From BlackBerry Z10 to Lumia 950 make sense

davide445

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My aging Z10 will not last forever.
Did make sense to buy a Lumia 950 now, I didn't understand if the WM10 to be installed on the upcoming Surphace Phone will be also available for the L950 or not.
Also there is any WM native app to replace Trello (using the Android version on the Z10).
Also reading about problems with the battery overheating.
 

Drael646464

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My aging Z10 will not last forever.
Did make sense to buy a Lumia 950 now, I didn't understand if the WM10 to be installed on the upcoming Surphace Phone will be also available for the L950 or not.
Also there is any WM native app to replace Trello (using the Android version on the Z10).
Also reading about problems with the battery overheating.

There's not going to be any "surface phone" at least AFAIK, this year anyway. I believe they are working on something that uses a "branch" of win10m (ie a sibling OS), but that has multiple screens. I've seen _some_ evidence of this, but I have no idea how far away this device is from release. It'll likely be quite expensive too. I wouldn't "wait for it".

I got a 950. I came from the q5. I like it very much. It can be had for a cheap price, has a great screen and an amazing camera. UI is awesome and it packs some great features such as voice replies to texts in the car, or inline text replies, and PC notification.

Does run a little hot, but nothing dramatic (not the battery I think its the cpu). Only notice it when playing video or gaming.

Works best IME on insider preview build. Worth updating as much as you can, immediately.

There's a third party win10m app for trello called "trello central".

There are a few tiny gripes. Groove app doesn't resume music easily, when interrupted it often just stops. Considering alternative apps for that.

FB app is a little slow, slimsocial makes a nice replacement.

I'm enjoying mine anyway. Outside of those two examples, it works well, has everything I need, and the interface is a joy to use. It's a nice phone. Its got a microphone array too, which works well for Cortana, and if you shoot videos - actually records decent audio.
 
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Drael646464

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There is any evidence the "new" Windows Mobile will be extended also to a 2015 smartphone as the 950 is.

From what I have seen (windows code, such as the composable shell code, where win10m is listed along side the new "Andromeda"), and heard (insider rumours call it a "branch", not a "reboot" of win10m), "the new" windows mobile isn't a replacement OS/hardware its more of a variation, or sibling.

From what I can tell the new device is multi-screen, and so the UI is likely quite different, and not particularly applicable to standard slab style devices.

However in so far as the 950's support goes, that's a complex story. You'll hear a hundred versions of this.

ATM it gets support based on it being one of the few recent phones in circulation, and 2015 isn't _that_ long ago.

Once their are a significant number of newer models, it will likely be cut however. But there's not a lot of new phones on the obvious horizon, other than perhaps an x3 refresh, and perhaps this Andromeda maybe next year, so I think for now support is okay, IMO.

The other issue is feature2. MSFT has been focusing on bugfixes primarily whilst it does other work in other areas on the onecore code - they told us, this was temporary and for the purpose of these one core changes. In light of windows on arm, windows s, the new console SKU, and this Andromeda, this kind of makes sense - there's a bit of a core code shuffle for sure.

But in the insiders team, it was recently stated, there is no immediate plan to take it off feature2, yet. But at the same time, we have been promised some enterprise features, recently, and during build they talked of some new features coming to windows 10 mobile, and its also been officially confirmed they are changing the keyboard to one based on 'swiftkey' across all of windows.

So there will certainly be more bugfixes, and some new features, but the exact timing and nature of which is pretty uncertain, and a bit murky.

If I had to guess, to completely stab at the dark, I'd say this year will include a few small feature updates (the enterprise ones, maybe something like files on demand), and we might get a few more in the early next year update (such as the promised timelime, the new keyboard), but probably by fall next year, there will be newer phones, and past that the 950 might not get support.

That's my guess based "the feel" of where things are at right now with mobile, and commercial considerations. But it is a guess.

Other people might be more pessimistic, or more optimistic in their assessment, truth is we are all guessing. Support does only get phases out however when there is something to replace it, in circulation, and there is no such thing right now, nor imminent.

At build when they demo'd files on demand, they showed it on a Lumia 950, whilst explaining things like timeline etc were coming to windows 10 mobile.

But you should be aware that, as an older phone, things going right for msft, its not going to be supported forever.

Just as importantly however, the OS is fairly feature rich compared to other mobile operating systems. Inline replies for example is only _just_ coming to android next version. Systemwide dark mode, has been recently poorly imitated with an inversion method in recent ios and android. Widgets on android are hopelessly unreliable, and the widget screen on ios (new), is off the home page, so you have to navigate away to see it.

So long as MSFT's UWP plans unfold as they plan, and more apps trickle into the platform, you don't realistically have to worry about new features, even if none of the above came. None of them are particularly must have IMO.

In the past, when support has been dropped for other handsets, such as the CU, MSFT extended a bit of an olive leaf, and allowed insiders preview to still get the update. While this won't mean you get this multi-screen OS (wouldn't make sense anyway), if there are new updates to win10m that aren't rolled out to the 950, because there are new slab phones like the elite x3 refresh, it may still be possible to get those updates, provided they run okay on the device.

Nobody can really tell you exactly what to expect, because mfst is keeping its cards close to its chest atm. But if you are just coming to win10m, like I have, you will likely enjoy the 950 for some time before feeling the need for a new phone IMO - because the screen is good, the camera is good, its a nice looking phone, and coming from BB there are more apps than either amazon app store, or BBW, and here win10m benefits a little from its sibling OS windows 10.

The one thing I am fairly confident about, is that "windows on arm", will encourage more native UWP app development, for a variety of reasons. So for me, that will be fun to get the spin off, from.

Consider also that the 950 can be had for 200-250 USD or so, if you shop around, but whatever new phones come out will be closer to 700-1000 on release IMO. Even if the support doesn't last long, its not like you are burning money - your getting a recent-ish premium decent phone for a very reasonable price, when the newer replacements potentially on the horizon will be new, very premium handsets with prices reflective of that. In view of that, if there is a new sibling OS, or newer feature updates to newly released phones, its probably worth waiting for the price to sink anyway.
 

davide445

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You already made the switch, so what are the BB10 features I'll be missing mostly.
I have for granted the Hub, cut and paste from everything, smart keyboard suggestions, etc
What are the most annoying misses you feel.
 

Drael646464

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You already made the switch, so what are the BB10 features I'll be missing mostly.
I have for granted the Hub, cut and paste from everything, smart keyboard suggestions, etc
What are the most annoying misses you feel.

Well for me I mostly miss the hard keys.

Probably the hub. Notifications work okay, but its nice to have texts, emails etc all in one place. That's quite a simple implementation. You can combine email inboxes in the mail app, if that's a thing you want. And live tiles, well that's also excellent - you get things like appointments, weather, recent emails, facebook or whatever you want all displayed on the home screen at a glance.

Which is why I don't _really_ miss the hub, because I got something else in return :p

I find the gesture navigation system pretty similar. It's slight different, but barely an adaption.

The windows virtual keyboard is pretty good. Has reasonable suggestions. It's probably not quite up to BB standard, not that I've used that, but people rave about it - but swiftkey is excellent, has the whole swipe to select thing, and that's coming to windows in general, desktop and mobile (which is also good for tablet users, who haven't had shape writing). Or rather the new windows keyboard will be based on swiftkey (msft own swiftkey)

I think when swiftkey comes, it will be equal to bb's virtual keyboard. But the existing keyboard suggestions are good, and shape writing is good, it just lacks that swipe to select thing, but that'll come.

Think you can pretty much cut and paste from everything? I've never had any issues there.

Yeah, personally if I missed anything it would be the hub. But because I get notifications sent to my mi band, and also synced with my PC, its pretty hard to miss anything that comes in lol.

I don't feel its like android where you get swamped in useless update notifications and lose things.

But I in terms of actually missing anything, for myself, really just the keys. The windows UI is such a joy to use, and there's a new ecosystem to explore, all the settings, I've not had time to miss anything XD

I will say this - you need to be on insiders preview or slow ring ATM (I went preview). The very latest builds are the most stable, as the team have been working intensively on bugfixes.

And in addition to the things I mentioned, windows 10 has an android like backup setup. So if you you can set your apps to backup automatically in settings, and then you also have a setting for backing up contacts and pictures. In addition to getting the latest updates, always a good plan to set that stuff up as well. Not like you'll need it, but worth noting.


And the facebook app, and groove app are slow. But both can be replaced so no biggy.

Incidently, if you backup your contacts to a windows PC, which I did with my q5, they will automatically show up on your windows phone, as soon as you log in to the same account. I found that pretty neat, made things painless.

So if you can sync your contacts to PC whilst logged in to your msft account, if you buy a phone, then it'll be all ready to fire when it arrives.
 

fatclue_98

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Apr 1, 2012
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Well for me I mostly miss the hard keys.

Probably the hub. Notifications work okay, but its nice to have texts, emails etc all in one place. That's quite a simple implementation. You can combine email inboxes in the mail app, if that's a thing you want. And live tiles, well that's also excellent - you get things like appointments, weather, recent emails, facebook or whatever you want all displayed on the home screen at a glance.

Which is why I don't _really_ miss the hub, because I got something else in return

I find the gesture navigation system pretty similar. It's slight different, but barely an adaption.

The windows virtual keyboard is pretty good. Has reasonable suggestions. It's probably not quite up to BB standard, not that I've used that, but people rave about it - but swiftkey is excellent, has the whole swipe to select thing, and that's coming to windows in general, desktop and mobile (which is also good for tablet users, who haven't had shape writing). Or rather the new windows keyboard will be based on swiftkey (msft own swiftkey)

I think when swiftkey comes, it will be equal to bb's virtual keyboard. But the existing keyboard suggestions are good, and shape writing is good, it just lacks that swipe to select thing, but that'll come.

Think you can pretty much cut and paste from everything? I've never had any issues there.

Yeah, personally if I missed anything it would be the hub. But because I get notifications sent to my mi band, and also synced with my PC, its pretty hard to miss anything that comes in lol.

I don't feel its like android where you get swamped in useless update notifications and lose things.

But I in terms of actually missing anything, for myself, really just the keys. The windows UI is such a joy to use, and there's a new ecosystem to explore, all the settings, I've not had time to miss anything XD

I will say this - you need to be on insiders preview or slow ring ATM (I went preview). The very latest builds are the most stable, as the team have been working intensively on bugfixes.

And in addition to the things I mentioned, windows 10 has an android like backup setup. So if you you can set your apps to backup automatically in settings, and then you also have a setting for backing up contacts and pictures. In addition to getting the latest updates, always a good plan to set that stuff up as well. Not like you'll need it, but worth noting.


And the facebook app, and groove app are slow. But both can be replaced so no biggy.

Incidently, if you backup your contacts to a windows PC, which I did with my q5, they will automatically show up on your windows phone, as soon as you log in to the same account. I found that pretty neat, made things painless.

So if you can sync your contacts to PC whilst logged in to your msft account, if you buy a phone, then it'll be all ready to fire when it arrives.
The Android version of the Hub has come a long way. Being able to pin accounts separately on the home screen is the closest thing to Live Tiles. The predictive text is virtually identical to the OS10 version so there's no drop-off when switching to a DroidBerry. What I do miss from OS10 that hasn't made its way to Android is the file manager. Having OneDrive, Dropbox and Box as well as internal storage and SD card files in one place is irreplaceable.
 

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