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

[wplee]

I'm leaving later this month for the S7 Edge.
I plan to keep it 2 years then we'll see where Microsoft is... :sweaty:

For those who are on a budget the G4 is a decent deal at the moment. LG are selling them via Amazon UK for around ?270 ($385/337EU). The camera is still one of the best available and there's some nice Leather back options.

Good luck everyone!

 

[tgp]

I made a promise to my family..... If we are to dump the phone, we will dump the entire ecosystem. After all, cohesion is the reason why they all exist.

I would caution doing this. Did you ever hear the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."? Microsoft's services are great on iOS and Android. They do take more setup initially since they are not native, but that's a one time deal. Once they're set up, you'll wonder what the big deal was!

That said, I use both Microsoft's and Google's services; Microsoft for work and Google for personal. It is easier to keep them separate that way. I use Microsoft, Apple, and Google devices, and I have 100% cohesion with both ecosystems across all platforms. I use Windows PCs (including a Surface 3), Android tablets and phones, and iPads. Both Microsoft's and Google's services work extremely well on all those devices, with no messing around required after the initial setup.

The one caveat is that Windows Phone only offers 100% cohesion with Microsoft services. I do have one, but it is not my daily driver. I would have problems trying to access my Google services on it.

Would you plan to drop Windows desktop as well? If so, I would see this as your biggest pain point. That is, unless you do little more than browsing. For that, a Chromebook is great! An Apple computer would be OK if your required software is available, and if you can afford it.

My 2?.

 

[chmun77]

I made a promise to my family..... If we are to dump the phone, we will dump the entire ecosystem. After all, cohesion is the reason why they all exist. We have not upgraded any hardware in the past 2 years except for our phones. Its a matter of time that we give up on MS completely. WM10 has become a joke, more than a year and its still bad, same goes for the desktop OS.

W10M is a bad joke for sure. But I do like Windows 10 on desktop. Thought I don't even install anytime much from the windows store as browser is my main working tool, but the OS is pretty stable and nice.

 

[chmun77]

When I take a pic, I want it almost immediately uploaded to the cloud and downloaded to my computer.

Wow.... Do you need such immediate actions even when outside? It will means taking up lots of data usage I guess? Just saying....

 

[chmun77]

To be fair, i barely see resuming screens on my 930 after updating to W10M... i think this is mostly caused by lack of optimization from developers. Sometimes they just don't put the same effort on WP apps compared to their iOS and Android counterparts.

I can give you that. But the keyword is: developers. And that's what killing this platform mostly. How much efforts are developers going to spend on optimizing their apps for the platform? Maybe things will be better when devs start to port iOS apps over. We shall see again.

 

[chmun77]

I'm in the same boat as you, brother! After years of truly believing things are getting better (from WM6 to last builds of 10), I got fed up and jumped ship to Android. Awful primitive OS, but works and has all the apps in the world with some pretty nice hardware too. I landed exactly in your price range with a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, a pretty decent bit of kit with an unbeatable price. There's also the Meizu MX5, which is gorgeous, for the same kind of cash. So I put a Lumia 920 on the shelf for the times I need to remind myself where I've been and enjoy 4000mAh battery life and a very responsive OS, unlike the battery drain sluggish abomination which W10 has become lately. A good concept, but very poorly done.

I'm actually looking at XM Note 3 too. Well, at least it has a much more powerful CPU than Lumia 650 which is running a freaking Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 chipset in the year of 2016! Not to mention that Note 3 finger print recognition is so much better than Windows Hello.

 

[P1ng0fDeath]

I can give you that. But the keyword is: developers. And that's what killing this platform mostly. How much efforts are developers going to spend on optimizing their apps for the platform? Maybe things will be better when devs start to port iOS apps over. We shall see again.

Yes, I agree! It has been an issue for a long time.
Instagram couldn't care less about their WP app: it was abandoned since 2013. What happened recently? They made a new W10M beta app that works fine and has been getting updates. Granted, it seems to be a full port so it doesn't have Modern UI like 6tag, but it's better than no support at all. Now imagine if this happened more often from now on... Again, we can only hope.

 

[Bao Li]

Meh, I'm fairly OS agnostic. It's not a deciding factor for me as they all do what I need a phone to do. That's why I was okay with the Lumia 1020 being a Windows Phone. However.... without another photographer's phone down the pipe, I'll probably be switching to whoever has the best camera when my 1020 bites the dust

 

[anon(6078578)]

For those of you with an Android phone as well as a Windows Phone, can you get the OneDrive app to backup to different folders other than both going to the same camera roll?

 

[wgs84]

For those of you with an Android phone as well as a Windows Phone, can you get the OneDrive app to backup to different folders other than both going to the same camera roll?

No, unfortunately on Android, all auto-uploaded photos such as camera photos, screenshots, downloaded images, Bluetoothed photos, photos shared via chat apps, etc. go into the Camera Roll folder on your OneDrive. It's a mess, but it does auto-upload. Hopefully Microsoft changes this behavior.

On Windows phone, it's nice that camera photos and downloaded images go into two separate folders, but screenshots and photos from Whatsapp won't auto-upload, so I got to remember to manually save them to OneDrive once in a while.

 

[anon(6078578)]

No, unfortunately on Android, all auto-uploaded photos such as camera photos, screenshots, downloaded images, Bluetoothed photos, photos shared via chat apps, etc. go into the Camera Roll folder on your OneDrive. It's a mess, but it does auto-upload. Hopefully Microsoft changes this behavior.

On Windows phone, it's nice that camera photos and downloaded images go into two separate folders, but screenshots and photos from Whatsapp won't auto-upload, so I got to remember to manually save them to OneDrive once in a while.

I just got another inexpensive Android Phone to replace my other one. I used to use the OneDrive on it and it worked pretty well. Once I got the Lumia 640 I stopped using it so the problem of both using the same camera roll for auto backup wasn't an issue. However I am going to use my Android as my mine driver for a bit but I'd like to still use the 640 for it's camera now and then and hopefully in another month T-Mobile will finally upgrade it to Windows 10 for me to play with. I am waiting for the official W10 with firmware so I can continue to use the WiFi calling.

 

[Tonytoronto2015]

Nexus 5X arrived today. Will be a few days before I can really set it up. Feels weird to be so ambivalent about a new device, rather than the usual exuberance.

Well, once u realize that everything actually works for a change, you'll feel better
I been using my 5x for 2 days now and its amazing device. So far the only thing not working is reading text over bluetooth. I did a chat with google support and was suprised how much time and dedication they have to try and solve this issue.
Like you, feel weird when got my first android device few months ago, but while i wish MS the best, i cant see going back. And yes, i really do miss pinning stuff and live tiles, but feels great to finally have access to so many apps i could only dream off.

 

[Tonytoronto2015]

Just a quick question to those who have moved on to a nexus 5x (especially coming from a 930/ICON or 950):

How do you find the camera? I hear that it may be a little slow, though decent in terms of quality.

I can't help but feel that moving from a L930 to a Nexus 5x is a step back in hardware :/

The Nexus 5x camera had some issues before the latest round of updates. The phones we purchased had 4 updates to do, before we started using them. Camera amazing, even low light can take some really nice pics. I read issues with freezing, crashing, slow before the updates-- i havent seen any, in fact fastest camera i have used. And boy, does it charge fast!

 

[Ross Kielman]

The Nexus 5x camera had some issues before the latest round of updates. The phones we purchased had 4 updates to do, before we started using them. Camera amazing, even low light can take some really nice pics. I read issues with freezing, crashing, slow before the updates-- i havent seen any, in fact fastest camera i have used. And boy, does it charge fast!

Good to hear! You've convinced me, I'll get the 5x I also like the little extras that come with getting a popular device- dbrand skins, many quality cases... I think I'll still miss the naked beauty of my L930 though!
Perhaps I read too much into things, but I also read that the fast charging in the 5x has led to some close calls with house fires (http://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/general/phone-burned-cable-t3343974)

I'm very much in the previously mentioned boat. I went from Symbian -> WP and haven't looked back til now. I still don't have a need to move but I certainly have the want. I haven't looked into the latest insider builds, but I feel that they aren't the solution to my/our woes. I wonder what a poll would show in terms of 1) users who consider WM as a heavenly gift 2) users who will stick with WM, because meh 3) users that are on their last WM device 4) users that are already long, long gone

 

[dubor99]

you were never an insider, microsoft built a universal core OS not just for phones under a year, and they need the core OS to be rich before focusing on phone, if they have focused all their attention on windows phone with a new OS( wiindows phone 10) while the desktop version is still in win 8.1 i dont think it would have made it this far, devs dont build apps bcos of the phone OS, they build bcos more people use the desktop versions more, i dont think u realized that, u do not think windows phone will just wake up one day and do a head to head comparism with iOS or andriod, get it windows phone is nt competing they are just setting another stage that is beyond our immediate want. (the curve) so if u feel like jumping chip Adios, no one is stopping you. u can stay put in a year or two and watch microsoft fail.

 

[98plustwo]

I love Windows Phone/Mobile, or let's say its potential. But that is not enough anymore. I have waited long enough and will switch to a Nexus 6P this week. I am sad to leave but since all the apps are available on Android I'll be able to stay in the Windows ecosystem.

I'm absolutely ready to give Windows Mobile another chance once it works and fulfills its giant potential.

 

[anon(9668900)]

So, according to Satya Nadella, continuum is the future of Windows 10 Mobile. They're really working on the aspect of continuum, and this means they're gearing Windows 10 Mobile to fill the PC-Phone unification gap.

What does this mean? All Windows mobile phones in the market are now probably useless, saving the HP Elite X3 (which I seriously doubt). Microsoft is keeping mum and not releasing devices because anything they release will be useless, till at least the next build conference, I'm assuming. This only means one thing - it's advisable that anyone who doesn't have continuum jump ship, because older devices are going to get more and more useless.

A year or two down the line, continuum might find its way to $200-$250 phones. But what will happen then? I don't know, no one knows. My next phone (provided I can save the money for it) is going to be a Nexus 5X, because in my Lumia 730, Windows 10 Mobile is just a poorly running skinned version of Windows Phone 8.1. No new features are ever going to work well.

 

[ioioos]

CEO tells the world that Continuum is the defining feature of Windows 10 Mobile.

Right on the back of releasing the first 4 native Windows 10 Mobile phones. Half of which cannot operate Continuum.

 

[Timbre70]

I prefer them to keep their mouths shut and concentrate on what an engineer should do. No point selling before their products are ready.

 

[Tonytoronto2015]

Good to hear! You've convinced me, I'll get the 5x I also like the little extras that come with getting a popular device- dbrand skins, many quality cases... I think I'll still miss the naked beauty of my L930 though!
Perhaps I read too much into things, but I also read that the fast charging in the 5x has led to some close calls with house fires (Phone burned through cable | LG Nexus 5X)

I'm very much in the previously mentioned boat. I went from Symbian -> WP and haven't looked back til now. I still don't have a need to move but I certainly have the want. I haven't looked into the latest insider builds, but I feel that they aren't the solution to my/our woes. I wonder what a poll would show in terms of 1) users who consider WM as a heavenly gift 2) users who will stick with WM, because meh 3) users that are on their last WM device 4) users that are already long, long gone

Yup, the phone can charge at 3amps, thats a lot of current. It gets "warm" till battery gets to about 60-70%. I went from a dead battery to about 40% in less than 15 minutes. Anyone using usb-c cables, make sure you use only OEM or cables tested by the google engineer (forgot his name), a bad cable can be a disaster. He had a few laptops fried while testing the cables.