lumia 950 XL. I loved Windows Phone 8.0 and 8.1. but I hate Windows 10 Mobile (and its terrible state) with a passion. Then along came the truly horrible Microsoft Store experience I had plus the recent comments about Windows 10 Mobile ("not important at the moment..." and I couldn't be happier with having switched when I did.

So anyone still on the fence, just switch. Chances are, you won't regret it at this point in time. You can always change back in a year or two, if Microsoft ever gets their Mobile s*** together again.

 

[Mark Eggleston]

I just got the 950XL and I love it! I cant believe you gave that up! Maybe you should have waited for 10.0.10586.164

I'm remote controlling my Kangaroo Plus in Continuum right now on a 50 inch curved screen.

iphones are for girls...