Why Should Someone Use Windows Phone?

[anon(8730639)]

Hello everyone, new here. Well, I recently switched from iOS to Android because... well, I don't think I need to explain why iOS is awful, seems like everyone here already knows. I was bored with iOS and switched to Android for something different (kind of an impulse decision). And while it's a good OS (far beter than iOS) with a lot of really useful features, it feels a little too similar to iOS in many ways and isn't really that breath of fresh air I was looking for. Many people insisted that "If I get bored with it, just root it and change it", but I have no idea what I'm doing (don't want to brick it). I recently was looking at some Windows Phones for a family member (who ended up getting the 925) and after trying it out, WP has been growing on me. There were a few things I was missing, but most of those have been addressed with the announcement yesterday of WP8.1. So for someone interested in WP, what are the biggest reasons to switch to it? What does it have over competitors that make it better? Are Microsoft's services good enough to switch from Google services over to MS's?

And an extra question, what's the difference between the Lumia 920 and 925? I saw that the 925 was called the best Windows Phone you can buy in an article on WPCentral back in December, but the 920 doesn't seem to be talked about on any of these kind of lists. The 925 is the perfect size for a phone (not huge like the 1520 but not super thick like the 1020) and has a gorgeous screen (even though it's 720p, it looks as good as the 1080p screen on my Nexus 7) but the camera is a little low (always smudged it up when I used it) and felt a little slippery. Are there any major differences between the two? The other phones I'm considering besides the 920 and 925 are the Moto X and Nexus 5, for comparison.

Sorry for the giant wall of text, but WP seems to be based for no reason all over other tech sites, so I decided to come to a group of WP fans for an honest answer. Who knows, maybe I might become a WP fan too.

 

[snowmutt]

There are 2 huge differences between the L925 and the L920:

Qi wireless charging on the L920 and not on the L925. This feature makes the 920 a tad thick around the mid-section (ain't we all?), but everyone who has it LOVES the feature.

Memory- neither is expandable, and the L920's 32GB just rocks all over the L925 16 GB.

I do like the looks of the L925 a hair better, but the above two advantages would have me buying the L920 without even a doubt in my mind. My son just got one in December, and it still runs like a dream. They will both get WP8.1. I do suggest a Matte finish, as I love my white L900, but it is a slippery bugger.

Nothing wrong with the L925. I am not a huge camera user, but the L925 is supposed to be slightly better in that regard. My son's L920 takes great photos, so the L925 should be excellent.

Let us know what you decide, even if it is a Android.

*shudders*

 

[anon(7900571)]

hey welcome to WPC forums :smile:
with the release of windows phone 8.1 , Microsoft is catching up with android and ios.they added many small tweaks which will make using phone much more easier and smarter . For instance now wp has a notification centre and action centre for quick Wi-Fi , Bluetooth,camera (+1 here because its user customizable unlike ios control centre ) , live tiles are much better when compared to boring ios 7 icons , same goes for android (but android has widgets but windows phone has both live tiles act as widgets+icon). Yes Microsoft services are far better than Google's services (I don't use hangouts , instead I use Skype ) , outlook is much more secure , robust and integrates with outlook , office very well. one drive (formally sky drive ) is the best lol , it automatically upload photos and videos captured by my Lumia 920 and later I can access them on my windows 8.1 PC , ios does the same in photo stream but there are some cons - it does not support video uploads , images more than 30 days are removed (meaning photo stream does not save them permanently ) yes there are many apps on ios and android , but windows phone is catching up , and it will catch up more quickly because Microsoft has given more access to developers (freedom lol ) by giving them more API like video editing API , etc.

Lumia 920 and 925 have the same hardware specs but design is somewhat different , Lumia 920 is brick , bulky and a solid device (made up of polycarbonate) 925 has aluminium bezels . 920 has 5 elements lenses in camera where as 925 has 6 , no wireless charging on 925 resulting in much lighter device (the reason why Lumia 920 was bulky). 920 is a 32GB standard phone with no SD card(more than enough ) ; 925 is 16GB with no SD card , wpcentral said that because the design of Lumia 925 is gorgeous , she's pretty lol (aluminium bezels , light weight )

 

[o0Nighthawk0o]

One of the biggest pluses for me is the inter connectivity between devices. I have a Lumia 920, a Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet and an HP laptop running Windows 8.1. A lot of the apps I use evry day will sync my activity between all my devices. Some examples:

Weave news reader, if I read a story on my phone I can open the app on my tablet or laptop and the story is marked as read on those as well. If I set up new news sources or remove sources on one device those changes are automatically reflected on the other devices.

Password Padlock. I can add information to the app on one device. Do a backup to OneDrive and I can then import that backup file into the app on my other devices.

OneNote along with OneDrive: I can update notes and access them from anywhere on any device.

Desktop setting can be made to sync between my laptop and table. Backgrounds, apps and start screen layout stays consistent between the two.

There are others but these are the ones I use consistently.

 

[Jaskys]

Switched from iOS to android? That's a downgrade, unless you bought high high end android, which is actually viable but horrible UI kills it

 

[anon(8730639)]

Thank you everyone for the helpful information so far.

16 GB will definitely not be enough for me and I love wireless charging on my Nexus 7, so I'm leaning more towards the 920. I'll check out the weight of the 920 whenever I get the chance to go to an AT&T store. Does the 920 have Glance? And which ones are matte/glossy?

Like most other people, I have been following WP 8.1, so I do know what was added. The app problem is not a big problem for me, as almost all the apps I want/need are available on WP.

The interconnectivity sounds really useful, but I'll need to see if any of that works with other devices that I own. If so, then that could be a big selling point.

As for iOS vs. Android, they're a lot more similar than one might think, but I like Android much more than iOS. Android has better hardware, looks better, has better exclusive features, and Google Now > Siri (although Cortana looks like it'll be better than both). Google Now is more of a glorified Google search bar that takes your web history and gives you information than being a personal assistant, but it's at least more useful than Siri.

 

[anon(7900571)]

yes Lumia 920 does have glance screen.

 

[prasath1234]

Thank you everyone for the helpful information so far.

16 GB will definitely not be enough for me and I love wireless charging on my Nexus 7, so I'm leaning more towards the 920. I'll check out the weight of the 920 whenever I get the chance to go to an AT&T store. Does the 920 have Glance? And which ones are matte/glossy?

Like most other people, I have been following WP 8.1, so I do know what was added. The app problem is not a big problem for me, as almost all the apps I want/need are available on WP.

The interconnectivity sounds really useful, but I'll need to see if any of that works with other devices that I own. If so, then that could be a big selling point.

As for iOS vs. Android, they're a lot more similar than one might think, but I like Android much more than iOS. Android has better hardware, looks better, has better exclusive features, and Google Now > Siri (although Cortana looks like it'll be better than both). Google Now is more of a glorified Google search bar that takes your web history and gives you information than being a personal assistant, but it's at least more useful than Siri.

Yes Google now is definitely useful.especially with the cards.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

 

[anon(7900571)]

Yes Google now is definitely useful.especially with the cards.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

Google now lacks many features , even Siri is superior. Cortana has best of both with some unique features like notebook

 

[benrp]

There are 2 huge differences between the L925 and the L920:

Qi wireless charging on the L920 and not on the L925. This feature makes the 920 a tad thick around the mid-section (ain't we all?), but everyone who has it LOVES the feature.

Memory- neither is expandable, and the L920's 32GB just rocks all over the L925 16 GB.

I do like the looks of the L925 a hair better, but the above two advantages would have me buying the L920 without even a doubt in my mind. My son just got one in December, and it still runs like a dream. They will both get WP8.1. I do suggest a Matte finish, as I love my white L900, but it is a slippery bugger.

Nothing wrong with the L925. I am not a huge camera user, but the L925 is supposed to be slightly better in that regard. My son's L920 takes great photos, so the L925 should be excellent.

Let us know what you decide, even if it is a Android.

*shudders*

The other thing is the 920 is LCD, and 925 is AMOLED. For WP many prefer AMOLED but it is subjective. All said and done however I too would prefer the 920, largely for the wireless charging.

 

[benrp]

Thank you everyone for the helpful information so far.

16 GB will definitely not be enough for me and I love wireless charging on my Nexus 7, so I'm leaning more towards the 920. I'll check out the weight of the 920 whenever I get the chance to go to an AT&T store. Does the 920 have Glance? And which ones are matte/glossy?

Like most other people, I have been following WP 8.1, so I do know what was added. The app problem is not a big problem for me, as almost all the apps I want/need are available on WP.

The interconnectivity sounds really useful, but I'll need to see if any of that works with other devices that I own. If so, then that could be a big selling point.

As for iOS vs. Android, they're a lot more similar than one might think, but I like Android much more than iOS. Android has better hardware, looks better, has better exclusive features, and Google Now > Siri (although Cortana looks like it'll be better than both). Google Now is more of a glorified Google search bar that takes your web history and gives you information than being a personal assistant, but it's at least more useful than Siri.

Yes, 920 has glance. The matt ones are Blue, Black and grey for memory. Yellow, white and red are glossy.

 

[Markham Ranja]

Google now lacks many features , even Siri is superior. Cortana has best of both with some unique features like notebook

Please clarify on these features that Now lacks. From what I see, Cortana is very likely to be superior to both, but I strongly disagree that Siri is superior to anything

 

[anon(8730639)]

Like I said, Google Now is pretty different than Siri. Siri is meant to do things like text people with your voice, reserve a table at a restaurant, change settings, etc. with your voice, hence the virtual assistant title. Google Now isn't a virtual assistant like Cortana or Siri but is instead created to deliver information to you before you even search for it and allow you to easily Google search things. Now has a few virtual assistant features, but it is nowhere near as powerful as Siri or Cortana in that department. Personally, I never really used Google Now very much, but it's far more useful than Siri in my opinion, who is a little too buggy to be used to its full potential. If Cortana is done right, it'll be the best of both worlds.