What makes WP8 better than iOS and Android? What makes it worse?

[Slai]

Is rather have a smooth s4.

 

[JustToClarify]

Galaxy has never been smooth from the factory, and will not be anytime soon

buyers of such phone care only about stupid specs and kiddish SAMOLED screen, however that's what many buyers want today and that's why they make profit, simple

 

[Slai]

What are stupid specs?
And what exactly is wrong with amoled screens?

And yes, the s4 isn't smooth out of the box. It has a delay on home key press. Of course, you can fix that in settings easily. Then its smooth.

I don't think people care about amoled screens. I think they just like good screens. If they simply cared about amoled screens the n9, lumia line, etc would all have far higher sales numbers.

 

[Ordeith]

Is rather have a smooth s4.

so you want an S4 that runs WindowsPhone OS?

 

[Slai]

No, it never would be able to run WP, because of the resolution and sensors it comes with.

What I meant was that I'd rather have an s4. Because it's smooth.

If I wanted to use WP, my 920 would still be my primary.

 

[JustToClarify]

WP is a lot smoother than S4, look at youtube vids it's not just homescreen lag, there is a lag when switching homescreens, lag in gallery etc. etc.

Even Symbian Belle on my N8 is smoother than S4.

Oh, and stupid specs are those used for bragging rights with no real use on mobile phone, I don't count benchmarks in real use mind you.

 

[broar94]

When I used the S4 in the showroom the other day there was absolutely no lag anywhere. The Homescreen, app drawer, etc may lag for the first time, once it has been loaded, I guess it should become real fast!

S4 is too expensive

 

[Slai]

I've seen it lag. However mine doesn't lag. So there's that.
I hear they updated the sw recently. That helped.
Also settings can be changed to make it snappier if needed.

 

[TAB1360]

Also I must add the lack of apps and games well better quality ones.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

Abel:
I disagree that live tiles are better. They're good, but hard to say they're a better system than the android homescreen system.
User friendly... Well maybe. Its easier and cleaner. I think several things in wp is more troublesome than in android. For instance toggles, and settings. Finding the equalizer, for instance, is insanely annoying in wp.
The fluidity of WP is great. The delays are covered with animations and it seems to flow well, at least consistently.
Generally the apps in wp have a more uniform look, albeit less customizable.
Proshot i have no experience with.
Amazing Weather HD isn't any better than some of the android alternatives.
Email integration is about equal, except you can send more filetypes on android.

Office editors are available for Android, though it is great on WP8.
Gamingwise it's worse on wp, obviously.

Kinslayer: My WP blasts notification sounds over my music in wp. It doesn't mute the sound though, as you say it does on android. Not sure if that happens on my s4, I haven't noticed it at least. I'll try to pay attention to it next time, but I haven't noticed it being intrusive at all.

Android isn't always as fluid as WP, but most of that is due to WP masking very well with animations.. With regards to occasional lag it happens less frequently in WP for sure. My s4 had some lag when pressing the homekey to return to the homescreen from for instance Internet. I discovered that the perceived lag was merely an animation delay, which (since its android) I could remove, making it snappier..

As for the nexus vs Samsung thing, I think it's mostly due to the version/phone you were using. On s4 the Samsung overlay is quite well done.

Ridemyscooter: today you can make your android look basically however you want it to look. So however futuristic you might feel wp is, android can do it as well. If desired.. Clunky is definitely not a good description.

Android phones are as cluttered and mismatched as the user wants. The cleanest sleekest coolest homescreens are on android. The worst are as well.
The fact is that widgets on android allows you to make it what ever you want.

I recently switched from 920 to s4.

My experience so far is this:

Spotify works flawlessly now.
Battery is greatly improved.
Video playback is far better.
The personalization is great.
FB chat is amazing. I like flicking the heads around the homescreen.
Design wise I prefer the s4.
Stutters at random. Not often but sometimes.
Configuring your homescreen PEERFECTLY is a huge daunting task that can be overwhelming. But I love that I can.
It charges insanely fast, which is good.
Split view is great.
Air view is actually useful. Same goes for air gestures, but not as much as air view.
Eye control works well, but not something I use.
SwiftKey is far better than the wp8 keyboard.

All in all its a big change, but one I'm happy about so far.

What I mean by clunky is that it seems with android, or at least my experience with it, that you need to almost always, save for the nexus devices, flash your phone with a stock ROM. YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED A TASK KILLER! This is something that anybody who has owned an android phone knows, without this you'll run your battery into the ground. I have friends that ask me, why they get 1/2-3/4 of a day battery life and I show them they are not using a task killer and once they do, they get a full day battery life no problem. What I also mean by clunky, it that android frequently stutters, and it seems to have a good ui experience, you need to customize the heck out of it.

Slai, you made it sound like you had to work quite hard to customize your multiple home screens, which I think that most people I've seen that have like 5-7 is completely overkill, but anyways, When I went to customize my homescreen, it took me like 10 min max and I was done, I just set the tiles the size I like them, and put them in the place that I like and I'm done.

It seems to me that you like to tinker with things. If that's the case than android is the perfect OS for you. While I do like to tinker as well, I don't have time to do it, which is part of the reason I stopped using Linux, not because it was bad in anyway, but It took me forever to get the desktop looking the way I wanted it.

I love my windows phone because it just works well, I don't have to tinker with it, I don't have to close apps, pretty much I never need to monitor anything and that's why I like it. Its pretty, fast, fluid (I hate to use their marketing lingo btw but it does describe the system well).

 

[Slai]

http://mycolorscreen.com/2013/04/24/hazy-daze/m, you never really have to flash a stock rom or use a task killer.

If you have apps draining your battery in the background draining your battery, as in WP, you can pinpoint that easily and merely remove it, all without any advanced task killers.

Android rarely stutters on the s4, if at all. Haven't customized much, but I changed four things in settings which reduced animation time on certain actions, and disabled S Voice from its homekey shortcut.

Let me clarify the homescreen thing: if you want something that looks like this:

http://mycolorscreen.com/2013/04/24/hazy-daze/

Then yeah, from scratch it could take a bit of time. Just copying that one: fifteen minutes I guess.

But just putting apps and shortcuts around the screen takes just a few minutes, if you don't want to tinker and just want it set up.

So you sort of get both the easy variation and the detailed one, depending on your preference.

I don't particularly like to tinker. I can flash roms and enjoy making a unique and well done homescreen setup that is really effective. But I rarely bother with it.

I like the same qualities in the s4. Its fast, it's pretty, it works well, it's fluid, i don't have to tinker with it, or close apps constantly or monitor it.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

Btw, I got to see the new htc one, talk about immaculate build quality...I think the s4 looks decent but I would totally take the now htc one over it though

 

[montsa007]

@kinslayer,

I really love you,r post

 

[Slai]

Don't confuse build quality with design preference though.

Personally I like the s4 over the One on design. Build quality has always been superb with polycarbonate/plastic for me, both with Samsung and nokia. With the exception of the n97 perhaps, and the sim tray door on the n9 and lumia 800.

 

[solveig17]

Admittedly this is from my experience of Nokia Lumia 800 which is WP7 but I gave up after 6 months as the experience was so awful. I don't think any of these issues are addressed in WP8. So far as what it could do better than Android? Nothing.
(1) No lock screen notifications
(2) No profiles
(3) No customised text tones
(4) Doesn't support Chrome or Firefox
(5) Cannot set a text to send automatically at a future time.
(6) Cannot allocate the tag "mobile" to more than 1 number for any contact
(7) Cannot save sent and received text messages .
(8) Cannot switch phone off when it's charging.
(9) Cannot add items to e-mails except photos ; can add documents but only by picking the document first so cannot reply and add a document.
(10) Browser cannot access secure code sites; cannot access my online banking site.
(11) No BBC, My Player, ITV Player or Catch up TV
(12) No Swype keyboard
(13) Can't edit e-mail when forwarding
(14) Cannot move or e-mail out a downloaded pdf
(15) Live Tiles is not as good as widgets
(16) Doesn't support Amazon mp3
(17) Cannot set snooze period on alarm
(18) Clock runs fast

 

[berty6294]

Admittedly this is from my experience of Nokia Lumia 800 which is WP7 but I gave up after 6 months as the experience was so awful. I don't think any of these issues are addressed in WP8. So far as what it could do better than Android? Nothing.
(1) No lock screen notifications
(2) No profiles
(3) No customised text tones
(4) Doesn't support Chrome or Firefox
(5) Cannot set a text to send automatically at a future time.
(6) Cannot allocate the tag "mobile" to more than 1 number for any contact
(7) Cannot save sent and received text messages .
(8) Cannot switch phone off when it's charging.
(9) Cannot add items to e-mails except photos ; can add documents but only by picking the document first so cannot reply and add a document.
(10) Browser cannot access secure code sites; cannot access my online banking site.
(11) No BBC, My Player, ITV Player or Catch up TV
(12) No Swype keyboard
(13) Can't edit e-mail when forwarding
(14) Cannot move or e-mail out a downloaded pdf
(15) Live Tiles is not as good as widgets
(16) Doesn't support Amazon mp3
(17) Cannot set snooze period on alarm
(18) Clock runs fast

1. Yes it does.
2. I don't understand, who shares phones?
3. True, I wish we had that
4. Thank god.
5. I don't understand why people need this.
6. you have mobile 1 or 2 and like 10 other options
7. They are already saved and backed up
8. True
9. True, I hope that changes
10. Yes it can, I do my banking from my phone.
11. Merica
12. Id take WP's keyboard over swipe any day
13. True, why forward if you are composing your own.
14. True
15. Haha says my battery
16. Idk I don't use that
17. Um yes you can
18. Um... Idk bout that

 

[ammarmalik2011]

To me the biggest turn off wasn't so much the lack of apps (yes that did hurt) but it was more the quality of existing apps. Everything from Facebook to Twitter to WhatsApp is just miles better on iOS. Then there is the long wait a Windows Phone user has to go through for an app to get updated (hint: Viber)

 

[solveig17]

1. Yes it does.
2. I don't understand, who shares phones?
3. True, I wish we had that
4. Thank god.
5. I don't understand why people need this.
6. you have mobile 1 or 2 and like 10 other options
7. They are already saved and backed up
8. True
9. True, I hope that changes
10. Yes it can, I do my banking from my phone. V5
11. Merica
12. Id take WP's keyboard over swipe any day
13. True, why forward if you are composing your own.
14. True
15. Haha says my battery
16. Idk I don't use that
17. Um yes you can
18. Um... Idk bout that

1.no there is not. There is no continuous alert. It flashes up briefly and then goes black.
2. No idea what you are on about. I mean the fact phone automatically switches to silent when I am in my open plan office or if I have the word " concert " in my calendar and any number of other custom situations.
5. So I can set my phone to send a text at 10.32 on my son's birthday no matter where I am or what I am doing at 10.32 or I can send a text home when I am in different time zone without waking the recipient?
6. Not on Lumia 800
7. No you cannot. You can back up, I meant save to sd card or elsewhere. If you delete the sms from Lumia it goes from the back up. I can delete all SMS from Android but they are still saved to sd card or google drive
13. Because sometimes you only want the recipient to see part of an email.
10. Bully for you. I cannot on wp, I can on Android. Any site using mastercard secure code sig in didn't work
11.No idea what you mean, all of the media apps I listed work on Android, none of them work on WP.
15. I get between 40 to 50 hours from Razr Maxx
17. I meant a period of your choosing. I can set it to snooze but only 9 minutes. Goodness knows why 9 minutes

 

[Brian Sump]

To me the biggest turn off wasn't so much the lack of apps (yes that did hurt) but it was more the quality of existing apps. Everything from Facebook to Twitter to WhatsApp is just miles better on iOS. Then there is the long wait a Windows Phone user has to go through for an app to get updated (hint: Viber)

I would disagree. I've run into several apps where the quality was superior on WP8. Has anyone played "QONQR" for example on iOS? It's much better on WP. I also like the Kayak and Pandora apps better. It's true that FB is fairly low quality, but it's also the least important app as the phone has native support for most of facebook's functionality.

It is true that Android is customizable to whatever you may want, but for the ordinary person I think the WP8 system/process is easier. WP still has a long ways to go as some very simple things have yet to be implemented (using SMS tones other than what is preloaded, for example, is one of the most annoying). But I like the paradigm better than the other phone OS's out there. I know Microsoft isn't known for their agile development, but hopefully they'll have a new release soon that fixes some of these irritating pieces.

 

[FinancialP]

To me the biggest turn off wasn't so much the lack of apps (yes that did hurt) but it was more the quality of existing apps. Everything from Facebook to Twitter to WhatsApp is just miles better on iOS. Then there is the long wait a Windows Phone user has to go through for an app to get updated (hint: Viber)

I have to agree with this sentiment. Spotify was the last straw for me; my goodness it's a poor app on this platform.


I've been waiting forever for tapatalk , I hear it's in beta now.

.........

The Skype situation speaks volumes.