I just got my 950 yesterday. I like the phone. It DOES feel cheap, but I'm okay with that. I would prefer to be able to swap out the battery and be able to change the sim and the SD card without jamming a pin in to a little slot that seems to wear every time I do it. Being able to remove the cover generally means the phone hardware cant be as solid. Don't really know why the volume rocker and such are so shaky, but it hasn't been a problem yet so I'm okay with that.
The phones hardware is nice. The pictures look good and the videos look clean. I FINALLY have a WP that takes photos in a snap. The old Lumias would spend so much time auto-focusing that I could never get a pic as it was happening. With this phone, the pics take immediately and I love it. The living images are more seamlessly integrated in to app than they were on windows 8.1. Its a little awkward when you are scrolling through pics and they are all trying to move, but ill get used to it.
My biggest gripe about the hardware is that it is too slick. Too slippery. Not in the hand so much as when it is sitting on any surface. I had the same problem with previous lumias. When I am driving, if that thing is anywhere but in my pocket or the cup holder, its going to fly around the car. I have had it for just under 24 hours and it has already been stuck in the side of my car seat THREE TIMES. If you put it in a seat, it falls on the floor when you make a turn. If its in your lap, its fumbling around and gets lost somewhere. It basically forces you to get a phone cover just to give it some friction.
But my main issue with it is the OS. I intentionally stayed away from WP 10 so that it would be more of a surprise when I bought the Lumia 950. The experience seems very similar to 8.1, and some things are improved, but there are other things that I really hate.
My BIGGEST gripe with Windows 10, though, is the apps. Not the lack of them. You expect that going in. I am aware of what I am missing, but I'm content with the app selection. My gripe is that they are losing their identity. The switch to hamburger menus is terrible. Just terrible. The older apps let you just swipe left and right to get to different settings. It made sense because that didn't require precision. Not anymore. Want to navigate to another screen? Now you have to tap a little square in the corner, then find your page or setting in the menu. That's great for a tablet. Terrible for a phone.
Pandora is the worst. I used to be able to swipe quickly from my station list to now playing to recent stations. It was perfect in my opinion. Now it automatically takes me to the full station list without the recent stations, and I have to click a little box in the upper right corner to get to now playing. There is no recent station list. Ugh.
So my question is, why would somebody go to WP if the things that made it unique are gone? I know there is a goal to merge the experience between PCs, tablets, and phones, but that just isn't going to work. A phone has a 5 inch screen and is meant to be used on the go. Nothing should require precision. Tablets are typically used in a stationary position on a larger screen, so it makes sense to have menus, but phones just aren't like that. It sucks because it was one of the things I always pointed out as better with Windows than other OSes.
Ah well, hopefully it will improve over the next year. I'm going to stick it out until the bitter end, but sadly I feel like the bitter end is coming sooner than later.
The phones hardware is nice. The pictures look good and the videos look clean. I FINALLY have a WP that takes photos in a snap. The old Lumias would spend so much time auto-focusing that I could never get a pic as it was happening. With this phone, the pics take immediately and I love it. The living images are more seamlessly integrated in to app than they were on windows 8.1. Its a little awkward when you are scrolling through pics and they are all trying to move, but ill get used to it.
My biggest gripe about the hardware is that it is too slick. Too slippery. Not in the hand so much as when it is sitting on any surface. I had the same problem with previous lumias. When I am driving, if that thing is anywhere but in my pocket or the cup holder, its going to fly around the car. I have had it for just under 24 hours and it has already been stuck in the side of my car seat THREE TIMES. If you put it in a seat, it falls on the floor when you make a turn. If its in your lap, its fumbling around and gets lost somewhere. It basically forces you to get a phone cover just to give it some friction.
But my main issue with it is the OS. I intentionally stayed away from WP 10 so that it would be more of a surprise when I bought the Lumia 950. The experience seems very similar to 8.1, and some things are improved, but there are other things that I really hate.
- Settings have improved because you can search through them. I love that. It makes them easier to find. The problem is, some settings are so misplaced that they had to add links to them from the spot they should be. For instance, if i want to change the sound that is made when i get a message, i go to the Sounds settings. But that only give you one settings. There is a link to the notification center settings, where you have to find Messages and tap that, then you can set it.
- The quick settings you see from pulling down from the top are better in some ways and worse in others. I like that you can see a lot more options by Expanding. Those are mostly settings i would never mess with, but at least they are there. What I HATE is that you can not longer tap on WIFI or BlueTooth to actually manage those settings. All you can do is turn them on and off. You cant, however, tap WIFI and then choose a new network. I used to disable WIFI and it would let me set it to "turn back on in 1 hour", but now i have to actually navigate to the WIFI settings page to do that. Do not like.
- The Windows Store is better than whatever was on 8.1. Its basically the same thing you see in Windows 10. Having that continuity is a good thing. There still arent enough quality apps, but hopefully that will change when iOS apps can easily be ported to windows.
- Lag. There is a ton of lag. Windows Phone 7 was snappier. When I am simply entering my pin, there is delay between buttons. Sometimes it messes with you because you think it didnt register the number you entered, so you enter the same number again, only for it to enter twice. There is a delay swiping between the start screen and the app list. Opening apps is slow. Everything just seems slower. I dont think its the hardware. The software just isnt ready I guess.
- I have found menus that wont let me exit out of them. When i went to set my OneDrive settings for photos, it took me to a screen that didnt have a navigation menu. Swiping up wouldnt show me the navigation menu either. There wasnt a save or cancel button. I was just stuck there. I had to close it by opening the camera app with the camera button, then open the task view and swipe it out of the way. Im not sure that would happen every time, but ugh.
- I hate windows Hello. It worked the first 2 times I used it, probably because I was in the same lighting that I scanned my eyes in. After that it never detects me correctly, and if it does, I could have typed in my password 6 times by that point.
My BIGGEST gripe with Windows 10, though, is the apps. Not the lack of them. You expect that going in. I am aware of what I am missing, but I'm content with the app selection. My gripe is that they are losing their identity. The switch to hamburger menus is terrible. Just terrible. The older apps let you just swipe left and right to get to different settings. It made sense because that didn't require precision. Not anymore. Want to navigate to another screen? Now you have to tap a little square in the corner, then find your page or setting in the menu. That's great for a tablet. Terrible for a phone.
Pandora is the worst. I used to be able to swipe quickly from my station list to now playing to recent stations. It was perfect in my opinion. Now it automatically takes me to the full station list without the recent stations, and I have to click a little box in the upper right corner to get to now playing. There is no recent station list. Ugh.
So my question is, why would somebody go to WP if the things that made it unique are gone? I know there is a goal to merge the experience between PCs, tablets, and phones, but that just isn't going to work. A phone has a 5 inch screen and is meant to be used on the go. Nothing should require precision. Tablets are typically used in a stationary position on a larger screen, so it makes sense to have menus, but phones just aren't like that. It sucks because it was one of the things I always pointed out as better with Windows than other OSes.
Ah well, hopefully it will improve over the next year. I'm going to stick it out until the bitter end, but sadly I feel like the bitter end is coming sooner than later.
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