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

[antiochian2010]

Such a shame that Nokia hired Balmer and never came out with Android devices. I bet they would be a major player today. Microsoft has also missed a huge opportunity to make their phone OS a competitive and meaningful player. I am getting along with iOS just fine and seems as if people exiting to Android are also pleased - Windows could have been a great 3rd choice if MS hadn't been so calloused and inept.

 

[libra89]

I took some pictures using my iPhone SE for a thread yesterday on Android Central. For some reason, I had the idea of putting it and the Honor 8 side by side, and it looked huge to me. I had a moment where I thought that I was nuts for either direction, because 4" felt so small, and 5.2" in comparison to the 4" feels huge. It's funny how your brain adapts to different things. Both have pros and cons, and I haven't switched my sim yet going into week 3, which is the longest I have stayed with a phone since the iPhone SE.

Not going to lie, I would love something in the middle that is on the level of the SE when it comes to performance. The Honor 8 has great performance too but I mean more from one small device to another.

 

[LyricalNonsense]

I was very interested in getting a Windows phone, as I had one a few years back and it served me quite well, but, with the continued cycle of broken promises from Microsoft I decided against.

 

[Joe920]

Also thinking of leaving: Microsoft.

 

[libra89]

Also thinking of leaving: Microsoft.

This is really odd. I seriously hope that this happened just because they want to combine it with the Microsoft Band app.

 

[Joe920]

This is really odd. I seriously hope that this happened just because they want to combine it with the Microsoft Band app.

I hope so as well. If that's the case it's just really bad PR. Bank of America did something similar: they killed their mobile app, and only months later said 'oh, by the way, a UWP app is coming'. It would be nice if companies keep the old app around while they work on the UWP version.

On an unrelated note, this thread hit half a million views today. :|

 

[RumoredNow]

This is really odd. I seriously hope that this happened just because they want to combine it with the Microsoft Band app.

My problem with that is they made the App pretty worthless without a Band months ago. I miss Health and Fitness with the ability to track my steps for a session. All the great advances we had when SensorCore first hit have now eroded away.

Tried a Band... It was alright, but I want to wear my watches from my collection and I'm not wearing something on each wrist. I dropped the band because I had SensorCore on my phone and then they phased out everything worthwhile...

Grrrrr.... This is tough to like.

Then I became committed to the Livescape App which does everything I want, but I'm still waiting for the UWP version. So long as that still syncs my info to Health Vault I'm good. I'd rather have the session tracking than the daily count. And I'm not going back to a wearable on this platform, they don't do enough or have enough style.

If Microsoft can't bring us up to the wearables level on other platforms and are bowing out, they should seriously look at bringing back the, IMHO, superb level of on-phone functionality we had under 8.1 and Health and Fitness. I could track my steps all day every day AND start a session and track time/steps/pace/calorie burn on my Glance screen during the session. And it all synced regularly to my Health Vault.

Now they have nothing but daily step counter that I can hardly be bothered going in to sync as it just disgruntles me to see that really want me to own a Band. I'm not doing it. Tried it and it doesn't suit my lifestyle or sense of style.

And I want my Gestures back too.

I keep waiting for that stuff to reemerge, but this seems a clear signal (degradation from phone use to outright switching the name to Band since not enough people took the hint to buy into their wearable and retiring the Health Vault App) that they don't want to pursue these functions on the phone where most people will benefit from them. They are wrong to make these functions elitist and buy in. They need to go back to making it populist and automatically on-phone.

[/rant]

 

[anon(6078578)]

My problem with that is they made the App pretty worthless without a Band months ago. I miss Health and Fitness with the ability to track my steps for a session. All the great advances we had when SensorCore first hit have now eroded away.

Tried a Band... It was alright, but I want to wear my watches from my collection and I'm not wearing something on each wrist. I dropped the band because I had SensorCore on my phone and then they phased out everything worthwhile...

Grrrrr.... This is tough to like.

Then I became committed to the Livescape App which does everything I want, but I'm still waiting for the UWP version. So long as that still syncs my info to Health Vault I'm good. I'd rather have the session tracking than the daily count. And I'm not going back to a wearable on this platform, they don't do enough or have enough style.

If Microsoft can't bring us up to the wearables level on other platforms and are bowing out, they should seriously look at bringing back the, IMHO, superb level of on-phone functionality we had under 8.1 and Health and Fitness. I could track my steps all day every day AND start a session and track time/steps/pace/calorie burn on my Glance screen during the session. And it all synced regularly to my Health Vault.

Now they have nothing but daily step counter that I can hardly be bothered going in to sync as it just disgruntles me to see that really want me to own a Band. I'm not doing it. Tried it and it doesn't suit my lifestyle or sense of style.

And I want my Gestures back too.

I keep waiting for that stuff to reemerge, but this seems a clear signal (degradation from phone use to outright switching the name to Band since not enough people took the hint to buy into their wearable and retiring the Health Vault App) that they don't want to pursue these functions on the phone where most people will benefit from them. They are wrong to make these functions elitist and buy in. They need to go back to making it populist and automatically on-phone.

[/rant]

I remember when I first got my Lumia 640 and it was a nice surprise when I discovered it had a Health and Fitness app that had a built in Step Counter! It was perfect for what I needed at the time and was fairly real time too. Of course a few weeks later I learned that they were discontinuing it. Eventually I tried the Health App but I found the fact that it didn't update the steps in real time which was highly annoying as I couldn't check it to make sure it was actually counting my steps. At least a couple of times after a good walk I realized the damn thing had not been working. Had it been updating in real time I would've noticed and rebooted the phone. As you say it was obvious they designed it to work with a band.

I have no interest in the band as all the stuff it does is overkill for me. All I need is a basic activity tracker. I had a Misfit Flash for a while which I liked but like you I like to wear a watch so had to wear it on my other wrist.

Anyway I now have a Timex Metropolitan Activity Tracking watch which I love. It has a step counter dial so I don't even need to use the app which is just as well since the app is basically crap compared to the Misfit one.

 

[antiochian2010]

Believe it or not, this rant is actually about hardware and I'm surprised to be writing it. Up to now, I have had great photo captures from my L950. However, today I took it too an airshow near San Diego and it almost ruined my day. 30 seconds into hi-res video - camera app would shut down with a notice my device was overheating - took battery out and let it cool. Didn't install into case again, but despite this - SAME warning.
Thank God, I geeked out and had my iP6s+ with me - almost left at home because after all the Lumia has the superior camera right?
Well, I ditched the L950 and shot with the iphone inside a case (with a battery charger in the case!) and it shot hi-res stills and 4K video all afternoon like a champ! Pic attached.
OK, conditions are a bit extreme - hot weather, little shade, shooting in direct sunlight - but you know, I have done longer shoots in worse conditions with PureView 808, L1020 and even the Msft made L930 - which was still built exact Nokia specs. Those phones took everything I could throw at them without skipping a beat. I didn't even have to think about camera failure - my only worry was having enough chargers, spare batteries, etc to make sure I had enough juice to make the shoot. That changed today.
The L950 shows that Msft can stick a name on a phone and imitate, but Msft is NOT Nokia and looks like never will be.

To add insult to injury, I didn't even have to hit the charge button on the Trianium case I have on the iphone. When I finally did at the end of the show, after hours of shooting all of that - I still had more than 60% battery remaining!

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I'm still on windows mobile, but for my camera needs, I've bought a dslr camera - since that was the only thing that could beat the Lumia 1020

 

[tonyk79]

I've just left from MS after having lumia 920, 930(work phone) 1020 and a 950 due to the lack of apps. Lumia 950 has a better camera than my new iPhone 7 however the iOS ecosystem and build quality of the iPhone is far superior to MS offerings.

MS are in deep trouble and losing big name apps each month. I have a surface 4 that is a proper premium product, they need to take a from that playbook with whatever phone comes next, through cash/incentives and make sure they get the big name app providers onboard.

 

[libra89]

Currently using and liking the Honor 8, but I'm still going to be a chronic switcher. I dream of the day when Edge drains way less on mobile and there's a W10M phone that is the size of the 735 or somewhere in that ballpark of small with a nice camera.

I'm aware that there's no perfect phone but I'm still attempting to chase it with my chronic switching. :grin:

 

[RumoredNow]

I'm aware that there's no perfect phone but I'm still attempting to chase it with rationalize my chronic switching.

Fixed it for you... :winktongue:

 

[libra89]

Fixed it for you... :winktongue:

Haha! :grincry:

I know it's such a "first world problem" but wow it is hard. Seriously. I think I can handle iOS in doses but as like my main phone for a month, I don't know. I might try it when/if I get phone bored. The Sony Xperia X Compact could have been almost it, but it failed (in pricing, and camera performance).

 

[Chris Sandiford]

I think the time has come here myself to try something different. Something just clicked the other day as I was yet again experiencing a random camera error on my 950XL. I thought, why am I putting myself through this and getting nothing back? I want a device to just WORK not to have to make do with and use workaround or do resets.

Nokia brought me to Microsoft. I have had 13 Nokia phones since 1993 and naturally came to Windows with the Lumia 800. When it became inevitable there was no alternative but Microsoft as I'd invested in the ecosystem, I went for the best there was - the 950XL. It's been less than a great experience, even though the handset itself I am quite happy with.

Even with stock W10Mobile on it, and no Insider flavours is still buggy and I feel sorry for those who buy a device straight from the store and get this experience as their first taste of Windows 10 on a phone.

So it's with great regret I'm going to try something different. Staying with my tinkering nature I'm going to give the OnePlus 3 with Android and CyanogenMod on it a go. I could never go to the restrictive boring world of Apple and this seems the best alternative to the full on bloat of a stock Android phone.

I love my Surface and Win10 on a PC but Mobile is killing me. The way MS is investing its services on other platforms I reckon I can still get some of the MS experience elsewhere, which is bitter-sweet. I may come back if things improve but I'm fed up of waiting and taking third best. Hurts to say but there you go. It's reality.

As an aside this site has really gone to the dogs now with nearly every article about Xbox and Gaming. It was great when it was Windows Phone Central and yes... I understand the need to consolidate all Windows stuff in one place, but it's really just given carte blanche for the kiddie contributors to just write about their hobby. If they used the tags correctly I could filter it out, but they don't. I wonder if in some small part, this lack of love for the phone evident in the rise of such articles has subconsciously helped my decision to move platforms. "We'd rather write about games now, than discuss mobile.." Maybe...

Chris
Nokia since 1993
WinMo since 2011
Insider since 2014

 

[libra89]

I think the time has come here myself to try something different. Something just clicked the other day as I was yet again experiencing a random camera error on my 950XL. I thought, why am I putting myself through this and getting nothing back? I want a device to just WORK not to have to make do with and use workaround or do resets.

Nokia brought me to Microsoft. I have had 13 Nokia phones since 1993 and naturally came to Windows with the Lumia 800. When it became inevitable there was no alternative but Microsoft as I'd invested in the ecosystem, I went for the best there was - the 950XL. It's been less than a great experience, even though the handset itself I am quite happy with.

Even with stock W10Mobile on it, and no Insider flavours is still buggy and I feel sorry for those who buy a device straight from the store and get this experience as their first taste of Windows 10 on a phone.

So it's with great regret I'm going to try something different. Staying with my tinkering nature I'm going to give the OnePlus 3 with Android and CyanogenMod on it a go. I could never go to the restrictive boring world of Apple and this seems the best alternative to the full on bloat of a stock Android phone.

I love my Surface and Win10 on a PC but Mobile is killing me. The way MS is investing its services on other platforms I reckon I can still get some of the MS experience elsewhere, which is bitter-sweet. I may come back if things improve but I'm fed up of waiting and taking third best. Hurts to say but there you go. It's reality.

As an aside this site has really gone to the dogs now with nearly every article about Xbox and Gaming. It was great when it was Windows Phone Central and yes... I understand the need to consolidate all Windows stuff in one place, but it's really just given carte blanche for the kiddie contributors to just write about their hobby. If they used the tags correctly I could filter it out, but they don't. I wonder if in some small part, this lack of love for the phone evident in the rise of such articles has subconsciously helped my decision to move platforms. "We'd rather write about games now, than discuss mobile.." Maybe...

Chris
Nokia since 1993
WinMo since 2011
Insider since 2014

I think it was brilliant for the site to expand. I'll admit, I don't read any of the Xbox related things. I was glad to see the Windows Central podcast so that there's no Xbox stuff. We all have things that we don't care to read, but I think it's always better to be given the option over having it forced.

Either way, I hope that you'll enjoy the OnePlus 3, it's a heck of a phone! Feel free to share your thoughts on it and the experience.

 

[HeyCori]

So it finally happened. I finally went Android. I purchased the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 because Amazon had it on sale for $99. It was the same day that MS announced that were shutting down HealthVault. And IIRC, MS had just announced the day before that new features were coming to the iOS and Android version of Outlook. So fine, MS, you win. I will go Android and download your apps there.

After two days, here's what I think of Android so far.

Yeah I know, it's only been a few days and that's not nearly enough to master an entire OS. Still, there's something about Android that just feels off, like it's composed of many separate parts that were just cobbled together. The Idol 3 ships with a near stock version of Android 5 (and can be upgraded to 6.01) so I understand tolerance will vary depending on what skin you have. Granted, I'm making it sound worse than what it is. There are a lot of features within Android that are nice to have beyond just additional apps.

What really did come as a surprise to me is how much I prefer the Windows Phone version of the MS apps I use. Outlook on Android has some great features but the WP version is just easier to use (and looks less cartoony). Groove is miles ahead on WP. It's not even a fair comparison. Groove on Android still can't find my music. However, the included JBL music app is really nice. I also prefer OneDrive on WP and I loved how I could easily drop a photo in OneDrive and have it show up in my photos app. Android can do that too with much less elegance. Contact sync was a pain in the arse. Even my BlackBerry Passport did it better. And the WP keyboard - superb. I think many of us underestimate just how good WP really is.

Still, for only $99, I'll try the Idol 3 for a while. It's not like my 1520 is going anywhere. :wink:

 

[Guytronic]

Still, for only $99

That was a heck of a deal.
Thought about, didn't do it because I just bought another phone and I'm getting the Down turned brow from the wife ...Lol...

A lot of folks dislike the original Android UI (me included)
This is why I adjust and customize mine to look minimalist in fashion.
Not a fan of too much screen activity, clutter, widgets etc...

 

[libra89]

So it finally happened. I finally went Android. I purchased the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3 because Amazon had it on sale for $99. It was the same day that MS announced that were shutting down HealthVault. And IIRC, MS had just announced the day before that new features were coming to the iOS and Android version of Outlook. So fine, MS, you win. I will go Android and download your apps there.

After two days, here's what I think of Android so far.

http://65.media.tumblr.com/c1e77e4ebcde059c73da98ada63df417/tumblr_inline_obu7clZ8vW1sjh0qi_500.gif

Yeah I know, it's only been a few days and that's not nearly enough to master an entire OS. Still, there's something about Android that just feels off, like it's composed of many separate parts that were just cobbled together. The Idol 3 ships with a near stock version of Android 5 (and can be upgraded to 6.01) so I understand tolerance will vary depending on what skin you have. Granted, I'm making it sound worse than what it is. There are a lot of features within Android that are nice to have beyond just additional apps.

What really did come as a surprise to me is how much I prefer the Windows Phone version of the MS apps I use. Outlook on Android has some great features but the WP version is just easier to use (and looks less cartoony). Groove is miles ahead on WP. It's not even a fair comparison. Groove on Android still can't find my music. However, the included JBL music app is really nice. I also prefer OneDrive on WP and I loved how I could easily drop a photo in OneDrive and have it show up in my photos app. Android can do that too with much less elegance. Contact sync was a pain in the arse. Even my BlackBerry Passport did it better. And the WP keyboard - superb. I think many of us underestimate just how good WP really is.

Still, for only $99, I'll try the Idol 3 for a while. It's not like my 1520 is going anywhere. :wink:

Interesting first impressions. Nice deal by the way. I'm curious to what else you'll see, notice and experience.

I do agree about the contact sync though, very annoying. It's way easier on iOS. It is always fun to dabble.

 

[libra89]

So I switched to my iPhone SE recently to try iOS 10.

Before doing that, I realized that I haven't used ANY phone this year for longer than 4 weeks by choice. Both the Honor 8 and the iPhone SE have been the only ones to pass the test. The many others failed because there was a big issue.
Decided to downgrade to iOS 9 because of T-Mobile signal issues, and also the battery seemed to go down faster. Not a good combo.